Today I had my first 10 mile race, and man was I nervous.
The only goal I went out with was a time of 70:00, and I'd just
try to come as close to that time as I could. I didn't care if there
were girls in front of me, behind me, beside me, whatever. I just
wanted to run 7:00 min/miles.
Last night it started raining around 5:00 pm, and it rained all
night through this morning. It was POURING when Phillip
and I left the house at 8:00 am. We arrived at the race, picked
up our race numbers and shirts, and sat in the jeep to wait,
out of the rain. It stopped raining JUST AS the race was about
to start, luckily.
Started out at 9:10 am, a little late, and the course ran on long
country roads, south of Omaha. I started, sort of at the front,
but not too eager, since I only had a time in mind, nothing else.
The gun sounded, and off we went, me gaining quite a bit of ground
after just the first few minutes. I was in the lead with probably 10 - 12
guys, and just one other woman. She was ahead of me probably 10
feet, and she looked somewhere around the age of 40. I wasn't
worried. If I passed her, fine; if not, fine.
Around 1.5 miles, I was wondering about all the people passing me,
but then I remembered that those were probably people trying
to PR for the 3 mile race going on at the same time (which
Phillip participated in).
There was water at miles 3, 5, and 7, and the woman in front of
me grabbed a water at the 3rd mile. I did not (I usually don't drink
at all during races). She couldn't get hold of the cup properly to
drink, it looked like to me, so she slowed down to a walk. I just
kept on trucking.
There was a guy alongside me the rest of the way through miles
3 and 4. He had just been to the Boston Marathon in April, and
this was his first race since. He was probably in his 30s, and
he and I were running beside one another, straight into probably
20 miles an hour winds. It was cold--it was about 59 this morning--
and awful. But I kept on going, eventually passing the guy.
As I rounded mile 5, which was a turnaround, I got to see who
was behind me. The woman that was in front of me was probably
30 seconds behind me, and there was a girl from Team Nebraska
probably 30 seconds behind her. (Team Nebraska is a team of a
bit more elite athletes who compete in multiple sports, and you
have to be accepted or qualify to be in the group). Whenever I
saw the Team Nebraska girl, I knew I had to keep up the pace.
I was not about to let her beat me. I have always beat those
Team Nebraska women when racing against them, and I wasn't
going to let this girl beat me today.
Kept going, and around 5.5 miles a cyclist came along and
told me I was in first place. He rode just a few feet ahead of me
the rest of the race.
After mile 6 I never saw anyone again. I passed a couple of
guys somewhere between mile 7 and mile 10, but I was
alone the rest of the run. It was kind of nice, really.
When I ran in at the end, they handed me a number. It said 10.
I finished 10th overall, and first woman. My time is not official
yet, as I don't have the official results at this time. However,
my garmin said 1:08:36. (Official--1:07:13)
YES!! I made my goal, AND I won. Nothing wrong
with that.
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