River Trail 15k

Does it count as a p.r. if it's your first long race? Either way, I had a great time today. It was cold and misting rain in the beginning but there was a large crowd, almost 200 of us. I had no intention of running this one fast since this was my first long distance race (15k or 9.3 miles) and I had no idea on what to expect, so started out in the back and just took things slow and steady in the beginning.


Me before the race

The crowd starting to line up

I ended up feeling good for the whole run, even had enough left to push faster the last 2 miles AND still had a little bit of kick left at the end. Hmmm, maybe that means I didn't push hard enough in the beginning? I hope, hope, hope that my 1/2 marathon goes as well on March 2nd, I'm already getting the nervous jitters!! Finish time was 1:24:05, placed 29th out of 85 women. Near the end I was mixed in with a group of women that were very supportive and shouting encouragement to each other and even to people they didn't know. That is so awesome!

I am already sore though, I've done this long on my long runs before but there is usually a bathroom break and traffic stops mixed in so it's never been a run with no stops before. The only time I slowed today was for a couple of sips of water at mile 4. This was an out and back course so the only water stop was at mile 4 and mile 8.

After the race we tried to find a Cracker Barrel or IHOP for breakfast but everywhere was packed, ended up going to Backyard Burger for chili and a burger. Oh yeah, this morning's prerace food was an egg mcmuffin with no cheese or ham and a little bit of coffee. That tends to work out really well for me. We also made a stop at Arkansas ABATE District 1's swap meet to renew our membership (year 9, I think). There wasn't as many used bike (motorcycle) parts for sale this year so we didn't stay for very long.