So, today is 10k race day. As expected, woke up to rain and wind. Got ready and Bill was going to take me to the other girls' hotel to meet them there. We get outside at it's raining pretty steady and there are gusty, cold winds. As we get in the car, I say to Bill--would you think I was a complete wimp if I just didn't do the race? I really hate the wind and then coupled with cold and rain I was really dreading this. He just said, 'it's your money'---so he didn't really give me permission or denial. We drove to the hotel, grabbed the trash bags that we brought for jackets and headed in. Met the group, got our bags on and started heading down to the start line. About 1/2way down, Bill said goodbye and I knew I was going to at least try.

At the starting line, I was chatting with Melissa and her friend Jennifer (that works with them and came down to do this 10k) and learned this was Jen's first race. I asked her what she hoped to run and she said 9-9:15/mile pace. I told her that's what I wanted so I suggested we run together. Then she mentioned that that's much faster than her typical pace and that was her goal. OK, well I'll run with her for a bit and see how it goes.

The race starts and by mile 2 the winds had died down and it stopped raining. Jen and I were still running together and keeping about a 9:20 or so pace. We throughout our trash bags and kept going. At about mile 3 we crossed a bridge over to Kentucky. That was a rough bridge as it was a long incline to get to the top of the curve of the bridge. I stuggled a bit and Jen really struggled. I had said to her earlier that if either of us wants to run ahead of the other, they should just go and she agreed. Yet as we got over this bridge, I was really liking running with someone. I slowed a bit to catch my breath and allow Jen to catch hers and back up with me. As we got to around 4 miles she said she was really struggling. I could see it but she was still doing OK, just slowed up a bit. Right then, I realized that I felt good but it didn't really matter. I saw myself in Jen....the way she was breathing, the struggle she had on that hill, it was all me and my running just a few months ago. I decided I didn't care about my time at this point...what difference does it make if I run a 58 min 10k or a 56 min 10k, I'm not winning so who cares? I thought about how many people, particularly Bill and Ken, have slowed themselves during runs to just stay with me and keep me going. It was now my turn to take that baton and give that to someone else. I think Jen may have wanted me to go on, but I just stayed with her and slowed when she needed it, then gradually picked the pace back up again on flatter portions or downhills. We saw Bill at about 4.5 and that was fun to have that to look forward to and have that nice distraction. After mile 5 there was a short little hill that was a struggle and I just plowed through and then slowed at the top for Jen to catch up. Then at about 5.5 we were crossing another bridge back to Ohio. It wasn't as steep as the first bridge, but still a stuggle. Jen was really waning at this point and I noticed I got a good block or so ahead of her. I saw Gary on the bridge and said Hi, then turned around and ran back to Jen. Let her know she could do it and we were going to finish together.

As we passed the 6 mile sign, we could start to hear the crowd and announcer. At 6.1, I yelled to push it and we sprinted to the finish. She stuck right with me through that sprint. This was her first race and I felt good about how I ran mine.

My GPS says we ran about 6.4 miles in about 59 minutes. After the race, I got 2 text messages with my time, one said 58:25 and one said 59:25. That was odd and I figured the 58.25 was probably right based on my watch. Well, the official time was 59:25, about a 9:34 pace. We still finished in under the hour and it was OK as the start was windy and rainy and Jen got her first 10k done in under an hour--about 7 minutes faster than my first one!