58:14(100th post)..blood,sweat, & tears

(start of the race,my wave is first tiny sign after the big Ukrop's banner in front. 31,158 runners there about 24,055 that finished)

This day has been unbelievable. So many thoughts were going thru my head as I prepared,waited & finally ran my 1st 10k. Here's a recap:

Morning of:

Woke up an hour before my alarm went off & realized that I never cut it on. Oh well I was too excited to go back to sleep so I just turned on the news to watch the weather & just laid in bed. Finally got up,did quick rinse w/ some mouthwash & then waited for my r.b. to show up so we could head to the race.

At the race:

Scored a really good parking spot. My wave wasn't due to start until 8:53 but we got there at 8 which was good given the size of the event(31,000 runners) & parking was going to be a bear. The r.b. & I checked our jackets & just hung out & people watched until the start. Saw some interesting characters(really need to get a camera). There was a costume contest held by the local paper & runners were encouraged to dress up. Saw gorilla & a banana,Austin Powers & a "Richard Simmons & Co.". Couldn't imagine running in costume but since this was a fun run for those of us not competing for cash(we had elites & Olympic hopefuls),why not?

At the start:

Temps were in the 60's w/ a light drizzle. It was awe inspiring to be in the midst of that many runners at once.

And we're off:

Mile 1: 9:28(alrighty we're a little speedy here but feeling good)

Mile 2: 9:12(okaaaay was there a downhill? Anyway at this point I started to feel the first twinges of my "light" stress fracture rear it's ugly head)

Mile 3: 9:22(better but considering I thought I was going to be doing 10min/pace this is too fast. But oh well. Did walk thru a water stop. Twinges still there but don't get any worse.)

Mile 4: 9:23(This is where my r.b. started to pull ahead & I told her run her race & I will run mine. She felt bad about leaving me but I knew I couldn't nor wouldn't hold her back)

Mile 5: 9:28(Starting to flag a little bit but still felt good energy-wise. Still the ever-present twinge but never progressed to full on pain.)

Mile 6: 9:16(In the home stretch baby! I can see the finish line but it's still a ways off. It almost feels like at this point the closer I get,the further away IT seems to get!)

Mile 0.2: 8:04(Sprint it home! Been a LOONNG time since I've seen a number 8 in my pace. Oh how I've missed thee. I believed there was a tear that mixed in w/ sweat over that number)

Official chip time 58:14/place 7191/age place 318 /gender place 2393/avg pace 9:22. I hope get some race pics here next week when the become available.

Overall even though I went faster than what I had planned(even my r.b. wanted to run a conservative 9:45min/mile but you see that didn't happen) I still felt good throughout the race. In fact for the first couple of miles I experienced no pain at all. At all(remember that just a few weeks ago I was jazzed about how I went 5mins w/ no pain). I know that was due to me not running on it since Monday & now I know I need this time off to get my leg back in shape. I do have some stiffness now as I sit & type this & it is tender to walk on but nothing that I didn't expect to happen. I'll be doing some pt tomorrow(therapist wanted me to take today off cause he figured my legs would get enough action doing the race itself) & then it's x-training for the next few weeks.

I even managed to donate blood today too. There's local muffler shop that works w/ the Va blood services to do blood drives several times a year & if you donate he'll give you a free oil change. Of course I wore my race tee to the drive & all the nurses were like "I can't believe you ran 6 some miles & now you're here donating blood" What can I say I like to give & there's nothing like a free oil change!

Finally it's my 100th post! Very nice how I planned it to coincide w/ my 10k race report..;-) Well I'm sure I've rambled enough. I hope everyone is having a good weekend & I'm off to baby my legs. *Smooches*