My First 10K

Leading up to the event this weekend I was questioning my sanity.  I was thinking I wasn’t prepared, that I wouldn’t be able to finish, that I would be the last person to finish, basically I was talking myself out of it.

A couple days before I was even thinking of switching to the 5K because I know I can do a 5K with no problems.  Let’s just say I’m glad I pushed myself and went through with the 10K.  For those who don’t know, a 5K is 3.1 miles, 10K is 6.2 miles, half marathon is 13.1.

I’m doing another 10K in April but I don’t think I’m to the point where I’m ready for a half marathon yet…my brother might have been right that it requires some training.  I’ve been trying to increase my walking distances and speed but haven’t been doing any official training.

I finished in under 2 hours, 1:46:07, which was one of my primary goals.  Below is my friend Denise and I rocking our racing tutus (I made that tutu), hoodies, and light up medals after the race.

My pace right now seems to be sitting around 17:00 per mile so my next goal is to shave 30 seconds off that time.

I think I’m getting close because my walking speed on the treadmill at the gym is going up as the feeling like I’m going to die from walking so fast goes down.  When I first started a 3.0 mph was my fast pace, now it’s around 3.7 mph, inching closer to that 4.0 mph goal.

I’m exceedingly proud of myself for completing it and can’t wait for the next one.  I love knowing the times because it gives me a goal for the next time, working on my next PR (now that I’m in the game I know that means personal record).  My next 10K I would like to be around 90 minutes but anything faster than my last time is improvement.

I’m completely hooked!

Actually, I knew I was hooked from my first medal and now I have races planned for almost every month this year, just looking for ones for July, September, November, and December.  Coming up are the fun ones, Bubble Run, Color Run, Margarita Madness, Comicon 5K….and I just realized December might be taking me back to my first race for the second year 🙂

That’s all I have for now.  I skipped meal plans this week so I’m eating horribly but I’m back on track tomorrow morning and will be making meal plans over the weekend for the next couple weeks.  I have a long holiday weekend so I’m hoping to catch up on stuff at home, which includes writing.

I wanted to say real quick I took on a One Change Challenge from Angela over at Keen Peach.  I love her idea of taking on one change for one week every month rather than trying to overhaul your entire life in one go.

My change was to start stretching every day and I’ve been pretty consistent with it, definitely a good change for me to add into my life right now.  The stretching seems to be helping reduce any soreness with all the miles I’m walking every week.  It’s more of a nightly habit but going into next week I’m going to be setting the alarm a few minutes earlier so I can stretch in the morning.

Have a great Wednesday night!  I’ll be back writing again soon!