Moonlight Run 10k Recap

I did it! I ran a 10k! A distance I thought I never could run, and I did it a lot faster than I thought I would. I crossed that finish line in about 1:13:58. Yes, for you hard core runners that’s slow, BUT I had to do a 735 foot elevation climb for a kilometer on the 9th kilometer of the race!

Catie and I were nervous real nervous. Especially when we found out the race organizers would only give us an hour and a half to finish before they would close the course. We both figured it would take us 1:40:00 to finish.

Catherine and I both set our RunKeeper as we started. If you don’t have this app and you’re runner- get it immediately! Every 5 minutes it tells you the distance covered and your average mile pace and current mile pace. Some people would find this annoying or prefer to not know, but I loved knowing how much distance I was covering and at what pace. I was very happy with my pace too because in training I always ran an average of 12 miles/minute.

Distance – 6.26 miles

Duration– 1:13:57

Calories Burned– 828

Average Pace– 11:49 min/mi

Elevation Gain– 735 feet

And here is a brief summary of each mile :

Mile 1- 9:23 min/mi

This was my fastest mile pace because we ran down the coulee hill. Catie and I widened our strides and let the hill do most of the work as we flew down. At the very bottom of the hill though there was an ice patch and we saw one runner go down hard! She rolled out of the way of the other runners but it looked bad.

Mile 2- 10:29 min/mi

Catie and I were cruising for the next couple of kilometers. Luckily we had little flashlights because this course was so muddy and puddles everywhere.

Mile 3- 11:59 min/mile

At about the 4km, it was extremely mucky so Catie walked through it to maintain footing and I slogged on. There were so many icy puddles with icy bottoms on this stretch. And if you tried to go around the puddles, you were in deep mud. Running with wet, cold feet is not a blast.

Mile 4- 12:39 min/mile

I was so stoked when I hit the four mile mark. Yes my feet were soggy but I was cruising! I wasn’t winded, my outer hips were tight but my calves and hamstrings felt good. The weather was balmy and I was in a happy place. This was when I started thinking “I could totally survive the zombie apocalypse! Ain’t no zombie going to catch me!”

Mile 5- 12:13 min/mile

I was still plodding along. In this mile I was trying to psych myself up for the hill. I knew it was coming and I knew it was going to hurt.

Mile 6- 14:27 min/mile

This was that hill! That 735 foot elevation gain! I couldn’t run it. I was too tight and the hill was too steep. I power walked the whole way. Huffing and puffing because there would be a sharp rise, then a sort flat area, then a climb again.

Mile 7- 10:41 min/mile

This wasn’t an actual mile, it was more a quarter mile. And the pace is so fast because when I turned that corner I widened my stride and sped up to cross the finish line. I looked up and was so happy to see that I did it in 1:13:58. I wasn’t 1:40:00!

Overall, I am extremely happy with how I did and I want do another 10k, one on a flat course!!!