Spar Womens 10km Race

Soooo, today was the Spar Women's 10km Race and my first race. My last few training sessions, which I didn't blog about, SORRY, went very well, so I was aiming to try do this race in 1h30.
(sorry, I know the first few pics a fuzzy, the light was bad and I didn't have my camera there )

My hubby in his 'outfit'

The crowd there was humungous, with just over 19 500 people entered. They had a special pen for elite runners and one for club runners, which means that you get a better start before the crowd, but as I don't yet have my club gear, I was stuck in the middle of the massive crowd. My hubby, although he was wearing his club colours (and pink tights, pink tutu and an orange wig) stayed with me as it was my first race.

Hubby & I before the race started

From left to right: Caitlin, Jane, Tracy, Trevor, Carol (me) & Glenda - before the race

When the race started, it was impossible to actually get running or even walk at a decent pace, there were just TOO MANY people walking slowly. As soon as possible I got more to the side where it was at least possible to jog. The start of the race, was also 2.5km up a hill and I had been pretty worried about it. HOWEVER, I actually ran up MOST of the hill, which surprised even me :-) The rest of the race consisted of me jogging interspersed with some walking to recover and I think I did pretty well.

I did however have a slight mental wobbly right near the end, when I mistook the entrance into the stadium. I was looking ahead at some robots, thinking they were the entrance into the stadium, and was mentally preparing myself for the end of the race, only to realize that it wasn't THOSE robots, but the next ones LOL. It was a bit of a mental letdown, but I persevered and was determined to acutally run the last bit of the race into the stadium. With all those people watching you, its a real bummer if you have to walk it LOL.

I was REALLY glad when the race was over, but VERY PROUD of myself for having done it and done it in 1h26 which was faster than the time I had hoped for.

Me after the race with my medal :-)

It was a really great race, and I'm very glad that I did it :-) Next week is the Telkom/Pro Sano run (my club run) and I'm really looking forward to that one, to see how I do without such a crowd keeping me slower. However, I do have to hope that my legs will have recovered sufficiently by then LOL.