Human Race 10k

On Saturday morning, Emily (my friend from grad school) and I got up bright and early for the Human Race. We ran the 10k. We started the morning with bagels and cream cheese and bananas (good race day breakfast) two hours before the start of the race (to give enough time for digestion... and poops! haha). Here are some picture I took while we waited in the sea of people for the start. Keep in mind 10,000 people participates 5,000 runners and 5,000 walkers, so it was pretty crazy!

This is a picture of all the people infront of us and the big balloon thing is where the starting line is.

This is a picture of all the people behind us. We were in between the 7 minute milers and the 11 minute milers. Somewhere around nine minute milers.
Emily and I waiting. Anna notice the head gear. It was in the mid sixties and my ears still needed warming! :)

The race started right at 8AM with Beautiful Day by U2 on the pod. In the beginning it was pretty clogged up. The 3k and 10k runners started together with the walkers in the back and then everybody split up at mile 1. After the split it was easier to run without feeling so crowded in. I just got into my own groove.

Side Note: I don't think you all know, but on Thursday I was rear ended in my car. I'd been having some problems with whiplash in my neck but decided to run anyways.

Well, at mile three all of a sudden I experience this very sharp and VERY intense pain shooting from the base of my skull, down my neck and into my shoulder blades. I had to stop and walk to calm the shooting pain. I walked a short distance and mustered up my strength determined to continue running and finish the race.

I kept running but each time I swung my left arm shooting pain would go from my neck into my shoulders. I was in tears most of the run. I hadn't properly trained (or trained at all!) and the course was ALL hills. I was totally struggling. I finished and I actually finished with a pretty good time given everything.

It was a beautiful morning and an absolutely beautiful course (actually somewhere I often took the dogs to walk/run when I lived in Santa Rosa). It was actually more enjoyable than it sounds. Sure my neck was killing me and I was gasping for air, but I finished and finished with a decent time: an hour and six minutes - faster than my time when I ran my trial 10k last Monday (an hour and nine minutes).

I kept thinking of you girls the entire time. Mr. Brightside made me think of Anna and for some reason of all of us together in Italy and in Chicago. It really pumped me up at mile 4. I finished the race sprinting the last 1/2k which was lined with people cheering me on. As I turned onto the straight away leading up to the finish I listened to Viva La Vida. I thought of Mir. I thought of how inspired I am by her dedication to running and that helped me muster up my last bits of strength and just GO FOR IT. Several people (strangers) remarked to me after the race about how impressed they were that I was able to sprint so fast down the straight away.

I've got terrible shin splints and my neck is still really messed up, but I completed the race and had a great time raising money for CCI. I raised $575! The whole CCI team raised over $15,000! Incredible. It felt so amazing to be doing something that would benefit an organization that I am so passionate about and involved in. I know I've done a lot of volunteering for CCI, but raising money for them was a very different sort of volunteer work and something that I feel very accomplished about.

Next time I run a race, I'll hopefully decide to run it with more than a week to go before race day so that I can properly train. With school coming to a close in the next six days I'm looking forward to having more time to run again. I plan to do some races with classmates over the summer :)