Love Your Body 10k Race Report (and the New Oven)

Whoah- so much to cover. Too much in fact, so I'm dividing it into parts. Part one will be Friday and Saturday morning. Here goes!

Last Friday our new oven was delivered. I haven't yet had the chance to use it- not even the stove. But we tested out the burners, and the oven (you're supposed to "bake off" the newness of it for 30 minutes). Hopefully soon I will be able to make a second attempt at the banana bread, as I once again have brown bananas on my counter (this time I specifically bought them already ripe- anticipating the bread). Here are before and after pics.

I like that the top is black rather than cream (doesn't show every speck of dirt) and that it has digital controls. It also has a window on the door which the old one didn't have, and the burners are sealed, which means if (when) anything bubbles over, it won't go below the burner- much easier clean-up! When I make the banana bread, I'll update again.

Now on to the race report. I picked up my friend (we'll call her M, since I don't know how she feels about having her name published) and we headed up to the U of U campus. For those not familiar with the area, the campus is up on the side of the mountain and it's not exactly flat. I had seen a map of the course, but wasn't familiar with the specific path, so it was all a surprise. I did well with my hydration (got in my 80 oz. on Friday) and drank water the morning of. I also had a banana with my cereal before heading out.

The forecast called for 80 degrees and sunny, which was great at 9:00 a.m., but it ended up being much warmer than the weatherman led us to believe. Plus, at the last minute, they switched the start of the 5k and the 10k, so the 10k actually didn't go until 9:15. The race was set up so that those doing the 10k would just do the 5k loop twice. I was wearing my running capris, and had my knee brace/strap, and a singlet. I was planning to wear a shirt over for the first part, but after doing a quick run to warm up, I was already plenty warm, so I left it in the car (and boy was I glad). I warned M that I wasn't as fast as she was (she did a half marathon last month in 1:41, and had a Boston qualifying time in a marathon last year- under 3:40), so that she could feel free to run at her own pace ahead of me and we'd meet up at the end. She stayed with me the entire first loop, partly because I think she was being nice, but partly because I was doing pretty well pace-wise.

The very beginning of the race was downhill, which I first thought would be good, but turned out to suck, because then you automatically start out too fast, and you can't get your breathing regulated. Then there was a flat stretch, and about a half mile in the uphill started... and went for about a mile. Seriously, I thought it would never end. But the first loop wasn't bad. There were shady parts, and I was chatting with M here and there, and there was a water stop at the top of the hill, which was about half-way through the loop. Then there was a long straight stretch (in the sun) before heading a bit downhill again. Then another long straight stretch (mostly in the shade) with a turnaround at the end which looped downhill, then back up. We hit mile 3 at around 28:00- not too shabby.

I thought the second loop was going pretty well, until right before going uphill. I was having a hard time catching my breath from running downhill at the beginning. I walked for a bit, then started the run up the hill. That's where the bad news starts. M joked that we should try for a negative split on the second half- ha ha. That would have been really cool, but it was getting hotter, and my body was wearing down. I'm definitely not used to that many hills in my runs, and certainly not mile long climbs. My longest hills are less than a half mile.

Needless to say, I stopped a couple of times to walk, including through the water stop so that I wouldn't spill any of the precious fluid. I drank some and dumped the rest on my head. What I really needed was some Gatorade, though. About halfway through that hill, M had continued on with her fab pace and got pretty far ahead of me. I kept running along, gaining some ground on the second downhill part. I saw M as she was headed back toward the finish and I wanted to push it harder to finish better. But after the straightaway and the slight downhill loop, I had to walk a bit up the hill to head toward the finish line. Then I tried to give it all I had, which by that point wasn't much. I was totally spent. I was hot, and sweaty, and had zero gas left in my tank.

At the 6.1 mile mark, M was there to cheer me on, and I think she said something about "now's the time to really push"- ha ha. There was a sharp corner where you turn to head through the finish line, and I almost fell over. I ran as hard as I could but I saw that the clock was already over one hour, so my goal of finishing under an hour was already lost. But I still pushed hard through the last stretch (200 feet or so), and crossed the finish line at 1:00:20. Not too bad considering all the walking I did up the hills. Plus, my time last week for the Nike+ Human Race was 58:20, but I think my Nike+ overestimated by about .2 miles (according to my lap calculations) , so I'm not sure that I should really count that as a PR since it was a tad bit less than 10k. But anyway, out of 215 women, I finished 97th. At least I was in the top half. I'm not sure how I did for my age group, because the web site has some of the ages wrong (including mine and M's). I like that it wasn't a huge group (the race was limited to 600 women), so I'll probably do it again next year (even though they're opening it to 1000 next time). It was kind of fun to race with just women, and it was a good cause (to promote education and awareness for eating disorders).

And I know you're all wondering how the knee strap worked. Let me just say, either my knee has miraculously healed, or that strap was a gift from heaven. Seriously, I didn't have any knee problems at all (even with all the downhill running). So anyone who has IT band issues, get one of those straps (I'm not sure if the brand matters, but the Pro-Tec definitely gets my vote). I kind of hoped that if I didn't have knee problems that I would have a killer finish time, but apparently the heat and hills got the best of me. Plus, I think I needed more than 2 runs the week before (and those 2 runs barely totalled 10k). I used the strap on my run this morning, too, and no knee problems. Hallelujah! Unfortunately, despite all my stretching after the race, and even icing a few spots, my calves, hamstrings and hips/glutes were so sore and tight afterward. Walking around at the fair and to the football game later was quite painful, and I did have some other knee pain (the inside, not related to the IT band). The knee pain is gone, but my hamstrings and hips are still tight. I need to do some major work this week to stretch them out (if I only had a masseuse and/or a foam roller). My goal this Saturday is to finish under an hour (luckily the race starts at 8 a.m. because the forecast calls for low-80's again). I would really like to go under 58:00, but I'm not sure how many hills there are on the course. Maybe I'll try to drive it when I pick up my packet on Friday. Or maybe I can try MapMyRun and check the elevation. I did find out that one of the Hubs' friends is running that race, even though he has plantar fasciitis, so maybe I'll start the race with him. At least my mom (and possibly one or more of my siblings) are planning to be at the race to cheer for me. Yippee!

Okay, that's all for this part of the update. I'll start another post for the rest of the weekend. Tonight we decided not to go to a sports bar for the football game. We're just going to watch it at home (that way we can start it a little late and fast forward the commercials). We were going to cook up some steaks, but the Hubs was treated to lunch at Rodizio Grill (a Brazilian steakhouse that's all you can eat), so I don't think he'll be hungry at all. So I might just make whole wheat pancakes for dinner- ha ha.

***Later Update***
I found the (upcoming) race course on MapMyRun. Check it out by clicking the button below. Looks like a 200 foot climb until halfway, then a 200 foot descent to the finish. So I think I'll make it a goal to get a negative split for that race. LOL. Plus, I think I'll carry some type of electrolyte replenisher with me (maybe a small bottle of Powerade Zero mixed with water- that worked well on my 9-miler a while back).


***Even Later Picture Update***
Okay, I totally forgot to post a picture of myself before the race. I'm wearing my new capris, and my knee strap. You can also see my "I Am A Runner" bracelet, and the purple ribbon is for eating disorder awareness. Don't mind my lovely hairdo- I took my visor off just before the picture, then put it right back on. Ha ha.