Girls on the Go 10K

Yesterday I ran the Girls on the Go 10K. It's a rest week for me so I only had 10K scheduled to do. This race popped up on my radar and it had a pretty medal so I decided to do it. I also thought it would "make" me do a little speed work/tempo running which I haven't been as diligent with as I should be. I didn't taper for it...

Last week's numbers:
Running - 33 miles (14, 5, 3.1, 6.4, 4.5)
Cycling - 121 miles
Gym - 5 hours

...and I wasn't expecting much, maybe 11 min miles? I'd set a post chemo 10K PR time of 1:08 and change at the Leading Ladies Marathon and I was just hoping to beat that.

So...I didn't eat breakfast or even drink water before the race because I got there too late and had to park too far away. I also didn't get to use the restroom. Oops. But it was in Bonelli and I always enjoy running thru there and the weather was perfect. After days of 108 (feels like 113...or a bajillion degrees) earlier in the week, overcast and 60s felt like heaven. I was ready for some fun!

The race started at 7:10 and they were right on time. Lots of women in the start corral, of course, but some men/boys too. It was great to see mothers and daughter in the crowd too. Once it started, I took off and weaved my way thru the runners ahead of me. The first portion has a little bit of an uphill and then a nice long downhill. I was flying. For me, anyway. :) I'd done this course many times and knew exactly what to expect. We ran along the dam and the shore of the lake and then had to cross a little stream. Usually, I just run right thru the stream but they had set up a portable bridge so I went ahead and used that. Then we had a short section of dirt and then we were back on pavement.

I stopped at the turnaround aid station and got some "Gatorade" but it was awful and I don't think it was Gatorade. I spit it out. Yuck! I was carrying water in my small handheld so just continued to drink that (I always race with a handheld so I don't contribute to the trash of a race). Anyway, after that there was nothing to do but put my head down and run. We had one large hill to get over and then it was on to the finish.

I was getting tired at the end but finished strong and quicker than I'd hoped - 1:05:10! Woo! That felt good and was a lot of fun. This is my medal:

Pretty, eh? I love that the writing and butterflies are in teal. Perfect for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month (teal is our color). Yes, that's one of the reasons I ran it. I wanted to celebrate my 1 year anniversary (September 30th) of finding out I had Ovarian Cancer with something positive instead of something somber/depressing. What better way to do it than to race with women/girls this month?

I feel really good about my effort there. I will be running this same course again in November and I hope I can get closer to, maybe beat, my PR of 54:55 then. Cross your fingers!