This Saturday, I finished my first real race, the Brooklyn Rock ‘n’ Roll 10k. It was an amazing experience, and I can say that I have been bit by the running bug once again!

I woke up at 5:30 on an almost freezing Saturday morning, kind of freaking out about how I was going to run in my prepared outfit of running capris and a light long sleeve shirt when it was only 39 degrees outside. I piled on some more layers and hoped for the best when the sun would rise.

We were on the road by 6AM, an hour and a half before the start time of the race, and we made it to Prospect Park within 20 minutes and found a parking spot just across the street from the park. Talk about luck! I opened up the windows in the car and started to strip away my layers because I needed to get used to the temperature. Even though it was brutal at first, we made the walk to the start line and I quickly warmed up. Since we were so early, we even had time to take some goofy pictures. You’re welcome.

Since I registered for the race way before I ever ran anything close to 10k, I had put down my finish time at 1 hour 50 minutes and was put into corral number 12. Back of the line for me! I ended up starting with the corral ahead of me because I knew I could keep up.

The first four miles of the race went pretty smoothly. I took a few walking breaks when I felt myself getting really tired, and I took a bathroom break at mile 3 because I had drank too much water before the race. Of course this stop took forever, and I ended up loosing at least 4 minutes off my time at the end because of it. Oh well!

Mile four of the course brought you back across the start line and this is where the hills began. Going across the start for the first time, I was aware that I was climbing a pretty large hill for the first mile or so, but it did not seem bad at all. Coming across this same hill at mile 4 was brutal. My quads burned the whole way going up and I ended up walking for a good part of the hill. After this first hill, the rest of the course was very hilly, basically up and down the whole way. It was hard and I walked more than I wanted too.

Once I hit mile 6, I sped up. I could see the finish line and I wanted to get there, and quick. I crossed the finish line at 1:17:26. Even though it isn’t a great or competitive time, it is something that I am proud of. A year ago, I wasn’t able to run a mile. What a difference a year makes.

Like I said before, I have been bitten by the racing bug. Lucky for me, I’ve got another race coming up really soon, but more on that a little later!

 What was the last race you ran? How did it go?

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