Sunday, October 23, 2011

Greenway Memory 10 Miler

On Saturday Mathis and I drove into Roanoke for the Greenway Memory Miler.  It was a ten mile race, and neither one of us was feeling that great about it.  My running has been so sporadic since starting my internship in the schools, and I haven't been running as much as I'd like.  Here I am smiling at Mathis, yet giving a thumbs down for my lack of training.


I was so tempted to pick up the race shirt and head out to IHOP for pancakes instead of running for the next two hours.  I was tired, cold and not very motivated to run.  But thankfully Mathis encouraged me to get my butt out there -- it was a cold start (in the 30s) but it warmed up as we started running.  The first few miles are ALWAYS the toughest for me -- after mile 3 I had to stop and walk.  My legs were already hurting some, and I couldn't find my groove.  I was battling the mental part of knowing I still had 7 miles to go.  But again, Mathis stuck by my side.  We walked some and then kept running.

By the half-way point I knew that I could finish.  I was starting to find my running groove, and the miles went by much faster.  We still walked from time to time, but overall I was making it.  Mathis' legs hurt pretty bad from the lack of training, but we pushed through.  It totally amazes me how your body can adapt when you run -- of course when you don't run, your body looses some of that adaptation.  But I feel that overall I have a much stronger base for running then when I began.  I started running exactly three years ago, and I've run 5 half-marathons and one full marathon in that time.  This year alone I've gotten to run through the Magic Kingdomalongside the Golden Gate Bridge, and next to the Atlantic Ocean.  I wish I was running more often right now, but I'm still proud to call myself a runner.  I want to commit to running throughout my entire life, and I just know there are more 26.2 races in my future! :)

We finished the race in 1 hour and 50 minutes, which is an 11 minute pace.  Not my fastest, but not my slowest either.  I'm really just proud to have finished.  After the race we headed over to Starbucks where I treated myself to my second PSL of the season.  I definitely kept thinking about coffee during the race, and it was a great reward.

We didn't stick around after the race, but apparently Mathis won an award -- we had no clue since we were some of the last to finish.  I guess it was a small race, and he must have placed in his age division.  Too funny! ;)


Miles: 10
Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Miles this Month: 31

4 comments:

  1. Great job on getting out there and racing despite not being able to run much recently...that's awesome! Running is so great like that - it will always be there for us when we're ready to do it!

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  2. Hey! I was there and remember seeing you at the 10 miler. In fact, we were running there together for a while in the beginning. Are you running in the Star City Half?

    Candy
    Salem, VA

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  3. I often have difficulty posting comments to other blogs at Blogger, but I will give this another try. I've tried to say hello here once, but it diddnt work... but hello!

    I ran into your blog entry for the Greenway Memory Miler, as I was searching to see if anyone else wrote about it.

    I blog about local races also please see my report at
    morethanpaceandstride

    http://morethanpaceandstride.blogspot.com/2011/10/greenway-memory-miler-10-mile.html

    I wanted to "ask" permission to link your race report to my blog, but I've all ready done that, I dont guess you'd mind. Largely, the goal for my blog is to provide information about these events that cant always be found elsewhere. I've enjoyed the details that people put in a blog entry, that you dont commonly get in race packet info.
    So, directing others who find my blog to other reports serves that purpose.

    Happy reading and running. and I'm following your blog now too so I can keep up with the events you are running.

    Lets say hello if we see one another out there.

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  4. Found your blog today and am excited to hear about your running experiences. I just started running again (had a baby back in June) and am doing my first 5K. Trying to find more blogs that have same theme as mine to keep my motivation up!

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