AC Marathon ~ 10K

I participated in my first 10K race on Sunday October 16th!  It was part of the Atlantic City Marathon event, they offered a 5K, 10K, half marathon & full marathon.  My company is a sponsor so I knew I'd be taking part a long time ago.  Over the summer, Kat & I decided that we'd do the 10K because it would be more of a challenge then the 5K (Angela did the half marathon, you can read about her experience here) and we convinced Shana to join us about 3 days before the race.  Now you'd think that with all that advance notice I would have trained.  Not so much.  I think I did a total of 4 runs in the weeks leading up to the race and none of them were more then 3 miles.  I was a little worried about my time but I knew I'd be able to do it, I've run a 10 mile race before so I know I can physically do 6.  

The morning of race day Kat picked me up at 7:30am and we headed over to the city.  We tried my boss' trick of eating a Snickers bar for an extra sugar boost and I played on Facebook while Kat drove.  I noticed my friend Yani (Joe & I met at her wedding 9 years ago) was running and mentioned that it would be nice to run into her.  We had plenty of time before the race started so we made a pit stop at the bathroom in the Wild Wild West casino and who should come walking out of a stall but Yani!  It was awesome to see her and catch up while we waited for the run to start. 

Kat, Shana & I set a goal of finishing in under 1 hour 15 minutes, that would put us right around a 12 minute mile pace.  Perfect for our zero training Shana started off quickly as usual and left Kat & I in her dust.  We stayed together for the first 2 miles before Kat pulled ahead of me.  I don't know why I run slower then everyone else, I think I'm just lazy.  I know I can run faster and I always speed up at the end without a problem but it's like I'm worried about burning out early or something.  I really need to start adding some interval training into my routine so I can speed up, I'd love to do the turkey trot in under 30 minutes.  

Back to the 10K.  It wasn't terrible but I did walk through a couple of the water stations.  I ran with my iPod shuffle and the music was a great tool, I even found myself occasionally singing along but it also distracted me from my breathing and I ended up more winded then usual.  I'm going to have to practice with that as well.  I finished the race in 1:05:36 which is great because I beat my goal and was staying around 10:30 miles.  My garmin was a little off on the distance though and didn't finish until I was past the line and into the refreshment area (in case you're wondering why I crossed out that time, I added my official time instead).

Kat came in at 59:15 and Shana was just after her at 59:46.  I'm so proud of them for finishing in under an hour, they obviously didn't need to be worrying about pacing at 12 minute miles!

It was super windy on the way back to the car.  Luckily our matching shirts had hoods!  We put them up and Bill made a comment about us looking like "ganstas," we laughed and asked him to take a picture.  Yeah, that would be me trying to figure out what a gang sign is, I think I actually did "hang loose"...I'm obviously extremely street saavy.  

I also asked Shana to take a picture of me with my medal for Joe & Facebook.  I was pretty excited to get a medal, I didn't know they'd be giving them out.  That's 3 total now, I'm going to need that fancy rack from etsy!  (hint hint xmas present)

On the way to the car we decided to make a pit stop at the beach to let the dogs run off their extra energy. We spent a little time stretching out on the boardwalk steps while the boys took the dogs down to the water.  It was super windy and the sand was blowing everywhere so I huddled up on the dune playing with my phone until they were done.  It was good to move around instead of just sitting a tensing up like I would have normally done.

Kat dropped me off at home just after 11 and I took a long hot shower.  It was pretty funny because I felt like I'd already finished my entire day and it wasn't even lunch time.  Unfortunately I was feeling pretty crappy so I spent the rest of the afternoon watching tv and dozing in bed due to the effects of a nyquil.  I was really worried I was getting sick but thankfully felt much better by the time Joe got home from work.  We ordered in chinese and hung out on the couch.  All in all a great day and I ended with a renewed motivation to work out and eat right.  Too bad I was so sore Monday and Tuesday that working out wasn't an option!