Saturday 12 Mile Run

What a busy weekend! Sorry I haven't updated this sooner, but I've just haven't had the chance till tonight. Anyway, the training schedule called for 12 miles Saturday and I wanted to run the 10k on Skidayway Island, so I mixed things up a bit.

The race didn't start until 8:00, but I got there about 6:30 and ran 4.23 miles before the race. I stopped just long enough to walk over to the registration table and pick up my bib.

I then ran over to the start line and ran my first ever 10k race. It felt pretty good except for one thing. I had tied my shoes way too tight just before the start so I had to stop before I got the first mile mark and retie them. Thirty seconds later I was back in the race and getting along.

I met a couple of really nice ladies. One of them I have seen at nearly every race this year. Turns out she's 61 years old and is training for the half-marathon at Disney this year. She was running with a friend of hers who had run the full at Disney before. So the three of us ran together for a while and discussed how much fun we thought Disney was, or would be. Oh, and just in case you're wondering, yes, she beat me (by a margin of 1:30 in fact).

Toward the end of the race I paced an older guy who was getting along quite well. Turns out he's 75 years old. He finish only 45 seconds behind me. Well I know it's not saying much, but at least I beat him.

I ran the last 2 miles or so with a lady who is 43. She was also running her first 10k with her 20 year old daughter just behind us. We talked as we ran and she seemed to think that I was helping pull her along, but I'll confess, she was the one setting the pace. Either way, it helped us both finish our first 10k in under an hour.

That's right. I finished my first 10k with a time of 59:31. I really hadn't set a goal for the race, but when I rounded the last corner I looked up to the see the clock just rolling over to 59:00. So in the words of my good friend Emeril, I "kicked it up a notch" and beat the 1 hour mark.

Of course, at this point I had only run 10.4 miles. So, after a short walk I turned in my finish card and did a 1.6 mile cool-down run.

And then, as if that wasn't enough for one day, I went out and played paintball with the youth from our church for about 4 hours. This of course involved more running, with boots on, through the woods.

Well, that's enough about Saturday. Time to move on to Sunday.



Warm Up Run


Race


Cool-down