This weekend was my first official 10K race.  I ran the Lake Wylie Splash Dash 10K.  When I first mentioned to my brother in law, Alex, that I was thinking of run it, he said “Oh, it is pretty hilly, are you sure?”  I was worried after that comment, but determined.  I found out what the race course was and I convinced my sister, Melissa, to come try the run with me.  We did it and we thought it was tough, but we made it.  So we signed up!

We arrived a little later than we wanted, and the line for the bathroom was longer than we would like, but it worked out okay.  I had already relieved myself and went to check on Melissa who was still waiting.  She was about 7th inline and someone came up and said, “Don’t worry.  They won’t start until you are all done here.”  That made us feel better!

We were walking to the starting line and we saw our grandmother!  We had thought she was going to come, but we weren’t sure.  We gave her a hug and continued to the start line.  There were about 260 people that were starting, about half doing a 5K distance and the others doing the 10K.  They announced to us that we could decide to opt for the 5K if we wanted to, and just let them know so they would put you down for the correct race.  I did not want to know that I had an easy out, so I turned to Melissa and said “We didn’t hear that did we?” 

We started out strong, but the first hill came quickly.  Melissa had already mentioned that her heart rate was unusually high.  I checked mine and it was kind of high too.  It must have been the race excitement.  I figured I would have to walk some along the hilly course, but I didn’t want to have to walk before the first mile, so I kept running.  Melissa had to fall back to try to keep her heart rate down.

Most of the run was nice and shaded, but it was already hot.  I was glad that I had decided to carry my own fluids so I could drink whenever I wanted.  I used my new hydration pack for the first time and it was great!  Very little bouncing and for the most part I forgot that I was carrying it.  I carried two 10 oz bottles with Lemon Lime HEED and a flask of Apple Cinnamon Hammer Gel.  I also wore my new compression sleeves for the first time and they were great too.

The people stationed along the route were mostly in good spirits, which makes for a good run.  I always enjoy joking with people along the way as it makes you forget you are tired.  One of the volunteers said to me “You make that look easy; you are having too much fun!”  I replied back, “This is fun!  Almost there!”  I kept thinking that I wish I had worn the Beer Helmet because that would have encouraged some laughs for sure.

I felt like walking at a few of the hills, but I kept thinking, you know I am almost halfway; I don’t want to walk yet.  Then it was I have come this far, I don’t want to have to walk now!  To my surprise, I was able to keep I run stride the entire way!  I went down to a slow pace on several of the hills, but that’s okay.  As I came to the finish area, I saw my grandmother, Jenn, Mia, Sadie and Jeff.  I heard Mia say her “Go Daddy go!”  And that was all I needed to speed up and finish fast.  My official time was 57:43.  That was good enough for 72^nd out of 122.  I did finish last in my age group, which bummed me out.  I told myself that it was because of the challenging course, more experienced runners were most likely prevalent.  I was happy to have met my goal of finishing under 1 hour.  Melissa came in with a time of 1:08:40, which is certainly respectable on the hard course.  That was good enough to beat two others in her age group.  Check out the results here.  You can also see the run as captured by the Garmin here.

We stayed around to see the awards given out and then went to breakfast.  I was very hungry so I ate pancakes, eggs, bacon and grits!  We went home and got the girls to bed for their naps and I got a crazy idea and called Melissa to see if it would be okay if I rode my bike to her house instead of driving to meet her at her neighborhood pool for a swim.  She said sure and I got dressed and headed out.

It was very hot by this time and all I could think about is how nice the water in the pool will feel!  I made good time and rode the about 10 miles to her house in around 35 minutes.  See the stats here.

When I got there, she asked if I wanted to go for a short ride with her so she could see how it is to ride on the roads.  I said sure and after I adjusted her bike and filled the tires with air, we headed out.  We rode about 5 miles and ended at the pool.  She said she enjoyed the ride, but was uncomfortable when we had to make left turns.  When you make a left turn, you have to check behind you to make sure there are no cars.  This is difficult until you get used to it.  See those stats here.

We had a short swim because the pool was crowded and adult swim only lasted for about 15 minutes.  One the kids got in the pool again, there would be no way of swimming laps.  Jeff arrived and we sat around and discussed possible future tattoo designs for triathlon, “26.2″ after we run the marathon, “70.3″ for after a half Ironman and finally the “140.6″ that I want after the full distance Ironman.  Those numbers are the distance in miles for each of the events.  Anybody have any ideas for designs?  Andrew, you are a talented artist, any thoughts?

The ride home was even hotter than the ride there.  And there was no pool waiting at my destination.  At about this time, I felt the day’s events take their toll on my legs.  I was fatigued and just ready to get home and be lazy.  I did not make great time on the way back as you can see here.

All in all it was a great Saturday and Sunday all I did was mow the lawn and watch the Yankees win 15-0 over the Mets!  I will take Monday off too and get back to training on Tuesday.