Back in late July I signed up for a 10K. My sister convinced me to. And, I have to admit, it was a bucket list kind of goal for me.
I dutifully sort of trained.
I could jog a couple miles, could even push through a 5K. And that's about it.
So considering a 10K is twice as much as a 5K, I wasn't really prepared for this.
And I had to be up at 4:30am...which I will never, ever be prepared for.
And 10K runners are really perky at ungodly hours, including my sister. Although she tried to dial it down so I didn't strangle her.
The race rules stipulated that you had to run 16 minute miles or they would pick you up on the course and you weren't allowed to finish. My only goal was to not get swept.
Sean insisted all along that I could make it with a run/walk combo. I was still weary of his confidence considering he runs a million miles a month.
My sister thought there was no chance we would be swept (she also runs a million miles a month like Sean) until she saw the lady holding the 16 minute pace flag dangerously close to us. My sister asked about the sweeping and the very stern pace lady said, yep, they would be doing a "hard sweep" at the four mile mark.
We made it past the hard sweep by about 45 seconds.
The most entertaining moment was when I told my sister to text Sean that we got swept and I was crying. Sad that we were going so slow she could text and jog at the same time, but it was sadistically fun to hear his freaking out texts being relayed from her. I have a terrible sense of humor.
So, with the run/walk combo, the patient sister, the text message entertainment, and the scary 16 minute pace flag lady behind us I finished my first 10K.
And my last. I am never doing that again.
But I would be happy enough to jog a 5K that starts after 8am.
