10K Races with Many Pebbles

Well, as you know, before I started cycling and swimming I started my adult fitness regimen with running. So you'd think I'd be getting faster, huh?

Two years ago, I ran the Monument Avenue 10K in 1 hour, 6 minutes and 55 seconds. Last year, I wanted to run it in under and hour, but I got a horrible cold and finished in 1 hour and 5 minutes. So this year, I felt great. So, what was my time? 1 hour 10 minutes, 32 seconds. Perhaps that should be a great disappointment, but instead it is indicative of my relatively light running load of late. Because of the stress fracture last year, I have not been running much, and I most of my running has been slow. I did have a lot of fun, though, running the race with my friend Julia amongst a giant gaggle of cave women. You are probably thinking Wilma and Betty, but these were decidedly Pebbles. Beautiful pink Pebbles with bones tied in ponytails on their heads. Eventually, the cave girls outpaced Julia and me, and we finished the race sometime in the 21st century.

I had not planned another 10K for a while, but the Saturday immediately following the Monument Avenue 10K, my friend Beth persuaded me to come to her house near Ashland, where we rode our bikes 6 miles to the start of a 10K running race, ran the race, and then biked back to her house. We agreed not to take the race seriously, since we both had run the Monument Avenue 10K the week before. So we did it, and lo and behold, I did BETTER than I had at Monument. Still not a PR, but okay. 1 hr, 8 minutes, 32 seconds, precisely two minutes faster than Monument. I knew things were going well, when I passed a Pebbles. She was wearing her cave girl costume from the week before.

Anyway, as you know, my ultimate goal this year is not to run a fast 10K, but to manage somehow to finish a half marathon after exhausting myself with a long swim and a long bike ride. I'll never be a fast runner, but I can endure: all to help cure cancer.