Lucky #13 (Place that is...for both of us)

I am happy to report that the 10K we did on Saturday morning was awesome! It started at 7:30am, which meant we had to leave our house by 5:45am. We got there with plenty of time to pick up our race packets and return to the car for a bit before it was time to line up. I was surprised to see that there were pacers at this race. Told Ryan that my plan was to stick with the 54 minute pacer. A horn blow and fist bump later and we were off. There were quite a few people trying to stick with the 54 minute pacer, which was kind of annoying because most of them were really struggling to keep up. They would speed up and cut right in front of me and then slow down. By mile 3 most of them had fallen back and I was running right next to the pacer. I kept an eye out for Ryan, but was unsure if he was in front of or behind me.  At the loop around I didn’t see him, so that that point I knew he was behind me.

The race was through scenic Coconut Grove and Coral Gables. I was so focused on my pace that I honestly don’t even remember looking around, or hearing my music playing. Ryan said he enjoyed the course so much that he tripped over a cone while looking at the beautiful trees and houses. Around mile 4 I had really settled into my pace and made a quick glance behind me. Sure enough Ryan had been right behind me the entire time.

The pacer was really encouraging us to push ourselves. I told her that I already was. We were running at about an 8:50 pace, which was very aggressive for me. When we were approaching mile 5 Ryan ran up next to me and said that he thought that he could push a little harder for the last mile. I wasn’t ready to pick up the pace just yet….so on he went without me. The pacer told me that I had great form and she could tell that I could go harder around mile 5.5 I decided to pick it up and left the pacer. At this point the 5K’ers were intermixing with the 10K’ers which was frustrating. They were walking side by side across the entire street, which caused us to have to weave back and forth to get around them wasting precious energy.

The wind was coming straight out of the east, which made the last right turn on Bayshore Drive pretty tough, but I knew the finish line was close. I was a little disappointed that Ryan had left me in the dust…but I was still working toward my second goal of finishing in less than an hour. Success!

Terri – Finish Time- 54:19- 13^th in Age Group- 170^th Overall

Ryan- Finish Time- 53:44- 13^th in Age Group- 159^th Overall