Wednesday, June 15, 2016

My 5th NYRR Mini 10k

The NYRR Mini 10k has become a staple in my summer race schedule.  As I trekked through the course for my 5th straight year, I was overwhelmed with joy for the community of women runners.  I love this race because the ladies out there attacking the hills and heat alongside one another always find a way to encourage and uplift me.  This year, I also had Chris on the course cheering me along.


I started the race strong.  Chris was waiting for me around the 1.5 mile point so I committed to run the whole way to him - and I did it!  Just after seeing him, I headed into the park.  One of the first major obstacles after entry is a massive hill. That wasn't fun, but I ran as much as I could through it.  By the time I hit the 5k marker, I was really wishing it was a 4 miler instead of a 10k.  I pushed through the next mile before I really hit a low point in mile 4.  Chris was just on the other side of the mile 5 marker so I tried to focus on just making it there.  Fortunately, I had some good music kick in about that time as well!


After seeing Chris for the second time, I knew there was just a mile left to go.  I wasn't feeling great, but I was hanging in there.  I was dead set on beating my time from the Healthy Kidney 10k a few weeks ago...and I knew it meant I'd have to fight to the finish. Once I got close enough to feel the presence of the finish line, I made myself go as hard as I could to the end.  I felt like I was in slow motion, but I was thrilled when I crossed the finish line with a time of 1:25:30.  An improvement of almost exactly 3 minutes!  I managed to shave 30 seconds off my miles!  Running 13:46 minute miles still isn't really anything to brag about, but I was happy with the improvement!  Here's to hoping I'm able to shave off a little more time when Chris and I run the Queens 10k this weekend!


Have you ever run an all-women's race?  
How did it compare to those you run in mixed company?

Andrea :)

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