FYI: A 10 minute mile hurts just as much as a 6 minute mile.

Pictures from Cooper River Bridge Run.

I ran two races this past week. On Sunday March 21, I ran a half marathon in Atlanta with an old friend. She and I ran marathons together back in the late 1990’s. Since then, we have both taken on motherhood, work and… injuries. We were both fast chicks back in the glory days but took another direction with this race which took me through my old post college stomping grounds. Since I hadn’t seen Jennifer in 5 years, we decided to “run” the race together.

We arrived later than planned and literally jumped a fence into the massive crowd of 19,000. We had no idea what corral we were in but I can tell you this, when the gun went off…. We didn’t move… my first “middle of the pack” experience. We ran a 10 minute pace the entire way, stopped for water, chatted with volunteers, used the potty, laughed, giggled and talked the entire way…. We even got to experience the men’s marathon winner and his police entourage blow by us in the last ½ mile of his/our race – Yes… he ran 26.2 miles in the amount of time it took us to run 13.1… a humbling experience, something new for me, something I had never done before, something I was thankful for…

The following Saturday, I ran the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston, a 10k with 38,000 registered runners/walkers. I had planned on running a 6:15 pace to try and finish around 39 minutes but came up short. I finished in 40 minutes. My legs were flat and my exhausting week came back to haunt me.

Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy with my performances this week from a competitive viewpoint. The positive is I got to the start line… and the finish line… And, was able to have a fantastic girls weekend followed by a great weekend with my husband (and dog) in Charleston.

(I also learned a 10 minute pace hurts just as much as a 6 minute pace, except you don’t have Gatorade crusted all over you…)