I finished a 10k!

Yes, I did indeed finish a 10k, and I did manage to run the entire thing.  Did I run fast? Nope.  Did I run slow? Nope.  Did I run very slow? You betcha.  I will say that doing a 10k was definitely an eye-opening experience for me.

We’ll start with my pre-race prep, which included a special meal on Saturday night.  I read a lot about people “carb-loading” the night before a race, but since Saturday night was DS#1’s last night of home-cooked meals before a week of church camp, I let him pick the meal.  He picked chicken quesadillas.

Yum!  That’s my husband’s homemade “fresh” salsa with it.  It was very good.  Since my son picked the meal, he decided early in the day that I should at least get a celebratory glass of wine, so he made this up for me.

Yes, that is every wine charm in my house on that glass.  😉  I didn’t even know he knew what they were for!  I love that kid.

Sunday morning dawned beautiful but not as hot as previous days.  Praise the Lord for that!!  After discussing pre-race fuel with several other runner friends the night before, I decided not to skip breakfast before my run (which I usually do!), and instead opted for something simple:  half an English muffin with a small amount of peanut butter, plus some apple slices.  I skipped the coffee and went with ice water, though.

After breakfast, I grabbed all my stuff and headed out a little early, because I could see it was going to be a beautiful sunrise, and I wanted to get a shot on the river.  It meant going out of my way a little, but it was worth it:

While I was there, I thought, “I should take a picture on my phone and text it to some of my running friends, who will appreciate it.”  Which is when I figured out that I’d forgotten my phone!  Since it doubles as my music player, I had to go back.  Thankfully, my sister is used to me being late for everything. 😛

I wish I could give you all the details of our trip into the city for this run.  It was quite the adventure.   I used to live in Detroit, but it has been many years, and the neighborhood where I lived is not quite the same as the neighborhood where this cemetery is. 😛   While I certainly saw my share of burned-out houses and other urban phenomena during my four years of living in the city, it has been a few years since I’ve experienced it all up close and personal.   Add to that the fact that my directions were not quite accurate, and my sister’s incredibly dry sense of humor, and let’s just say it will be a trip that both of us will forever remember.   I wish I could share all of her comments through the trip there, as it would make for very entertaining reading, but I honestly was so stressed during that time that I can’t remember most of what went on while I was driving around (literally) in circles…!

I do remember at one point, when I was driving on a side road by the cemetery for what seemed the 100^th time, unable to find an actual gate of entry, I growled in frustration, “How exactly does one get into this cemetery?!”  My sister, without missing a beat , replied, “Well, I assume you’re looking for a method other than the obvious way…”

Eventually, we made it to the cemetery, and I was able to pick up my race packet with just 25 minutes to spare!

Since we’d gotten there pretty late, I had to combine my meditation with my warm-up stretches.

I got a picture with my sister in front of the cemetery office…

Then it was time for us to be off…

I look happy here because I’d only run about 20 steps at this point. 😉  I head out with the rest of the runners…

You see there are a lot of folks there, but I found that they were all going faster than I wanted to.  I started out at a sub-10 pace, and I absolutely knew I didn’t want to go that fast, even at the beginning.  I just kept letting people go by me, thinking rather smugly to myself, “Yes, well, when you’re all exhausted from starting off too fast and have to walk, I will blow right by you, still going my slow but steady pace.”

Clearly, that line of thinking shows that I am not an experienced runner. *rolling eyes*  Not long after we started, the course split off, with the 5kers going one way and the 10kers going another.  That was where I got my first real taste of how slow I was going.  Before the turn off, there were lots of people behind me.  After the split off, when all the 5k runners were off on a different route…nearly everyone was in front of me. 🙁  And when I say nearly everyone, I mean about 50 people, compared to the six or seven that were still behind me after the turn-off.  That was sobering.

