I am an 8Ker! Race Report!

Cold, wet & rainy. I was not feeling confident at the beginning of this, especially since I had just gotten lost in Newark, NJ on the way there (not a city you want to be lost in), but called DH who google-mapped me the heck out of there. How I found the place last night in the dark with the two kiddos in the car and got lost today in daylight is beyond me...not a confidence builder.

I ended up wearing a (non-athletic) windbreaker because it was so darn freezing cold and wet. Baseball hat and jacket were soaked at the end, though mercifully the rain took a break for the hour I was on the course (it's Thanksgiving, I must say thanks for that).

But I made it to the end! Woo hoo! I am an 8Ker:-)

Rough first mile, I was freezing, legs felt like ice cubes. But each mile seemed to get easier (is that possible?). Maybe it was the people around me, the cops holding back traffic and the town residents blaring stereos, all yelling "Happy Thanksgiving, you're doing great!" Maybe it was the middle-aged guy and the younger chick I kept trading places with through five miles. Here are the splits, courtesy of my handy-dandy Timex:

• Mile 1: 11:11
• Mile 2: 12:00 (while running I unpinned number, removed jacket, and repinned number, all with my cellphone in my mouth--an amazing feat while in motion!)
  
• Mile 3: 11:12
  
• Mile 4: 11:06
  
• Mile 5: 10:49
• TOTAL TIME: 56:20 (-ish) (approx mid-800th place out of 899 runners)
  

I believe miles 4 & 5 are--say it with me, people--NEGATIVE SPLITS!!!!! (it's just a minor detail that 8K works out to 4.9xx miles, probably would need to add about 20 sec to final mile for a true five miles, but I don't care!) I turned on the Wannabe afterburners, staving off the the older guy and the younger woman I had been trading places with throughout the whole race.

Great race, great community support of the event. I knew DH & kiddos were not going to come since it was a) a day off, b) something I registered for just a few days ago, and c) crummy weather... and I did just fine being there alone:-)

Moreover, I was FINE at the end of the run. I actually could have gone further, despite the icky weather (never thought I would say that I could have gone further). So I came to the realization today that (barring a catastrophe) I will be able to complete a half marathon. I won't light the HM course on fire, but I have gained a world of confidence today!!! Today I have taken one big step (in my mind, anyway) toward the HM, mission accomplished. Next up sometime in the future...who knows, a 10K, why not?

This is me and Horace Aschenfelter, for whom this 8K is named..he is the 1956 Helsinki Olympics Gold Medalist in the Steeplechase (no idea what distance that is, apologies, someone can educate me I hope). I grabbed him at the end for the photo:-)