After the Firecracker 4 Mile, I figured I was done with running races until October. WRONG! I like several local Wichita area road races on Facebook, and Titan 10K posted a picture of their race shirts…Brooks singlets…ladies cut! I’m a sucker for a race with a ladies cut shirt…and a tank…I was in!!
The race was set for Saturday July 12th, with a 7am start. I was looking forward to the weather, because it was supposed to be fairly cool, very uncommon for Kansas in July. My body had other plans however.
Thursday I woke up feeling off, and by Thursday evening I had developed a sore throat. When I woke Friday morning, it was VERY sore and radiated into my ears. I called the doctor and got in right away. I got hooked up with a z-pack, which I’ve had good results with in the past. I spent almost all of Friday lying in bed with the dog, a book, and the TV remote. By about 9pm, I told Noel that I was definitely going to run, but I would take it easy. I didn’t think a PR was even in the realm of possibilities.
I woke up Saturday feeling ok. The boys were at the lake camping with the inlaws, so it was just Noel and I. We got ready and headed to the race start. It was held at Wichita South’s high school stadium. The race benefited South’s athletics. Every high school should do this!
Noel and I did some dynamic warm-ups and reunited with all our running family members. The more I get into the Wichita running community, the more it feels like a family. The starting line was in the parking lot. Noel and I lined up and Karlee from Running Connection came by and took this shot. It’s my new favorite shot of the two of us!
Noel took off and said, “See you at the finish line!” I had big plans to take it easy. I had turned my 4:1 run/walk ratio back on and planned on using it. My calves and ankles felt tight when I slowed to the first walk, so I just slowed to an easy jog instead. I walked the second and third intervals. I jogged the fourth. Then I got tired of leapfrogging with people, so when my watch beeped the next time I just kept going. A 9:30min/mile run felt really good.
I just kept plugging away, walking here and there, walking through aid stations. I ate half a bag of cherry cola Stinger Energy Chews at 34 minutes. I could see Noel about a quarter of a mile ahead of me. I never really lost sight of him, but I never expected to catch him either. I was really surprised when I came up on him, right at the 5 mile marker. Poor guy was hurting. He said his stomach was not happy, and he had lost his breakfast at about mile 4. He waved me on and told me to go get that PR.
The last quarter mile was on the stadium’s track. I just went for it. I imagined I was at track night, pushing my way through a 400. My pace slowly climbed from the comfortable 9:30 to right at about 8. I crossed the finish line at 1:01:24. I didn’t know at the time, but Noel was right on my heels.
Since Noel wasn’t feeling so great, we didn’t hang around. It was a great race nonetheless. Even sick, I managed to PR by a minute and a half over my Easter Sun Run time.
I really love 10Ks. It’s definitely my favorite distance to race. 13.1 is challenging. 5Ks are tough because they are short and fast, but they are over quickly. I can’t imagine what 26.2 will be like. 10K is just my cup of tea. It’s long enough to feel like I’m really pushing myself, but not so long that I have to put a lot of time into training. When I started running, it was almost my dream to be able to jump in and run a 10K NBD. Boom…done! Now I’ve got my sights set on a sub-hour 10K. Not sure I’ll find another one to run by the end of 2014, so Easter Sun Run next spring is going to be A LOT of fun!
Neon Runner Girl 