post-race reflections.

I did it! I finished the race! And minus three spots of roughly 75 or so meters, I ran the whole thing. There were a few inclines towards the end that got to me, but otherwise, I kept on trucking.

My original goal was to finish in 1:20, which is somewhere between 12:30 and 13:00 per mile. I finished in 1:21.59. Considering I was sick and blowing snot all over the place [sorry for the unnecessary detail], I'm pretty proud of that time.

My feet are hurting a bit, particularly my heels and arches, but I think it's partly also because I stuck around until 1.45 to cheer on all the people I knew in the half and marathon, so I was on my feet for a long time. And then I played kickball in the evening. My hips are alright, but I've been stretching them on and off throughout the evening, so overall I think I'll be fine.

Overall I'm pretty proud of myself for setting a goal to finish this race and then actually following through on it. Back in September, when I first started entertaining thoughts of running [running! me? ridiculous], I could hardly run a mile without wanting to curl up in a ball, so to come through it and be able to run [mostly] 6.2 is a pretty big accomplishment for me. There were certainly a few points where I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do it, but it all came together in the end.

I've been thinking a little about future running goals, but for the time being I am going to enjoy the fact that I made it through today. I'll come back to those goals in the coming week or so.

For tonight, I'm sleeping with my FINISHER medal.

xx

[below is a picture of Ashley and me with our medals after we completed the 10k]