My first 10K!

On Thanksgiving, I participated in my first-ever 10k race! I knew I wouldn't be winning any medals, but it was a fun event and I'd do it again next year.

The race started in the morning, probably while a lot of people were roasting their turkeys. I was a little nervous, but I had been training for about two months, so I knew I could do it. The training itself was very motivating; it got me back into weight lifting and encouraged me to increase my distance.

The race took us around Highland Park and near the lakefront, mostly in residential areas. I kept a pretty steady pace the whole time, and there were these two women who kept passing me and then walking, then running again. It was really annoying. Eventually, on the last two miles, I finally outran one of them and the other one hurt her foot. So there. Don't yo-yo me.

Final time was 1:06:41. Not too shabby; that's a pace of about 10:44 per mile, which is good for me for that distance. But I'm going to try to train really hard this winter and next summer to bring the time down to under an hour next year. I'd like to be running more consistently around the 10-minute mile mark.

There are some photos posted to the event where I am clearly having a rough time with a big red face, but here is a photo of me finishing that I think is pretty cool!

I've been running at the gym about every other day now that it is too cold to run outside. There are packs of women that run on treadmills and chat the whole time. Just shoot me now.

Thanks for a good time, Turkey Trot! See you next year, and thanks for the swag bag hat!