10km in 60 Minutes-- Not Quite(?)

This morning I ran the 10km portion of the Calgary Marathon. It was my first road race, and I'm pretty pleased with how the morning unfolded.

First of all, I got up at the ungodly hour of 4:00am. Yes, yes, I know. That seems like an unreasonably early time to wake up for anything on a Sunday morning. But keep in mind, this was my first ever road race, and I wanted to be prepared. *Cough cough* Over-prepared.

I did some yoga to loosen up and drank a ton of water. I mixed some Gatorade for post-race, had a quick shower and ate breakfast. At 5:45am I made sure Tom was awake, and by 6:20am we were out the door.

Since Tom offered to come with me, he acted as my #1 fan, bag-check and camera man. I was very thankful he was with me because it was a big motivator to know he'd be waiting for me at the finish line. An added bonus was that it was pretty cold out, and I was able to wear all my layers right up until about 5 minutes before the start gun. Then Tom took them with him!

I was pretty impressed with the number of people. The start-line announcer said that there were 2700 people running the 10km race. Approximately 900 men, and 1400 women of all ages! Since there were so many people, I started well back in the crowd

Tom took a picture of the two front-runners in the race. I also saw them pass when they had reached the turn-around point (they were going the opposite direction down Memorial), and their pace was absolutely unbelievable! I also thought the energy from fellow runners was amazing. When the front-running woman passed, a group of women running near me broke out into loud cheers for her.

My goal for this race was to fall somewhere between the 61 and 65 minute mark. I've stayed within this window during my training. I had secretly hoped that I would be able to break the 60 minute mark, but I wasn't too set on that particular time.

My gun time was 62 minutes 15 seconds. However, because I started so far back in the pack, some time passed before I actually crossed the start line and my chip was activated.

Chip Time = Gun Time - Time Waiting for Giant Crowd to Move.

I'm still waiting to find out what my chip time is. I don't think I quite broke the 60 minute mark though. But it was close! I guess I'll try again next year. I'd definitely do a run like this again. Especially because the weather was so perfect!

*UPDATE* Chip Time = 60 minutes 32 seconds. SO CLOOOOOSE!

This last shot is of me and my finishing medal. I'm holding my running bib.

Woo-hoo!