My first 10k

Yesterday, I ran my first 10K, Run the Bridge 2010. The race starts and ends at the Camden River Sharks stadium and goes across the Ben Franklin Bridge in the process. The 10K race registration was closed before race day because it passed the 4,000 runner max! Along with the 2 mile bridge walkers and kids fun runners, there were 5,000 participants total!

The Bridge at 7am

That morning it was so cold. I mean SO cold. The kids and I stayed at my mom's house because we were down in the area for my nephew's birthday party. The boys were up pretty much from 2am on. By 5am, I was cursing and pissed. It was the weekend the clocks changed, so that meant I had an extra hour in there to fight my kids to sleep. Not fun. So we bundled up and headed out. We were meeting my good friend from college, Kristie, who is a serious runner (like marathoner serious), and her husband Mike. They were going to get me through this race. At least I hoped so.

The runners pre-race... I ended up taking off one more layer before race time.

As race time neared, we put on layers, took off layers, and tried to figure out what would be best as the temperature changed. We carried the stroller down onto the field for my mom and left her with the two boys, while Kristie, Mike, and I walked to the bridge for the start. B was running the kid's run while we ran our race.

The race felt great overall. It was so much fun to run with people. I've literally never done that in my life. We talked the entire way up and over the bridge and then back. We skipped the first water stop. Kristie is a talker when she runs, which apparently annoys some people, but I loved it. It made the time pass, and plus we got to catch up a bit after having not seen each other for FAR too long! Every so often on the bridge, we had to remind ourselves to look out because we were on the bridge. It really was pretty cool.

Then we got off the bridge, and the rest was mostly flat. This was a relief to many others, but for me, I was more concerned about that flat. Living where I live, I run nothing but hills. I like hills. I'm used to hills. But we kept going. I was still talking, although not quite so easily by mile 4. Mike was doing great, having previously been a runner but not having run a 10K in a loooong time. It was fun. *Gasp* Who says that? Yep, runners say that. Scary.

The last two miles were getting harder. My left ankle and shin had been hurting almost from the start. My legs were hurting otherwise. But I was still pretty happy to keep going. If I had slowed down, I think I could have even felt good, but I wanted to get in under 70 minutes. I had run 6.25 miles a week ago in a training run and did it in just over 72 minutes. I was hoping to shave a few minutes off but wasn't sure how that would work out. Kristie was keeping our time and pace on her fancy watch. She was chatting to keep us entertained, and continually checking in on how I was doing. Did I need to slow down? How was I feeling? Was she annoying me? Haha. Yea, it sounds annoying, but it totally wasn't.

Somewhere in those last two miles, we ended up along the waterfront running past the battleship, and I went wow, this is freaking AWESOME! Then there were a few hills, and I was off. Seriously, I know hills. From there on, Kristie was pushing me. She was keeping me a decent pace, and in the last half a mile, staring picking people out for me to catch up, too. By this point, I was hurting, but there was no way in hell I was stopping. Somewhere around here is when Kristie flat out lied to me, by telling me that we were going to cut my 70 minute goal really close. That's when I said screw it, and put every ounce of anything I had left into the race. Kristie was ahhhh-mazing. Seriously, I love that girl. It's like I had my own personal running coach.

The three of us approaching finish. I'm in yellow in case you couldn't tell.

We crossed the finish line together at 67:44. Wow. Thanks, Kristie! And way to go, Mike, who stuck with us the whole time with absolutely no training. I am totally proud of my accomplishment and excited to take on my next challenge whatever that may be. Stay tuned!