On Saturday, J and I drove the course to get a better sense of the race’s director’s definition of “rolling hills.” Well they didn’t lie – a nice fairly flat start and then the rolling began around mile 3 and continue through mile 6, but nothing dramatic. Mile 7 was one longer climb, but by 7.5 it leveled off to a nice flat finish.

OK so now I knew what I was in for, I had two simple goals for the race: 1) finish uninjured and 2) finish ahead of my 10-mile split from the Philly Half (1:53:48). The one thing that had me worried was that I felt horrible when I went to bed. Both my stomach and head had not been cooperating for the past couple of days – I just hoped that whatever it was would be gone by morning.Yeah well, no such luck!

I went through my usual morning routine but I was not doing well. At one point J even asked me if I was sure I was going to run, and for half a second I considered not going. But I figured, if all else fails, it would just be a slow training run. We picked up our numbers and chatted with people while waiting for the bathrooms (indoor ladies’ room – score!). It was warming up nicely so we went back to the car to dump our extra clothes and then I made a critical mistake – I took a GU.  By the time we did our warm-up jog over to the start, my stomach was doing flip-flops again. Uggh…here we go.

J’s plan was to stay with me for the first mile or so – this was his first time running 10 miles and he was worried about going out too fast (He ran a great race, by the way!!). But once we started I knew almost immediately that we were going too fast. I glanced at my Garmin around a half mile – 9:36…yeah too fast! We slowed just a little. By 1.5 miles I could tell he was itching to move a little faster so I told him to have fun and sent him on his way. As the rolling part of the course started I knew this was going to be more of a mental race than anything else – could I keep myself distracted from my stomach and headache enough to hold a decent pace? I tried to enjoy the scenic course and beautiful weather. I thanked volunteers, said hi to the little kids cheering, encouraged other runners and focused on my music (I was grateful for a new playlist!). The fresh air definitely was definitely helping my headache…the stomach was just angry!

I managed the hills well, but did need to briefly walk part of the final climb. Once I hit mile 8, I knew it was flat to the finish. Frankly, I was tired of feeling like I was going to throw up – I just wanted to be done! Somewhere along the final stretch I heard someone call my name – it was Jose from And So It Burns! He had already finished but ran along with me towards the finish. Alleluiah the finish! Garmin read 10.08 miles 1:51:35! J, Jose and I chatted a bit before he headed out – it’s always great to meet the people behind the blogs you enjoy! (Jose I’m so glad you found me and stopped to say hi!)

So I hit my goals  – no injuries (legs felt really good!) and a 2:13 PR despite feeling cruddy! Definitely a confidence boost with 4 weeks till RnR USA Half. All-in-all it was a good local race I would definitely run again!