Sorry to clog up the board with my ramblings, but I feel happy (and sore) and want to scream from the rooftops that I completed my first ever 10k race!
There were about 200 contestants and let me tell you - these guys were not fvcking around! I think I was one of the few who just looked like average every day people (and one of the few overweight people too). The rest were all part of running clubs, looked very much in shape and it was very intimidating. The track itself was rural which was nice, had good scenery to distract me! There were some challenging parts of it, including a few steep hills both up and down.
When we started people went sprinting off and I felt very awkward just taking my time and jogging the first 2 miles. I was actually last for a lot of the race. The route was a loop, and there was a point where it crossed back on itself. Just past the 2 mile mark and heading up the rear I crossed with a guy who was in the lead heading BACK. He was so so fast it was crazy!
When I hit the 3 mile mark I felt like giving up - I felt a bit disheartened that I was in last and I just started to feel really sick and tired. But I quickly slapped myself metaphorically speaking - I didn't want to give up on something I had been training for for 7 weeks, I didn't want to tell my family who had come to support me and I didn't want to come crawling onto the 3FC boards saying that I failed!! So I took that little cup of water from the 3 mile water lady, I drank 10% of it and spilt 90% of it over myself and persisted through!
I managed to come in 2nd to last with a time of 1:11:20 (on my watch, might be a bit different to the officials). On my way in a lot of the runners who had finished were applauding me and encouraging me to the finish line - which I thought was super awesome. I got my medal which I was over the moon about, I thought I might have got a t-shirt but wearing a medal just felt amazing!
I'm not too disheartened about the position I came in, because 90% of the contestants were serious runners and considering I did 5 miles during my training in 1 hour 9 minutes I'm proud of the time I did it in. Also, what really mattered to me was that I didn't give up, even though I was seriously considering it, and I pushed through to finish what I had started.
But what's important to me is in the 7 week training period I've lost a total of 6 lbs, 0.8 inches from pudge and 0.5 inches from boobage! So I'm hoping to continue training to keep the results coming in.
Now time to train for that half marathon! =D
My Mum took a few pictures on her camera, but I took a picture of me with my medal. Happy times!
such an awesome feeling, i ran my first 10k in May and at times its hard..but the rush after you cross the finish line is unreal..
