2010 Fun Run #1

Two weeks ago today I completed my first fun run of the season.  The weather was cold, but not as bad as I expected it to be.  In fact, my ear warmers broke 30 seconds before the race, but I didn't really miss them.

This year I was more than excited for the first race.  I have maintained my fitness level all winter, although I only started running about 4 weeks before the race (I did aerobics classes instead of running for most of the winter).  I was counting down the days to May 1st, and I spent an afternoon or two getting my dusty MP3 player ready with a playlist specifically designed for a 10K.

My goal. . . was to finish well.  I hoped to do as well as last year's last race (around 54 minutes), and secretly I wanted to see if I could beat the girl in the pink shirt that I tried so hard (unsuccessfully) to keep up with last year. 

I started off the race a) looking for a garbage bin to throw away my ear warmers and b) overcoming some user error on my MP3 player.  It seemed like everyone was passing me!  But I got into my groove and made some seriously strong passes on the first set of slopes.

Then on the first straightaway of the second half of the race I spotted the girl in the pink shirt (she is still wearing pink this year) and slowly tried to make some ground.  I made a couple of passes, but all those people overcame me when I slowed for my drink before the last two km. 

As I neared the end of the course, I was able to speed up and check out my watch.  I was just hoping to get done in 53 minutes.  I will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.  Isaiah 40:31 was in one of the songs I was listening to, which you'd think would be encouraging, but actually made me suck air a bit too much. 

Well, when I finished (I passed my key competitor, by the way), I remembered that the race started 3 minutes late, so I actually shaved 3 minutes off my goal!

Here are the stats:


Congratulations on finishing the fun run
on May 01, 2010.  For your records, the weather that day was
Sunny and warm, High near 70 degrees, 10MPH headwind.   (NOT REALLY)

There were 27 finishers in the Female 30 to 39 age group and
112 finishers in the race.

Your overall finish place was 55 and your age group finish place
was 14.  Your overall finish percentile was 49 while your age group
percentile was 52.  Your time of 49:53.9 gave you a  4:59 pace per KM.

We hope to see you again next year.

Well, I'm thrilled that I finished in under 50 minutes, but I'm in awe of the fact that I was still in the 50th percentile for finishers (and that's why I haven't posted until now. . . they kept saying that there were some mistakes in the overall finish times and they'd update the results, but now it seems that there is a female in my age group that actually finished the course in 35 minutes.  Seriously.)  Apparently, everyone else improved, too, and there were a lot more runners this year. 

It's silly that I'm a little disappointed by that.  Somehow I guess I was hoping to be a superstar in Idaho women aged 30-39.  Ha, ha, ha.  But reality is that I just have to shoot for PR instead.  Also, I am truly thankful that I can keep running, that I haven't had any injuries, and that Tim supports me by letting me get up at 5:30 each morning, which means an early bed time each night.

Next fun run is early June.