I did it!

I completed my first 10K race!  I ran the entire time without stopping or walking once (even though my body and the terrible cramp I was feeling were begging me to!)

It felt so great!  Well, to finish anyways, the run itself was a little brutal!! It had about four huge hills and not at the beginning either, they were towards the end, when I just wanted to be done!!

The first two miles were cake!  I didn't feel a thing, I wasn't tired, I loved the scenery, my breathing was right on target.  Then the third mile came and my Pandora Radio on my phone stopped working.  We were right on the beach really, so I thought I'd have decent reception and didn't bring my ipod.  Big mistake!! I lost all music from 2.5 miles to the very end!  That made things a little tougher!

The community support was great!! There were water checkpoints at every mile but even in between the miles, people in the neighborhoods were standing at the end of their driveways with giant poland springs jugs and dixie cups handing them out to us!! so sweet!
I, however, do not drink during my runs.  It messes up my rhythm and gives me a cramp.  So I just waved at them!!

Speaking of cramp.  Oh man...  When I first started running on the track about a year or so ago, I would get a cramp every day that was sometimes debilitating!  The more I ran (daily) the less I got the cramp, it eventually ceased.
However, at mile 4, the cramp came on with a vengeance!! By mile 5 I thought for sure I'd have to walk or stop.  I was almost hunched over at one point (still running so I'm sure I looked ridiculous!) and I finally just dug my fist into my side to try to massage it out.  It didn't get rid of it, but it eased it enough so that I could finish the last mile and a half without walking!  Thank you God!!

Speaking of God.  I had read someone's blog that did a marathon and she said a great tip for her was to take each mile in the last half and choose one person per mile to pray for.  So I did that.  I prayed for my dad and his health for the 4th and 5th miles.  (He's special, he got two miles!)  And then the last bit of the race, it wasn't so much praying as it was just thinking about my gram.  She passed away four years ago and I think about her a lot.  Especially when I do things like this.  She was probably my biggest fan (I know, I have so many fans, it's hard to say that one of you is my biggest, but she was!!)  She was so proud of me and complimented me on everything I did, the way I dressed, etc.  I just know she would have been so excited for me to run the race.

Ryan tried really hard to make it there to see me cross the finish line (as a surprise) but I had totally overestimated the time I thought it would take me to finish, and came in about 20 minutes earlier than I thought.  So he was planning on getting there about 10 minutes after I finished (which would have given him 10 minutes to wait)... but either way, the thought was there.

I would however, totally love to have people there along the race or at the finish for a future long race!  There were times where I would see people cheering on their loved ones at like mile 4 and I thought, man, that must make you want to run faster and pump you up so much... Even without him there at the finish, I did sprint to the end once I could see the finish line. 

Either way, I'm so proud of myself for it, I finished with an average of 10:23 mile totaling an hour and five minutes, which was pretty good.  But it wasn't my best time.  I ran a 9.29 mile for the last 5K that I did... I guess with half the race, a better time is expected!

Now begins my training for the half marathon.  I upped my regular 3 miles to a 4 mile run this morning. I have a schedule for training and pray that I can stick to it!