early to bed, early to rise

Believe it or not, I got my sorry butt out of bed yesterday morning to run the 10K. As I am not an early riser, this in itself was a challenge. It was not too hard; I hit the snooze once and then at the second alarm jumped out of bed full of the adrenaline associated with getting to run my second race.

As I sipped on my sugar free red bull, the subway train was full of other runners, mostly women. They looked pretty healthy, but I think I fit in the same category. I have my super duper special outdoors wicking fabric running outfit to wear on such occasions. For some reason it feels easier to act the part if you look the part. At least in my reality.

Found Spaghetti by the registration tent, paid my money and got my number. She kept her mp3 player on, and informed me there was going to be no talking during the race as she needed to conserve her breath. She is asthmatic, so that is totally reasonable. My job was to keep her motivated after mile four, and her job was to help pace me to run slower and learn to save myself for the distance.

During the race she definitely was laboring to breathe more than I, and she worked much harder to maintain her target heart rate. She has a heart rate monitor programmed with her highs, lows, and target rates. I felt I could go a little faster, but wanted to work more on pacing for long runs.

I decided a little after mile five to break away in a sprint. Unfortunately I thought we were closer to the finish line than we were, and I not only ran out of gas and hit the wall, but started to feel nauseous. I powered through it, Spaghetti ended up catching up with me, and we finished the race.

Our pace per mile ended up being 10:34, which is pretty much what my goal was, yet still left me rather disappointed. Spaghetti was pleased, as it was faster than she had expected to go, but I wanted to match my first race pace of 9:55 at the very least, if not beat it.

Overall the entire experience was exhilarating. It was a beautiful 55 degrees, cool enough not to overheat, with mostly clear skies in a stunning spring setting. The park was lush; I could feel all of the fresh oxygen entering my lungs. The smell of green, of the occasional flower bed, invigorated me. Around mile four it started to sprinkle for a bit, just enough to feel refreshing.

We were so happy with the experience we had to extend it and go out to brunch. We went to the Eatery on 9th ave and I had the fantabulous blueberry pecan waffle topped with fresh berries, rum raisin ice cream and vanilla syrup. I replaced every one of the six hundred calories I burned off and then some.

The next race will be the Circle of Friends 10K. I think I'll work on being able to pace myself, so I do not have to rely on Spaghetti and can go faster. It's all about consistency.