First Race: Fa-La-La 10K

Getting motivated to run in Boulder is not tough. There are lots of lovely places to go, and the weather has been really gorgeous lately. But just in case I found myself dragging, last month I signed up for a 10K in December and a half-marathon in January so I'd have another reason to lace up my shoes. My Meetup friend Lindsay picked me up on Saturday morning and I was feeling a bit nervous as we drove to nearby Westminster. I worried that I hadn't put in much training lately. And athletes in this part of the country tend to be very good--pros live here because training at altitude helps them so much, and the overall culture is a very active one--and I wondered how I'd stack up against the competition. I'd built up a thick skin, though. After racing in New York, I was used to less-than-impressive division results simply because there are so many people in each race. Here, as in New York, I figured I'd stay just above the halfway point in the pack, not because there are huge numbers of people but because the small number have huge talent. It wasn't new, but the prospect of continuous mediocrity is not a pleasant one.

It was chillier than predicted and so Lindsay and another Meetup girl I'd met that morning hung out in Lindsay's car with the heat on until just about the last minute. Then we found spots in the back of the corral just as the race began. The course wound around a large park in Westminster that is probably quite pretty when it's green. I ran with the other girls for a few moments, then, feeling good, I decided to pick up the pace a little. 

What followed was one of the more fun 10K races I've done. The Thursday before I'd done a pretty long run and I'd followed it with a pretty fast run on Friday, so I expected my legs to be toast for the race. I felt wonderful, however, and passed people consistently, a pattern I'd maintain until I crossed the finish line. I'd been indifferent about my overall result initially, but because the course consisted of two out-and-backs, I realized pretty early on that I'd worked my way closer to the front of the pack than I'd expected. I wasn't sure how old the women in front of me were (nor even how the age groups were divided), but I decided about halfway through the race that I was going to try to beat as many of them as I could to see how I fared in my division (whatever that was). 

I was tired when I crossed the finish line (and a bit sore the next day), but generally I felt pretty good, not at all as though I'd exerted a massive effort. So I was astonished to learn the following:

1. On this hilly course at an altitude of over a mile up, I'd run a faster 10K than any I ran in New York by about a minute.

2. I'd taken 7th place overall (among the female competitors, of course).

3. I'd placed 4th in my division.

The winning women's time was nine minutes faster than mine, and the third-place finisher in my division came in three-and-a-half minutes before I did, so I don't have to torture myself thinking that if I'd just gone a little faster I'd have earned whatever the third place prize was; no way I was going to catch her.

The girls and I, along with another friend who'd run the 5K, celebrated our achievements with brunch afterward and had a lot of fun. I can't wait now for the half-marathon. I don't have enough time to really put in the kind of training that will give me much more of an edge for this one, but it's fun to know that I'm a bit of a competitor in my new environment!