10 km Gone Right!

After my first 10km of the season being a bit of a gong show...I started to become less thrilled about the upcoming Mothers Day 10km as last week progressed. 10 kms hurt...and now I have to endure another one! I'm not a speedster...i don't know how to race these things! Regardless, I really wanted to do well and start off my 2011 racing season on a good note and prove to myself that while I missed all of 2010 due to injury, I can come back and be better than I was in 2009! It's a lot of work to get back to where you were...and I'm still not there in terms of endurance...but my speed is definitely coming back...

Even though I had the 10km race on Sunday of this past weekend, I didn't want it to cause me to miss out on a longer run. So I met my friend Charlie on saturday morning for a 22km run on the very rolling pathways of Bowmont. It was a beautiful morning for it and was happy to get out as I knew it was supposed to rain in the afternoon and most/all of Sunday. By the end, my legs were feeling heavy and sore...i don't think they were completely recovered from the previous weekends "race". After some good stretching, I put on my compression socks and wore them for the rest of the day. They definitely helped!

Sunday morning came and I woke up as I do on most race mornings...cranky (wait, that's every morning) and thinking how much I don't want to race today. I'm not a morning person people...my body might wake me up early everyday, but it doesn't mean i have to like it! Breakfast always makes me feel better and helps to wake me up so I started to feel better after that and finally start to get pumped up for the race. Andrew got out of bed and told me he was coming to the race (even though it was cold and rainy out) which made me happy. I didn't expect him to come on such a gross day! He proved to be the ultimate boyfriend supporter :)

The race starts out in front of the Chinook mall and they had opened it early so we could all wait inside. That was sweet and the mall was packed with runners. I did some stretching, said good-bye to Andrew around 15 mins before the start and went outside to warm up in the rain. I just ran around trying to look like I know what i'm doing to warm up...but I don't. When I try to mimic what some people are doing in warm ups I end up looking like an idiot so i've learned in the past to just do my own thing.

Anyways...the race got underway and of course I went out fast...it's hard to hang back and try and do your 1st km slower than you'd like and of course i didn't...i went out guns a blazin and just tried to stay relaxed yet fast. It worked...for about 4 km i was thinking, yeah i could keep this up..i might come really close to 40 mins for this sucker! Then I got to about 5km and I thought...oh no, i think i'm running out of steam. Shit. It started to rain harder which I didn't notice too much until I realized my feet were completely soaked...they were actually sloshing around in my shoes. It didn't really bother me...just an observation.

There were a few hills in there that I didn't expect (but that's what happens when you don't check to see what the route is beforehand! lol). And while the hills sucked and I felt like i was starting to suck...i realized that is where i kept passing people...on the hills. Damn skippy! I got through them...enjoyed the downhills when they came...focused on speedy quick leg turnover and concentrated on getting to each kilometre mark. Finally there was 1km to go so I tried to pick it up as best I could. I knew I wouldn't come close to 40 mins but I wanted to get as close to 41 mins as possible...I crossed the line in 41:20...a new PB by 1 min and 17 seconds. Woop Woop! Andrew was there at the end to cheer me in and had a yummy hot Starbucks beverage waiting for me...what a guy :)

So yeah, great race...it hurt a lot...and while I'm going to continue to work on my speedwork this season...i think i'm done racing any more 10kms until maybe the fall. Maybe then i'll be ready to break 40 mins? Next up...the Calgary half marathon in 2.5 weeks. I'm a little worried...not sure if I can go fast for that distance yet but I guess i'll quickly find out!