My first 10k run

I am still a little in shock that I actually achieved a goal today I set out to reach on New Year's. Not that I doubted I could run 6.2 miles. (I have done runs of 4 and 5 mi before.) But looking at all that happened between January and now, I am very humbled at what I was able to do today.

I admit I haven't trained as much as I'd like this year. I think I will pay for that later today in soreness. The biggest setback was the injury to my toe in July. Nothing exciting..."Grace" dropped a pitcher on it. Since then, I've gotten runs in sporadically, but nothing super consistent.

I've walked the 10k distance before, but running it is a whole 'nother animal. Here's my recap.

Got there early enough to treat myself to Starbucks and meet up with my friends Katie (and meet all her running buds) and Joe. Saw a few other friends (Kristina and Jacquelyn) at the start line. I was pretty pumped. I was impressed I didn't oversleep, and felt ready.

I was actually able to run the first 1.5 miles or so straight in 20 minutes. I originally planned to use my Garmin for total time, and a second watch for run time (to help keep track of the walk breaks I knew I'd need). About 16 mins in, I bumped watch #2 so that was a goner. I then switched to running in even increments (10 or 5 mins), then walking 5 mins.

Somewhere between miles 2 and 3, my buddy Joe waved from the other side of the street. He got a PR today, whoo hoo! He told me later I seemed to be moving along at a good pace. Most of the race I was somewhere between 12:55 and 14:00 when actually running.

The halfway point was pretty cool, as I realized I had already done the distance of a 5k. As I turned around, "Run Rudolph Run" kicked on the iPod, a really good choice. I was pretty happy with the holiday selection and think it kept me in good spirits.

I really started to hurt around the 4.5 mile mark. My feet were pretty sore...keep in mind, I stood on them for about 4 hours yesterday handing out turkey dinners. Around 5 miles, my thighs began to ache too. There were times before those points that the cold air made it a little tough to breathe too. All I could think every time I struggled was either 1) "I can eat and drink whatever I want today if I do this, especially the pecan pie" and 2) "If the 9-11 firefighter can do a marathon, I can do this." See, the story about Matt (I think that's his name), an NYFD who survived 9-11 only to become disabled when a bus hit him years later, was on HBO's Real Sports last night. I'd read his story in Runner's World. It's quite inspiring. It was really good timing for HBO to air that last night before all the Turkey Trots today.

Around 5.75 miles, Joe was cooling down and running back towards me. If it wasn't for him, I don't know if I would have made that last .45 or so running straight. He kept telling me once I saw the finish line I wasn't allowed to walk :) It was the extra push I needed to finish just under a 15 minute mile pace. My official time is somewhere between 90 and 91 minutes. The Garmin beeped that I was done when I had about 20 feet left to go!

It was a tough race, but a good race. It was a little easier than I thought. I estimated I may walk half the route, but I only walked 1/3. I'm pretty proud of that.

Maybe next year, I run one start to finish :)