Stony Creek Metropark Back to the Beach 10k

Yes, this weekend I went "Back to the Beach" and conquered my first 10k!!

Stats:
Time: 1:09:43
11:15 average/M
Place Age Group 17 out of 48
Place Overall Women: 76 out of 168

It was the most beautiful morning.  When I first woke up to let the dog out, it felt quite crisp outside, and I thought...maybe I'll need a jacket.  Well....two hours makes a huge difference!!  No Jacket Required Mr. Phil Collins!!!

My husband dropped me off so that he and the kids wouldn't have to wait around for too long.  I was a little bit confused because I thought that the 10k started at a different spot than the half.  Then I noticed a ton of people with 10k bibs on, so I knew I was in the right place.  I was also a little self conscious because everyone seemed to be running with their friends, family, etc...  Not too many solo moms at the start.  I did a lot of walking around, stretching, etc...  Luckily I didn't get there too early because before I knew it they were lining up the half milers.  The announcer and chief organizer of the race "Joe Burns III" was very organized and calm.  He really did a great job of getting the runners lined up and off.

Once the half milers were off, the 5k lined up and went on their way.  Then it was our group's turn.  I lined up in the back of the 10 miler group, front of the 11's.  I learned from my 5k that indeed I am a little faster than I think, so I wanted to try and hang with the faster runners for a little bit, yet not get passed either.  As you can see from my time, I was in the perfect spot.

We started out pretty fast.  The run started on grass (which I don't like at all!!) and then moved into the woods for some dirt trails.  I wanted to conserve my energy, so I went kind of slow through the wooded trails.  Also, I didn't know the course, so I went a little slow just in case some huge hills awaited us. All through the woods, there were two young girls who would do a full out sprint and then walk.  Of course they blew by me during the sprint, and then I would catch up during their walk.  Is this a better routine than running the whole thing???  I would love to know if anyone has an answer.  In the end, they must have walked it in because the last time I passed them was at mile 4 and then I never saw them again.

My awesome support crew were at mile 4.5 all the way through 5.5.  There was this nice shady parking lot that you could see your runners go by two or three times because we had an out and back turn around during this leg.  My husband and kids cheered me on during this whole time.  What an energy boost!!  Thanks team Michigan Fit Mom!!!

Once I ran through that park area, I only had about a 1/2 mile to go.  Some volunteers were handing out Hawaiian Leis and told us to sprint to the end.  I still didn't see the end, so I didn't trust them, but once I came around the corner and saw all the people, I ran like crazy.  There was a couple to my right who were also sprinting.  We probably looked crazy!!!

Once I finished, I had to stop abruptly to have a volunteer clip off my chip.  This was a little annoying because you literally had to stop dead in your tracks after just sprinting your heart out!!  Luckily there was no one in front of me and they cut the chip pretty fast.  There were also volunteers with cold cloths, but I just took water and dumped it on my neck and shirt.  Then I was looking around for my support team.  It took them longer to drive from their shady park area then it took for me to run, so they missed me crossing the finish.  That was fine.

My number one supporter!!!

We did walk over to the finish to take a picture of me in front of it.  I don't like these pictures because it looks like I am posing by my finish time of which it is not!!!

After we watched a few more finishers, I grabbed a banana off the food table and then we had to go pronto!!  One of my boys had a baseball game to get to.  No time to bask in the glory!!  That is the life of the Michigan Fit Mom!!

All in all I really enjoyed the race.  It was highly organized and got rave reviews by experienced runners on facebook.   Detroit Runner has a very thorough review on the half marathon at his blog.  He has a lot of photos of the set up for the race as well as his thoughts as a seasoned runner.

Thanks for reading!!

Have a great day!

MFM