But, let’s focus on more positive things! 🙂  Running through the cemetery was awesome…and I honestly don’t think that you have to be a lover of cemeteries to appreciate it.  It was very beautiful, and very interesting.  At one point, we ran through a tunnel under a main road.  It was so awesome, but I was a little busy running to take pictures, so I didn’t get a shot.  However, the website has some great pictures, which I will steal borrow here.

This was the view on the other side of the tunnel, where I came out.  As I came out of the tunnel, I passed a spot where they had a stone relief of different saints along the walls on either side, which was beautiful.  (You can kind of see them in the picture above.)  I made sure to wave at “my” saint, St. Francis of Assisi (his “feast day” is my birthday!).

Once on the other side of the tunnel, I was in the newer part of the cemetery.  Going through the newer part wasn’t quite as interesting as it could have been.  There were some upright markers, but most of the stones were flush with the ground, as is more common these days.  Still, there were some very interesting sights, including a beautiful mausoleum.  This was the one spot where I really wanted to stop and take a picture, but my cell phone camera wouldn’t have done it justice anyway, so I’ll just borrow another picture.

Honestly, even that picture doesn’t do it justice.  It was amazing!

The bad part about running through the newer area of the cemetery was that there wasn’t much shade.  Certainly not as much as you’d expect for a 122-year-old cemetery, lol!  I’ll admit I was pretty happy to go back through the tunnel when I was done doing my “tour” of the new section.  At that point, there was a sign that said I was at the 2 mile point.  Woo hoo, one-third of the way down!  I began to think that I was sure to pass some folks who had slowed down at this point.  Not quite.  I did, however, encounter my first water station, and I eagerly grabbed the cup and sloshed it very inelegantly into my mouth several times until I’d drained it.  Then I did that horrible litter thing where runners throw the cups on the ground.  I get it now! 😉

As I ran through this slightly older section (still not the oldest section, which was of course near the front), the upright grave markers and statues were more numerous and quite impressive.  There were lots of Polish names, and quite a few Italian ones as well.  I was closing in on 3 miles at that point, and running was getting harder, so I started trying to pronounce the names on the gravestones in my head to help distract me. 😉

Then, right before I got to the three mile mark, I had a major distraction—my cell phone rang!  I could see that it was my house, and I had no doubt who it was.  I was using my phone to listen to music, so I had my earbuds in, and when I fumbled to answer the call (I didn’t want to stop!), I could clearly hear my oldest on the other end of the phone.

“Hi, Mom! How’s it going?”

“Dude! Why are you calling me?!”

“I just wanted to see how you were doing. [pause] What’s that weird thump-thump noise?”

“I’m RUNNING!!!! ”

“Oh, okay.  Should we wake Dad up so he can get ready to take me to camp?”

“Yes!  Goodbye!!!”

I’ll have you know I did all this without stopping or even slowing down.  I think I deserve a medal just for that. 😉

At this point, I finally passed a person who had slowed down to a walk.   Hooray!  My prediction was finally starting to come true!  Only, as soon as I passed her, she began to run again.  Hmph.  She was then keeping pace with me for a  while, so I decided to use the opportunity to chat with her.  I wanted to be a “real” runner, you know—the kind that actually talks to other runners in a race. 😉

I had to call to her twice before she heard me, at which point she took out her earbud and muttered a response, and then she put her earbud back in.  Huh.  I supposed it would have been okay, if she hadn’t been running with me, step for step, for about half a mile. 🙁  I tried to talk to her again, but she either didn’t hear me or didn’t want to talk to me, and I began to get a bit peeved.  It’s very annoying to run right next to someone who won’t talk to you! (Or is that just me and my ridiculously-extroverted nature?)

Eventually, I got sick of running next to this woman without talking to her, so I slowed down.  And then she slowed down.  Argh!  Eventually, I sped up, and she began to walk again, so I did pull away from her.  I don’t know if she finished after me or not.  I think she did, but who knows?

