Green with accomplishment...
I did it! I finished yesterday's St. Patrick's Day 8K race in DC in 56:10! (The race was supposed to be a 10K, but due to some issues with security around government buildings, they had to change the race to an 8K this year.) Considering that it took me a full hour the previous weekend to complete 5 miles along the Mt. Vernon trail, and my pace all week had been about 30-45 seconds slower than what I had been running, I am pretty darn proud of myself. I was aiming to finish in 58:00, so I couldn't help but grin when I crossed the finish line and saw I was done almost two minutes before my goal. (Pretty good considering my legs were tired, I was all out of breath and needed to hydrate.) It was a beautiful day for running, and even though I didn't run with my ipod for the first time (the race etiquette called for no headphones, but apparently a lot of people chose not to follow that rule), it was a nice way to see a part of the city. And while I finished 716 out of 789 women in my age group, I still got to walk away with a $25 gift certificate to Fleet Feet in a random prize drawing. :o) Hopefully the photogs got decent pictures - if they did, I'll put up the link when it becomes available.Maybe this is totally a girl thing, but I couldn't help but feel this overwhelming sense of emotions at the race. First it was at the start line... the sight of seeing thousands of runners headed for the Capitol (we were starting on Pennsylvania Ave)... just the awe of actually being in this race with all these people! The water station was at mile 3, where I did take a cup of water, but I ended up laughing at myself because while I attempted to drink and run at the same time, let's just say more of it ended up somewhere else besides my mouth. At mile 4.75, there were a bunch of runners who had already finished who are just cheering you on to get to the finish line - so then there's this rush of adrenaline to go a little bit faster, and the balloon arch is in sight. And of course, there's the finish line... the crowd is cheering while you cross, and you're catching you're breath, your legs feel like jello now that you've stopped the running motion... I swear, I almost burst into tears when I stopped. Then I got my act together and realized that it is a great sense of accomplishment, and part of that running high you hear about. However, as great of a feeling that was, it does not mean that I am crazy enough to run a marathon ever.
Next up... Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10K in Richmond on April 1. I have 3 weeks to add 1.2 miles to my training log. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually looking forward to it.
posted by Eves @ 10:20 PM
1 Comments:
Congrats on beating your goal and finishing!
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