Earth Day 10k

Last minute races are good to me!  It was an awesome, awesome, and did I mention AWESOME? race.

But first let's cover the most important thing that happened today; Aaron ran his first 10k!  Even more last minute than me!
In addition to Aaron's regular job, he also works overnight nursing shifts a couple of days a week.  This week than meant working 6-3:30 on Thursday, sleeping for a few hours in the afternoon before reporting to the nursing job at 9:00pm.  He works there until 6:30am and goes straight back to the regular job, wash, rinse, repeat.  So this morning a few minutes before 9am when I was getting ready to head out the door and he had only been sleeping for two hours, I felt absolutely awful when I realized I had woken him up.  Imagine my surprise when he said "Do they have day of registration?  Can I come?"

Uh, what?

I genuinely wondered if he was not completely awake.

He was awake, and he was serious.  Yee-haw!

We took off, and sure enough, they were good with him registering today.

We haven't had race pics together for a long time.  Love that we have a couple again. 

You should know that in addition to the fact that he was (literally) running on almost zero sleep, he has not been running regularly.  The longest he has run in I don't know how many years (maybe ever?), is 4 miles which happened about a month ago.  I don't think he has run at all since that day.

He did it.  And he did it faster than he expected.  Awesome.  I am so excited for him!  Not to mention seriously impressed that he pulled it off.  He is amazing.

As for me, I registered on Thursday night.
I hadn't planned on a race this weekend, but in asking some fabulous Mother Runners last week about figuring out a marathon goal for Ogden, it was suggested that I race a 10k if I had time to squeeze one in and see how I performed in that.  Since Wednesday brought the fabulous news that Nuun also needs a 10k time for me and I don't have any recent races to go off (because I raced pregnant and then shortly after last year), I had enough reason to splurge on a race.

Props to inexpensive local races.

The South Jordan Earth Day 10k it was!

I looked up finish times from last year, and since this year it was happening on the same day as the Salt Lake Marathon/Half Marathon meaning that a number of runners would be occupied otherwise, I thought that maybe, just maaaaybe I might be able to pull of an Age Group placing.

The course was a tad hilly, but I was hopeful that I could pull off a new PR too.

It was a perfect morning for a race, overcast, mid 40s, a little bit of rain.  The course wound along the Jordan River Parkway before heading up (really up for a bit!) into the neighborhoods, then up a little more, then just a little more before wrapping back around to the park alongside the river.  Plus I had Boston tribute toes, which I think helped.

(after 4yrs of running, I now have achieved a callous on that second toe.  dang.)

It was a small crowd, 80ish people is all.  I love small races sometimes!

There were only three women ahead of me at the start and one right beside me.  I let her pace me out for the almost the first mile, but she started slipping back at that point.  I continued to watch the three ahead of me but they were far enough ahead that I thought I would just watch them and hope to get close to them toward the end of the race.  I knew I could make up some ground on the first big hill unless they were strong hill runners, so I waited for that.
I did get closer to them, and got the pleasure of chicking one guy as well.

I lost about 5 seconds at the first street crossing thanks to a car that was completely oblivious to the cop in the middle of the intersection who actually got to the point of waving both arms in front of the car to finally get the driver's attention.  Apparently the stopped traffic, cop car with flashing lights and runners on the road weren't noticeable to said driver.  Nice.  I was ticked to have had to come to a dead stop, but better stopped than dead.

I was able to close a little more distance not too long after that on another uphill, but had to have a conversation with myself about saving the legs for a little longer.  I was still feeling great and wanted to keep some in the tank for the last mile.

That was when I finally passed the lady that I had been chasing.  She didn't want to let me around her on the sidewalk, so I finally just had to turn things up a notch and blow by.  She tried to stay on me which made me glad I had run easy for so long so I had plenty in me to keep it going.

At that point I really didn't think I would have enough to overtake the next woman, but figured I would give it what I had.  About 1/4mi from the finish she realized I was trying to close in on her and she kicked it up and took off.  I was close enough to the end that I figured I would pour it on and see what I had left.

I big fat puffy heart my legs today!

As I got right up behind her she gave it one more kick, so of course I had to do the same.  We ended up in a full on sprint to the finish line.  It was so dang fun.  I actually laughed out loud-I think she may have thought I was laughing at catching up to her, but honestly I was just enjoying the actual racing part of the race so much I couldn't hold it in!  I'm not that fast of a runner and I've certainly never been gunning for an actual finish place, so the novelty of it was just so great!

I did it.  I outgunned her in the final yards and crossed the finish line just a hair before she did!

(Dear Camille Bay, if somehow you end up ever reading this, thank you for a great finish.  It was superfantastic.  I was glad to see that you are so young so you hit 1st in your AG too.  You rock.  We have the same initials too.  Just thought I'd point that out.)

Good enough for first place in Age Group (31-40, I told you it was a small race), and second female overall!  I actually won a medal.  This was totally new territory for me so I am entirely too excited about that part!  It also may be the one and only time it ever happens for me, but I am ok with that.

When Aaron crossed the finish line I was so excited that he finished and the first thing he said, after "I did it!" was "hey wait-you're wearing a medal!"  Good times.

Official finish time of 48:10.  Over 3 1/2min faster than my previous 10k PR.

I really really wish I had mile splits, but my Garmin didn't like the rain (despite my turning it under my arm to try and keep it sheltered a bit), so I only have splits for the first three mile.  Oh well, it happens.
I did great not looking at the Garmin other than in the first mile to make sure I wasn't going out too fast.  I really wanted to run by feel and it worked out quite well I'd say!

Two thumbs up for the race, one I would love to do again.
Super excited for the hubs and his accomplishment today!
A little bit excited for me too.