Toughest 10K

I woke up Saturday morning to a beautiful day - it was slightly cool outside and overcast! I loaded up the car with my breakfast and other necessities and headed to pick up the girls for our 40 min trip down to Kemah.

Geared up and ready...after quite the speed bump...

See those sneaks? Those are NOT my shoes. What did I leave the house with you ask? I was wearing my Ryder sandals as usual. But guess who turned the lights off and walked out the door without her running shoes? Oh yes, that was me. How can I call myself a runner if I can't even remember to bring my running shoes to a race?!?!

Luckily for me, a nice lady that parked across from us at the race start heard my friend C yelling at me for forgetting my shoes and offered to help. Since the running store was 20 minutes away and not open anyway, I was grateful for her. She lived 5 minutes down the road and called her hubby to bring me her old pair of shoes. Lucky even more for me - they were only half a size too big and the same Asics that I normally run in!

C, N and I waiting for the start with our scared faces on. This 10k was going to be 2 complete passes over a mighty tall bridge!

See the bridge? Yeah, I have to make it up to the top of that 4 times.

Self portrait just after I've climbed the first pass. I'm a little winded, but feeling great! Getting ready to charge down the downhill side and make up some time.

The view looking out into the Gulf of Mexico. The sun mostly stayed behind the clouds and the temperature stayed around 80 the whole race. Heaven for those of us who live in the South!

Starting back up the bridge at some point. You can see the runners are really starting to spread out. Somehow I managed to continue passing people - on the uphill and downhill. I'm still crediting my leg strength and speed to the 21 miler.

2 trips over the bridge complete! I finished!

Mile 1: 9:20 (I was trying to hold back a little and save energy for the uphill portions)

Mile 2: 9:03
Mile 3: 9:06
Mile 4: 9:20 (Starting to tire out, but trying to keep my form intact.)
Mile 5: 9:19

Mile 6: 8:29 (Wowzah!)
Last .2: 1:17 (or 7:39 pace)

Final time: 55:58. I came in 10th in my age group! Yay me! If I could shave off a full minute, I could have been in 7th place. I'm so excited at how fast I'm getting. I mean, I just PRed a very hilly course - there's no telling what I could do if it was flat!

Toughest 10k complete! Maybe we will all be ready for the hills in San Fransisco after all. We all made excellent time!



I've been so focused on marathon training this summer, that the fun was starting to wear off. It was great to get out there and rock a 10k to put a little spring back into my step. Sometimes I forget how much fun racing is - especially with friends!