Aflac Iron Girl 10K

Oh Lordy, what a weekend.

I ran my first 10K on Sunday up at Del Mar. No photos yet but I'm sure they'll be looovely.

Let's see. Saturday night around 3am DH woke me up because my stomach was making such incredibly loud, sustained growls/groans that woke DH up. This is sort of scary since I have problems waking him up when I'm awake! Anywho, he was worried I was going to be sick. I felt fine, rolled over, and slept in until my 5am alarm.

I threw on my new Athletic Skirt from RunningSkirts.com and headed up to Del Mar. (Word on RS - they are AMAZING. I previously wore running skirts from Nike and RS blows them out of the water. The fabric is really thin but sucks up sweat, keeping you cool. Each skirt has two pockets which easily fit lots of Gu, an Ipod, or a cell phone, should you feel inclined. And the shorts have yet to ride up on me. I will be picking up another very shortly - you should too!)

The Aflac Iron Girl is a women-only event and it was great to see so many chicas out and ready to roll so early! The course was two loops around Del Mar and finished on the actual Del Mar track.

I had an easy time around the first three miles. Then I got stomach/intestinal cramps like whoa. I must be blunt here - I was worried I was going to pooh myself. That isn't what you want to be focusing on while trying to keep up with the pack. Trust me.

Because of my stomach issues, I only took one water break. That was a mistake, I think, in that I felt even worse because I am a sweaty, sweaty girl. Gross, I know. Sorry.

Anywho, I made it to the final .25 and ran on the dirt(?) track. Oh it sucked. At this point I felt like absolute ass, my heart rate was way too high and I walked for a portion of it. I felt like such a failure. ESPECIALLY when Polka Dots (remember her from the 8K?) passed me. I had been WAY ahead of Polka Dots for 90% of the race. I just couldn't kick it out enough to catch back up.

Anywho, I got my finishers medal, grabbed a breakfast bag (yogurt, apple juice, muffins, banana) which I promptly decided wasn't worth the calories. I was upset and when I'm upset I either dive head-first into a pint of Ben & Jerry's or don't eat for a couple of days. Nothing like overreacting, eh?

I'm very competitive and hard on myself. Trust that you wouldn't have wanted to hear the mental chewing-out I gave myself on the drive home. I should have been a drill instructor.

But you know what's funny? A couple hours later I couldn't care less. I had a bad run - so what? I finished my first 10k! And I know I'll get better in time for the Coronado 15K in July!

My time came in (no, I'm not going to tell you) and I was three minutes behind my predicted time. I think on a better run I would have easily met it. I'm not going to let my bad run hamper my future runs - be positive, Elliott!

DH took me out for breakfast at the Mission and life was a lot better Saturday afternoon. We even went climbing for a couple of hours! (I could tell me legs were tired - I kept putting all my weight on my arms. Oops!)

So that was Sunday. More later on my trip to Road Runner Sports with DH for THREE HOURS on Saturday. Night, kittens!