Can We Do That Again!?

I loved the race this morning. Absolutely loved it. We arrived at the park at 10.45am and my parents stayed in the car while my sister came with me to register. I was actually surprised how many people were running considering it said that it never fills up and then I started to get nervous! I got my number and went back to the car to sit there for ten minutes before it was time for me to get ready. When I got my number I realised that I was actually going to run a race. There were a lot of people there who were long time runners. The ones with those runners legs that I crave for! It was a really friendly race too, not intimidating at all and thankfully even though it was cold, it wasn’t freezing like it has been for the past month. My sister came with me for a brisk walk around the park to warm-up and there were several people running past me. I don’t know how anyone can warm up before a race with a run!

The race started at 11.30am and since I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, when I saw everyone making their way to the starting line, I just followed behind. I started towards the back because I knew I would be one of the slower ones but I passed a good number of people within the first 3-4 minutes. The first two laps were pretty easy but I started to struggle on the final lap. I had my dad taking photos of me on each lap so you can probably see my struggles as I got further and further into it!

I had quite a few people passing me who were a lap in front of me but I knew this would happen. It didn’t put me off, it just made me want to keep going! The winner of the race ran it in just over 16 minutes which I think is crazy! I could never imagine being able to run that fast.

Half way through the final lap I picked my speed up a little bit to create a smaller gap between me and the group in front of me. I had to slow down again but I sprinted through the finish line and had my time told to me as I ran through. I couldn’t actually believe it when she told me the time.

31.48 minutes!

On Friday when I ran 5K it took me over thirty-five minutes and to cut four minutes off my time is just fantastic! I was definitely in a more positive mood today though and the atmosphere definitely kept me running. I’m so pleased with my time. Before I started training for this race, I really wanted to do it in under thirty minutes but it became clear that I wasn’t going to do that and this time has definitely made me happy. This time put me at 114th place out of 125 people. Considering I thought I only had four other people behind me, I think I did rather well!

Here’s to my next race which will hopefully be a month today at the same place. All the effort  I put in each week is worth the end result of running a race.