So in December one of my friends approached me about signing up for the Rescue Mission 10 Miler. I was hesitant because I knew it was a week after I ran a full marathon. I have read up on what you should do after a marathon and well it is R-E-S-T!!! But, I figured that if my friends were doing it that I would have a support system, blah blah blah... I told them that if they truly were serious, then I would sign up, but I wasn't going to do it if no one else was. The main reason is that I would have to choose between the 10 miler and the Bear Crawl 5k. I love the Bear Crawl 5k, best t-shirts, challenging but fun course and a great tradition. Usually my husband and I run this one together and then the next day he does his fantasy baseball draft and I go shopping and blow all kinds of money at the outlets! However, I decided that since my friends all enthusiastically declared that they were in, that I too would be in.
The week before I asked everyone if they had signed up and I was met with blank stares. Then, excuses. "I didn't train" or "I forgot" or the every popular suck in air and make a grimacing face while saying "Oooohhh..about that..." I like my friends a lot, but this is probably the 3rd of 4th time some of them have been on board with a race and then dropped out. So here I was, sore legs and tired as hell getting ready to run 10 miles. My only goal, finish and don't get put on the bus. I wasn't too worried about the last one, but given how fatigued I was, I never ruled it out.
Basically this is how the race went, I ran up a hill, I ran down a hill. I ran for a while on flat surfaces, then I ran up and down some more hills. I drank water and gatorade at the rest stops. I lipsynched through the miles. I was met with a lot of encouragement from other runners and from some of the volunteers that rode the bikes up and down. All was well, then at mile 8 I started to really feel the fatigue, and I walked maybe .1-.2 miles and then continued on. As I was rounding the end of mile 9, one of the volunteers on a bike told me I was doing great and then asked me if this was my first 10 mile race. I told her no and explained to her that just last weekend I ran a marathon. Turns out, so did she. She told me that I made her feel like a whimp because there is no way she would ever run 10 miles the week after a marathon. This volunteer went on to tell everyone that I had completed a marathon and was now finishing a 10 miler. You want to talk about street cred. Apparently my actions are hardcore, but crazy.
So while finishing mile 10, I had to run up a couple of hills and despite that I was one of the last runners (still 6 behind me!) A lot of motorists were really supportive. They yelled encouraging things and honked (in a good way). It was cool. I rounded the finish line at Harry Grove Stadium only to see that my time for the 10 miler was 2:22:30. If you look at my Baltimore 10 miler time it took me 2:35 at least to finish. The fact that I ran it that quickly on fatigued legs is what I find most impressive. I dropped a whole 13 minutes from my time and essentially ran almost the entire 10 miles without stopping to walk!!!
So next race is the April Fools Half Marathon in Atlantic City, which I am totally excited for. This race is all flat so it will be easier to run. My goal is to finish in under 3:15! Hopefully I can do it :-)
Until next time, Happy Running!
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