Today I ran my first race of the year. I found it a bit tough but am very happy to have started my 2011 race challenge. As I have already mentioned I am taking part in the run for the bling of it, which requires me to take part in 12 races in 12 months (i'm trying for at least one in every month).
So today. I got up at 6:30 am and put on my running clothes. In the end I didn't have an amazing outfit, just my new nike shorts that I got for Christmas and a More Miles vest top that I have had for a while. I decided that my sporty sunglasses weren't really necessary. I have a little sipp race belt that I put my phone and keys in.
Usually before a race my "breakfast of champions" is porridge, honey and banana. As it was already about 22C I decided just to have some muesli with milk, nectarine and chopped dates.
I drove to the race by myself, bearing in mind I am quite new to the area and am in a new car I was pretty proud of the fact that I made it in time without getting majorly lost!
I had about 20mins till the run, I was pleased that I wouldn't have to wait around too long as I was by myself. I collected my number, went to the toilet (where there was hardly any queue!), drank some gatorade and then went to line up. There seemed to be no separate starts for 8.2km and 3.2km so I just went and stood midway in the crowd. The gun went off and we all got going.
The first 3km was pretty easy, a few ups and downs but i kept going. After a while I began to wonder whether there had been to separate groups and I had accidentally got into the 3.2km group, then I saw a sign that said 500metres. I have definitely got into the group I though! I resigned myself to the fact that I was running the shorter race. Then as I was about to reach the finish line it split into two directions for 3.2km and 8.2km, I had gone correctly!
The rest of the race was pretty tough. It was getting hot and there were a fair few hills. The pack had thinned out and so there was less to motivate me. One great thing was that a few of the local residence were out with hose pipes spraying us as we passed.
I finally finished in 48:47 which I worked out as 5.91min kilometres. I was aiming for under 6min kilometres so thats good but really I wanted to finish around the 40mins mark. I have just realised that I cam 38th out 106 in my age group so I am pretty pleased with! And 182 overall out of 314.
As we crossed the line we were handed a certificate and drinks bottle. I was pretty pleased with drinks bottle, I was thinking about getting a new one and have been using it all today! I left pretty quickly after.
All in all I am happy with the race, it was tough due to the hills and the heat but it was a good challenge.
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| Had to take this pic myself when I got home |
Chubby Katie.x
