Most of you know I ran a 10 mile race yesterday.  I wasn’t apprehensive about this race at all…after all, it was “only” 10 miles, right?

MFH (My Favorite Husband) and I were chatting about this very thing on the drive home yesterday.  He had asked me about my perceived exertion on this race as compared to a marathon.  Interesting question!

I told him that I ran much “harder” at this race because I only had to run 10 miles.  I didn’t need to reserve a bunch of extra “oomph” for the end of the race.  10 miles really isn’t that far to run in the grand scheme of things.

At least not to me.

That’s when I told him about these two people running behind me at the race.  We had made it to mile 4(?).  It was a drizzly and breezy Mississippi morning and I hadn’t even started sweating yet.  The run was easy and I was having a great time!  The two people behind me were worried.  They were tired and saying they had to be very careful with how hard they ran because they still had a “long way” to go.

I remember mentally shaking me head thinking to myself, “Long way!?!  There’s only another 5-6 miles to go!”  In that moment, I realized that my idea of distance running and theirs were light years apart.  My idea of distance running is skewed!

I thought back to training for my first Half Marathon.  My longest scheduled training run for that race was 10 miles.  I was sweating bullets about how in the world I was ever going to be able to do another 3 miles!  Funny, that.

Back to the race.

Even though it was a chilly, drizzly Mississippi morning, the weather was perfect for running!  It was brisk enough that you could run hard and not worry about overheating.  Ideal weather for a race!

The race was gun time so I stood close to the front but off to the side.  That way people with super speedy feet could easily go past me and I wouldn’t get mowed down at the start.  It worked out well.

Silly me thought this race was on the Mississippi Delta.  The Mississippi Delta is as flat as you can get.  This race, however, was NOT on the Delta.  There were some substantial hills in this race.  Quite a few of them actually!  I was not prepared for the hills but what was I going to do?  Turn around and go home?  Hahaha!!!  Nope.  I put on my, “I’m running hills today” thinking cap and tackled the course.

It was fun!

I ran very well.

My coach had given me some goals for this race.  I was to try for a 10:30 pace and finish time of 1:45.  I am tickled pink to be able to say that I ran (gospel according to Garmin) 10.15 miles in 1:43 with a 10:15 pace.  That is about as spot on as you can get.

*Happy Dance*

There was a nice man who lives along the course who took pics and posted them online today.  Free races pics are always a win!

As a surprise, MFH took a pic of me coming down the finish chute toward the finish line, too!

We did take Paxton with us yesterday.  He had a ball!  He wiggled all morning, greeting everybody before the race and was a big hit.  MFH said as soon as everybody had started running, Paxton wanted to go back to the car for a puppy nap.  On our way home, we stopped at Wendy’s for lunch and Paxton got a kiddie cheeseburger.  He thought he had scored big!

 

This morning, MFH and I set out for a quick run before church.  Seeing as today is World Run Day, we decided to celebrate.  He needed a run and I needed a recovery run.  We ended up running 5.67 miles.