Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Got Freedom? 10k

Now that I have committed to my half marathon, I am trying to do one race a month to get me ready.  Training is going fine, but since I'm new to races, I still get a bit anxious before and also want to make sure my pre and post race routines are good before the big one.

Sunday I ran in a 10k in Arlington Heights called Got Freedom?  There was a 5k walk/run on part of the same course. It wound around the residential areas of Arlington Heights.  We did need to cross some big streets a few times but there were police officers at each of those blocking traffic, so never had to slow down.  

I had two goals for this race - run the whole thing without walk breaks (which I did) and in a perfect world finish in under an hour.  My usual 5k is just under half an hour but I knew I was going to have to slow my pace down to not have to walk any.  Final time was 1:01:48.  

Not bad.  Would have been better if I hadn't gotten stuck in line for the 5 portapotties (yep only 5 for over 400 people) before the race.  I started behind a bunch of walkers so it took me a little bit to get my pace up, not making excuses just know I need to stage better next time.

Also another mistake I made was assuming the finish line was at the same spot as the start line.  I sped up at the end thinking I was close but the actual finish was about half a mile further.  I didn't run out of gas but close. The expo at the end was well done.  Lots of different things to refuel with - bananas, bagels. energy bars, jelly bellys and of course water.  

I had never heard of Salute Inc before this but they sound like a great organization.  They help military families who may be struggling at home while their spouse is deployed and help veterans when they come home with rehab or whatever else they may need to transition back to life back home.

As proud as I was of my own mini accomplishments I saw two recent veterans come across the finish line.  One was a 20 something woman using a walker for the 5k walking with her mom.  The other was a young man in a wheelchair being pushed by his Mom and accompanied by other family members.  I don't know the nature of their injuries but assume they were wounded in action and working to rehab.  They were greeted with a load round of applause by the assembled crowd.

As usual there were a bunch of stands promoting upcoming races and I found my August race - Fort To Base It's a 10 nautical mile course - 11.45 miles to us landlubbers.  The course goes from Ft Sheridan to the Great Lakes Naval Station.  The base is usually closed to the public but is open from the start of the race until noon.  It's a bit far from our house, but it sounds like a cool race, will be right at the mileage I should be at at that point, and I think it'll be cool for the kids to see the base. Also they hand out medals to all the finishers.  I've done a few races now but haven't done one that gives finishers medals yet. I doubt I'll ever place high enough to get a winners medal so look forward to a finishers medal.

Now I just need to find my July race.  I'm thinking of doing another 10k in Arlington Heights as it is convenient, and since I'm working on increasing my distance a 5k doesn't really seem worth it.  Also I'm curious to see if I make the changes I listed above if I could finish under an hour - the only tricky part is we'll be coming back from vacation shortly before that.  I wish there were just one website that listed all the races in my area.  I've checked a few different sites and they all list different races.  Any one know of a good 8-10k in July?

1 comment:

I love all your comments, but admittedly have been a slacker about replying to all your kind words. I've recently received a bit of spam on my posts so will now be moderating any comments - and not allowing anonymous commenting. I hope that will help me stay on top of replies.