Charlottesville 10-miler

Nick ran his 10 miler race in 1:19:58. That's a 7:59 minute pace!!! Way to go Nick!!! Update: His Team ranked 4th place and his time contributed to the team!!! Nick is a masochist when it comes to running, so I'm not surprised. No one loves that pain more than Nick. His time is really saying something because this baby was full of hills (albeit, not as crazy as the ones we train on. Those are just about as bad as they get) and there was a fair amount of wind. You can check out the topography of the course HERE.

I was supposed to let Nick enjoy all his glory. He really didn't want me to run the race. I mean, he was doing this with his work buddies and he was competing in a team. Even when a friend had offered to watch the kids for me, he didn't want me to run it because it would mean more work getting the kids ready in the morning. So I was pretty much prepped to sit this one out. Then, Nick's mom called and she thought she'd come down and she told Nick I should do the run and she'd watch the kids. So I did.

I guess a better wife would have declined the offer and watched my hubby on the sidelines and cheered him to victory. He's done that for me before. I promise I will do that sometime soon. I just really enjoy longer distance races. I'm not fast and the longer, slower races suit me best. I tried to remind him that he should be so lucky to have a strong woman behind him. For example, if he fell, I'd be there in a matter of minutes! He didn't find that funny, but he agreed. I will cheer him on at his next 5K.

I ran the race by myself and I completed in 1:44. That's a 10:29 minute mile pace. That's an improvement for me. I started off so strong, and up to mile 7 it was looking like I might actually be able to complete the thing in less than 10 minute miles. But, alas, I wasn't able to keep it up. I'm a little disappointed by that, because I was feeling really good up until then.

I stayed in that really painful area for about a mile. Then, from heaven above, at mile 8.5 I got a lovely.... RUNNER's HIGH!!! It's been years!!! I had it for a good mile up a huge hill. Sweeeeeet. I still couldn't make up the time I lost, but I guess I'm happy with it. I'm already half-way to goal for the end of summer. Maybe I need to make a new and better goal of 9:30?

Oh, and we just signed up for the Army 10 miler. We'll be running that with 29,998 other runners. :) That'll be in October. Last I looked they had 27,000 + runners registered and they were booking up fast.

-M