Humble Hill - Lessons from Last Place.

Humble Hill - At least that’s what I thought the 10K should be called that I ran in today. In the first 1.4 miles of the race you climbed about 425 feet in elevation. And at about 1.4 miles into the race I was in dead last place – the glorious caboose. So here are the wonderful and hard lessons learned from finishing my first ever 10K in that oh-so-not-coveted place.

Three weeks of intense exercise does not make up for 3 months of non-intense exercise.

Think of how many other runners that I just made their day, especially if their goal was not to finish in last place. Sigh

Those 13 extra pounds I gained over the winter really did slow me down.

Running in constant Northwest Liquid Sunshine really did at poundage to my clothes. So I probably ran a good 3-7 lbs heavier. Not to mention the lake sloshing around in my shoes. The good thing about the rain is that it kept me cooled off. The bad thing is my hands and feet went a bit numb.

Three weeks of no sleep probably did affect my results. This week I’m sleeping a ton.

Just because I ran a half marathon in December doesn’t mean I can run any old race and have the same wonderful feeling of euphoric accomplishment.

I blessedly signed up with a huge group of the world’s best friends. They stuck around for me to finish and were all still cheering me on at the finish line. I was the only one silly enough to attempt the 10K while the rest were smashing in the 5k.

At least my mile average time in this year’s 10K was faster than my mile average time for the 5K last year; which means I’m stronger and faster than I was last year at twice the distance.
I now have a huge desire to only get better and demolish my time in this same race – Next YEAR.

At least I didn’t quit. I’m a finisher. I did pass someone who had to pull out and they weren’t too happy about it.

I got the blessed privilege of informing all the race volunteers, handing out water, directing traffic and taking pictures that they could now pack it up and get out of the weather and get warm because I was what they had been waiting for all day long.

And the number one thing that I learned – Is that I never want to finish in last place again.

Final time: 1 hour 15 min. ?sec. The first two straight-up hill miles were 13 min miles and the rest were closer to 11.5 min miles. I know it’s slow but I think I only walked about 30 steps on a steeper portion of the hill the rest was full out slow-mo jog. That and it’s my first effort of the season. Prince Erik did a bang-up job and finished in 54 minutes. Not bad for his first 10K attempt.

Next Race – Next Week – Flat Course – Thank Heavens.