Every time I race, I try to take a lesson out of it and this time the message was pace yourself! It took forever for the race to start once they got us organized at the start line. First they had a few speeches, then a blessing from an aboriginal, and just when you thought that was it, they sang the anthem! It was too much, especially when you have pre-race jitters. So once the race finally started, I was anxious and went out too fast. I was feeling great at that pace, so I decided to keep it up. If I wanted to beat 50 min, I figured I would have to push my comfort zone anyway. The problem was that at about 7km I realized my pace was maybe a bit ambitious and I totally ran out of gas. I thought I was either going to pass out or puke, and the last 3 km was killer. When I rounded the corner saw that I had about 500 meters to go, I have never been happier to see a finish line in my life. Usually I pick up the pace and finish strong but as soon as I saw the time was at 47 minutes, I slowed down, fixed my hair (I had to look good incase there was a photographer at the finish line), and finished in 48 minutes on the dot. (There was no photographer. Major boo) I was so happy that I beat my time but immediately felt like I was going to pass out. I made Bill raid the post-race snack goodies while I walked it out. Once the dizziness passed, I realized I had run my first sub-50 min 10km and was soooo happy. We peaced out on the post-race events and went out for Vietnamese Pho afterwards to celebrate. I'm guessing Pho is probably not the best post-race recovery food but I felt like I had earned it.
In other news, Bill ran his 10 km in 41-something minutes. He also had the same epic fail as me and went out too strong. So lesson learned, next time I'm pacing my self properly right out of the gates and then if I can pick it up around 5km I will do so.
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