My first 10K (almost a KO)

I ran my first 10K this weekend In Buffalo Grove. Illinois that is, in case you weren't sure. I had trouble sleeping, I think I was nervous. I had trouble going to sleep and I woke up frequently. I think I was afraid of over-sleeping and being rushed in the morning. I don't trust my alarm. I have had problems with me hitting the button to turn it off in my sleep, and it is 15 years old. What is the life expectancy of a clock radio anyway? Three years?

I did get up on time (6:00!) and I had my breakfast of a banana and cinnamon toast with peanut butter on top. (What? That doesn't sound good? It is, trust me.) I was out the door by 6:40 with all my accessories in hand. I went by myself since Jenn was sleeping in, she had her own race tonight. Right now actually. I wonder how it is going?

Since I left early I had an hour to kill at the race site. Last year there was nowhere to park so I figured I'd be looking for a spot for 10 or 15 minutes then have to walk another 15 minutes to get the the starting line. Instead I parked 100 feet from the starting line. I guess that is good, but what was I going to do for an hour? Walk around a lot, it turns out.

One thing I found out, I'm too slow for the setup they have. There are three races; a 10K run, a 5K run and a 5K walk. They stagger the start times but when you are slow, like me, you end up meeting the walkers at the end. I did a lot of bobbing and weaving to get to the finish line.

Before I got to the end though, I had to run the 6.2 miles. Unfortunately, that is farther than I have ever run. I've run 5 miles a couple of times, but that was it. Oh, and the last two weeks I didn't run much. Mostly because I was a little under the weather, partly because I was lazy. So, yeah, it was a little rough to get the distance done.

I tried to start off slow, but as usual, I started off too fast. I was making a mental note to try and slow down, and it worked, for the most part. One thing I do often is find someone running about my speed and keep them in sight. I don't run next to them, that is kind of rude, but I stay a few paces behind them and match their speed. Today there was a man, close to my age, running with his daughter who was maybe 9 or 10 years old. I figured they would be perfect to follow. It worked well until the last 1.5 miles. I got too tired and too hot and had to walk a bit. I never saw them again. I wanted to feel bad about being beat by a 10 year old kid, but then I remembered they are made of energy. It was never a fair battle.

The good news? I wasn't last. I think there were six or seven people behind me. Hey, that's something!

Now I have a 9.5 mile race in two weeks. I'm dead.

How is your holiday weekend?