My First 10K race

Well folks. I did it. My first 10K race done.

Let’s go back to the beginning starting with my arrival at the park. I get there and line up with all the other 5K and 10K trail racers.  These other 10K people looked rather serious and were wearing trail runners. By golly at this point I knew I made a terrible mistake: not by choosing to do a 10K but by blindly choosing the trail race which in turn was an actual trail.   AN ACTUAL HIKING TRAIL opposed to a well manicured trail like the boom camp trails.

So I begin the race, of course too fast since the adrenaline was flowing. At first it was fine and we did some of the race on the road and I thought “okay not so bad”. However, once we got to the actual trail I knew from that moment I was going to take a lot longer than usual. The other racers were just flying, albeit that was the 5K people, meanwhile I was trying not to trip over everything in my wake.

When I got to the turn around the very nice girl thought I was doing the 5K and pointed me in the wrong direction, it’s all good though. Honestly this was my first race and I wasn’t going for any certain time.  Once I got through the first 5K I knew that this trail was for actual trail runners, meanwhile I have been training on the road, you know nice flat surfaces. NOT THE SAME PEOPLE NOT THE SAME.

Alas, I finished the race. Albeit last in the 10K trail category but you know what? I ran my own race. As my mother says, at any race you just run your own race regardless of those around you. This was a great challenge and it was a great mental one. After missing the turnaround I wasn’t angry, I was focused on finishing and running my own race.

At the end of the day I complete my first 10K race by myself at 22 years old. Maybe that’s not an accomplishment for some people, but with how unhappy my lungs have been as of late, this is something that I’m glad I impulsively signed up for one night in my bedroom and got the chance to have a nice Saturday adventure.