Luck o' the Irish-- Irish Sprint 10k

Okay readers, I know that 10k isn't that far to most of you, but humor me....

In January, my friend Dani posted on facebook, asking if anyone wanted to do a St. Patrick's day 10k with her. I have always been good about working out, and run 2.5-3 miles almost every day for the last couple of years (taking time off before and after G, of course), but I've never been good at pushing myself. If I felt extra tired, I would just start walking because, you know, at least I'm still getting exercise. So when I saw this post about a 10k, I thought that might motivate me to push myself. I decided that I would do it, and also that I wouldn't walk at all, and I registered. My crazy hardcore runner friend Amylee created a training schedule for me, and I didn't miss a single training run-- even when I was on vacation. I started to feel proud of myself almost immediately--I was now running at least 3.5 miles a day, pushing Gideon, and it didn't feel any harder that when I would go 2.5-3. I went on my long runs on Saturdays, and although my longest scheduled run was 5.5 miles, I ended up running 6.2 (10k) on my last training run just because I felt so good! In a sense I was slightly disappointed that the race day wouldn't be THE farthest I'd ever run, but on the other hand, I was glad to know that I could for sure do it.

The day before the race, I realized I could look at the course description, and when I did, I grew slightly concerned to see words like "long uphill", "trail", and "uphill to cross the finish line"-- there aren't a lot of hills by us, and even less trails. I started to worry that I wouldn't be able to run the entire time-- which I know isn't a huge deal, but to me, it would have been a fail! Oh, and sorry that this is TMI, but I also happened to start my first period in 20 months the day before the race as well... thaaaaaaaaanks for that, body.

Now, on to the race. We all drove down to Prince William Forest Park together in the wee hours of the morning. I was feeling ready at this point, and pretty excited! Dani and I donned our Shamrock headbands, and got ready to rock. Dani was in an earlier wave than I, which I was pretty okay with, since I know she's about twice as fast as I am anyway. I started out feeling great-- the race energy is super fun! Suddenly, I realized we were starting the "long uphill" trail running portion of the race, which got old quickly and lasted a MILE!!! I was positive that I had simply missed the 3 mile marker, because surely, I had gone three miles! I was sure I would see a mile marker 4 at any second--even telling myself the race people probably deliberately didn't put out the 3 mile marker, so you would be extra relieved to see mile 4 marker. Unfortunately, around a bend I saw the 3 mile marker. My heart sank to see it-- I was struggling at three miles!!! Luckily, the course flattened out and before I knew it, I saw the 4 mile marker. I felt great again until about 5.7 miles because the last half mile was steep trail incline again. I was tired, but there was NO way I was gonna wimp out so close to the end. I was praying to finish strong, and indeed I did! My friend Dani was waiting for me at the finish, which was encouraging. Neal couldn't make his way down to the actual finish line with the stroller because it was too steep and rocky, which made me a little sad (okay, okay, and annoyed), but I was still glad he was there to support me and cheer me on, even if I was already done with the race by the time I saw him and baby G.

My official time was 1:17:05 which is slooooooow, I know, but I am very pleased with it because when I ran the 10k a couple of weeks ago, it took me 1:15-- so if steep, mile long hills and trail running only adds 2 minutes, that's fine by me! My new goal is to run 10 miles by my birthday (May 11th) and now I want to run another 10k faster! It was so much fun to race, and I really do feel proud of myself!!! It's so nice to set a goal and achieve it! Plus, when I called my sister Cali to ask her if she thought I could run a 10k that was 6 weeks away, she assured me I could "run/walk it", so I'm glad I was able to prove her wrong!!! ;)

Okay, thank you for humoring me and letting me feel like 10k is a long enough distance to blog about.... you are all great!