By the time I hit mile 4, I was pretty sure I was going to die or something.  There was a big long out-and-back to do around sections 21 and 22, and I so didn’t want to do it.  But I did.  At that point, I started to get into the really old area of the cemetery, and the views were pretty impressive.  My sister had taken some pictures of the older area near the finish line, and I was so glad she did.

The last picture above is inside of the previous picture (the mausoleum).  My sister is so awesome, she peeked inside and took a picture!  It’s almost a shame that such beauty is hidden inside the mausoleum, unseen to most.

My sister took another picture, and told me the funny story behind it.  Two little boys, probably about 4 or 5, were waiting for a relative, and while they waited, they walked over and stood on a couple of grave markers.  When they were on top of the markers, one boy said to the other…

Ha!  Kids are so funny.  Since they are not my kids, or even kids I know, I blurred them out, but it was too funny of a story not to share. 😉

Okay, enough cemetery pictures…back to the race.  Not long after I hit mile 5, I came upon another water stop (the fourth one, I think).  I was usually very enthusiastic about the water (I was soooo thirsty), but it was tough to drink while running, so I told the guys thanks, but I’ll skip it this time.  There was only ¾ of a mile to go, right?  One of the guys was a smart-ass and said, “I thought it was 3 miles?”  My sister would have liked him.  I told him to shut up and just kept running. 😉

On the final lap, I did my best to push myself, but boy it was hard…I was just so damn tired, and for the first time since I started running back in April, my (flat) feet hurt!  I passed a train and some more really cool mausoleums, but I hardly noticed them at that point.  I pushed on through and finally rounded the corner to the finish.

Yay!  I was done!  And exhausted!

Now for the sad part—despite my earlier delusions, I had passed no one on the course. 🙁  Everyone who was ahead of me at the beginning, stayed ahead of me.  I was among the last to finish…pretty much everyone was already eating pancakes by the time I crossed the finish line.    That was very humbling, especially for this uber-competitve girl who hates being second, much less close to last.

For this 10k race, I was 52nd out of 63, to be precise.  Not so great.  I was pretty bummed when I saw how few people crossed the finish line after me, but I did stay to cheer for them—there were people there who cheered for me, so I figured I could return the favor.

After that, though, my spirits picked up—there were pancakes, after all!

And I got to officially put on my new shirt, since I had completed the race and therefore “earned” it. My sister was greatly amused that I managed to change into the shirt while sitting at the table, while maintaining all modesty…

It’s an art form, I assure you.   And the finished product…

After I was done, I made sure to get a post-race pic with the BEST SISTER EVER!!!

She really is the best sister ever…anyone who would get up at o’dark hundred and drive into the ‘hood just to take pictures of me running is truly awesome!!  I am so blessed to have the greatest big sister in the world.

As for the race, here are my splits and times…I did alter the splits, because, as per my usual, I forgot to stop my Garmin when I was done, lol!!!  So I did the calculations and fixed it to be the correct final split (it was only .2 miles).  The overall pace was only 3 seconds less when you took out my cool-down walking afterwards, so I just left it.

According to the final results, my overall pace was 11:21, which is about what I calculated.

So…now for my final thoughts on running a 10k…

As hard as it was, and as disappointing as it was to come in so low on the results list, I will absolutely do it again—if only to try to place higher! 😉  The funny thing is, they were giving out medals like candy yesterday, three deep in each age bracket (and those were in 5-year increments!).   According to the results, three women who crossed the finish line after me all got medals—because they were the only three in their age division! (PS: they were YOUNGER than me! :-P)  But in my age division—would you believe there were four people?  And of course, I was the fourth person. 😛 So, no medal for me, but honestly, I didn’t really deserve one.  Not with an 11:21 overall pace.

Now that I’ve conquered this goal, I’m going to strive to get faster, so that maybe next year when I do this race (and I will do this race!), I might actually get a medal—one that I hopefully deserve!

For now, I have to figure out what’s next for this year.  I’m not sure yet what that is, but I’ll keep you posted. 😀

Thank you so much for reading, and for all the encouragement leading up to this point!