Last Sunday I took part in my first race - if you read my blog you may have already figured that out as I have been going on about it for months.
I think it was last November that me and my housemate Jack decided to sign up for the ABP Southampton 10k following a couple of beers ;) At the time 10k seemed almost impossible, I could only run 5 km at a push and in rubbish time, but signing up gave me a goal to work towards. My training wasn't very consistent. There were weeks where I ran 3 times a week but I also went 3-4 weeks with no running at all. I did a couple of park runs along the way if I had a free Saturday (which isn't very often) and finally managed to get closer to my goal distance on the 12th of March - that was my first 9 km. I never actually managed 10km before the day of the race, I just thought if I managed 9 I can do the last one on the day as I find it a lot easier running with other people.
Just under two weeks before the race I received my race number and a little good luck note along with the run route from the event organizers. That's when it hit me that that's it, time for training is over. I suddenly felt so unprepared! I wanted to go for a couple of longer runs the week before the race and really had to consciously stop myself to make sure I wasn't sore on Sunday.
On the 24th of April I woke up at 7.30ish to make sure I had breakfast early enough - by now I figured out that a full stomach + exercise = stitch. I know there are people out there who exercise best on an empty stomach but that's just not me. I don't do anything on an empty stomach. By quarter past 8 I was dressed, ready and SO excited! I had so much energy I was bouncing off the walls!
We made our way to the start just after 9 o'clock ready for the warm up but we were actually there way too early. We ended up standing around for quite a while but it was nice to see all the half marathon runners start first.
Once they were off it was time for us to line up with the pace-setters. We went around the 70 minute mark as that was roughly what we were aiming for. There was a great, positive atmosphere to the whole event - live music along the way and encouragement from most of the marshalls. I managed to run to the Itchen Bridge but running uphill is still a challenge for me so I ended up walking most of the Bridge itself. I figured that since I wasn't running I might as well take a picture as the weather was nice and the view decent, unfortunately an iPhone camera doesn't really capture it very well ;)
My next milestone was St Mary's Football Stadium. After the bridge I managed to run all the way there and just before the stadium I realised that the 65 minute pace-setter was right in front of me so I decided that I will make that my goal. I managed to keep up with her right to the end of the run and finished in 1:05:15. I couldn't be happier with the result! I shaved 5 minutes of my goal time! That's how much of a difference running with other people makes to my running!
At the finish line I was very pleasantly surprised by the amount of goodies waiting for us. Along the way I picked up a banana (which I ate straight away as I was starving by 8km nevermind 10!), a goodie bag with tons of leaflets about other races and a yazoo milkshake, a non-alcoholic beer, a t-shirt, women's running magazine, a couple of tea bags and a medal. Considering the run costs around £25 I think you definitely get your money's worth!
Oh but let's not forget the ACTUAL motivation to finish this run ;)
So with my first 10k behind me I think I cought the running bug - I'm seriously thinking about signing up for the half marathon next year. But for now, I'm going to just carry on running and increasing the distance :)
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