My Eight Year Streak Ends!

My eight year streak of walking or running the Ukrops Monument Avenue 10 Kilometer race ends today!  It feels kind of sad.  This is a very fun race, and I think it is one of the top 10 biggest foot races in the United States.  I've done it every year between 2005 and 2012, each time as a cancer survivor, and last year to celebrate surviving ten years. 

My slowest time was about 1:34, and my fastest (twice) was a shade over 63 minutes.  I've done it on chilly days and warm days, sunny days and rainy days.  I've always had fun with it, and enjoyed the crowds that line the route, the costumes that people wear, and the runners and walkers out in force, 40,000 strong.

I might never have done the 10K except for Team in Training.  In 2005, I was training to walk my first marathon with Team in Training, and our coaches suggested that we sign up for the 10K to get used to the idea of being in a race, what it is like to move through the corrals, use a timing chip, and so forth.  So a bunch of us signed up for the race.  Probably 2005 was most memorable one, because we did the 6.2 miles as part of a long day of training.  I did my walking with three others.  The four of us walked from the park where we gathered for training to the start of the race - about two miles.  We walked the race, and walked back to the park.  The two who were training for a half marathon were done, but Michal and I were going to do a marathon and had to get in 16 miles.  So we walked six more miles together.  Talk about a long 10K!

As it turned out, I didn't need the 10K experience to prepare for my first marathon.  There were only about 1,300 participants in the 2005 Anchorage Marathon - no corrals, no big crowds to deal with.  But, still, it was a lot of fun to do the 10K and I was hooked.

I woke up early today, about 5:20, even though it was a Saturday.  My biological clock told me that it was time to get up.  But I think part of me was also thinking about all the walkers and runners getting up today anticipating the race, and especially the first-timers being very excited about it.  They have a terrific day for it.  I'll miss not being in it, but I have not run since the last 10K due to knee pain.  I could have walked it - I hiked 7 miles just the other day - but felt like this year, being unable to run, I would just skip it.

I'll do it again some day, maybe as a runner, but if not, as a walker.  It is too much fun not to!