First 10K Run: Review & Afterthoughts

October 30, 2010

A couple of days ago in my blog post, Running: My New Passion, I wrote about the fact that I had a 10K race coming up on October 24th. Well, the day and come and gone so its time for me to tell you how my first 10K race went.

Throughout the morning, I had plenty of excitement and jitters. The race did not start until 9 AM, but I was at the race course around 7:15 AM. Before the race began, I took some time to get acclimated with the surroundings of the race course; the overall environment we shall say. I went ahead and jogged for a little around the neighborhood just to see how my body would react to the smooth pavement. There was another reason why I went ahead and tried to run a little bit: to test out my right ankle. It was two Saturdays ago that I had a little pain in my right ankle during a 8-mile practice run. After the run, I decided to not run many more practice runs to prevent further aggravation of the ankle. To my delight and surprise, my ankle felt pretty good.

The weather was around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, minimal air was blowing, and the sun was starting to come out. It was now 9:00 AM. It was now time to start the race. As the gun went off, I started pedaling downhill and off towards the race track. For this race, there was a 5K going on at the same time. People who were running the 10K had to run the same course twice (3.1 miles twice). I completed the first 3.1 miles at around 25:15.

As I was beginning the second half of the race, something in me told me to keep on going. Something told me to just manage these last couples of miles and I’ll be fine. There were times that I wanted to stop, but there was no way that I was going to let that happen. I worked too hard up to this point to just stop now. The race course served Gatorade and water at the 2 and 5 mile markers. I made sure to drink Gatorade on both occasions to regain some of the Potassium and Salt that was lost while sweating. As I reached the 6 mile marker, I had .2 more miles to go. I completely put it in 5th gear in order to finish on a strong note. I finished the 10K race at 50:45. I came in second place in my age group (20-29) in the 10K competition. I was shocked to find this out after the official race results were posted.

After the race was completed, I felt really good about finishing my first 10K without stopping. I do want to improve on my time the next time I run a 10K because I felt that I would have a better time before the race. No worries though, that’s why I love to run. I know that I will get better. Mission accomplished.