Freedom Run

I recently completed my second 10k. I had planned on going to see my mom in KC 4th of July weekend. The day before I left, I thought I wonder if they have any runs that weekend. I told myself before, no more Summer runs because it’s just too hot but it was an unusually nice week for Oklahoma so I thought why not. With it being a holiday, there is typically a run somewhere. Oddly enough I found one in Lenexa where my mom lives literally 2 minutes away from her house. The 32nd annual Lenexa Freedom Run was Saturday morning at 7am. I got to KC late Friday night and woke up early Saturday morning to go register for the run. This was the first run I’ve done completely on my own. My mom wasn’t able to come watch because she was at the Lake of the Ozarks until that afternoon. I must say it was kind of liberating to be in a new city, at a new run by myself. I didn’t know what to expect but it all went really smoothly. There were about 1500 competitors. The 5k and the 10k started at the same time. This made for kind of a hectic start. Everyone started out so fast here. I was like dang how long are we going to run like this??! Ha-ha! Eventually people started to slow down but I was surprised at how little walkers there were. After the 5k portion was almost over, you could keep running and do the 10k or veer off to the side to complete the 5k. I must say that I thought about ending my run but I knew I should do the 10k so I went ahead and finished. It was tough. I’m still amazed at how hard every run is. I keep telling myself this one shouldn’t be so bad but I’m always surprised that it is continuously challenging. I was pleased with my time. My first 10k I finished in 1:03 at the Remember the 10 run in Stillwater but granted we weren’t really running for time plus it was rainy that day. But regardless this time I finished in 56:11. It feels good any time you beat your PR. Once again when I was done, I almost threw up on the lady cutting off my time chip. I don’t know what my deal is with this. Maybe I’m pushing myself too hard, maybe it’s just how I feel after a hard run, I don’t know. But I told her I needed a couple seconds. Of course it felt like minutes but eventually I told her I was ready and in no time I felt normal again. Like every race I went to get my after run snack, I got a banana and this time they had some yummy homemade granola. I also noticed a bunch of people in a long line and thought what in the heck is this for?! Then I noticed that it was to get your official time and place, etc. So I thought well I might as well. I stood in line and ate my granola. I got to overhear some pretty interesting conversations while in line. The funniest one was a trainer talking to 2 larger ladies that had just walked the 5k. He said well the good news is, if you haven’t had a heart attack yet today, it doesn’t look like you will. Ha-ha! I thought this is so true… for all of us. Luckily the line went pretty fast and when I got to the front, a guy scanned my bib and a receipt printed out with my time information. It was pretty cool. After the run, I drove back to my mom’s and crashed. Another run completed. My dad brought to my attention that I had now ran a race in 3 states Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas. I’ve completed 2 10ks and 2 half marathons in 2010. Considering that I just began running in December, I feel pretty good about where I am.