Confessions of an Ex Non-Runner: The post in which I have a number of possible titles

Saturday morning I ran a small 10K race.

I couldn't settle on one title, so I'll share all of the possible titles with you.

The race in which I had a sketchy calf muscle
After my 3 three mile training runs this week, my right calf muscle was feeling a little questionable. Friday I started to worry that I wouldn't be up for keeping up a good pace for my 10k. I spent all day Friday rubbing my calf with "the stick" and icing the hell out of it. Luckily, it felt much better by race time!

The race in which I ran my first run with my new marathon training partners
I had been worrying before I started my marathon training that I wouldn't have people to train with me. I am a pretty social being and part of the fun of running for me is having people to run with and talk training with.
Because of the wonders of Facebook, two friends of mine from a past job had voiced interest in training for TCM. A few Facebook posts later, and all taking the plunge by actually registering for the race, and we were SET! Emily, Stacie, and I made the plan to run as many of our long runs together. This week worked perfectly as we had 6 on our schedule and the Lindenwood 10k was taking place on our long run day. Worked even better because the race was right on the route I always run at the time I always run it! It was awesome to see the ladies and think we are going to have a great 18 weeks of training!

The race in which humidity kicked my ass
Woah momma. It was steamy and gross. I am no friend of humidity. I choked on the air I was trying to breathe. Brutal.

The race in which I started too fast and ran out of steam
I need to learn to pace myself better. I am able to run faster speeds than I used to, but have been trying to figure out a comfortable, sustainable pace. Ran the first mile in 9:16. WAY.TOO.FAST. Couple that with the humidity and I was feeling out of gas by mile 2. Note to self for future long runs. Slow down.

The race in which I had to build mental toughness
Oh I wanted to quit. Humidity and a brief calf cramp made me crazy in my head. I had to keep repeating to myself: "keep going. you're building mental toughness." Sometimes after I said it in my head, I told that voice to shut up. I basically fought back and forth in my brain. I think mental toughness is harder than physical toughness.

The race in which my main goal was to not finish DFL
Small races are terrifying in that the chances of coming in dead f---ing last are much much greater. I've been there before, and my ego tells me to never be in that position again. Yes, I know, I know- I should just be competing with myself and yada yada bladda. But still. I've done the last place thing before. I don't care to be there again. I checked last year's results from this 10k and saw that only TEN people last year ran this race at 10:00 pace or slower. TEN! I was thinking I'd be running this at 11:00 at BEST. Eeek!

The race in which I PR'd by about 10 minutes
I have only run one other 10k- it was last June around this time. I ran that race in 1:16 (a 12:20 min/mile pace)
I finished this race in 1:06:17!! (a 10:44 pace).

And I did NOT finish DFL. There was at least 2 or 3 who came in behind me. Ha!

The race in which I peed myself
Yes literally. Just a little bit. Right after I finished the race. TMI, I know. This happens to people sometimes. Just trying to keep it honest. Surprising because I thought I had sweat literally every ounce of fluid out of my body.

So, there it is. It wasn't pretty, but it was a pretty spectacular PR for me. My splits were: 9:16, 10:34, 10:33, 11:15, 11:25, 11:28, and 9:53 (for the last .2).