Firefighter 10k

A couple weekends ago, some friends and I ran a 10.2 k in Madison, GA. We have been getting together for about 2 months or so on weekends to do a long run and sometimes during the week at the track to do interval workouts. It was so much fun! We all rode to the race together in my van and it was so fun to all be together:) Everyone set a goal and everyone met or exceeded their goal! Beckie had never even run before she started doing this and both her and Chelsea it was the longest they had ever run before when they finished it. It was actually 6.4 miles according to all of our gps devices. They also got faster than the time they had set as a goal according to their training! Lena told us all after the race that she was in fact pregnant! She also did great. Then Andrea only had a baby 4 months ago and ran the whole thing in under 10 minute miles! Lindsey wanted to beat an hour and did and also got second in her age division. And Robyn won her age division!

Before the race:

I set a few goals for this race... I really wanted to win first overall female and I wanted to get top 10 overall. I also wanted to do it at 7:30 pace. The race started out fast and I felt really good. My watch was fluctuating between 6:45 and 7:45 for the first 1 or 2 miles. For mile 3 and 4 I was pretty steady at around 7:15 pace. Then about right 4.5 miles I was dying and slowed down a little to about 8 minute mile for about a mile. I started feeling chills and goosebumps (I always get that lately, like I am dehydrated or something, but I drank so much water before the race!). Around mile 5 to 5.5, I got a second wind and started feeling great again and was able to keep it around 7:30-7:35 pace. I really started kicking it in at 6 miles and passed the guy I had been about 10 yards behind the whole race. I totally thought he was going to catch me, so I was giving everything I had the last quarter mile or so and was able to hold him off! And guess what? I finished exactly 10th overall!!! I was so excited about that, because I never thought I would get that guy. My time was exactly 48 minutes and when I calculated my pace per mile, I was a little disappointed because it added up to 7:34.8 pace, so I thought I didn't get my pace, but later I realized my watch said 6.4 miles and so did a couple of other people's so I took it! That equals exactly 7:30 pace!!!

After the race:

I also won first overall female and got this little trophy and these little firefighter hats:)

We are planning to do another race in December which is an 8k (about 5 miles). I want to try for 7:00 to 7:15 pace... I took the week off after the race and then hit it hard Monday. I had kind of backed off lifting for the last race and decided I wanted to implement it again. I did a great workout with squats (4 sets of 6 at 105 lbs, lunges (2 sets of 8 each leg at 65 lbs), good mornings (3 sets of 8 at 65 lbs), calves on the leg press machine (4 sets of 25 at 90lbs), then the abductor/adductor machine. Then I headed over to complete some intervals and I did 4 x 400s at 6:30 pace with rest pace at 9:15 for 400 m. I will never do intervals after a leg workout again because I am really lucky I didn't eat it since my legs were so shaky. Then, I did 4 sets of 25 floor wipers (best ab workout I have ever tried) with 65 lbs. OH MY GOSH! The next day I was so so so sore, and the next day I honestly thought I injured myself I could barely move. I pretty much couldn't accomplish anything. Soooo.... moral of the story, I got much more out of shape in two months than I thought possible and I need to ease back into it apparently. Also, it helped me realize if I am going to help other people get into shape like I sometimes like to do, I need to ease them into it because it is very un-motivating to be so sore that you can't even accomplish your daily tasks.