half of a half

our turkey trot 10k has come and gone. this is my take on it!

CARBO LOADING

the night before i hung out with my fellow racer, uncle chucky, and dined on red wine, oysters and jambalaya. it was awesome. however, the last time i ate such food probably was two thanksgivings ago. luckily, i had no effects the next day. the thought of day old seafood revisiting me during a run is something a bit terrifying.

me and uncle chucky post race

ON YOUR MARKS

my prep started at 6AM when i got up and noticed i had a cough with some congestion. uh oh. i luckily was able to score tussin of some sort to go along with my oatmeal with walnuts and raisins.

the night before i neatly laid out all of my running gear and was able to get ready quickly.

• pants
• top/sports bra/red hoody
  
• ipod/headphones/holster/nike fit
• heart rate monitor/watch
• shoes/socks

GET SET

i arrived to the race at 730. mid 50s. humid. chilly. i was relieved at the lack of rain as i waited for the rest of my crew- mindy lu, annie and uncle chucky.

when mindy arrived i ran to give her a big ol hug. it was totally awesome to see her!! this was the first time i have seen her in - at least- a year. it was a great first hug.

we made our way to starting line and hung out in the back. as i was tinkering with the gadgets strapped onto me and making pre-race small talk - out of nowhere- we were off. not much of a heads up or any loud noise indicating the race had begun.


GO!

we all started side by side, my uncle cracking jokes about getting a room at the local hospital- and mindy and i laughing just at the fact we had made it this far. we were runners. but most laughter came from the fact that we were jamming out to lil wayne and abba at the start of our race.

eventually, we all got our own pace and slowly separated.


THE RACE

tuesday i bought new padded inserts for my shoes and had not had a chance to break them in till the race. not the best idea. my feet were a bit burning the first few miles in addition to tight calves. i usually am pretty miserable to first few miles but that day was like no other.

the terrain was not my favorite. it was almost ALL TRAILS. the route had lots of turns and tight areas with not a lot of passing room and wet mud trenches -making everyone look at the ground while running instead of the lovely foliage that was surrounding us.

the route

about half way into the race i saw a deer maybe 50 feet away that was injured and kept trying to jump over a chain link fence. however, it never made it over the fence and kept ramming its face into the fence causing it to bleed more and more. my hand covered my mouth in shock of this crazy man vs nature event. you could tell other runners had the same dilemma of "do i help or keep going?"

we kept going.

right after that - my right food landed right in a nice pile of mud - i was in at least 3-4 inches deep. ahhhhh. keep going......

THE FINAL STRETCH

the last few miles was void of any real craziness which allowed my runner's high to finally set in.

i would pick small goals along the way (people) and make it my goal to pass them. the mother with the stroller, the guy with one arm, the gal who was my age- pass, pass, pass. it was awesome to be near the end, going faster, while feeling awesome like i could go for miles and miles more.

when i saw mile five that was it. i went to my go to britney tune and bolted. getting my pace under a 10 minute mile i was banging it out. i crossed the finish line at 1 hour 6 minutes. we didn't have chips to get the exact time- so i'm pretty certain i can shave off 30 seconds. also, the distractions of the course added a minute or so as well.

overall, it was a great race and day. so glad to see mindy and celebrate half way thru our training.

we ran half of our half- and just 60 more days to the whole half!

team 13.1 katie, mindy, annie-- still looking hot after 6.2 miles