Last month I got an email about a race hosted by Women’s Health magazine called Run10 Feed10, an annual run to fight hunger in the U.S. I shared the details with my friend Athkar; both of us love working out and being involved in our community. So even though we only had a few weeks to train, we decided to run our first 10K together.
The morning of the race, Oct. 6, it was pouring cats and dogs. After boarding my bus, I made my way north to Lincoln Park and was happy to see clearer skies and a camp of tents with crowds of women interspersed with a few men. Athkar and I checked in and we received our race bibs. As I took that piece of paper with my number printed in large type, a chill of excitement went down my spine–the day had finally come!
With some time before the race began, we visited a few of the dozens of tents to fill up our official event FEED tote with sponsor information and products. Following bag-check and warmup, we were all gathered in our respective time-per-mile groups. When start was signaled, we got off to a steady start running at an even pace. The race course took us from Grove 2 in Lincoln Park to the Lakefront Trail for a beautiful lakefront view to Diversey Parkway, and then looped back to the start.
Along the course, there were placards marking each completed mile. All through the last mile, I could hardly contain my excitement. And then it was over. Ten kilometers converts to 6.2 miles–definitely not a marathon (congratulations to everyone who ran in yesterday’s Chicago Marathon, by the way!), but still a lot of work. Completing this race was a great accomplishment in my book. One that put a smile on my face for the rest of the day.
