My first 10k

After doing the Color Run 5k back in May, a friend of mine talked me into doing a 10k in September. Back in May after paying for the 10k, I thought to myself  "What have I done?" In June I was forced to take 2 weeks off from running due to some shin splint issues. I found a 10k training schedule off pintrest and saved it to my phone so I could refer to it the night before my next run. It was a 12 week schedule but because of the shins I only had 11 weeks to prepare. 3 days a week I would head out for my run before my family was awake, and I love that time! Just me, the road, and my music!

Fast forward, The You Go Girl 10k race:
 I picked up my friend Heidi and we headed off. I had a luna bar and 8oz of water on my way to pick her up. We use the restroom before we left her house and had a before picture take, and we were off to the race!

Leaving Heidi's house

Rachel, Heidi, and myself near the start line

We arrived at the start line of the race, and decided to hit the bathroom one more time before the official start. It was gray, foggy and misting, but great weather for running in. We meet up with another friend from church Rachel, she was running the half marathon! Heidi and I moved forward and noticed the time was 2mins to GO time!  Heidi and I decided that we would run separate, and meet at the finish line. All of a sudden loud rumbles from the clouds startled all of us but it was time to go! After the thunder stopped (we are running at this point) it started a torrential down pour. We are from Seattle we know rain, but this was Florida rain, huge rain drops. Thankfully the rain stopped right after I hit mile 1, but I then had to run with one hand behind my back holding up my soaking wet pants! I had set a personal goal of running the first 2 miles without stopping, then incorporating my run/walk I'd been doing all training. At about 2.5 miles I had to stop to go to the bathroom, that slowed my pace down immensely. The race then took a significant change, hills. ( if you know the Tacoma Hilltop Hill, you know what I'm talking about. We had to run up half of that hill.) Which I didn't train for. I slowly jogged up this extremely steep hill, and did my run/walk method until I hit mile 4. Once I saw the sign for mile 4, I said internally "Alise, You are not going to stop running until you hit that finish line." I met my personal goal of running the first 2 miles, but this was a huge challenge for me. But here's the bonus, half of the 2.2 miles left were downhill! But remember it had down poured just 30mins before. I kept repeating to myself "don't slip and fall." Once I got to the base of the hill I saw Heidi's husband and kiddos walking toward the finish line to wait for us. I said a brief Hi as I ran by! I saw the mile 6 sign and started tearing up because I knew all the hard work I'd put in had paid off, and the pride in that hard work was emotional. I hit the finish mat, got a water, let the volunteers take off my timing chip, and decided to run back and meet Heidi wherever she was! Heidi wasn't too far behind me and was happy to see me coming back to finish with her!

The Official Race photo: Us rounding the final corner

My official time was 1hour 3 mins and 12 seconds. Heidi was 1 hour 5 mins and 47 seconds.

We DID it!!

We meet up with Heidi's husband and kids, got a few pictures. Then saw Rachel's family near the finish and decided that Heidi and I would walk up around the overpass to cheer Rachel on. My last blog post was Rachel's re-cap on her half race.

I felt great, and Heidi and I are doing another 10k on our own (no race) the weekend of Oct. 13th! I'm also looking in doing a 12k in april and maybe a 15k in march, not sure on the details just yet! I know some people who run but hate it, but I love running and I'm looking forward to running more races!

At the Finish

my much needed pedicure after the race