K 10 2.6

How appropriate that for my birthday (10.26) I ran a 10K that’s 6.2!! I think this is my new favorite race distance!!

26s everywhere!

I actually slept horribly last night I couldn’t fall asleep and was restless. Luckily, I did not feel tired when I woke up this morning. Whew!

Meghann and I enjoyed a pre-race ritual of toast with PB and coffee (tea for her)

Dakota with Nuttzo PF and pumpkin butter. I skipped the half banana today – just wasn’t feelin’ it and didn’t want to overeat. I always tend to overeat before races and then don’t have enough time to digest and can feel the slosh in my stomach. So I copied racing expert Meghann and was very happy with the results.

I did add a cup of coffee, which I think enhances my performance!

Application of the race bib. Ah the perks of marriage!

We biked the 2.2 miles to the race start – who wants to worry about parking, and while the bike ride was FRIGID, it was a fantastic warmup. LOVED the fact that we could wait out of the cold and in Charlottesville Running Company before the race start. The race was pretty small – maybe 350 people? (We think the bibs were alphabetical and as a Younger I was #334!)

Chomped down on a date with about 10 minutes to go. Who knows if it helped, but I like to think it did because we had an awesome race!!

Ready

Set

Go!

Meghann and I decided to run the race together because we’re pretty much identical when it comes to our paces and goals. We really had no clue how fast we could comfortably run this race, but turns out we smashed our goal of "let’s just run sub-9:00 miles."

I thought the course was awesome. It was mostly rolling hills and flat, except for one killer half mile climb at mile 4 and a few steep but short hills interspersed throughout the rest of the course. I took water at mile 2 (was on the wrong side for Gatorade!) and a Gatorade right before mile 4. I swear I can feel Gatorade kicking in about 5 minutes after I drink it. I swear by sports drinks! The fuel is no joke. Metabolism in action.

I also LOVED running with a partner!! It made the race so much more fun. Meghann and I did a great job of motivating one another and were right in step the entire race. We actually were right behind Jess and Mike, right next to Sarah and right in front of Faith for the whole run!

Splits (which totally caught us by surprise!)

• 7:46 (rolling hills)
• 7:57 (rolling hills)
• 8:06 (flat)
• 8:30 (flat)
• 8:57 ( <– the killer half mile steep hill!)
• 8:09 (rolling hills)
• and the .2

Total time: 50:53

The end was a nice downhill right down the mall:

Josh whizzed by

Followed by a smiling Jess!

Juuuuuuust above 50 minutes!! I had hoped mid-race that we could make it. In fact, I looked down at my Garmin when it hit 49:00 and knew we just had the downtown mall to sprint. And sprint we did!!

Sarah!

And crazy Faith!

This was actually my first 10K race!! Loved the distance so much more than the 5K (which basically means you have to kill yourself sprinting the whole time). This distance was perfect because you could challenge yourself with fast, but not too fast that you weren’t enjoying it. We loved every minute!

I think I was describing the hill right about here ; )

Lani’s first race!!! She did awesome!

Jess + Mike. Woot.

I think the race really warped Faith she ran so fast  

After a few cups of Gatorade, we headed to the farmer’s market for entertainment and food.

And coffee!

Shenandoah Joe’s !

I’ve been wanting to get a scone from the market all summer/fall but I always eat breakfast before we go! Today was the perfect day!! I got an Oatmeal, Cinnamon, Currant scone. It was tasty, but Meghann‘s was better!

So I supplemented with a Honey Bunch from Cville Coffee. This was still warm and full of coconut and oats – amazing!

Last but not least, we had a freshly made doughnut. I’ve been smelling these for months and waiting for a day when the craving hit to eat one. Today was the day! Tasted amazing – it was CAKEY which I loved (not airy). Definitely going to have to try the glazed next time!

On that note, we have friends over, and more coming, and a lunch date to go to and pumpkins to carve!!