My 10k experience

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been training for a 10k race for a while, and I wanted to share some of my experience about it with you guys. First off, I had wanted to run a full marathon, but got injured quite quickly after I started training, so I had to forget that, for this year at least. Instead I decided to start training for real for a 10k race. I use the Nike+ for iPod chip, which allows me to track how far and fast i run, and they also have a quite good training program online.

At first, it wasn't very challenging at all, which was okay with me, as I hadn't been running for a while. As it got more and more challenging, I got more and more into it and made all the more progress, at least most of the time. I noticed that having a goal, something specific to be running towards, made it much more fun and giving for me. I tend to have a hard time motivating myself, in a positive way, unless I actually have something specific to strive for.

As we were getting closer to race day, I was feeling good. I'd beat a few personal bests, and was confident the race would go well. I had had some troubles with my knee, but I didn't think it would affect my run, as  I have a support thing for it. My nerves before the start were quite all over the place, a good thing as you get adrenalin from it. I ran with a friend of mine, and we'd decided to cheer each other on and run together the whole time. We were doing super well, and I was feeling great. No one ran past us, we only ran past everybody else, or at least that's what it felt like. It is amazing to have people on the side cheering you on, and at this race they also had live music every 2-3k, which was super cool. Then, at the 8k mark, my knee decides to cave. It just simply would not support me anymore. So I had to walk, or run very slowly, the last 2k. My disappointment was too big for words, but as one of my friends later said, that's sports. This gave the race a whole new meaning, because now I have to deal with my disappointment instead. What this has accomplished is simply to make me even more determined to beat myself. My goal now is to run 10k in less than 50min, and I will do it.

So that's that. Today I am starting a sort of 21-day cleanse, which I will tell you more about tomorrow.