This post is a little late because I just got back into town yesterday, but this week's installment of Curator's Corner is devoted to my first race, which I ran 2 days ago. 🙂
My running history: I've been running for nearly 12 years now but it never occurred to me to actually run a race, or even outdoors – I was strictly a treadmill runner who only ran about 10-12 miles a week. I don't know what happened but about 2 years ago I decided I wanted to try running outside and maybe even enter a few races. A few months after that I decided I was going to start training for the 2011 Baltimore marathon, and of course, developed a horrible injury a few days later that kept me sidelined from running at all for most of 2011. Last fall I was finally able to start running a little again so I hope to run the 2012 marathon. But before I start training for that I wanted to see if I even liked running races, so I thought a shorter race would be good practice.
Anyway, this particular race was 10 miles, and my distance runs are about 10.5 so I knew I could do it. I was just hoping to go a tiny bit faster than my usual turtle-like pace (what I do is not technically running, I suppose – I'm more of a very slooooow jogger. I think my body is meant for distance, not speed.)
So here I am at right before lining up to start. Of course I managed to blink just as my husband took the picture. I'm wearing all Lululemon except for shoes and socks – I should get free stuff from Lulu for all the advertising I did.
Here I am during…I know it looks like I'm walking but I can assure you I wasn't! Like I said, I just run super slow.
Here's the awesome sign my husband made, featuring Museum Advisory Committee members Jeero and Babo's bird. Our Jeero is a kind of he-man – very macho, a real meat-and-potatoes "guy's guy" who loves working out (especially lifting weights), so he was the natural choice to cheer me on. "GRRR, RUN!" He does have a soft spot for Babo's bird, however. "Pretty bird, pretty bird".
And here's an extremely sweaty Curator with her medal!
I didn't finish any faster than I normally do during my training runs, which was disappointing, but oh well. There was a VERY steep 0ne-mile hill starting at mile 8.5, which slowed me down even more, especially since I was starting to get fatigued by then.
So all in all, not bad for my first race. I do want to get a little faster and get to a respectable pace, but I think for right now I will continue focusing on distance rather than speed.
Do you run? And if so, any tips/racing experiences you'd like to share?