Black Cat Road Race

Today was the big day.  The day that I've been training for (and freaking out about) since December.  It was the Black Cat Road Race!

Last night my friend Stacey came over and we had a little pasta party to get ready for the race. 

We made whole wheat pasta with homemade sauce, and roasted eggplant.  Yum!

The race started at 8 am in Salem, which is about half an hour from my house.  We woke up really early and left my house a little after 6:30 am.  My brother's gf was running the race too, so we decided to carpool, and my brother and CJ came along for moral support.  

For my pre-race breakfast I had a glass of OJ, a bagel with cream cheese, and a cup of coffee.

When we arrived at the race, we picked up our bibs and tech shirts.  I was pretty happy that the tech shirts were long sleeves! I also got a pair of gloves, which I wore during the race since it was pretty cold this morning.

check out the dork in the neon pink headband

At a few minutes after 8, we were off! 

Yulia ran ahead since she's a speed demon.  Stacey and I decided to run together since we both wanted to run at a 9 min/mile pace.  The course started off mostly flat with a few hills.  I felt like the majority of the first half was downhill, with one major uphill.  The first 3 miles flew by, and I was feeling pretty good. There were lots of gatorade and water stations, which is helpful.  I still haven't mastered drinking out of a cup while running thing, but I figured out a new technique this time, and it was better than spilling water all over myself. I pinched the top of the cup so that it was narrower and easier to control.  It seemed to work out.

At mile 4.5, there was a bathroom stop, which I didn't take advantage of and I definitely should have.  Mile 4.5 was also the turnaround, and the course went back the same way.  This was ok, but I felt like there were alot more uphills on the way back.  At mile 6, I took my energy gel.  This is also where I lost my gloves.  I tried to take them off and dropped one.  There was no way I was going to go back for a measly glove!

At around mile 7, I started to fall back from Stacey.  This made me feel disappointed in myself, but I just knew I couldn't keep up, so I started to slow down.  For the remainder of the race I tried to keep my pace at about 9:30- 9:45 min/miles.  The last 3 miles of this race were a huge struggle for me.  I was trying to push myself, but I was running out of steam and my feet were getting pretty sore.  This was my first time running 10 miles so I just wanted to finish it.

The best feeling was seeing the finish line.  Right when I crossed it, the song "Halleluah" by Paramore came on my iPod and I couldn't have picked a better song for how I was feeling.  I was just so happy to finish!

My time was 1 hour 34 minutes and  15 seconds. 

The finishers medal makes it all worth it!