10K-- CHECK!

Today I ran a 10k. That's 6.2 miles, 6.24 miles to be exact!

It was fabulous. Seriously, it was awesome. I ran with 5800 other people. I ran my best splits ever, and I had energy to pass a woman in the last 2 tenths of a mile. I was paying so much attention to her, that I did get passed right at the finish, but I had enough left to make it a good sprint!

Even better, at the 5k mark, I was about 30 steps ahead of a local high school football team.. nothing like leaving a bunch of high schoolers behind. When it was all over, they passed me on the last hill into the finish, but they were only 90 seconds ahead of me, I do after all, have a few years on them, so I'll give it to them!

In the middle, Sunshine was waiting for me with a fresh bottle of water... I ran up to her and gave her a big kiss and took the water bottle, and ran away with tears in my eyes.

Besides the adrenaline from all the other runners and therefore someone to compete against, the crowd along the route is amazing!! They cheer you on, perfect strangers, read your name from the bib, shout way to go. It propels you! Right before entering the park where the race ends, someone was playing the Rocky theme... it got into my feet and I started passing people on the hill, I was Rocky on the steps in Philadelphia...

As we were waiting for the bus to bring us back to the car, a friend asked me, do you remember starting to run and trying to run 1 mile for the first time? and I said yup, it took me months to get there. And he asked, when did you start running again? And I said, just about a year ago, right after I volunteered at this race last year.

Recently, someone else asked me why I like running, I said, oh, I don't like running, but I do like how I feel after I run. Not a runners high, but a sign of accomplishment.

I will wear, with pride, my shirt from the race to work on Monday... if nothing else it may explain why I'm limping just a little bit! But I promise, I will still have a smile on my face!