Saturday's 10k was warm. Why is it whenever I have to run anything over 4 miles, Minnesota decides to have a heat wave. So it was about 75 and kinda humid at the start of the race. 75% of the race was in the shade of woods and trees, so I really can't complain about that. But remember a couple posts ago I said something about having "no excuses"....I pondered this over during the run and then I realized - heck, I'm a "runner", I've got excuses for EVERYTHING!
The first mile was pretty much all downhill. Sounds easy right? Well it could have been harder, that's for sure, but I don't really like running downhill for that long. It's hard to keep a normal pace and it's hard on the knees. But then the next 2 miles were almost all uphill. Some of it on blacktop trails, some of it on gravel trails. I'm glad I've had experience running on gravel roads in IA! At one point near the end of mile 2 I can around a corner and saw a hill that was around a 75 degree incline. No joke. There should have been notches in it like a climbing wall. Most of my "pack" was walking up it, but I jogged up as fast as I could, thinking the faster I go, the faster I'll be at the top. So I get to the top, round another corner and realize I have another 1/2 mile at least uphill. Oh crap. There was nothing to do but laugh about it.
Finally I get to the top near the high school and middle school. There's a giant windmill up there too. Want to know why? Because it's windy as SHIT up there! At least down in the trench I didn't have to deal with the wind! So mile 3 to 4 was at the top of the hill and then started heading down again. Mile 4 was probably the easiest of the whole race because it was in the woods, along a creek, fairly flat. Mile 5.5 to 6.2 again was almost all uphill. This time along a busy road, but you could make out the finish line, so you just had to keep going. My final time was around 1:05:something. A couple minutes over my ideal time, a few minutes under my "never again" time. I'm really happy with the finish, and would have never thought it was something I could do 1-2 years ago.
After my race, Will ran in a 0.2 mile kids race - he had a good time and really put a lot of effort into running. He got a ribbon and may possibly get a t-shirt later. (We registered late.) Then Katie ran in a 1.2 mile kids race and got a t-shirt. Again, she did awesome! Running isn't something that comes easily to anyone - and Katie gets discouraged by pains in her side when she runs (which I remember all too well), but she kept going. John even ran with her the last 1/2 mile or so.
On Sunday, I had a 5k for Get Your Rear In Gear - a benefit for colon cancer. Last year my good friend, Gina, lost her husband to colon cancer so a bunch of friends and family joined a team to honor his memory. His mom even had shirts made for our team, The Drag'n Fliers. :) It was a really fun 5k run, followed by a kids race (my kids didn't do this one) and a 5k walk. So I did another 10k on Sunday, just broken up a bit more! Again, I was happy with my time - 30 minutes and change. Makes me really want to push to get under 30 soon. There were tons of "fliers" on our team though - we had THREE first place finishers in their respective age groups, including Gina herself. Seriously - she's a force to be reckoned with!
I wasn't too sore yesterday - believe it or not. I went for a short bike ride after I dropped Will off because I don't have "Pebbles" this week. It must have helped because today I'm not sore at all. :)
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