My FIRST race report...and thank you John Stanton :)

"I did it MY way..."

Sinatra

It is my pleasure to present to you, my very first race report. Today, I completed a 10K, right near my home. Also, my son, his girlfriend, my brother and his three kids were running the 5K. This is a very small local race and for the 10K, there were a total of 108 runners.

 

A group picture (I'm in pink on the left)...and let the races begin!

Missing from the picture is my super sister-in-law, who is healing her ankle so she can run the half-marathon with us in three weeks. I thought of you today Ju and I'm sending healing vibes your way...love you!

Both the 5K and 10K were scheduled to start at 10:45am so no rushing in the morning, which was nice. As we were having breakfast, snowflakes were falling, the wind was howling and by the time we left, rain was upon us. BUT, the weather gods were on our side and when we got there, the rain slowed to a slight drizzle, then stopped completely and we even got glimpses of sun through clouds for a few seconds at a time (but the wind remained). I was at the start line with time to spare and since we started about 20 minutes late, that would be lots of time to spare. After jumping in place and doing what was necessary to stay warm, I was more than ready to go by the time they blew the horn.

And we're off...this is before pretty much everyone passed me :)

After I came around the loop for the first time, I ended up side by side with my son who was about to enter the finishing area for his 5K. He shouted out some encouragement to me, and I was able to encourage him to the finish, where I saw that his time was 24m46s...Yay him!! All through the race, my wonderful uber hubby took pictures and encouraged me, running from side to side (the race was a double loop) and catching my jacket and encouraging me some more...he was amazing. As usual, I started very slowly and many people passed me. There were probably about two people left behind me after the first kilometer. I admit this bothered me a little bit, but not enough to make me rush, I knew that if I wanted to have an enjoyable race, I had to run my own race.

 

After about 1K, there are very few people behind me, but I'm smiling.

Thanks to my awesome training plan (Stanton's Running Room plan), the inclines and small hills did not slow me down and that is where I ended up passing a few people. I believe I passed about 9 in all (but, who's counting) ;).

 

I'm the one smiling in front in blue (I took off my jacket).

Behind me are three people I passed after 8K...and one of them was a guy ;)

  

I felt great throughout the race and I enjoyed every minute, which is what I wanted. As I was nearing the last couple of hundred meters, my son, his girlfriend and uber hubby were all there yelling out the time and telling me that I could make it in under 61minutes if I hurried...my son ran with me and with their encouragment I sprinted the last few hundred meters and crossed the finish line in 60m44s...and I am extremely proud of myself!

 

 Yay!! I may look like I'm suffering, but I'm smiling and well, I just sprinted!

I'm feeling amazing :) 

   Bonus, I came in 2nd out of 3 women in my age group and got a silver medal :)

Isn't that a cool picture...uber hubby yelled out "Come on ladies, arms up and cheer" and we did! Then, as we were cheering, my son yelled out, "Happy Mother's Day!" and everyone cheered with us...it was such a wonderful moment.

The perfect first race!

Cheers!