Race Report: Stampede Road Race 10k

Today I ran the Stampede Road Race 10K.  It was a great day for it, weather-wise.  Cloudy and not too hot.  No real rain, except the 4 drops I dodged around the 7K mark.   It was super humid, though.  Because we had Gramma visiting, Cam and I headed into the race and left the babies with her at home.   It meant we made it to the start line with plenty of time to spare (not like my last 5k lol).   I was really excited when I was getting close to the start line because my running power song (Worldwide Suicide by Pearl Jam) was playing on the speakers and I took that as a sign of great things ahead.

The course, itself, felt familliar because I have run in that area alot lately.  Parts of the route, I had even run earlier in the week.

When I turned up onto 14A street, I could see the first water table and it was manned by people I knew (my coaches hubby, some people he is training for the NYC Marathon with, and a couple team members of mine).  When they saw me heading their way, they started up a chorus of "Go Cori!!!!" It's really amazing how hearing your name being cheered really helps lift your feet!   Loved it!   Cam was nearby snapping a zillion pictures of everything (he was shooting everyone so it seems like people thought he was the official photog for the race).  

And then it was off through the park and across the dam.   I thought the TNT water table was at the 5K mark but I didn't pass another table so I am guessing they were on the course for the half).   As I was coming around to head to the bridge to cross over Glenmore again, I came up on 3 members of my TNT team and they helped me by lifting my spirits to carry me through to the end.  Thanks guys!

And then, when I hit the 8k mark, my left knee was really complaining again so I started taking more frequent walk breaks.   Not long ones but I wanted to finish strong.

And then I was turning into the Glenmore Athletic Park again and heading up the little grass hill to the track.  It felt so good to hit the rubber on the track after pounding asphalt for 9.5K! 

In the end, I finished strong.   My Garmin had me at 1:10  and the clock had me at 1:07.  A really good time for my first 10K.   I'm so happy with it.  I can hardly wait to see what the actual chip time was!