Winter Park Road Race 10K

I ran my first 10K on Saturday and had a blast!

I know that sounds weird to say about running 6.2 straight miles, but my “good time” came from setting a great PR (Personal Record) and truly enjoying a beautiful Saturday morning run around Park Avenue of Winter Park.

Last Sunday my mom called asking if I wanted to run a 10K with her.  The 2012 Winter Park Road Race partnered with Florida Hospital to raise money for a scholarship fun and that’s all I had to hear.

Unlike training for my half marathon, preparing for this race included a 6.2 mile run on Monday followed by a 3.1 run on Thursday.

Could I have impulsively signed up to run a 10K 6 months ago? Definitely not.

Since running my first half marathon earlier this month, I’ve tried to keep going with at least one 5 or 6 mile run a week so I don’t lose the endurance to train again down the road.  And yes…I’m already scoping out my next half.  The race bug seems to be going around and I can publicly admit that I’ve been bitten.

Friday Night

I’ve picked up on a few things to do the night before a race and quickly put dinner together on Friday night as follows:

Diced Al Fresco Sweet Apple Chicken Sausage and steamed broccoli, carrots and cauliflower over brown rice.  I’m sure broccoli, cauliflower and brown rice (vs. white) were not the best choices for my digestive system, but I was craving veggies and improvised with what I had on hand.

After dinner, Roadie and I packed up and headed over to my parents’ house.

Since the race was sponsored by Track Shack, I wanted to show some sponsor love to Drink Chia (debuting in the Orlando Track Shack) for providing me with their wonderful and delicious products.  I’m excited to announce I am an official Mover and Shaker: Friend of Drink Chia and look forward to sharing the goods with you all again in the future.

After arriving at my parents and chatting for a bit, I turned in around 10:30pm.  I went to bed early but kept waking up every few hours thinking I missed the race.  Do you ever do that on the eve of an important day?

Race Day

I woke up a little after 5:30am to what I thought was rain.  After having a slight panic attack (flashing back to the beginning of my last race), I realized I was imagining things and started getting ready. Paranoid much?!

By 6am we were ready for breakfast, which consisted of a Kashi 7 grain waffle smeared in almond butter, topped with 1/2 a sliced banana.

It was light enough to settle before running, and substantial enough to get me through the race.

After parking a few streets away, my mom, my friend Christie and I headed towards the starting line.  My mom found her spot while Christie and I picked somewhere between the 8-9 min/mile pace group.

Before long, it was 7:30am and we were off!  As expected, the first half mile was crowded and it was difficult to get into any kind of groove.  Shortly after .5 miles, we found our sweet spot and kept a pretty steady pace the entire time.

By the way… for those of you who have never raced, your official race time comes from a personal time tracker that’s either connected to your bib or attached to your shoe.

I LOVE Winter Park and thoroughly enjoyed running through the neighborhoods surrounding Park Avenue.  Miles seem to go by quicker when you have mansions and adorable & unique houses to look at.

Around the 2 mile mark I started to notice I was the back diagonal of my running pace with Christie.

Do you ever run with someone and either take a stride ahead (holding back a tad) or fall a stride behind (trying to keep up) the entire time?  As much as she denies it, I know this is what Christie was doing.  That girl can keep a pace like nobody’s business and I was grateful she was by my side pushing me to do the same.

Entering the last half mile, I was determined to give it all I had and sprint to the finish line.

Christie and I both took off about the same time, but she beat me by a good 5 seconds.

We placed right after each other in our division, which made me happy.

We immediately grabbed a water bottle (or two), a sweat towel and waited for my mom to arrive at the finish line.  I barely caught her… but there she is on the far left.

She finished in 1:05:53 and I was so proud of her for placing 20th in her category!

GO Mom!

Still cooling off, we walked around for a minute and on the way back to the car stumbled upon the Farmer’s Market.  I almost forgot this happens on Saturday mornings here.

My parents and I used to come all the time growing up, and I need to make a point of coming to it more often! Everything is so fresh. I love it.

Eventually, we made our way back to the car followed by a nice breakfast at First Watch.  It’s no surprise I turned to one of my all-time favorites: the Healthy Turkey omelet.

I traded my mom 2 tomato slices for some of her breakfast potatoes as an extra treat.  Hey, I got a great PR! I deserved it.

😉

Questions?

I’m putting together a running for beginners Q&A video.  I still consider myself a beginner runner, but I’d love to try to answer any questions you might have about getting motivation to run, training for your first race, or anything about running in general.  If I don’t know the answer, I’ll do my best to research or ask others to help.

The floor is yours… ask away!