The longest 10k EVER

So the long weekend is over and so is my "10k". Let's get my whining out of the way, shall we?

A) the course, according to a few garmins was longer than 10k. Mine said 6.4 miles (instead of 6.2) others read 10.3km. So there you have excuse number one.

B) the course was H-I-L-L-Y. In fact, I think referring to it as 'mountainous' would not be exaggerating at all. I was warned by a very savvy blogger who ran it in the past, but I still didn't comprehend it's drastic rise/drop in elevation until I was running it.

During my extensive five weeks of training for this event, I tackled one six mile run on the treadmill with a 1% incline. Uh huh.

I ran outside exactly one time (for the 5k on mother's day).

All of my previous 'official' 10 k's have been in the 58:00 range. I knew I had no hope of breaking an hour on this one after hearing of the hills, so my goal was 65:00. In addition to being hilly, the course was very congested. I didn't get to start running until a minute or two after passing the start. I didn't bother to squeeze around people unless they were walking. It just took too much energy!

It didn't take me long to change my goal to being 'anything under 70!!'.

Did I mention the hills? The bridge was epic. For the first time ever I saw someone throwing up in a race. A girl in the cutest lululemon running clothes tossed her cookies over the side of the bridge before reaching the half way point. I felt like joining her, but decided to trudge along.

I didn't take any walk breaks until I reached a hill somewhere around the 3.5 mile mark and then I walked for about a minute.

I finally made it back over the bridge and another woman mentioned that we were home free and there wouldn't be any more hills. Well. That was only partially true. There was a grade that felt like mount everest to reach the finish line!!!!! Who designs a race with a hill at the end?! A cruel sadistic person, that's who.

With the finish line in sight, my garmin reading almost 6.4 miles, I took my second walk break. Yes I did. I walked at the *end* of the stinkin' race. I was so done. I did pick up my feet and jog as I neared the finish line.

This will not go down as one of my prouder racing accomplishments. My final time was 69 minutes.

Nana and Grampie drove Cameron and I back to the hotel since Trevor wouldn't be finishing the full for another couple of hours. I decided if there was ever a time that I deserved room service, it was then. Cam thought it was pretty amazing to have food delivered to our door. He shouldn't get used to it, I hope not to repeat a 10k like that anytime soon lol.

Trevor has a great race report on his blog. He finished the full in 3:45. I'm so happy he had a great race (because when he doesn't, he complains even more than I do lol).

Now that I've allowed myself to wallow in pity for a couple of days, it's time to get back to training for the next big event. In four weeks we are participating in the father's day 5 miler. It better not be hilly or an inch over five miles.


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