From the Finish Line

Yesterday, my friend Pam and I ran in a "10.5k". I put that in quotations because according to my nifty little Nike iPod sensor, it was really 11.5k. Either way, we finished! I stayed the night at Pam's house since we had to be there so early and she drove us there. The night before, we had a deliciously carb-loaded meal of spaghetti, veggies and french bread! Yummo! Then, we hit the hay and I was up around 4:08am. I took a shower to wake myself up, ate a piece of bread with a thin spread of peanut butter, stretched, then we were ready to go. 5:30am, We arrived at Chiang Mai City Hall where the start/finish line was. There were sooooooooo many people there to run! It was amazing! We were shocked! It was so chaotic, we felt like we were really late! So, we got in the registration line to get our number and then found a spot way way way in the back to get ready to start the race. We estimate that there were about 600 runners there! It was a little intimidating at first. These runners were serious----really short shorts, tank tops that were already drenched in sweat from their warm up run, people stretching their arms and legs like taffy, iPods in---everybody was getting in the zone!!!!

Please keep in mind that up to this point, I've only run 6k! However, I've been running that for about a month now. So, this was just less than twice the distance I'm used to running. This was definitely gonna be a challenge! So.....we ran! We kept a slow but consistent pace. At the start, we were passed by a lotta peeps! We ran a couple of big hills and started back to the finish line. As we approached about 2k away from the finish, we both felt great and kept truckin'! We began passing those who had passed us in the beginning. We turned the corner, down the homestretch, and finally made it to the red carpet to run in on! It was great! Peeps were waving and cheering!

So...I survived it and I LOVED it! I had so much fun! Thanks Pam, for running with me! You're a great running buddy! Our reward for crossing the finish line was a super heavy medal with the photo of some old law maker here in Thailand. I'm pretty sure it's 100% gold covered plastic! It's quite the keepsake!!! I'm now looking forward to continuing my preparation for the half-marathon in December!