So I ran my first 10k!!! Woooo…sort of.  Let’s start from the beginning.

Pre-race, I made sure I laid out all my gear and had coffee ready.  This blend rocks!!

I got there about 30 minutes early so I could be sure I had enough time to check my gear.  The weather was PERFECT (about 55 degrees) so it got started off right.  Well, then they announced that the race was going to be 30 minutes late because of Chicago parking issues…Duh! Of COURSE there is going to be issues, this is Chicago, GET HERE EARLY!  Anyway, I digress…

As you can see below, there was a good amount of people running the race but apparently, a lot of them didn’t get the memo to line up in your pace corral.  This made it SO hard to pass people (and I’m SLOW)!!!

I started off ok and was feeling good, until my knee started to bother (around mile 2.5).  My knee hurt the whole time (I sprained it about 2 months ago and it hasn’t really been right since) so I spent most of the time thinking about that.  But I was not going to be deterred into stopping!  So, I did end up running the whole thing with a pace that is great for me (about 9:55) so all-in-all, it was a success.

I look soooo miserable happy!  (Side Note: My eyes LOOK closed but they are so small that believe it or not, they are actually open)

My knee has been bugging me since the race so I am going to take about 2-3 weeks off from running (waaah!) so that it can heal.  I bought this ice pack for $4.35…bam!

Even though I’m not running, I am still working out.  Today I did 5 sets of the following:

7 minutes on the elliptical (various levels)

10 push-ups

10 squats

10 jump squats

20 sit-ups.

It was a good one!!!