Today’s the day of my first 10 mile Lighthouse Run. I’ve walked 2 (I think) and ran the 4 mile two years ago, but never even thought I could do the 10. Now here I am, and I did a ½ marathon just last month.

I've been nursing the pain in my right lower cheek, but overall it doesn’t hurt too bad when I’m running. Jeff, Tina, Justin, & Madelaine came up for the weekend and Tina and Justin are going to attempt the 10 mile, while Jeff and Madelaine are going to do the fun walk with Mom and Jeanne and Larry Rickman.

Got down to the starting line and there a lot of our running group doing the race. As we lined up, I was with Ken and Megan, but it became clear that Ken was going to run his race, a much faster pace than I can do. Then I saw Jim, a new member of our running group, that I ran with a few weeks ago for about 6 miles on a Panera run. He’s a nice guy and mentioned coaching high school athletics. He’s good to run with as he doesn’t talk a lot, but enough---talks just once in a while and provides good distractions. I waved him over and we started the race with him. That turned out to be the best move for me as he was very encouraging and kept me moving.

We’re off and running. I had to walk around miles 3.5 or so for a short bit to get water. Then I gradually ran a little faster than pace to catch back up with Megan and Jim (Ken had left us right from the start). As we came around by Shoop, the clouds opened and it started to rain. That actually felt pretty good, but then a strong wind came west to east. I really didn’t need that, especially as we were about to turn west on 3 Mile. As we approached the corner of 3 Mile and Main, it was about 7 miles in, and I needed to walk a bit again while I drank some water. Unfortunately I had to walk for about 1/8 of a mile and got behind Megan and Jim. I got running again, but was definitely getting tired. I knew it would be hard to catch back up with them. I just had to focus on running, even if it was a 10 min mile pace. I had to walk a bit around 8 and 9 miles, but tried to keep the walks short and keep moving. After mile 9, I didn’t allow myself to walk again, even up the bridge and then up the hill at 3rd/4th street. That’s a killer little hill at 9.7 miles! As I approached the finish, I looked at my GPS and saw I was going to be really close to 1:30, my stretch goal. I just kept going and pushed as much as I could. As I crossed the finish, I hit my stop button and it read 1:29:56! I know that’s not the official time, but it made me feel really good. I had run as good of a race as I could, taking breaks when I needed to but making sure not every time I wanted to (which would have been a lot more often!). Running with Jim and Megan was great as it really kept me moving and Jim was very encouraging, watching out for me when I fell a bit behind and offer words of encouragement often throughout the race. Since I’m still not really running a lot of distance, this was as good of a race as I could’ve done. I’m really proud of myself! Now I can go on vacation with a good sense of accomplishment and can relax and enjoy it.

The official time for the race was 1:30:32.9—a 9:03/mile pace. Although not quite my 1:30, it’s a 1:30 as far as Boston Marathon-type time keeping!