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April 28, 2012

A Race a Month // April

UAB Scholarship Race - Birmingham, AL : 10k or 6.2 miles
Before: My first 10k race. I trained for 4 weeks and followed my training schedule exactly. I had run 6 miles the weekend before faster than my original goal time of 54:00, and so my new goal became 52:something. This was also the first afternoon race. It started at 6 pm. The UAB football team showed up and started the race for us, really cool.


Mile 1: Felt great. I knew I was going too fast, but it was really hard to hold myself back. I could only see one girl ahead of me and I tried to keep her in sight.
Mile 2-3: Mile 2 was pretty much all down hill and mile 3 was all uphill... like crazy uphill. I knew it was going to suck looping back around to do that at mile 6. We ran past the start at 3.1 miles and I got to see my mom and a friend! I really was ready to be done, haha. 
Mile 4-5: The first girl passed me, I really tried to keep up with her, but she was just too fast (she ended up being 1st in our age group). I really was starting to feel tired. My watch was telling me I was running 8:45 miles... I knew I needed to get my second wind if I wanted to hit my goal of 52:something. 
Mile 6: Another girl started to pass me. I stayed with her. I really wanted to place in my age group and I knew she was in mine. This was the mile with all the hills. I wanted to die several times, but kept going. With about a quarter of a mile left I passed her and sprinted for the finish line. She came in about 10 seconds after me. 
After: I was so proud of myself for really pushing it to beat the girl... but then I found out she actually had a time 2 seconds faster than me... she started the race after me so her chip was activated I'm guessing 8 seconds after mine... I was crushed. 2 seconds! 2 seconds! But I still placed 3rd in my age group and got my goal time! 


Time: 52:57 // 8:22 pace 
Results:  3rd (of 12) in 20-29 age group // 6th female over all (of 42) // 38 overall (of 132 runners) **race was actually 6.33 miles**

6 comments:

  1. That sounded awesome ! And you should be really proud to reach your goal time, nice. I've never tried anything like this ^^

    Satu
    Indie by heart

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    1. You should try a race! I just started running again in December :) And thank you.

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  2. You got such cool race pictures! I think you finished with nearly the exact same time I got in my first 10K. Nice work getting your goal time! :)

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    1. thanks, and yes my friend takes wonderful photos. She is very talented. How many 10k's have you done?

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  3. Ah! Awesome. I ran cc in hs and college, and ended up not running my senior yr bc of knee injuries. Just seeing your race pictures makes me excited to get started again! I'm trying for the color run in October over here. I can't wait.

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    1. I had the same problem !! I stopped running in college because of my knee... didn't get back into running until last December (4 year hiatus) and now I love it. SO excited you are getting to do the color run too!! I CANNOT wait either :)

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