Anyway, this race is definitely A Race to Remember...not because it was my best race, but because it was my most difficult, not because I ran through any of my walk intervals, but because I didn't stop moving, not because I had a good finish time, but because I finished!
Absolutely without a doubt the roughest 10-miles I have ever done. Going into this, I had run on the beach twice, once in December when I "tested the waters" by running a mile while on vacation, and a few weeks ago, when I ran 3 miles on the beach. Other than that, I basically went into it blind.
Felt good at the start, but it became apparent by mile 4 that I was a little over ambitious. It was hot and humid. We started on pavement, then ran through soft sand before getting to the more compact sand at the edge of the water. We had the ocean breeze behind us at the very beginning and at the very end, the majority of the race with it blowing towards us.
I took "a lot more" walking intervals than a normal 10-mile run, and about halfway through, my legs started to tighten up more than ever before. I even was cramping in my right hip for a while. The second half of the race, I was grabbing two cups at some of the water stops, one to sip and one to dump over my head.
By mile 7, I was basically out of water and Gatorade in my Fuel Belt. I called ahead to my husband, who was holding an ice cold bottle of Gatorade, and told him to get it out, I was on my way.
But I had passed the final turn around and was almost there. I took the Gatorade with me and just keep pushing forward.
What made the last few miles great were the people that were still there cheering us on, motivating us to continue to run, don't stop, you're almost there, you can do this! It was at those points that I realized that I could still go and continued running.
By the time I crossed the finish line, my entire body ached from head to foot. I have never stiffened up like that from a run. Was I dehydrated? I doubt it. I was plenty hydrated before the start, and drank fluids consistently throughout. I think it was just a lot more work than I was used to.
So I repeat, this was definitely a race to remember...not because it was my best race, but because it was my most difficult, not because I ran through any of my walk intervals, but because I didn't stop moving forward, not because I had a good finish time, but because I finished!
Will I do it again? Absolutely! Now I know what I'm facing and have a time to PR!
I talked with several people that knew this run was part of my training for my first marathon in November. You know what they said? If you finished this 10-mile beach run, you'll finish your marathon. Because of the sand, the wind, the heat....and I finished, that's how I know I'll finish a full marathon.
Time to maybe think about adding some hills to the mix to increase my endurance.
