10K

It's 3 hours since I finished the 10K. I'm still kind of in shock that I did it, I think.

• I learned that I feel warm and fluid after 4 miles. I've been told that some people don't find it until later like that but I didn't believe it until I experienced it.
• Part of that was that I took my final hit off the inhaler at mile 4 and that breathing boost helped immensely. There is a learning curve to the inhaler- making sure enough of the medication gets back into the lungs.
• Christy is an amazing running coach. She could take off and run faster and be done ahead of me. But she chooses to go slower and help me in the process. And she also helps me work through form issues and breathing stuff as we're going.
• My goal was to finish in less than 90 minutes. I did it with 15 seconds to spare.
• The water break just before mile 5 wasn't necessary for me and I might have done better if I hadn't had that water break.
• I did have to stretch out my left hip after mile 5. My left leg suffers from poor form way more than my right. The good news is that I can really feel it and I know what I'm doing wrong when I get lazy and I know how to correct it.
• I was worried that my shoes would lead to cold, wet feet. They are meshy and I wear them without socks. My feet were definitely wet but not cold and the wet ended up being a unique opportunity to really feel how my feet work in those shoes. It's like the water introduced a new sensation to my feet that made me more aware of them- so it added to the learning experience.
• The rain backed off incredibly for the hours of the race!! It was cloudy and gray and damp and puddley. There were times it was misty and even spitty- but it felt good. The starting temp was 52. Post race it was 38!
• My post-race shower was one of the BEST showers I've ever had. I even used some scrubby Arbonne stuff on my feet- they deserved it.
• Approaching mile 6, I took a walk break. My left butt cheek was continuing to twinge- the stretching had helped but not completely fixed it. As I'm walking, a sudden charley horse gripped my lower left calf. It was awful. But I pushed through. I kept thinking of the reward I'd promised myself...
• The best place to eat after the race was Henry's on East. I'd heard about it from a FitCity Mom Blogger friend- she had shared a menu item that I had to have... a Nutella and banana panini. We walked in and I barely made it to the counter before my desperation for my reward overflowed. I was hungry- I ate the panini, enjoyed my mocha, and had half of Christy's amazing breakfast burrito (egg, chorizo, cilantro, red onion, and an amazing cilantro lime and sour cream sauce).
• If you plan to do a run in the rain, plan to have the following in your car for afterwards: a change of clothes, dry socks and shoes, and a towel. I had everything but the clothes- I was fine but might have been happier with a fresh shirt.

I had several old school runners tell me that I'd be hurting myself running in my Merrell Barefoots for 6.2 miles. That my knees and ankles would be shot. Guess what? My joints were fine and the hip pain is something that I know what caused it and how to fix it. I ran a 10K in minimalist shoes. I'm still shaking my head over that one. I completed a 10K.

Pics of my feet. Just to show that my feet didn't take huge damage by wearing my minimalist shoes, these are pics of the bottoms of my feet once we got back to the car. I think I would have had less of a blister on my left foot with improved form and if the conditions had been dry.

Left Foot:
Right Foot: Left foot once I'd gotten home, made lunch for the kids, gotten Jeff out the door for a fun afternoon with his friend, gotten the kids settled in front of the TV, and I'm about to finally get a shower: Much thanks to my friend Emily for snapping this pic of Christy and I as we are about to cross the finish line!! Kudos to my fellow runners- Ashli, Emily, Carol, Christy, Jessica, Amber, Tori, Kyle's dad, the guy who basically ran with us the entire way, Aaron from work and his wife, and I'm sure there are other people I knew down there. Kudos to the volunteers who stood in the cold and rain and handed out water, blocked traffic, directed our route. Our favorite volunteer from the last race was there- near the end, full of energy and encouragement.

Up next... 15K on April 9th.