Pensacola Fiesta of the Five Flags 10K!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was the big race in Pensacola and it was awesome! Traver and I rented a Casida trailer and drove down Friday night, Boeing in the backseat (which did not turn out so well). We got a late start on the drive, and with towing a trailer and having to stop so Boeing could go outside, the trip took longer than usual. We pulled into the camp ground around 10:30 or so and still had to set up camp, get Boeing ready for bed and then go to bed ourselves, so it was probably 11:30 before we got to go to sleep, and let me tell you 5am comes really early when you go to bed late and are sleeping in an unfamiliar bed. Anyway, we got up and ate breakfast took care of the dog and headed to downtown Pensacola for the race. We thought we were going to be a little late but ended up being there in one of the 1st waves of people to show up. We got our bibs and tshirts and boarded the bus that would take us to the starting line. It was a point to point race, so they bused to the start and we ran back to where we were parked basically. There were 910 racers in the 10K, which is alot of people! I had a hard time getting pumped up for the race, I was tired, and there wasnt anything going on at the start because all the fun stuff was at the finish, so when the started the race I was feeling rather unprepared. Luckily the weather was perfect, it was foggy and completely overcast which meant no sun to make us sweat more than we already were! It was great!

So we started running, Traver took off ahead of me since he runs so much fast and I just started going. The first mile felt long but it was actually really short (9:50, my third shortest mile time EVER), the second mile was a piece of cake and at the end was the first water stop, and the third mile I think was my longest for whatever reason (I think that the one big hill we had was on mile 3 and it was hard) but when I crossed the 5K line (half done) I was at about 33:25 which is a little slower than my first ever 5K pace, but I was trying to keep gas in the tank for the last half. They had another water station after the 5K line which was good and helped me rejuvenate and keep going. Something I really liked about this race was that at every mile there was a marker and a clock to let you know what your time was. Mile 4 felt great and once I was half way into mile 5 I was able to think about how I had never run that far before and that I was accomplishing something new with each step (my longest run in training was 4.5 miles). Once I got to 5 miles I started to feel really good, I only had a mile left, and a mile is nothing, so I just went and was really excited to see Traver waiting for me at the 6 mile marker. He ran with me the last .2 miles as I sprinted in to the finish line! Overall, my body felt pretty good, my legs didnt hurt much and I actually had very little trouble breathing, but my feet and ankles were getting really tired and irritated by the end, so I was glad when I was done and I could walk!

The whole race there was this woman in front of me who reminded me of one of the girls in my running group, Amy, I don't know what exactly reminded me of her, but something did, and from the beginning I told myself I would stick close to her and that in the end I would beat her. She and I went back and forth a few times with who was in front of the other, but in the end I did beat her, and it felt good. I set that goal for myself at the beginning and accomplished it! But every time I saw her and thought of Amy it helped me to keep going! I also realized pretty quickly that I couldn't count down the miles, it seemed way to long when I did that. I distinctly remember looking at my watch after running for only 6 minutes and thinking, I have an hour more of this, oh no! So instead of counting miles, I broke it down into fractions, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 and then one mile left, it made it so much easier, because thinking you have 4-5 miles left is discouraging! Something that was pretty funny was that around mile 3 we ran by some businesses, one of which was a BBQ place that was cooking outside, and it smelled so good, it was very distracting, and another was a bakery and there was a guy with a tray of donuts standing there to give them to runners who wanted a carb boost. If I had seen one person ahead of me take one, I might have taken one, but I surely wasn't going to be the first person to take a donut, so I passed him, sadly!

At the end of the race, they had bananas (my traditional post-race snack) and bagels (which will now become a traditional post-race snack) and water waiting for us which was great. They also had beer, but seeing as when I run with the girls I get champagne after a race, beer was not going to cut it and I decided against it! We waited for the scores to come up and here is how we did:

Traver Fordham
-TIME: 46:47
-Division Place (20-24 men): 5/12
-Place Overall (men): 58/242
-Place Overall (men and women): 64/475

ME!!!!!
-TIME: 1:06:34
-Division Place (20-24 women): 11/13
-Place Overall (women): 176/233
-Place Overall (men and women): 387/475

I was really excited about my time because it was right at my goal time, I wanted to be under 70 minutes and under 11 min/mile. I did it in 10:43 min/mile! YAY! It was really exciting that I met my goal! I also want to give a shout out to my girls who ran their 10K today in Reno! They did awesome and I am super proud of them! Great job!