Category: 10K

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Rehab is done, first post-surgery “walk” in the books…

eecf7728-0e04-4c46-8d13-646c3ffe0047While the knee isn’t 100%, I have to say it does feel a lot better and gets stronger every day.  I finished my rehab and have been getting out in the morning and walking.  I also hop on the bike from time to time, but there aren’t any really good paths around and too many young, distracted drivers out so mainly I stick to walking.

I had one run slated prior to my surgery that I had already paid for which was the Nashvillle Fourth of July 5K/10K.  I was signed up for the 10K and wasn’t sure if I was going to just do the 5K and be done or do the full 10K.  When I checked in I asked what the course time limit was for the 10K and they told me 90 minutes.  OK I thought, that’s a 15 minute a mile pace, I should be able to walk that.

The weather was nice and cool this 4th of July and my knee was feeling good.  The race started and it really sucked “walking” while I was seeing everyone else running.  I logged the first mile just around 15 minutes so I figured I might be able to pull off a 90 minute 10K.

Prior to the surgery I was hoping to be around 55 minutes for this race, now I was praying to finish within the course time limit.  I hit the 5K mark at 47 minutes and figured what the heck, I kept going and tried to pick up my pace.  For the majority of the race I was in last place, but at the 5 mile mark I caught up with the group ahead of me and for a bit wasn’t actually in last place.  Then in the final stretch those “walkers” jogged it in and passed me up…all but one.  That made me the 2nd to last finisher!

Finishing a 10K in 1 hour and 34 minutes wasn’t what I had in mind but it did feel good knowing I didn’t quit at 5K and actually finished the entire course!  Now looking ahead to next year’s Country Music Marathon, the course limit for the 1/2 marathon is 4 hours…hmmmmmm.  I have a lot of walking to do until then and I’ll have to see how things go this fall with the walking.  I plan on getting back to the group at Main Street Strength and Conditioning this upcoming week so hopefully that will strengthen up the knee even more.

While I could probably start running again, I really am not looking for my next knee surgery which is a full replacement.  The knee feels good now and there’s no reason to “rush” any unnecessary wear.  There are few other races this month that I’m going to consider going out for as there still is nothing like lining up with a bunch of other runners and hitting the pavement.  I doubt I’ll ever get a mud run in, but that 4 hour 1/2 marathon sounds tempting!cedarpoint2

Oh, I’ve still been able to maintain the weight loss and have actually met my final weight goal of 220!  I’m at 215 and down to a size 38 pants.  That’s a weight loss of 135 pounds, 5 pants sizes, 4 shirt sizes, 1 shoe size and two ring sizes!  At my lowest in high school, the smallest waist I ever had was 40!  I just spent a week up in Ohio for work and it was interesting seeing how many “hellos” it took some of my co-workers to realize who I was.  I also got to get out to Cedar Point for the first time in about 10 years and I was able to ride some rides that I had never been able to because I was too big.  Let me say, Top Thrill Dragster is a rush!


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St. Patrick’s Day Kegs & Eggs 10K

KegsEggs_logoToday I ran in my second 10K, the 3rd annual St. Patty’s Day Kegs & Eggs 5K/10K with proceeds going to the Special Olympics of Nashville.  Last year was my first 10K and at the time my longest run; boy was I shocked during that run!  This time it was a different story as I managed things a lot better.

This was an afternoon race and wasn’t as bad as I was expecting (sometimes it’s nice to get these knocked out first thing in the morning).  The weather wasn’t the best as it was in the 40s with winds and rain!  Luckily the rain was mostly a drizzle during the race so it wasn’t that bad but those winds were nasty and almost took my hat off a few times (need to remember to tighten it up a bit next time).

Last year I ran my first 10K in 1 hour and 6 minutes.  This year I was looking to be at right around an hour.  It started at Bar Louie in The Gulch so I was expecting some hills and the hills were there!  We hit Charlotte Avenue off of 11th Avenue South and went straight up towards the Capitol.

I was expecting to get around 10 minutes a mile and when I hit my first mile right at 9 minutes I was feeling good.  Unfortunately this was a “run the course twice” 10K so as I was hitting the half-way point it was tempting to run fast with the 5K runners but knowing I had another 3.1 miles to go I kept things steady going into the “turn”.

I was right around 27 minutes at the half-way point so I knew the 1 hour goal was feasible (as I was really feeling good at this point).  I then thought maybe I could get in around 56-57 minutes so that’s what I was going for.

The next time up the hill on Charlotte Avenue I did pretty good.  I was actually able to pass some runners who seemed to have been caught up in the pace of the 5K finishers at the turn and I was able to stay in front of most of them.  Looking at my mile times my first mile was the fastest at 9:01 (I was at 4 minutes at the 1/2 mile mark and decided to slow things down a bit).  I then hit 9:18 and 9:23 for miles two and three.  Then for the last three miles I was 9:41, 9:36 and then actually finished even faster at 9:23.

I probably could have finished faster than 9:23 on the last mile but with a half-mile to go my right shoe came untied and it was the shoe which had my timing chip on it.  I didn’t really want to lose it and did my best to finish strong but yet keep my shoe on!  Not sure if it was the fact that it was an afternoon race or just that I’m getting better at managing my miles but this was a good race.

My unofficial time was 57:44 and that’s 9 minutes faster than my previous 10K so I’ll take that!  At the moment my next race isn’t until April 12th (another 10K) with the Music City Marathon on the 26th.  I may fit another race in there, but we’ll see.