I was hoping for a great race this year....even though my calf has been really tight and hurting since I ran my sub 2 half marathon two weeks ago. I had no doubts that I would run an official 10K race PR (my previous PR was 59:42) but I also wanted to beat my training run 10K PR which was 57:40. I was hoping the calf would cooperate and allow me to achieve this goal.
I woke up to freezing weather!!! The temperature was in the low 40s but the real feel temp was in the low 30s. And there was a wind advisory in effect! The wind was blowing from the north and it was soooo cold!!!
We made it to the race about an hour before it was supposed to start. You know how usually there are tons of people mingling by the start line before a race? Well...it was a ghost town! We wondered where all the runners were! I knew they were inside somewhere trying to stay warm. You can see the bare street and the start line sign blowing in the wind in the picture below.
We were freezing just standing around! I saw a hotel across the street so we headed towards it seeking some warmth. I just prayed that the doors were unlocked! Luckily they were! It felt so good to be out of the cold and wind!
Since this race was for the Senior Bowl (a football game for college seniors that is played in Mobile in January) we all dressed in our favorite team colors (Go Auburn)! Of course some of us had our team colors covered up with warm clothes lol!
We stayed in the hotel until we had about 15 minutes before start time. Then we slowly made our way back outside. It was just so brutally cold out there! We took a really quick picture in front of the start line.
Then we headed to the middle of the pack in the starting area. We saw our other Sole2Soul Sisters and headed towards them. They were so sweet! They sang happy birthday to me while we were waiting for the race to start! Made me so happy!
Finally the gun sounded and we began to run! I was so happy to have Andria there to run with me! This route is gorgeous as it takes you through downtown and under the canopy of oak trees. I would have taken a picture but my hands were freezing inside my gloves and I wasn't taking those gloves off for anything!
The first 2 miles were pretty miserable. I felt frozen. My feet were so cold and numb. And so were my legs. The good thing...because it was so cold I couldn't feel the sore calf lol!
Andria and I barely talked during this run. I think we were just so cold.
Finally, around mile 3, I started warming up. The top part of me even starting getting hot. I think I started to pick up my pace here because Andria was running a little behind me.
Around mile 4.5 I ran into my friend Melissa. It was so good seeing her and talking to her! But then she waved me on since she knew I was after that PR.
From that point on I was focused. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I wasn't real sure about my time. I just kept running.
Finally I saw the finish line in front of me! I sprinted! I had done it! I had a new PR!!!
This race is not timed with a timing chip so I had to pull the tag off the bottom of my race bib and hand it to a volunteer. I wasn't sure what my official time would be but my Garmin time said I had run it in 54:29! That was a 2 minute PR!
As soon as I crossed the finish line I saw Billy and Gary...Paige's finance and Donna's husband. A few seconds later here came Andria! She PRed too!!! I was so proud of her!!!
We waited around the finish line for all our friends to come in and then we headed to the food area lol! They had so many options...hot dogs, jambalaya, red beans and rice, and chicken fingers! I gobbled up some yummy chicken fingers...they were so good!
Andria and I headed to look at the official results. This was a pretty big race so I knew I wouldn't place but it's still fun to look at the stats. They had my official time as 53:57. I wasn't sure how they were that far off from my Garmin.
Now that all the results are in I looked the results back up online and here are my stats:
Time: 54:42
Place: 13 out of 51 in my age group
Not too shabby! ;-)
Even though I felt like I was in the Frozen movie....this race was a blast! I'll definitely do it again next year!
QOTD: When a race isn't chip timed...do you go by your Garmin or the race results?
