Nearly 4 years ago I did my first 10K. It was a grueling, discouraging ugly experience in which I was dead last. I did not record my time anywhere, and can't find it anywhere on the Internet, but I believe it to be around 2 hours.
This was interesting to me because today I did a 10k on roughly the same course. There were a few different streets, but it was in the same neighborhood. I was prepared to do my Galloway-style one minute walk/one minute run thing, but surprisingly, I found that I could run out the whole thing.
This happened today, and I did wind up walking a minute or so trying to figure out how to ease up the pain, but finally I just sucked it up and ran. As always, the pain disappeared about mile 2, and then I surprised myself by holding what is (for me) a decent pace for the rest of the race.
I finished in 1:10, which is almost a PR for me. I felt good and wasn't all breathless like I usually am. Considering that I'm still pretty heavy and just getting back to my training, it's another encouraging experience. My hams are paying the price for my adventure, though.
Afterwards, Baboo and I joined some family for the 5k walk, on which I did not PR. I was pretty impressed by my young nephew, though, who walked the whole thing and then a couple miles back to our relatives house, for a total of about 5 miles. Like I told him, he went further today than any of his classmates ever have, and statistically, ever will. I have to credit his mom, who takes him for walks often because she's a big believer in kids being fit.
(Oh, he's FOUR, by the way.)
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