Jaontra's Recap of 10 Miles

This week a new challenge was placed in front of me. It was time for us to run ten miles. We finally were going to reach double digits. For the entire week, I was absolutely terrified by it. I knew I had to condition myself and prepare myself mentally for such a difficult challenge. I ran three times throughout the week and did some core workouts to ensure that I would be able to run 10 miles on Saturday. Even with all this preparation, I was still terrified and I knew for certain that it was going to be a difficult task. I wanted the week to go slowly, just so I wouldn't have to do it, but finally Saturday arrived.

I got up early Saturday morning to eat some breakfast and make sure I was hydrated for this run. Time passed quickly and before I knew it, I was in the car heading to Lake Merritt with Ana Laura. Throughout the car ride, we discussed our fears, but kept telling ourselves that we could do it. We arrived at the lake, and we were greeted by Tod. He reminded us that we were doing 10 miles that morning, with a smile on his face, and we sort of just looked at him.

Time passed quickly, and we were doing our stretches. Before I knew it, we were off on our run. The volunteers at RBO kept reminding us to stay at an easy pace since we had 10 miles to go. So we did just that. We stayed at a nice pace throughout the run and this time we made sure that we were running on the grass and dirt paths so our knees wouldn't be in too much pain later on. We made our first lap around the lake and stopped for water and a chance to try GU. Ana Laura and I were nervous about this, but figured we needed some extra energy since we still had 6 miles to go. We grabbed Vanilla Bean flavor and braced ourselves. We tasted the GU and were pretty disgusted by the taste, but we finished it and drank a lot of water and set off on our second lap around the lake. 

 

Our pace was still good and we had actually managed to stay with each other. Later on throughout our run, Janette and Jasmine caught up to us and we made an even bigger pack. Our pace continued to stay even and no one was huffing and puffing. We weren't even feeling tired yet. Ana Laura and I definitely had the GU to thank for that. Before we knew it, we had finished our second lap, and stopped for another round of GU. This was our final lap and then we only had to go half a mile out and back. Our pace had definitely increased from our last lap and instead of running 11 minute miles, we were running 8 minute miles and we all had smiles on our faces. Our energy was still high and it felt like we could keep going, which was good because when we finished our third lap, we still had another mile to go. Luckily, we still had energy to burn and we picked up the pace once again since we were cheered on by the other Running Club members who had already finished and  Mrs. Schooler. We kept running and were questioning where the turn around point was. Luckily, Mr. Schooler had caught up to us and showed it to us. We turned around at that point, and ran all the way back to the RBO tent where we were greeted by Lalo and Junior. 

Ana Laura and I were ecstatic because we did not stop and we managed to stay together for the whole time. We grabbed our chocolate milk and other goodies and went to stretch with other runners who had just finished. It was truly a remarkable feeling. I felt like that was the greatest thing I had ever done and I truly felt all the progress I had made from our first run. I felt happy all over and I just couldn't stop smiling whereas after my first run, I was completely pooped and felt like I never wanted to run again. After this run, I really feel like I am capable of doing anything I put my mind to. With the marathon being less than 5 weeks away, I know I still have training that needs to be done, especially since I have to run 3.1 more miles than I did yesterday, but I know that I can really do it now. It doesn't matter when I finish, but I know I will. I can't wait until the Half-Marathon so I can yell, "I did it!"