Girls on the Go Run - My first 10k race

On Sunday, March 18th I participated in the Girls on the Go Run, my first official 10k race. I've been running pretty regularly at Lake Murray in La Mesa, CA (an east county San Diego suburb) which is 5.6 miles round trip. My mileage is anywhere between 4-6 miles a run, depending on the time of day and my work schedule. As my first 10k I was mostly nervous about running out of gas before the finish line due to all the excitement, not because I couldn't actually run 6.4 miles. In the end, the running part was a piece of cake. While I didn't actually achieve a running high my body was definitely prepared for a long period of running and even after I completed the 6.4 miles I still had enough juice left in me to run several more miles.

Race day itself was pretty disappointing. Upon my arrival to the Del Mar Fairgrounds it began pouring, and the wind was gusting so hard and it was just so cold that my teeth were chattering as I waited for the race to start. I brought additional clothes in anticipation of being drenched after the race, including a sweater, but it was so cold (weather.com reported 42 degrees after the windchill!) that I actually wore my hoodie sweatshirt during the race. In fact, I was so miserable and cold that I came very close to asking race officials if I could switch from the 10k run to the 5k run because who the hell wants to run in the cold and rain? However, I was unable to locate any race officials and then I pretty much decided that I needed to stop being a pussy and just buck up and do the run. That's what I was there for, right?

The race itself turned out to be great. The rain held off and the wind moved in. It was so windy my hat kept flying off and finally I had to carry it the entire race. But my sweater kept me warm and the wind kept my face from getting damp so it worked out all right. Once I was running my size 11s carried me out and reliably through the streets. The running course was partly on the fairgrounds, partly on the surface streets surrounding the fairgrounds, and partly through the parking lot for the fairgrounds. There was even a section of the race that took you through the horse racing track, which was kind of exciting if you had the mindset of staying to the inside and running your heart out like a little horsie running for the finish line. (Which I totally did.) For most of the race (about 5 miles or so) I kept pace with a woman just ahead of me. I don't have gadgets to allow me to track my pace and I don't know if she did, either, but my natural pace and her own pace kept us together for most of the run. On the second lap around the course she began to slow and once we got to a hill (a slight incline for 3 blocks) I lost her. My mentality was that I was totally going to run up the hill and not walk it, because hell if I wasn't going to reward myself going up that hill with running back down it like a maniac. I picked up the pace for the last half mile or so and kicked in across the finish line around 1:01:42 (according to the clock at the finish line). My goal was to finish in 1:10:00 so I definitely did better than expected AND calculations on this race pace conversation website show my average pace was 6.2mph. I'm pretty proud of that speed because my normal pace is between 5.6-5.8mph without pushing myself.

Post-race I was greeted with a medal (it's actually pretty snazzy and as the second medal in my collection, I have belated realized maybe I should have some place to set up my collection) and a cup of wine. There was also an expo with clothing, health and body, and jewelry booths set up. After a little shopping and a new sterling silver pendant, I went home and spent the rest of the day listening to the rain and hail come down and napping. All in all, a great race!

 

Me, post-race. Technically it is almost 3 hours after my race, but since I went alone I could only take a picture for my adventure book once I got home. Running tights are comfortable, but not exactly flattering!