When Alex and I chose the Women’s Health Magazine RUN 10 FEED 10 race a little over a month ago, we acknowledged that it was going to be the day after Halloween festivities, so we agreed to run it as a fun race together, and thought we might even run in costume.
Despite that, I still did quite a bit of work for the race. I ran hills and did speed work every week leading up to the race. I completed almost all of my workouts, skipping them only when I knew my body needed the rest.
The nice part about not caring about setting a PR was that I wasn’t stressed out about doing everything exactly right before this race. Friday night, we had a friend’s 30th birthday party and stayed out way past my 10 pm bedtime. I got woke up “late” for me, around 7 am, but still got only 5ish hours of sleep. Saturday I had a baby shower, so I was running around town and then tried to be productive around the house before we got decked out for Halloween.
Our costumes were pretty epic – Mugatu and a flamingo!
I volunteered to be the designated driver for the night, knowing we had the race in the morning. We had a blast being the only group in the bar that was in costume, dancing with our friends, getting some late night eats, and getting into shenanigans. It was all so much fun that we didn’t get into bed until 2:30 am…for the second night in a row. Oops!
With a 6 am wake up call coming for the race, I wasn’t even sure we’d make it. And when that alarm went off, Alex decided he’d rather get some extra Z’s and get a run in later in the day. I had other plans for the afternoon so I was faced with the either not running at all, or rallying. I climbed out of bed, ate my pre-race traditional overnight oats, and got myself across town to the Presidio for the race, to find the Golden Gate hiding in the fog.
I got there early because I was nervous about parking and had to pick up my packet, but that meant that I had a lot of time to hang out in the frigid morning air before the race. The little “expo” was pretty nice for such a small race – they had OPI there doing mini manicures, a booth was giving away free socks, and they had a foot reflexology massage tent. The post-race eats they had set up were pretty good too – fruit, bagels, coconut water. But wandering around literally took 3 minutes and then I was back to standing in the cold. This was the first race where I ran alone and had no one even cheering for me or waiting at the finish.
Finally the race stated and I got to shake off the cold. The race course was terrible, to me, because it included two separate loops that we had to do twice. I much prefer out and backs or just outs, because there’s something tortuous about having to run the same path more than once. I also had to carry my phone in my hand because I forgot my Spi-belt and wanted music.
But something clicked for me and I ran my fastest 10K yet, with a finishing time of 53:03! I couldn’t believe it when I crossed the finish line. I knew I was pushing myself, based on the fact that for the last 1.2 miles, I felt like I was going to puke, but I picked a rabbit in front of me and just kept chasing her. I think because it was cold and I was running alone, I really just wanted to be done with the race so I pushed harder than I might have otherwise. I also think it helped that I had really low expectations going into the race and wasn’t stressing about the results.
I’m pretty tired today, both from lack of sleep and pushing it during the race, so I’m taking it off completely and enjoyed some extra sleep this morning. I wouldn’t recommend two late nights and busy days before a race to anyone, but I’m happy to say it worked out this time for me. And I’m also really proud of myself for sticking to a training plan, and getting myself out of bed even though it would have been so easy and so much warmer to stay snuggled under the covers. I’m also proud of Alex for following through with his run later in the afternoon, too!
As a part of the race freebies, we also got a Women’s Health magazine, which I have some feelings about, so look out for a post next week on my thoughts.
Did you race this weekend? If so, how did it go?
The Sixth Letter 
Good for you for dragging yourself out of bed! Shame on the mister for not running with you. Though it just makes you look that much more awesome! You should be proud that you stuck to it, and finished with your best time. Well deserved.