St Charles Running Festival 10 miler - Race Report

• Race Name: St Charles Running Festival 10 miler
• Race Date: April 14, 2012
• Race Location: Blue Crabs Stadium
• Race Distance: 10 mile run
• Division: W 30-34
• Total Time: 1:37:44
• Age Group Placing: 11/30
• Overall Placing: 181/328 (overall)

Pre-race

Online registration for this race. (I’d say 99% of them are these days!) They sent out the course maps in the week leading up to the race; they also provided them on their website. Very well organized and supported run. The volunteers were out in force. I loved that they opened the stadium so we could use those bathrooms pre-race. Since it was at the stadium, there was plenty of parking, which was great. I thought it was a bit odd for them to give out the race packets (minus the bibs) after the race, but it worked well.

Woke up around 6am, got ready, packed up, had a Luna bar for breakfast, and drank some water with it and then on the way to the race. We started at 8:15, but had to do packet pickup before 7:30.

The weather was great today! It was sunny and 53 degrees at the start, with a southwest wind of 11mph. It was a nice, small race of 328 people. Love small races – sometimes they’re more awesome than bigger ones!

Run

My longest training run was 4.5 miles. I was sooooo not ready for this race going into it. I was glad that today turned out the way it did. I wore my headsweats visor and sunglasses today. Love them. The biggest decision was jacket or no jacket. I decided to wear it. I was glad to have it, even if I did get warm around mile 7. There were 2 major hills – mile 4.5 and then all of mile 7. I was happy that both went well! There wasn’t a lot of crowd support, but it was nice and quiet. Sometimes, you need a race like that. I was able to get into my head and just be content. Having spent this week as stressed as I have, I needed the ability to do that today. My average pace was 9:44/mile. Only one of the miles was over 10 minutes. That was the one with the mile long hill, so I wasn’t worried about it.

At the mile 6 water stop, I got a reality check. Sometimes, the volunteers have more of an affect on you than they realize. There was a girl in a wheelchair there handing out water to runners. It was in that split second that any crazy thoughts in my head disappeared. I’m blessed to be able to do what I do. I have always thought so, but today was a great reminder of that.

At mile 9, I was so happy to almost be done. Not because I wanted to stop running, but because I wanted to know how Jon had done in the 5k and how Adam had done with his run. I also really wanted to see Aiden and Rion run the kid’s run. I also realized I was going to break 1:40:00… and my predicted time was 1:45 – 1:50!

Post-Race

Post race was great. I still felt really good – like I could’ve run a bit more if I really wanted. I grabbed a bunch of snacks, Gatorade, and water. Then, I walked over and got my shirt and duffle bag and looked for my family. Jon found me, which is always good. Race results were emailed to us before we got through lunch! They were posted online later in the day. The mileage was off by .05 miles, but nothing huge.