Saturday, May 5, 2012

GW Parkway Classic!

Finished my first ten miler, woot woot! It was chilly and lightly rained the...entire...time. Awesome.

The nerves and threats of heavy rain nearly made me stay in bed and not run. I was very afraid it was going to be miserable and that I wouldn't be able finish. Work became hectic and therefore a very convenient excuse to not keep up with my maintenance runs. So going into the 10 miler I hadn't run more than 2 miles at a day the two weeks before.

But I dragged myself there, almost talked myself back out of it 4 times on the way and then when I got there and saw Angela had braved the weather too I knew I couldn't back out. Luckily it was only light rain, but it was rain all the same and didn't give us much of a break.

I finally broke loose from my nerves about mile 3 - the typically time when I eventually start to enjoy my runs. I still hate miles 1-3 and have to constantly tell myself not to give up.

Worried I would ruin my shuffle in the rain, I ran without music. Kind of enjoyed it, not gonna lie. Listening to all the people cheering us on along the way and taking in our surroundings somehow kept me entertained enough. It was really fun to see all the spectators braving the rain too. I almost wanted to cheer back to them for being out there!

I surprised myself near mile 9 and didn't fall apart like I typically do during my practice runs. I was able to kick it up a bit and sprinted through the finish line! It felt so great that I was able to finish and not feel like I was going to die in the end.

With Angela's encouragement, I was able to finish in 1:53 which is the fastest I've ever run a 10 mile. It felt great! Sadly Mom and Nate missed me crossing the finish by minutes. They were trying to find us and Nate was guessing where we'd be based off my usual pace but since we were going faster, they just missed us :( Oh well, there will be more!

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