My first ever 10k was a huge success! Even with a bruised ankle, being sore from my Black Belt test yesterday, not having run all week, and only getting up to 5 miles during training, I was still able to run the entire 6.2 miles without walking for even a second.

I finished with an official time of 1:05:28! That’s a 10:33 pace, which I’m darn pleased with.

It was absolutely freezing this morning, and I wasn’t dressed entirely appropriately. The only thing I was really missing was gloves. My poor fingers never warmed up, even tucked inside my jacket sleeves. This was partially because I had to keep pulling them out to blow my nose, which ran incessantly the entire race. Damn exercise-induced rhinitis!

One of my friends ran this race with me  – remember M-Dog? – and I kept up with her for the first mile or so. After that, I had to slow down a bit, and I knew that she was already going slower than her normal pace, so I told her to run on without me.

Once I hit the 4-mile mark, I knew I would be able to run the entire thing. Once I hit the fifth mile marker, I was thrilled: With every new step I said to myself, “This is officially the furthest I’ve ever run. This is officially the furthest I’ve ever run…”

I kept switching positions with two women running together. They ran a bit faster than me, but they couldn’t keep that up. So they would start walking, and I would pass them. Then a few minutes later after they started running again, they would pass me. This must’ve happened a dozen times throughout the race – it was really quite ridiculous – but it kept it interesting. I was hoping that when we got to the end I’d be able to keep their running pace and cross the finish line with them. In the 6th mile, when they caught up to me after walking a bit, I hung with them for a minute or so, but then I had to fall back to my slower pace again. They beat me by about 20 seconds.

It was tiring, but I felt good. In fact, I had enough left in me at the end to be able to sprint the last tenth of a mile. I was actually going so fast that my face is wind-burned!

I’m very pleased with my performance today: I ran the entire thing, and in a good time… for me. I have to qualify that it’s a good time ‘for me’ because only 4 people in the entire race were slower than me. I was totally bringing up the rear. The two girls I kept trading places with joked one of the times they passed me that they’d have to walk again soon, and so to “not worry.” I laughed, but really, I wasn’t worried about beating them at all. I was competing with myself, not some random women whose running abilities and preparation I know nothing about. And even though I was very nearly last, I’m proud of myself.

It’s funny: This was a smaller race, with only 112 participants (I was 108). I’ve found that the smaller the event, the more ‘elite’ the competitors. This same pace at the 12,000 participant Turkey Trot last week got me a much better finishing place.

It doesn’t matter though. Like I said, I was competing with myself.

And I won.

This morning was the 5-mile Turkey Trot that I’ve been training for over the last few weeks. I had two goals:

1 – DON’T WALK.
2 – Finish in under 57 minutes.

I did both. In spades.

This year we had a pretty big group, 10 in total. I was hoping to stick with Friend #1 and her 3 friends as much as possible, since I knew they also had their sights on running the entire course. My family, which made up the other 5 participants in my group, was mostly planning on a walking/running combination.

One of the three friends we lost in the first quarter-mile. She’s fast, and had different goals than the rest of us. Namely, to kick our butts :)

Shortly after the first mile, I somehow ended up running with just one of the three friends, when Friend #1 and the last of the three were separated from us. Even though she was running at a much faster pace than is my usual, I stuck with her.

When we hit the three-mile mark, we were only 30 minutes in. That’s a 10-mile pace, and I’m generally between 11 and 12 minutes. Shortly into the fourth mile, though, I told her to run ahead without me. I didn’t stop, but I slowed to my normal pace. I knew that if I continued to push at that faster speed, I would run out of gas before the end and have to walk. That would not have been okay.

So she ran ahead and I slowed a bit. I did the last 2 miles or so on my own – as alone as you could be when you’re doing a road race with 12,000 participants – without walking for a second. I didn’t have too much left in me at the end, so I didn’t sprint the last tenth of a mile like I usually try to do, but even still, I crossed the finish line at 55:40. Official times aren’t posted, yet, but I crossed the starting line at almost three minutes, so I expect my time to be just under 53 minutes. My time last year was 59:46.

That’s freaking awesome.

I’m so pleased with myself. I did it! And I did it better than I expected.

Even more than the pride I feel in myself, though, is the pride I feel for my mother. My mom has never been, how do I put this… interested in fitness. In fact, her philosophy about exercise has always been that if she starts to sweat, she had better stop because she’s doing something wrong. She’s so cute.

I was so happy when she committed to doing the Turkey Trot with us. And even though she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to complete the entire 5 miles, she went out there with the best of intentions.

And she did it too.

I’m pleased as punch that she stuck with it. Even though she was tired and her feet hurt and this is likely more exercise than she’s gotten in the past month combined, she didn’t give up. She kept going, and never took advantage of the Plan B we had in place in case she couldn’t make it to the end. (I was confident that she could make it, but better safe than sorry!)

I hope she feels as good about her accomplishment as I do! She certainly should.

In fact, our entire group did a great job. I’m thrilled that I’ve had an impact of sorts on my family. There’s still a few holdouts – Hopefully they’ll join us next year!

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!