D Day! Well, a lot of good and bad about today's running of the deseret news 10K!
Went to bed late, but woke up feeling refreshed and ready to go. Drove to the university, and then did a slow 1/2 mile jog to the race start. It was quite exciting to see the other people warming up and doing fast strides - some of those people (probably other FRB'ers) were flying really really really FAST!! It's exciting and fun to see people run that fast!!
I started about 1/3 of the way back in the line, which was about right. I was pretty annoyed because I couldn't get my watch to start after I crossed the starting mat. I normally hear a small beep when I start the timer, but didn't. I actually pulled to the side of the road right after I crossed the starting mat and fiddled with my watch for a few seconds trying to get it to work, but it was way too dark out, I wasn't wearing my glasses, and I just couldn't see well enough in the dark to figure out what was wrong with the darn watch. Decided I better just start running instead of spending more time trying to figure it out. By the time it was light enough for me to see my watch, I could see that I was in the entirely wrong mode! (This never happened to me before, and I felt pretty stupid. . . )
I went into this 10K hoping my body would somehow remember how to run at a quick pace, but not too surprisingly it didn't! I didn't run easy, but I didn't run hard either. I could've pushed harder, and should've pushed harder! I never felt the urge to just quit and walk, which means I definitely ran too slow!! I finally passed someone right before the finish line that I had been inching up on for a few blocks, and that at least made me feel better. Unfortunately, I couldn't see the finish line clock either, so I still had no idea what my time was! Grr!
I grabbed some water, and waited for the marathoners to come in. It was quite exciting to see the 1st and 2nd place men come in. It was a quite close finish with the winner sprinting unbelieveably FAST the last 100 yards! What a kick he had at the end!! About 10 minutes later the 3rd place finisher came in, then I started seeing some FRB'ers finishing and looking very strong! Saw the first place female come in, with Allie about 10 seconds behind her. Allie was running very well, and looked very strong!! I watched a few more marathoners finish, then walked to the "26 mile marker" and cheered on more of the marathon runners from that location. It was really awesome seeing all the strong runners finishing the marathon!!! (I'm sure many of them were probably FRB'ers.)
Then I decided I'd better get rolling so I walked home, where one of my kids kindly gave me a ride back to where I left my car earlier. Then I drove back to liberty park where, wearing my glasses, I could finally see the time posted for me. It was was a slow 1:00:30. Ouch!! (I didn't think I would be running very fast, but did think I would be under 1 hour!!)
Well, even though I didn't run as fast as I would've liked to, I still had a very fun day watching the very fast 10K racers warming up, watching the fast marathoners finish, etc. And, I am very very thankful I was able to run without pain or other injuries!!! Now it is time to start planning how to redeem my slow time . . . | 
