10K Race Report (long post)

Yesterday I ran my first 10K race in Grand Haven for the Coast Guard Run at the YMCA. PJ and I drove up to Grand Haven the night before and spent the night at his brother's apartment. His sister also met us there so we could have a sibling weekend. Since we arrived at close to 6 we went right to the YMCA to pick up our race packets. PJ and his brother Kyle were running the 5K; their very first races!
After picking up our packets we went to dinner at the Kirby House in downtown Grand Haven. Their food is fantastic! We got the Spinach and Goat Cheese Dip and the Thai Lettuce Wraps to share as appetizers and then I followed them up with a Chicken Caesar salad. I substituted the Caesar dressing with balsamic vinaigrette and it was delicious! After dinner we made a trip to Wal-Mart so PJ could pick out some ear buds to wear since he only had full headphones. I've been using the Yurbuds for a couple months now and I have loved them! PJ tried them out a couple of times for runs at home and was pretty set on buying them as well.
Later we went back to Kyle's apartment and watched Les Miserables (or tried to) but all fell asleep before it ended so we tried to call it an "early night." Only it was about midnight when we finally all attempted to sleep. PJ and I were on our air mattress in the living room with his sister on the couch. I tossed and turned ALL night! It was probably the worst sleep I've ever had. The 6:15 wake up call came very early for this girl!
The three runners got ready and headed out to the races! The 5K was starting at 7:30 and the 10K at 8:30. We arrived at the starting line at 7:15 (a little later than I normally am used to) and anxiously waited for the gun!


PJ, Kyle, and Kali ready for the start of the 5K!

 The boys got ready and warmed up and then the race started. I stalked them at the start and finish for lots of photo ops!


Go PJ go!

 Kyle and PJ stayed together for the whole race. I tracked them both on the "find my friends" app on my phone so I'd know when to really look for them at the finish. Meanwhile I cheered for all of the other runners and had a great time yelling and clapping and slapping the hands of the racers. It makes me want to volunteer at a race, and I may do that for one that is in my town coming up in September. After they crossed the finish line they grabbed a few yummy treats and walked me the block to my starting line. Soon after we got there and I warmed up the gun went off and I began my run! PJ was able to snap a couple pictures of me.

Happy at the beginning of the race :)

I started out in the middle to back of the pack. I picked a couple of runners and tried to keep pace with them. I looked at my garmin about half a mile in and realized I was running way faster than my normal pace. The couple I was running next to were running about a 10 min mile and I'm more used to a 12, so I started slowing down a little. The coarse took us through some neighborhoods and then up and onto Harbor Island where we did a little lollipop turn at mile 2. I was getting a little tired at this point so I grabbed some Gatorade at the water station and tried to keep running at a good pace. I was getting really frustrated because I was needing to walk about 100 yards here and there. I had started out way too fast and it was catching up with me. Once we got back into the neighborhoods we came upon a HUGE hill! There were all these signs posted along the way saying "Run Hard" and "It's Just a Hill." There were a lot of volunteers along this hill cheering people on and getting spirits up which is exactly what I needed.
At about mile 4 I started to feel a little twinge in my left ankle. It hurt whether I was running or walking so I kept up a pretty good pace with some 200 yard walk breaks added here and there. At about mile 5.5 I was really hurting. I was averaging about 200 yards running and 200 yards walking. I had fallen to the back of the pack and was feeling really discouraged. The volunteers were wonderful because they were cheering so hard and it made me realize that just because I'm slower than most of the other runners, I was still managing to run and I wasn't dead last. Finally I ran up the last big incline to the finish line and stopped my garmin at 1:16:05. When I looked at my times I realized I ran the first 5K in 37min and beat my previous PR by 19secs! I also had run 6 miles on the treadmill a week before the race and ran those in 1:25:00 so I was pleased that even through the pain I managed a PR!

Splits (GPS Interval)
	Type	Distance	Duration	Total Duration	Pace	Avg HR	Max HR
1	Interval	1 mi	10:45.15	10:45.15	10:46	175	182
2	Interval	1 mi	11:57.62	22:42.77	11:58	179	184
3	Interval	1 mi	12:49.22	35:31.99	12:50	168	182
4	Interval	1 mi	12:42.81	48:14.80	12:43	167	182
5	Interval	1 mi	12:35.48	1:00:50.28	12:36	177	187
6	Interval	1 mi	13:11.98	1:14:02.26	13:12	174	181
7	Interval	0.17 mi	2:03.47	1:16:05.73	12:07	182	189


I was SO happy to be done! My left ankle and both first toes were hurting pretty bad. I walked back to the car with PJ and his siblings and we went back to Kyle's apartment to get ready for the beach!

Ugly black toenail

Both nights we were in Grand Haven we treated ourselves to Ice Cream! Here's a picture of one of my treats :)

YUM!

I had such a wonderful time watching my husband and his brother run their first races and I had a great time running my first 10K. Definately a successful trip to Grand Haven for their Coast Guard Festival Run. Maybe next summer I'll do both the 5K and 10K...you can do them both for the cost of one race!