First 10K recap

I survived! It wasn't all that bad either! I was really worried that I'd have a horrible experience and hate running forever. I had one minor cramp in my calf that worked itself out around 4.5 miles or so, but other than that I didn't have any trouble.

Here I am before the race, a bundle of nerves:

The last sign for pace was a 9 min mile, so I went to the very end. My normal pace is somewhere in the 13 min mile. I couldn't even see the starting line from where I was standing (it's slightly beyond the second light pole, btw):

The race finally started (I stood for at least 45 minutes, waiting for it to start). It took me a while to get to the starting line, but DH kindly took a pic of me as I walked by:

 The route goes through the nichols hills area of OKC, which is a very affluent neighborhood with mansions everywhere. There were people sitting in their yards and cheering us on. There were also 3 live bands on the route. Thankfully, there were several water/powerade stations along the route. I alternated drinking water and powerade.

Fast forward a little over 6 miles, and here I am finishing:

My whole goal for the race was to beat the time of one of my friends from last year. His time was 1:33. According to the clock, I finished in 1:17. I think my time is probably a minute or 2 less than that since it took me so long to actually get to the starting line. This is the pic I sent him, just to rub it in a bit:

I'm so glad I ran it. I need to find something to run between now and the Spirit of Survival Half Marathon on Oct 7. I'm a bit apprehensive about running in the Oklahoma summer heat though. We had a mild winter, so maybe we'll have a mild summer. The weather seems to go in cycles like that. I'm also planning to run the Dallas White Rock half marathon with my friend Katie on Dec 2. I suppose it's only a matter of time before I end up trying to run a marathon.

ETA: My official time was 1:15:31, and my pace was 12:10 min/mile. I finished 538/651 and 117/136 in my age group. Not bad for my first race! :D

My first race is tomorrow

I have a running log update drafted, but I haven't had time to finish it. I ran 4.5 miles this week. I picked up my race packet yesterday. Here's my bib:

I'm both excited and scared. I'm afraid that I'll suck and will never want to run again. I'm also afraid that I won't beat my friend's time from last year of 1:33, and then I'll have to take back all of the trash talking I did. Maybe it'll be ok. The high is supposed to be 74. Local weather says it'll rain in the am, and weather.com says it'll rain in the afternoon starting at 3. We're having a tornado outbreak this weekend, so hopefully it doesn't rain during the race.