In a million years, I never would have predicted that I would run a 10 mile race let alone THRIVE in a 10 mile race. To be fair, like most humans, I am not very good at predicting things.
I would love to regale my readers (not that I have any) with my detailed training regimen. Running 10 miles might have been a good start. I didn’t do that. In fact, I had never run 10 miles, 7 ish was probably as far as I ever ventured before. You probably shouldn’t consider this training. What I lacked in actual distance training, I made up for in persistence, consistency, sporadic speed workouts and my spotify playlists. And lots of heart, having watched all of the 80’s movies, I knew the slow clap at the end of my journey would make everything ok.
The day before the race, I was walking in to the kitchen when I caught the little toe of my left foot on a chair. It was a familiar feeling, I broke this toe walking past a Hummer sized strolled at Water Country a few years ago. I iced it, took the therapeutic dosage of Ibuprofen and shoved my foot into a running shoe to act as a compress.
The conditions for the race were challenging, a steady 20 mph wind with gusts to 40 mph. I almost didn’t run, I was still having toe pain but it didn’t seem to be broken, it hurt whether I walked, ran or stood still. This was a race I have always wanted to do, I was going to do the irresponsible thing. Originally all four of us were supposed to race, an ankle injury side-lined my husband and I decided to defer my daughter’s race to next year. It was just me and my son. Mama and her boy.
As we battled the wind to find the start line, close to a half mile from our packet pick up, I saw a line. A long line. As we are “social distancing” I thought it might have been the wave start line forming. No, this was the line for the porta-potty. Given the time I had before my start in the “elite women” group, there was no way I would get through that line. Yes, I was placed in the 1st women’s heat, talk about pressure. I have never run 10 miles in a row but because of my 5k time, I was placed in front. Super.
I found a large tree in a ravine and headed to the woods. I guess that makes me a legit distance runner now.
I had my music, or what I could hear of my music through the 40 mph wind gusts. I had my Samsung health ap, which still sound less cool than Runkeeper, but we don’t dwell on these things. My wave went off and I was running a 10 mile race, all 10 miles. It wasn’t until about a half mile in that I realized my GPS was not connecting! I kept restarting, but after being told I was running a 24 min mile, I gave up. The woman in front of me looked like she was keeping a good pace. As everyone pointed out to me after the race, I could have calculated my pace using the start time and the mile markers like our Puritan ancestor had to do. I wasn’t carrying an abacus and I was still trying to wrap my mind around the 10 miles in a row thing so I just laser focused on the woman in orange ahead of me.
I felt great! Cold, but still strong until about mile 8. Before the race, I had the idea of bringing some gummy bears in my pocket in case I needed a carbohydrate boost. I jammed my cold hand into the tiny coin-sized pocket of my running shorts to pull out a sticky gummy bear and realized just how stupid this idea was. I now had sticky fingers and since I am an old lady who runs with her cell phone, I had made my useless running ap all sticky as well. Regardless, I stuck to the plan and ate the gummy bear. This made me thirsty and not at all revived.
There is a happy ending, I made it to the end and my pace was just over 9 min per mile! Much faster than I was planning to run! My possibly broken toe didn’t hurt. I was only passed by a few 70 year-olds. A good day overall. Ultimately, I learned that I placed 3rd in my age group, which I guess makes me “elite” in a “good for you!” kind of way.
. The aura of this race was much different from the frenetic pace of the 5k world. The fact that people actually stop in the middle of the race to use a port-a-potty was a foreign concept. I enjoyed the more leisurely pace and laid-back attitude.
I was sore the next day. It’s been a while since I was sore after a race, it was a badge of honor! The slow clap never happened, but like a good 80’s movie, a positive attitude and the right clothes are 90 percent of the solution. I made some memories with my first born. I look forward to running in more distance races, especially trail races.
I have new running shorts which I love, they are Baleaf, made in China likely by forced labor, but they are the best shorts I have ever worn. And they have real pockets, not tiny coin purse pockets! I am also loving my Altra Escalante 2 running shoes, I wore them over the past few races and have had sub 8 splits in my 5ks. These Balega socks have been great, no blisters, not even on my unfortunate bunion!