Tuft's 10K

Today was the Tuft's 10K. This is my fifth in a row and I was happy to finish it. I lined up with the strollers behind about 7,000 women and ran with some friends from church - one of whom pushed a gigantic double stroller. It took me about four minutes to shuffle over the starting line and then I clicked off a few 11 or 12-minute miles. This was definitely a different experience than in year's past. I passed thousands of runners and walkers - many pushing strollers, wearing fanny packs, donning skorts (eww!), and I even saw two women dressed up as Sarah Palin "running for VP" - and there was a lot of dodging and zig-zagging in between runners. I'd never noticed quite how cramped a two-lane road can be with that many runners.

I could feel some pinching in my hip, but it didn't feel like it was dislocating or breaking, so by the fifth mile I decided to ditch my friends and open up my stride a bit. I always laughed at those people who ran most of a race insanely slow only to sprint the final stretch at world-record time. Here I was, one of them. I covered the last 1.2 miles in just over 8 minutes - this definitely goes with the race's theme of Start Strong, Finish Stronger - and finished with a handshake from Ms. Benoit-Samuelson herself.

So far, I can walk. My hip hurts, but I didn't sustain any permanent damage (at least anything new!); thus, it was a success. I finished in 2,172nd place with a blazing 59:06 chip time (1:03:21 gun time - counting all that time to shuffle past the starting line).

Hurray for five years of Tuft's 10Ks.

2008 - 59:06 - the year of the Stupid Hip.
2007 - 37:26 - not my best, but not my worst.
2006 - 39:49 - ran this at marathon pace 5 days before the Hartford Marathon.
2005 - 39:22 - five months after a C-section.
2004 - 36:54 - pregnant with Bruce, just didn't know it.