Beirut 10K 2013

This past Saturday I ran the Beirut Memorial 10K on a base on the edge of town.  This is my second time doing it and I enjoyed it as much this year as I did last year.  My goal was to run it at about an 11:00 mile pace and I told my husband, "In 1 hour 6 minutes".  Well, I actually both met and exceeded my goal.  

I ran the 10K in seconds under 1 hour 6 minutes.  Because 10K is 6.2 miles and not just 6 miles I actually ran faster than my goal -- 66 minutes would've been a perfect 11:00 pace for 6 miles, but 66 minutes averaged to about a 10:38 pace for 6.2 miles.  Woot!!

It was very cloudy and a bit humid, but cool.  The run goes through both a wooded path and asphalt streets on this small base.  I just love the wooded part of the run and told a couple runners at the end of the race the wooded parts make me feel like I'm a trail runner.  We were running around huge puddles from all the rain we've had here and the ladies agreed with me.  :)

I almost ran without my Garmin (GPS watch), but then I decided to keep it....just in case I started to slow up too much.  However, I headed out at a good pace and allowed myself to run a bit "fast" and not worry about having to save energy for the end.  I figured I'd hold back just enough to see if naturally I could settle in a quick, but steady pace to make my goal time.  I could tell that I was pushing a little more than the pace I ran the 1/2 marathon at and it felt good.  

There were a handful of us who had run the 1/2 marathon and one lady was really struggling at the end.  I told her, "We got this!! It's only 1/2 of the 1/2 marathon.  No biggie!!"  We smiled and she did end up finishing a minute or two ahead of me. 

This was my last race for this year and I had a great time.  It was nice to feel strong and to be able to say that running 6.2 miles wasn't hard at all.  :)  

Oh, but my one "bad" thing that happened...kind of funny actually... I had to go "#2" before I left my house, but decided I'd wait and go at the race so I could empty my intestines in one try.  Um, yea...but then I couldn't go -- I felt rushed.  So, I ended up at the start and had to go to the bathroom.  I told myself I could hold it for an hour, and thankfully I didn't have to go so bad that I had to stop.  I was able to hold it, but once in a while I was reminded that I needed to use the restroom.  lol  It made me laugh, because it's things like that that you read about in Runner's World magazine and so when it happens I am almost proud of it it.  Like, "Yes! I'm a real runner with a real runner problem!!"  *giggle*

I told myself if that was the worst thing that happened then I was doing great.  It was and I did great!  :)