The morning air was only somewhat hot and sticky when my Friend, E, picked me up to drive to the Jan Peek race on Saturday.
Our sleep the night before had been merely mediocre, as we were both a bit apprehensive and nervous about the impending race. She, because she hadn’t run in a couple of weeks; me, because I’d never run a 10K before. We’d both gotten up at 6:00 am and pinged each other on Facebook. It felt like an early morning high five – we’re up; we’re nearly heading out; yay!
We wanted to make sure we got there with time to casually check in (and get free t-shirts), so we ended up arriving about 40 minutes early. As the race start time was postponed 15 minutes, we had a ton of time to spare. Runners big and small, stylish and not so much so, all milled about in lose groups, some coming up to ask us about our shoes and their comparative performance. We were both wearing our Merrell Barefoot Foot Gloves. Hers are a lovely shade of violet and mine are pink. Our feet looked like the happy lady sisters that they were. E answered most of the questions, as she has much more experience than me.
It was lovely doing the race with a friend. The experience gave us some down time to simply chat, which is generally hard to carve out, as we both juggling work, home, and motherhood. While we didn’t run together very long, as her pace is far beyond mine, it was pleasant going to and through the process together. Jan Peek was a back and return race this year, so we passed each other mid-way through the course, which was neat. I hope we’re able to do more races together.
The next thing we knew, the race organizers asked us all to gather in the street, and we all started to run as a pack. Some peeled away quickly, then others’ paces took them around a corner, and then the back of the pack moved on. After a quick chat, E moved along finding someone else farther up to pace herself with, which was great. I knew I would be one of the slowest, and was totally okay with that. I wasn’t there to try to best any time or try to be Wild E Coyote. I was there to run the entire course and finish it, regardless of time.
For most of the race, I was one of the final five. There was the woman with the earphones, the couple running together, the woman in pink and me (the lady in red). On the down slopes they’d try to outpace one of us, but they’d generally slow down on the up slopes and a new order would emerge. My pace felt like it remained constant on the ups and downs. Generally, I’d pull ahead on the ups and fall behind one or more on the downs, and I realized that they had trained to be able to do that and I hadn’t. It gave me something to think about for future training.
Ultimately, while I was the final person to complete the race, I did complete it, and I approached the finish line with a police escort, which was neat. I also learned that I’d bested my prior 10K run number by 15 minutes, which shows me that I can push myself harder on my normal runs than I thought possible.
E and I have already discussed other 10Ks we can do locally this fall, as well as other race options. How is your training going?
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In other news, check back tomorrow for our first guest blogger! My friend, and author, Christina Bost Seaton will be discussing balance and her book Say Ciao to Chow Mein: Conquering Career Burnout
