Charlotte 10 Miler

On Saturday I ran the Charlotte 10 Miler.  I had set my alarm clock to 5:50am and was not thrilled to be waking up that early.  I started my race prep which included eating a granola bar and pumping breast milk for Mason's breakfast.  That's a normal step in everyone's pre-race to-do list, right?

As I sat in our home office pumping away, I couldn't help but hear the heavy rainfall outside.  Sigh.  I really wanted to crawl back into bed and forgo the race but something inside me (I think it was crazy Jess) told me to suck it up and head out there.

The race was 30 minutes away so I had plenty of time in the car to sike myself out even more.  It was so cold and the rain wouldn't let up at all.  I had a nice talk with God, in which I said, "God, if you could just stop the rain from 7:45-9:30 am I would be really happy and then you can make it rain the rest of the day." 




A quick blurb about my wardrobe for the race.  After asking Sarah (skinnyrunner) her thoughts on rain running gear, and reading her post, I tried my best to dress appropriately.  From top to bottom Nike running hat (like this), green long sleeve running top from Old Navy, half zip black long sleeve Nike top (kind of like this but mine doesn't have the cool thumb holes), Nike running tights (like these), these Pro Compression socks, and my awesome Brooks PureCadence shoes. On top of all of this I wore an old school wind breaker type jacket which ended up being a TERRIBLE idea.  Although it kept some of the rain off me, it also absorbed a lot of the moisture and ended up soaking me for the entire race.  I literally felt weighed down as I ran all 10 miles.  Oh and of course my Nike gloves.  All of my gear is a couple of years old so all of the links are the most recent examples of similar items.

mile 1 - 8:52
mile 2 - 8:21
mile 3 - 8:34
mile 4 - 8:45
mile 5 - 8:40
mile 6 - 8:46
mile 7 - 8:49
mile 8 - 9:33
mile 9 - 9:40
mile 10 - 8:12
10 miles - 1:28:08, 8:48 min/mile


Aside from the weather the race itself was great.  The majority of the race took place on trails, which ended up being a mix of gravel, mud, and wooden boardwalks.  The only negative I can think of is the last 2 miles ran through a really hilly neighborhood.  I always hate races that end with such a hard push.  I definitely walked those last couple of hills and hurt my overall time because of it.
No race would be complete without my cheeseburger dinner the night before.  We went to Kickstand on Friday night where I "designed" my own cheeseburger, complete with pimiento cheese, bacon, using an english muffin as the bun.  Oh my goodness this combination may be my favorite yet.  I totally think Kickstand should offer a contest where participants create their own burgers and then other diners can vote on their favorite.  The winner then gets their burger on the menu for a short amount of time ... and maybe a year's supply of free cheeseburgers.  You know something like that.  

Next race on the books is the Shamrock 4 miler on March 16th.  I'm proud of myself for driving out to the 10 miler race and giving it all I had, but am definitely looking forward to a shorter race distance.