My First 10K

After a few absolutely beautiful spring days, showers were forecast for the Mermaid Run this morning. When I woke up I could hear the downspouts dripping from the rain during the night. Maybe the rain had passed. Maybe not. I dressed in layers of shorts, shirt, pants, fleece, and parka. I had no idea what I would end up wearing for the race. (I still hate calling them races.)

I headed out to Shoreline Park in Mountain View, the freeways are nice and empty at 7am on Sunday. I got out of the comfort of my nice warm car to see Molly pull up. Silly girl was walking around in shorts! Dude, it was cold and windy out there at the edge of the bay. Brrrr. . . .

I met up with all my friends who were running or walking, Chris, Justine, Sara, Heather, Michelle, Christina, Mary Sue, Meredith, Wilma, Jill, and Amy. Then there was Gina, Gina, and Marcia serving as cheerleaders. They deserve a lot of credit for waiting around in the cold, wind, and occasional rain. Brrrr. . . . it was cold out there.

We started of close to the 8:30 am start time. I tried to start to the side and in the back because I knew I would be one of the slowest. Sure enough the pack pulled away from me right away and I was out there pretty much alone for most of the race. That was fine with me because I didn't have to worry about being in anyone's way.

My goal was to run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute over and over for 6.2 miles. I had been at the run site about a month ago and did the 5K route in an hour, my goal was to finish the 10K in under 2 hours. I hit the 1 mile mark and thought, I only have to do this 5 more times. Just a little after that my left hip flexor and my right knee started to hurt. The knee was normal but the hip flexor was kinda new. I persevered stretching my hip flexor during the walking intervals. I would be feeling good and then make a turn into so nasty wind. Ugh, it was awful!

Run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute, run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute, run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute, run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute, run 2 minutes and walk 1 minutes, run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute. I just kept moving forward.

When I was around the 2 mile mark the 10K runners started heading back. I saw Amy who used to swim with me, Molly who was out there for a training run, Heather who placed 5th in our age group, Chris, Amy, Justine, and Sara. Some how I missed Michelle. "Just keep moving forward." I was so happy to reach the turn around however once I turned around I was hit with more nasty wind! "Just keep moving forward." I slowly crept up on two women walking ahead of me. For about two miles all I could think was, "how can the be walking faster than I am wogging?" At around mile 5, I passed them! Woot!

With each mile I thought, "you are one mile closer." As I was at the beginning of the last mile there were two Canadian Geese on the trail, I said, "Hi, geese." Then they decided to take of and fly towards me. ACK! You may not know this about me but fluttering birds completely freak me out. I let out a scream but luckily there was no one around. Stupid geese.

I made the turn for the last 500 yards (?) to the finish into more wind. Ugh. It was blowing so hard that all I could hear was the wind. As I inched towards the finish I could hear Heidi on the mic and see to women walking towards me. I could have sworn I heard Justine's voice but I thought I was just imagining things. But no! It was Chris and Justine they paced me in. I did my last walk, and the we broke into an easy jog. Justine told me to stop trying to talk and just breathe. Then C & J said, "okay, you are going to pick up the pace at the man in the grey sweatshirt. I mean woman." :-) We reached the grey sweatshirt and kicked in the last bit of energy. I could hear and see out of the corner of my eye all of my buddies cheering me in. It was wonderful!

I finished strong and met my goal of finishing under 2 hours. Time: 1:34:25, 307th out of 327. :-) Not bad for someone who sprained her back in January (?), planned to walk the 10K until the end of February when she gave this 2 min/1 min thing a try.

Thanks for pic, Molly! Heading in for the big finish!

Chris is on the left and Justine is on the right.