Saturday, September 22, 2012

Heart of Ghent 10k

This was a great little race and win this morning. The weather is perfect and sunny (though as normal a bit humid for my taste! :) And I was up at 5:30 eating my oatmeal and studying.

I jogged over to register, only 1/4 mile from my house and then watched pathology lectures while rolling out my legs until ~20 minutes before the race, when I jogged over and met up with Aric Martinez, a new running buddy for ~10min warm-up.

The gun went off and I started out fast, but I was so nervous. I think I went to the bathroom about 20 times before the race because it has been so long since I raced and I just didn't know how it would go. This is my home turf and I wanted to do my best... could I? Despite having gained my medical school 10 pounds? Oh, the nerves!

I dropped back from the first group of fast guys to a second group of two somewhat older fast guys and let them get ahead of me. I passed them baack at ~ mile 1.5 and~mile2, pulling of a 5:27 second mile.

Then right before mile 3 I got off course when a police officer was talking to a homeless man instead of giving the runners directions. Fortunately the man that I had passed yelled me back and I only added on ~.17 miles. I also got called back at ~mile 4.5, meaning I had to stop twice :( so I don't know how fast I could have gone if I had kept my stride!

The best moment of the race was the first time I passed the guy that called me back when he said "oh crap, I'm going to get beat by a girl aren't I?" And I replied "yep" and thought of my good friend Renee High, who just demolishes men with egos all over the place.

I came in having first with 6.48 miles in 38:09. A solid first race back on my feet around my flat and diverse neighborhood. I won with the hometown advantage :) Now I'm off to do a cool down jog with my new friends from Hampton Road Runners! Yay!

***As an aside when waiting for the medal I heard "Courtney Chapman will you please come up here." I ran up there and said I'm Courtney Chapman. And they said Oh, just making sure you are a girl. You finished so fast we thought you were probably a guy. I was #5 of 632 finishers, #1 for women. Kind of neat! Now if I can only pass my pathology exam on Monday, my life will be complete!

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