When making my early 2015 race schedule, I found a number of 10K with good courses to help me hopefully meet my goal. As you may recall, I PRed my 10K last weekend by a minute (even with less than ideal racing conditions, cold and very rainy). I was excited when I found the Chattahoochee Road Runners 10K because it promised to be a very fast course with a .75 mile downhill finish.
I woke up with a migraine on race morning - like the type were I wasn't sure if I wanted to vomit or have my head explode. I was misserable to say the least. On the way to the race Momma K was trying to talk to me and I just couldn't handle the sound of anything at that point. Why today? Seriously, the day of a huge opporutnity for my goal time 10K and THIS happens.
We arrived at the race early because we had to park at the finish area then walk about .6 miles to where the start was. We went and got our numbers then proceeded to start area to meet up with some friends from the ATLrunsDisney group.
I have never ran this race/course but I knew from the race website about the downhill finish, so I knew that I wanted to try to conserve some energy to "let it rip" through the final .75 mile. I didn't want to put too much pressure on myself today given the migraine that I was facing, so I decided to just run how it felt comfortable and go from there. I didn't even look at my Garmin until the turn around point at 1.5 which I realized that I was on pace for my goal 5K time. As I approached the 5K split I felt good - my migraine was basically gone at this point and my legs felt good. Once I hit the 5K pad I looked down and saw that I hit my split in the time which I wanted to make my 10K goal (OH SNAP!). I knew that I had to remain calm and just stay focused as I have mentally "lost races" many times around the 4 or 5 mile point. At this point I knew I just needed to stay relaxed and keep going.
Before I knew it I hit that famous downhill finish. There was one point that I seriously felt like my legs were running out from under me. The best part of the race was when I rounded my final turn seeing and hearing Momma K at the finish line. I gave it everything I had in those final few hundred yards.
TAKE THAT MIGRAINE!