Monday, July 14, 2008

Run Like A Girl

This weekend my friend Melanie and I drove to Portland for a 10K race called Run Like A Girl. It was an AWESOME weekend! We stayed with her mom and aunt and we had such a good time. We drove down on Friday and just hung out with her brother and some of his friends that night and Saturday night. Her family is awesome and they have such a close bond...it was just fun to be around them.

The race was on Sunday morning at 7:30am. That meant we had to be up by 6am, but it worked out fine, even though I only got 5 1/2 hours of sleep! The race started and I was up in front, and within the first 1/2 mile I was leading the pack. There were probably 200 other runners that started at 7:30 (there was another group of 450 runners that started at 9am). I didn't know this, but the 7:30am starters weren't being officially timed. I guess if you signed up to run early, people didn't care as much about being timed or "racing" per se. I kept thinking people would start passing me, but I won the race and I couldn't believe it. I ran the 6.2 mile course in about 53 minutes, but I think I could have run faster if there was someone in front pushing me to run faster.

After the race, I talked to the guy who organizes the race and he told me I should have run with the 9am group...but what could I do. Now I know for next year.
I looked on line this morning and found out that the top finisher ran in about 48 minutes. Out of the 450 people that ran later, I would have come in 17th place and finished 3rd in my age group. I was so happy with the race. It was so fun and the trails were crazy, but I loved it. At times I was flying so fast downhill I thought I was going to fall and roll down!! I can't wait to do my next 10K or half marathon. I am probably going to do a half marathon in September. Running just makes me so happy and when I race my adrenaline is pumping like crazy and I remember why I love to race competitively! Today I took the day off because I am a little sore from all the downhill parts, but tomorrow I am back on the road!

4 comments:

xxxx said...

Oh, my gosh, that is AWESOME!!! YAYYY! Good for you! (PS, I am watching Big Brother so we can talk about it!)

Cory said...

that's so awesome you did so well. how fun!

Leah and Mike said...

That is AWESOME, Jill!! You are amazing! I am going to tell all my friends and family about you - that is too cool! I love how much you love running - I wish I loved it that much.

Emily said...

that is awesome, I keep trying to enjoy running but it's just not happening!! congrats on first place!!