PR 10K back in May

Long overdue post, I know. The terrible marathon post will be next.

Back in May, hubby and I ran the Police Appreciation Run 10K in downtown St. Pete. At least one of us has done it every year since it began in 2011, and I'm sure we'll do it every year to come in support of Lorraine Yaslowitz's (wife of a fallen officer) foundation.

This inspiring race video was made by Erik Mathre.


To see me and hubby finishing, scroll to 4:47.

Also you can click here for a link to his photo gallery from the race.

Something amazing happened that day. I wasn't trying to PR, just wanted to keep up with hubby. So I guess if I want to PR in the future, the goal should be to keep up with someone faster than me.

We started off too fast for me with a group of his buddies. I thought to myself, I'll keep up for as long as I can, and I'll back off when I have to. I expected to slow after three miles (halfway) but that point came and went, and I still had hubby in my sights. He and some of the faster guys had gotten ahead, but not much.

At mile four, I still didn't have to slow down. I was okay to keep holding the pace. That's what amazed me. I'm not usually able to hold such a quick pace (later learned it was a shocking 8:36 per mile). At that point, hubby turned back and saw that I was close behind. He slowed to stay by my side for the rest of the race.

By mile five, the pain kicked in. It was really tough to hold it, but with only a mile and point two to go, hubby talked me through it, encouraging me to hold the pace and finish strong. He called me super wife, and that made my day, too. He knows that my love language is words of affirmation (read The Five Love Languages, please).

At the last turn, I prayed, Please, God, let it be under one hour. My former PR was one hour basically on the dot. I feared that I'd misjudged just how fast or slow I was going (no timers along the course). It felt fast, but I honestly didn't know.

The finish line appeared, along with the timer. It said 53-something. My eyes probably played tricks. I couldn't be coming in seven minutes faster than my best 10K.

And yet, I did. We crossed, and with chip time, my new 10K PR is 53:21.

Hubby was very proud and bragged on me. I have to admit, I was proud, too. All the hard work and years of running is actually starting to show. I don't expect to PR at all my races, but it was really exciting to have that moment where I realized I had made some serious strides.

Comments

  1. Hi Bria - I stumbled onto this post and very much enjoyed reading about your PR last May, as well as the photo album and the video. Thanks so much for your participation and support.

    Chris Lauber, Race Director
    Partners For Life Police Appreciation Run

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Chris! What a privilege to hear from you. That race is one of my favorites, you do an excellent job. Also for the many other races I believe you are responsible for...thank you!

      Delete

Post a Comment