Race Report: St Charles Running Festival 10 miler - April 13, 2013

Today, I ran the St Charles Running Festival 10 miler "with" my younger brother. I say "with" because he's a speedy jackrabbit and I couldn't keep his pace for a mile, more or less 10.

I slept like crap last night. By "like crap", I mean I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep. Yay! (Sensing the sarcasm?) At 4:30am, we got up, got dressed, had breakfast, and were out the door by 5:15am.

We got to the Southern MD Blue Crab Stadium around 6:30am. Hardly anyone was at the site yet (packet pickup started at 6), so I got my packet & went to the bathroom without having to wait in any lines.

We sat in the car & waited for my brother and mom to get to the site. As they got there, they joined us in the car. We all chatted for a bit. I ran over to the bathroom again and then back to wait a bit more. At about 8:10, we started walking over to the start line. Adam (my brother) went for a warm-up run and barely made it back before the start. Silly guy! As we walked over, I discovered that despite charging my watch for about 48 hrs, it had a low battery. So tired of my Garmin. Can't wait until my Bia is ready! So, I was watchless.

I should also note that today was my first race with Infinit since we went to a real food diet. This will be important later.

Hanging out at the start line in my Z green

This race is super low-key. There were 234 finishers, so probably not too many more starters. The start "buzzer" went off and we all plodded along. I quickly found my comfortable running pace and just chilled there. I was behind this woman who is in her early 60s. Told her she was such an inspiration and that I hope I'm still running when I'm her age. We played leap frog several times in the race and ran together for a while.

Around mile 4, some dude on a bike was dressed in a Mr. Incredibles outfit and had a boombox blaring. It was a great pick-me-up. I wish he was around mile 8 too.

At mile 5, I walked a little bit after a hill. I was suddenly feeling kind of dizzy and lightheaded. I don't know if it was the warmer weather (given that it's been super cold here until this week) or the Infinit, but it was one or the other. After I regained my bearings, I started running again. I ran the 5 miles in about 55 minutes, and started thinking about Adam and where he was. I knew he'd be getting close to the finish.

At mile 7, there is what I like to call the "hill of death". For being a "flat" course the 2 major hills are killers! The one during mile 7 is just LONG. I ended up walking most of it... and I was fine with that. At mile 8, just before I took a second to walk and text Jon to let him know I was at mile 8.

When I hit mile 9, I texted Jon to let him know I was there. He had texted me after the first text with news that Adam had won FIRST PLACE. At first, I thought he was joking, but then I was just so proud.

First place brother!

Adam had said he may come back for me and sure enough, just after mile 9, he came bounding along. I made him run painstakingly slow for him, but it was so much fun to run with him. We never get to run together, and I really cherished every step of that .75 miles or so.

Coming down the last hill

Ready to be done. So thankful for this time with my lil bro.

Salty butt (again)

Yay finish!

I picked up my race premium and headed back down to see the family. We chatted for a few minutes and then went into the stadium.

Aiden with the cow - Rion was terrified today :(

Chillin at the stadium

Aiden with the lizard

Congrats Adam!

Congrats Adam!

Aiden showing Auntie Heather daddy's trophy

After the awards ceremony, we headed to lunch. I'm surprised I'm not sore, given that I didn't really train at all for this. Given that I was running an average of an 11:29 mile, I shouldn't be too surprised. That's apparently my REALLY comfortable pace.

I really enjoy this race. Next year, Adam's supposed to be at Boston, so we'll both miss it (likely). Too bad, but I'm sure we'll both be back!

Awesome email from the race organization (I wish other race organizations would do this!):

Congratulations Heather on finishing the St Charles Running Festival 10 Miler on April 13, 2013.  For your records, the weather that day was Sunny, 53 degrees with a N wind at 5 mph.

There were 25 finishers in the Female 30 to 34 age group and 234 finishers in the race.

Your 5 Mile Split was 55:14.64, giving you a place of 169 and a pace of 10:57 per mile.

Your overall finish place was   182 and your age group finish place was 19.  Your time of 1:55:17.81 gave you a 11:29 pace per mile.