I started the race strong. Chris was waiting for me around the 1.5 mile point so I committed to run the whole way to him - and I did it! Just after seeing him, I headed into the park. One of the first major obstacles after entry is a massive hill. That wasn't fun, but I ran as much as I could through it. By the time I hit the 5k marker, I was really wishing it was a 4 miler instead of a 10k. I pushed through the next mile before I really hit a low point in mile 4. Chris was just on the other side of the mile 5 marker so I tried to focus on just making it there. Fortunately, I had some good music kick in about that time as well!
After seeing Chris for the second time, I knew there was just a mile left to go. I wasn't feeling great, but I was hanging in there. I was dead set on beating my time from the Healthy Kidney 10k a few weeks ago...and I knew it meant I'd have to fight to the finish. Once I got close enough to feel the presence of the finish line, I made myself go as hard as I could to the end. I felt like I was in slow motion, but I was thrilled when I crossed the finish line with a time of 1:25:30. An improvement of almost exactly 3 minutes! I managed to shave 30 seconds off my miles! Running 13:46 minute miles still isn't really anything to brag about, but I was happy with the improvement! Here's to hoping I'm able to shave off a little more time when Chris and I run the Queens 10k this weekend!
Have you ever run an all-women's race?
How did it compare to those you run in mixed company?
Andrea :)
Great job!
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