Reston 10 miler

My Half Marathon is 2 weeks away.  This weekend I was scheduled for a 10 mile long run.  I decided it was more likely I would actually do it if I did a race, so I decided to run the Reston 10 miler.  My first 10 mile race ever.  I was a little nervous and I gotta be honest, did NOT want to get up and go run this morning.  It was cold and then rain and sleet were supposed to move in around 10am.    My last 2 long runs, 9.4 and 8 were the same way.  I didn't want to run them, but I forced myself and they turned out to be some of the best runs I've had...so with that in mind, I saddled up and headed out.

Who knows what I'm going to want at the end of the race?  Better take one of everything!

I look a little shell-shocked, like I can't believe I'm actually going to do this.

Feeling a little better about getting started.

Very happy that I did it.

It actually turned out to be a really good race for me. That seems to be a theme lately.  My pace wasn't quite as fast as I hoped.  I'd wanted to stay right around 10:00 min/mile, but it ended up being closer to 11:00min/mile.  There were a lot of hills, but I'm not going to make excuses.  I'm  actually happy with my run, because for the first time ever I didn't STOP at all, not even once!!!  I didn't walk at the water stations, I didn't stop and fake tie my shoe, I didn't stop and pretend stretch a cramp and I didn't walk at all!  I'm so happy with that!  I could have done another 3 - so I'm feeling pretty good about the half in 2 weeks.   I think all the Erging I've been doing is obviously helping out, and the running on the treadmill doesn't seem to be hurting me either.  For the most part, I'm feeling pretty strong and ready to go.  Now, I just need to stay healthy until it's done!