Jubilant. Joiosa

I ran the 10K this morning, flat flat flat....which I don't really love, but it went unbelievably well.

They were a fit crowd, and as we're lining up for the start, I'm positioning myself at the back cause I'm hoping to get around in 1 hour, 30 min.  That has to be back of the pack time.  Unfortunately, everyone around me looks distressingly fit.  Distressingly fit.

I was worried they would drop me out the back within the first kilometer, and I'd continue from there alone.

Then I had a little sense and realised that lots of other folks think the same.  Maybe not about me, but think the same.

So, off we went.  And it was fine.  I found someone to run behind, and we went and went, but I passed him, I couldn't go that slow.  On one of the uphills, early on, before the second kilometer I came up on a girl, maybe 20, who was already walking.  I jogged by her, called out that she could do it, let's go!

Then I worried that the poor thing might be pushed to hard at the start, but I had dropped her and I wasn't looking back.  Eventually I found a woman to run with, just the right pace for me.  I tailed happily along behind her, till my watch buzzed to tell me my first split, which it does at 1 mile, or 1.6Km.  Turns out I'd run a 10:10, a personal best by a LOT.  That worried me, it is a typical problem, going out too fast and then blowing up at the end.  So I tried to slow down.  Next split, 10:05.  Hmmmm.  Well, as I felt great (relatively speaking) I figured I'd just keep going and pay the piper down the road.  I didn't have a single split that wasn't a PB and just as we came into the finish, after a good K of uphill work (not very uphill, but nonetheless) I rounded the corner, decided I could put on a little more speed and looked at the clock.  1:04!!!!!!

Never in a million years would I have thought that I could run a 1:04!!!  I was ECSTATIC!!!! And a long way from the back of the pack, indeed as I look around the net, that is a pretty respectable time for a casual runner.  (Though I am s.l.o.w.)

The man also did really well, he was hoping for 55 min (which his wife was somewhat scornful of) and he finished in 49:19!

Go the MAN!

YEAH!

And, icing on the cake?  My toenail didn't fall off!