My First Race: Part 2

Missed Part 1?

Thank you for all of your amazing comments last night!!

Last night I passed out on the couch with Eric while watching Madagascar 2 around 10pm. From what I saw the movie looked hilarious though! :D

My mom also called me just before I fell asleep and said a huge congrats to me and told me that she was so proud of me. It meant a lot to me. She said she was checking the site all day long and she called my sister after reading my post to tell her how I did. Kristi just moved this weekend so she is out of internet until today sometime.

This morning when I went to do my ‘What did I eat pre-race’ post, my laptop DIED on me. It just went black, turned off, and I can’t even get it to turn on anymore. :( I’m guessing the main battery is fried and will need to be replaced. The crappy part is that all of my pre-race pictures are on the laptop, including the food ones, so hopefully I will be able to get them today sometime!

This morning, I thought I would talk about the race itself though because I have tons to say about it!

My Thoughts on the Twenty Valley 10k Race: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

Pre-race: Eric and I got there super early since we dropped off my bars around 8am and the actual race didn’t start until 11am. I always like being early, but even I admitted that we got there too early. We had a lot of time in the sun from 8am-11am and probably a lot of wasted energy on my part. Because of the insanely hot morning, I had to pretty much double up on the water I was consuming and the sunscreen I was putting on. Since it was my first race, I really didn’t know how long we would need to get to our destinations and we didn’t know what roads would be closed and whatnot. I was glad that we weren’t rushed, but I could have done without the 2 hour wait (and I think Eric too! haha).

I must say the scenery was just breathtaking in wine country though. It was green, rolling, and serene.

The ‘chips’ which were simply a velcro bands that we velcroed around our ankles (I felt like Lindsay Lohan with a tracking device! bahaha) didn’t arrive until 10 minutes before the race started, which was a bit annoying. I liked the fact that I didn’t have to un-do my shoelaces though since they are tied in a special way and very hard to get out! :)

The Start line: As you could probably tell from last night’s video, the start line was VERY relaxed. This was probably a good thing because it was my first race and I was already feeling jittery. Eric was only an arms reach away from me and I got close to the start line which I was happy about. My ‘watch time’ (56:30) was only 27 seconds quicker than my official race time (56:57), so not bad at all! I am still waiting on my official chip time as they are not posted online yet.

Everyone was talking about the HILLS on the course. Eric was great; he reassured me that I would rock the hills so I felt pretty confident before the start. I really didn’t expect them to be as hard as they were though…

There was no gun that went off at the start line and as you could tell from the video, it was a very informal start. We basically counted down from 10 seconds and had a chuckle while doing so. It was the races FIRST year, so it didn’t surprise me that it wasn’t a stream-lined race yet. It takes some time to iron out the kinks I guess.

1km: I told you I would start the race too fast and I did. :D Like any newbie runner, I was excited like hell. My pace for the first km was about a 7:30 minute mile, which is FAST for someone recovering from an injury. I wasn’t thinking about it too much though, only that I felt amazing (pain free) and was seeing how hard my heart could really work!

I felt amazing just to be running. I loved it.

During the 1st km, my throat was DRY. It was super hot out in the sun and there was no shade for us runners. I chatted with a couple runners during the 1st km to try and relax myself. I talked with a couple women and told them about the fundraising and it instantly reminded me WHY I was running the race. Not to win, not to run the fastest I have ever run, but to run it for Chris and for Cancer. It really was as simple as that.

So my throat was dry and I kept thinking to myself, where the hell is the 1st water station?? A couple of us were asking that to each other and it was no where in sight.

The first hill was rough as I needed water, badly. It was a steep, long hill and I pushed hard, often passing runners that were ahead of me. I noticed that many runners had to walk up the hills, but I never had to. I totally credit my hill walking for that one!

2.5km: The first water station wasn’t until 2.5 km marker, which may seem fine, but it really isn’t when you are running a hot and hilly course. We were all desperate for water by this time. I grabbed a cup, gulped it down, and took off. I loved the energy boost I had after each water station.

I spoke with a seasoned runner before the race- he was the announcer in today’s race and has done many marathons- and he told me the biggest mistake that runners make. What was it you ask? Well, it was not drinking enough water. He said on hot days like this one, many inexperienced runners would hit a wall from dehydration. That is why I had about 8 cups of water before my race! I kept thinking of his words. He also said many runners will by pass the water station all together (especially the first few water stations) and he said it is a huge mistake. The water you drink EARLY ON in the race benefits you down the road. I remembered this and gulped the full cup at the 2.5k water stop.

We passed TONS of wineries along the course. It was beautiful. As a runner in the race, you were actually allowed and encouraged to stop into all of the wineries to taste some wine. Maybe it was because I was close to the front of the pack, but none of us were stopping! As much as I love wine, I knew it would not be a good thing in the heat.

3km-4km: A blur. The hills were getting steeper and I felt like I was on kilometer 10! Around the 4th km, I saw this huge hill off in the distance and I admit, I got REALLY psyched out. It was huge and it was long. I said to myself, ‘Oh [bleep]’ and I chatted with a man beside me about the hill. He said, ‘Don’t worry after this one the route gets a bid more shade and the hills aren’t as steep’. This was all I needed to regain my confidence and tackle that hill. Like I said last night, hills MOTIVATE me and oddly enough on the hills was where I made my advances. I often passed faster runners that had been ahead of me before. I was so proud that I didn’t have to walk, but let me tell you, my heart was PUMPING harder than I have ever felt it. I loved that it was fit enough to tackle this course at a good pace. I felt strong. At the top of the hills I had to recover, so I often had to slow my pace down to a 11 minute mile until I could catch my breath again. I alternated on and off with my IPod Shuffle- sometimes it was on and sometimes I simply liked listening to my breaths go in and out, in and out.

5km: I ran hard from 4.5 km to 5km marker to see what my time was. I pushed hard…

I will see you at lunch for my 5km time and the rest of the race recap!! :) I need to go fix this laptop!