I signed up to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon with some girlfriends in February. Come to find out you have to submit a qualifying time to get into a good corral and since I had no races under my belt in 2014 I signed up to do a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. The minimum distance to qualify was a 10k so I started training and figured if I could do four miles, surely six + wouldn’t be too much harder. Weeks went by and somehow the training plan I had set up for myself just wasn’t happening. The weather was nasty, my body wasn’t cooperating, I am lazy……lots of excuses haha Finally the morning arrived and I was freaking out. How on earth was I going to run a race I hadn’t trained for?? What had I gotten myself into? Why didn’t I train? Well, too late. It was race time! My girlfriend Shari picked me up and we headed to the course. She was planning to walk the 5k with her niece but we lined up together near the front of the pack. There were almost 2000 people running that day and I didn’t want to spend the first few miles trying to get around the pack.
For the first 2.5 miles I wondered if I could just somehow skip ahead on the course and walk through the finish line after an hour haha I kept trucking along though and between praise music and some internal motivation I pushed through. After four miles it was smooth sailing and I had settled into a very comfortable and manageable pace. I was chasing a lady the entire race and on the last hill she started walking. I tapped her on the shoulder and told her to keep going!! I had chased her this far, the least she could do was finish strong. I don’t know if she was annoyed or grateful but she picked up the pace and helped me bang out the last mile. I had finally pulled out my phone on mile 5 to see how I was doing for time and I couldn’t believe I was beating my goal pace by a full minute and a half!!! I had no idea what I would be able to do considering I hadn’t trained at all so to run under 12 min miles was pretty impressive. I know that’s slow as molasses for most, but I was thrilled!!!
I had no idea Linc, my sister Kristin, and little Nolie were waiting for me around the last corner! I was so thrilled to see them and even happier to run through the finish line a full 13 minutes ahead of my goal. I ended up placing third in my age group and it was an awesome finish to my first 10k!!!
First 10k in the books! 6.2 miles in 1:05:26
Tricia is expecting her second baby in March and we probably won’t get to see them again for a few months. It was a very nice treat to get away for the evening!
I would have definitely put him in my pocket and taken him home for a little bit if they hadn’t had to leave and drive back to New Jersey! We can’t wait to see him {and his precious big brother Cole} again for his baptism in February!
