My first 10K!!!!!

It has been a few days and I am still kind of in awe that I ran 6.2 miles on Sunday. Now don't picture me running the whole thing! I ran/walked it, which has always been my running plan of action.  Before Sunday the furthest I've ran was a 5K and then I decided well let's just double that. I had a training plan that was going to have me run 5 miles before it came time for the 10K but with injury I really wasn't able to stick to it.

Before the 10K

The first couple of miles are always so hard for me. I was struggling w/ pain and my BFF wanting to go faster. I told her to go ahead of me. At mile 2 she decided to take me up on my offer and went ahead of me. I felt like I was holding her back and even though trying to keep up with her pushes me. My legs still don't know how to be as long as hers. :-) She was worried I wouldn't finish and made me promise that I wouldn't cut corners or quit. It surprised me that she thought I would quit.  No matter what the run  we have done I have never said let's just stop. Once you start you kind of have to finish it. It's not like I am on my treadmill at home and am able to just get off, I have to get back to my car at the start line. Her thoughts and concerns might have stemmed from the fact that I don't say very positive things while I am running. LOL!! If someone asks how are you doing I am going to say what hurts and why this sucks at this moment. She is very much the cheerleader when we run and I am like this sucks, this hurts, why are we doing this.  When she went ahead that took the weight off me, from feeling like I was holding her back, and it was just me and the road. There were many times I had to remind myself not to focus on anyone anywhere else in the race. Just to run my own race and focus. The first goal was get to the half way point. 

Turn around point.

Not the best pic of  but it was half way so defiantly time for a selfie.  This is at the 5K point at this point I had never ran further than this.  At this point some of the half marathoners that left only a short 15 mins before me, were passing me.  Some of them sounded like they were dying!  I am not kidding the amount of noises coming from the ones that pass me shortly after the turn around quite painful sounding.  But if I had just ran 10 miles in the same time it took me to run 3, I think they have every right to be making those noises. Thanks to all the people passing me, I went from being in the very back of the pack to having tons of people around me. It was actualy nice to be joined by the half marathoners, even if only for the 2 secs it took them to pass me. :-) As the miles went on my running intervals became shorter and my walking ones longer but the pain I was dreading really wasn't there.  That horrible shin pain I had at the Biggest Loser 5K was gone.  I thank my Chiropractor for this, he put my hip back where it should be.

The last mile was the toughest.  I knew the finish line was coming as we got close to town again and I could hear cheering and music. But I felt like I should be done already, probably because this is so much further than a 5K. I crossed over the bridge, this is about a quarter mile or so to go, and I say ok run to the finish you can do this.  By the time I rounded the corner to see the finish line, I wanted to walk so bad. The conversation in my mind went something like this:  I need to walk, just for a second…Are you kidding you can see the finish line?!?! This is not the time for walking, RUN!  And run I did. It wasn't a sprint like at the Biggest Loser but it was a steady pace.  BFF was waiting for me at the finish line and took some pics.

Focusing on my feet, even at the finish line

FINISH!!!

It was a really good run and we want to do it again next year.  It was completely flat and that made for the best first 10K I could have asked for.  I mean I have felt worse after certain 5K's in comparison to how I felt at the end of this 10K.  They took pics on the race that I will be able to download later this week, I hope. I asked my BFF how long she had been waiting and she said only about 5 mins and I was like REALLY???? My garmin watch was not charged, epic fail I know, so I had no idea what my pace was.  I told her well the clock said 1hr and 50mins. She said that couldn't be right because she was at 1 hour and 20 something so I must have looked at the half marathon clock. So I waiting for the official results to be posted. And when they were I was more than surprised.  Finish time 1:33:50 at a pace of 13:02!! O_O  I don't know how the math works because I figured it should be a bit slower than that but this time is so official I could submit it to Run Disney for my placement for the TinkerBell Half, and I am considering it cause it would technically buy me more time. But that is another topic for another day.

Incredibly proud of my BFF and I for completing this even with the injury issues we've both had. Now we take a break from running to fix our issues. I will be focusing on cross training big time so that when it comes time to start running again I won't be reliving the feeling like I am going to die feeling.  I did do some icing the night after the run. My muscles where wondering what on earth I did to them. However only a couple days later and my muscles are doing great!

with our medals

Tomorrow will be that restart I had talked about last week but didn't work because of the lack of prep. I went to the store and I am good to go for Weight Watchers simple start, weigh in, measurements and before pics will take place tomorrow as well. Wish me luck.