Run to Feed The Hungry 10K Race Recap

My mom has loved to run for a very long time. While I got many personality traits and interests from her, I never really liked to run. Sure, I did a few 5Ks with her (like this very race I’m about to recap), but more or less begrudgingly. So she said she was “amused” when I got into running in Africa. 1,111+ miles later in 2011, and I’m still running. So one of the things I was MOST looking forward to was running the Run to Feed the Hungry 10K with my mom on Thanksgiving day. (Photo below from race website).

My excitement waned pretty quickly when I realized it was going to be POURING RAIN all morning. I know a lot of you who read my blog are bad-asses. I am not a badass when it comes to 1) cold or 2) running in the rain. (If you’ve seen me in cold or wet conditions, you’ve probably seen me turn blue and gotten somewhat freaked out.) But knowing my mom had paid for the race (thanks, mom!) and that it was one of the only things I’d get to do with her over the weekend made me get out of bed bright and early. And by bright I mean wet and dark.

As a new and excited SF Marathon Ambassador I left the house repping the race—dual sweatbands and race shirt. Hell yes! Though the race was replaced by a fleece. I realized too late that all three of my water-resistant shells were in my closet in San Francisco. Smart.

Standard race day breakfast came through for me!

We got caught in pretty bad traffic and ended up getting there late. I asked mom to pay $5 extra to register for the timed option so we could start before the 28,000 other people (after the NWM race experience I was all for beating the crowds), but the race had already started when we got there. We ran the 0.9 mile to the start, and by the time we crossed the mat we were 1) deep in NWM-style traffic and 2) I was already wet through the fleece. Joy.

Actually, it WAS a joy. It’s funny, I hate the cold and the rain but I had such a good time running with my mom. We were cruising at a 10-minute pace (and you say you run 12-minute miles, mommy!). We took Galloway walk breaks at the mile markers starting around the 3rd mile marker. It was crowded but it was also so cool to see THOUSANDS of people out getting in some exercise and supporting the community despite the horrible weather!

Please ignore the fact that I look like a scary swamp creature in this picture but we were actually running so I found it funny. My mom looks great though

We were like a mile ahead of the markers due to the jog to the start which made the race seem a bit longer at first, but then all of a sudden we were at the end!

It’s AMAZING what running a minute or so slower than normal pace does! We were running about 10 min/mile (my pace when I started running in January was close to 11 minutes and I’ve been lucky to shave about 2.5 minutes off that time) and I felt like I could run FOREVER! Minus the cold wet part.

Once we crossed the finish we had to walk for a bit to get out of the mess. It got kind of freezing right away as our bodies started to cool down.

What kind of steam is coming off of my head????

I made mom take a picture of us with the turkey above as well as one of me (below). I was seriously looking forward to taking a picture with that stupid turkey for the entirety of our 8 mile run. I had a wonderful time running with my mom! Run the last 5 miles of CIM with me, mommy?

Overall, the race was a success! But note to self: people who do the run for fun don’t pay for the timed option. I placed about 150-ish out of 200-ish in my age group.  I’m wondering when they’ll send my plaque.

Time: 1:04 (10K); 1:24 total for 8 miles with mom

This was fun. I do really want to race a 10K, I only have one other official 10K time of 59:59 from September 2008. I should be able to run in the 50-52 minute range now. But I’m in no rush to race one. I HATE the 10K distance!

Fun race, fun company, fun returning to a “tradition” that I haven’t done in years. Happy Thanksgiving!

Courtney

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