Race 20 of 40 - The Kona Run

Race 20. TWENTY. I'm half done!!! Unbelievable! Race 20 was the Kona Run. The 10-miler. I knew a lot of people running this. Both the 10 mile and the 10k. People I'd run with before as well as some new people I just met from the Southeast Michigan Runners facebook group. This was the second leg of the Kona Triple Crown. Which, seriously, is genius on the part of the people at the Kona Group. Run three races, get four medals. Believe me, EVERYONE wants to run all three. Now I just have to run the 10k for the Wicked Halloween Run in October and I'll get two more medals. I dig medals. :)

So...the Kona Run. The one I was so anxious about. And, of course, had zero reason to be. The start of this was actually pretty cool - it started at Northville Downs, a horse track! So our first quarter mile was around the track! How  fun is that?! Then we hit the very, very hilly streets of Northville. I ran this mainly with Marcela, Nicki, and Nicki's friend Holly. We started with my cousin Melissa and a new running friend Kristi from SEMR. But it didn't take long for Melissa and Kristi to leave the four of us behind. I thought this was going to be tough, but running with friends made it so much easier. We chatted, we sang, we fought up some tough hills. Now, believe me, it WAS tough. But not nearly as hard as I thought it would be.  And that big Kona Hill at the beginning? We showed it who was boss! My plan going in was to run roughly 11:00 miles. I finished in 1:50:55, average pace: 11:06. Well under the allowed 12:00/mile. So I'm very, very happy with the result. I knew I was being ridiculous with my anxiety beforehand, but I just couldn't help it.

And I have to make a special shout out to Becky, who ran the 10k. She took a spill on the gravel in the first mile and got some nasty road rash on her leg. And still finished!! (See what we'll do to stay in contention for the triple crown?!)

So now I've accomplished my second mini goal. I wanted to run 10 races each quarter. And here it is June 8th and I've run 20. I'll be getting a bit ahead of schedule next weekend with the Plymouth YMCA Father's Day 10k. I think I'm going to run another 10 for the third quarter, then 9 for the fourth. This way, I can focus a bit more on training for the Free Press half marathon in October.

Something I realized not too long ago is that my main "problem" at this point is that there are TOO MANY that I want to do. I've registered for 31 right now. (The latest - a 5k/10k "Drumstick Double" for the Detroit Turkey Trot) So that only leaves nine more. I think there are probably 13-15 that are on my "maybe" list. I'm just going to hold off on registering for any others for the time being. I can't just impulsively register - I can't do more than 40!!! Yes, I'm ridiculous. I'm well aware of this.