I SURVIVED my first 10k!

Well, I did it! And I only wish I had some pictures to show for it. :( We took a TON - I even managed to snap a few jittery ones as I was running, haha...However, when I got home and tried to download them, my memory card became corrupt and deleted every single picture on my camera. I was soooo upset, but that just means that there is going to have to be more to come soon! I even tried recovering them last night with some program online and it recovered every single photo, but the 10k photos! That doesn't help me! Grrr!

So on to the race wrap-up!

I planned on going to bed very early the night before, but we all know, when you are anticipating something (Christmas as a child, an upcoming birthday, your first 10k) how are you supposed to sleep?! So, Brian and I watched TV...I told him I probably was going to fall asleep early so just pick whatever he wanted to watch. He picked The Holiday. If you aren't familiar with The Holiday, it stars Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz, along with Jude Law - total chick flick.
The first time I made him watch that movie, he hated it! I was a little suspicious as to why he wanted to watch it yet again, since he had such a hard time making it through the first time. Was he trying to be sweet?? Yes, folks I think he was (kinda)! I honestly think he just didn't want to stay up late Friday night by himself, so he figured if he put on something I wanted to watch, that I wouldn't go straight to sleep. Smart and tricky!!!! It worked. I was in such anticipation of the next day, and it's such a great movie, I had to stay up. Soooo I was up until about 11:30 - yikes! My original plan was 10pm.

Once I crawled into bed, 5 am could not have come earlier!!!!! I felt like I seriously had just hit the pillow. I got up, showered quickly and started to get pumped for the run!
April got to my house, we gathered are things and headed to Starbucks for a John Wayne. She now shares my love and addiction for them.

We headed downtown and I tried to navigate our way to the proper parking garage for participants. I was 99 percent sure I could make it back to the parking garage. Later in my blog, you will see that I was sadly mistaken.

We followed the crowd of people walking towards the START line and walked around a little bit to see what was going on. People were talking, making last minute bathroom breaks (saw my first PINK port-o-potty), eating, drinking coffee, taking pictures (tear), etc. etc.

April and I split her triple berry Power bar it was OK but I definitely couldn't have eaten the whole thing. It had an acquired taste. We stretched a little...took a few more pictures (tear) and joined the crowd, waiting to begin our trek. After what felt like forever, (next time we will do timed), we finally started moving. After about 4-5 mins of walking with the crowd, until we could maneuver around the cluster of people, we began our run! April told me she was going to start out really slow. Like so slow you would think "wow, I'm going really slow." Except we didn't start out all that slow, and I was thinking the whole time, "is this her idea of slow or are we really going slow? b/c this is much faster than what I would consider SLOW." Haha. (She told me later that it was not slow).

Mile-by-Mile Recap:

Mile 1:
Felt great to run with the crowd, tried to figure out what my pace should be. Bypassed the first water station b/c it was packed with people and I didn't want to be completely behind the pack.

Mile 2:
Was very confused b/c came across the second water station (positioned at every mile) so after I ran past the water station I assumed I had already passed Mile 2. Wrong. Mile 2's sign was actually about 1/2 a mile after the water station! Bummer! Very tricky!

Official Mile 2:
Feeling good. Just enjoying the scenery. Saw the 5k people split up and go a different way.
Saw a band playing on the corner. Smiled real big at them!

Mile 3:
Started getting hilly. Also started getting to be in kinda a rough area of town. To my left were two prostitutes and two my right was a drug deal. Felt the need to sprint through this area even though I did not want to be out of breath. Still took advantage of water station here.

Mile 4:
Had some hills, some flat, some downhill from what I recall. Was a bit tougher. Walked a TAD, but then could not stand that people were running and I was walking so I continued to run.
Had water - and they told me to just throw my water cup on the ground so I did. Still felt bad for not using the trash can!

Mile 5:
Started to really fly by. Couldn't believe I had already made it that far, legs started to burn a little bit but nothing major.

Mile 6:
Didn't even feel like a mile. Felt like I could run forever at this point. Legs were burning but it felt really, really good. Everyone was on the sidelines cheering "You are almost there, keep going!" Seriously felt like it wasn't possible to smile any bigger. It's hard not to smile really big at people that are cheering you on!

Finish line:
Saw people taking photos of us, didn't really know if I should sprint through or what. Sped up a little bit. It felt GREAT to finish!

I waited for April to finish (she was only a couple mins behind me). I even got two pictures of her coming towards the finish line and running through.

After the race, April hurt her foot pretty bad, so she had to go sit down. I went and got us some post-race drinks and snacks and sat with her. The first aid people suggested she ice it and elevate it so I went to go get the truck. Of course, everyone knows, I am pretty short and find it very hard to drive big trucks, or any truck for that matter, haha.
I was sooooooo nervous b/c I was going to have to navigate my way back to the race to where the first aid station was so I could drive in and pick her up. I thought that would be the hard part, but no, I could find the truck for about 30 minutes. You would think since I work downtown and am near the Capitol quite frequently, I would know my way around. But no, there are about 3 parking garages on 14/15th & Trinity that look identical and I went in the first two and ran up the stairs - mind you, we were on the 5th floor and could not find the truck anywhere. A woman drove by me and asked if I was lost. I really thought she was going to help point me in the right direction or even offer me a ride. She said "Oh the same thing happened to me! I had to re-trace my steps." Thanks lady! You were a big help! So I dug deep and tried to backtrack. I went in the last resort parking garage and FINALLY found her truck. I think I sprinted towards it, and felt more out of breath running up all those stairs and trying to find it then the actual 10k. Driving it was an even bigger adventure! We were already parked in a compact car parking spot so pulling out was fun! Then driving around and around down the parking garage 5 floors was so nerve wracking b/c I seriously felt like I was about to take out the back end on a pillar. B always tells me "swing wide, swing wide" and I never paid attention to what that means! Sooooo needless to say I FINALLY made it out safe and sound and found my way back to April. The nice cop let me through to pick her up, he said they had been waiting on me a while. Poor April hobbled her way into the car and I drove us back to Buda.

I got home and after wanting to stomp up and down on my memory card with my running shoes, I decided to take a nap instead. I crashed on the couch for about two hours until B got home from work. When he called me on his way home he could tell by the tone of my voice I was not happy with my camera and so disappointed. He even brought me a card with a trophy on it that said #1 and some flowers. Super sweet - he really scored major points.

Can't wait for the next run - and even more so, the 1/2 marathon! It feels a little bit closer now, but I know I have a lot of work to do!