Birthday Weekend Recap Part 2: My First 10k
Here is the blog post you have been waiting for, My First 10k. And, if you haven’t already, check out Part 1: Ricky Turns 26.
Saturday was filled with nerves and cake. While I was excited that it was my birthday, I was really nervous about the race later that day.
There were two reasons that I wanted to run The Underwear Affair. The first is that this race raises money for a good cause. A big Thank You to all the amazing people who sponsored me. The total donation was $414. That’s $114 more than my goal.
The second reason is that I got to dress up. While I didn’t run in my underwear, I still had a theme to my costume.
As you can see, my theme was Team Canada. The main focus of the costume was a Roberto Luongo uniform T-shirt from the 2010 Olympics. I’m a hockey fanatic, what can I say?
There were so many great costumes there that day. There were a lot of people wearing underwear and lingerie.There was a group of guys dressed as Na’avi from Avatar (they painted their entire bodies blue), Superman, Batman and Robin, and even a guy wearing the swimsuit from the Borat movie. I will have to step up my game for next years costume.
About five minutes before the race, I made my way to the start line. Just as the race started I began to feel more excited and less nervous. With one short walking break, I ran the entire first kilometre almost non-stop. It was a good start.
It was definitely much harder than I expected, but I just kept going. It was very hot and very sunny that day. I’m glad that I was wearing a hat. And here I am running past Science World.
Just as I was passing Science World, I saw my brother and his family. While cheering me on, they had this sign for me.
I didn’t care how many people passed me, and there were a lot that did. All I could think about was crossing the finish line.
There were a lot of people that stopped and watched the runners as they passed and a lot of people showed their support with high fives and cheers. As I passed by this one restaurant with a patio, there was a guy that yelled to me “C’mon big guy, you’re doing great”. That felt really good to hear a stranger cheer me on.
Coming to the last stretch, I remember seeing a ton of people at the finish line, two of which were my Mom and Step-Dad. I wanted to finish strong and I kicked it into high gear. About a minute before I got to the finish line my leg started to cramp. Great timing leg. I didn’t have much further to go, so I kept on going.
My official time for the race was 1:24:20 and I placed 549 out of 557.
“I finished the race!” was all that was going through my head. Even though I didn’t run the whole thing and had to take many walking breaks, all that mattered was that I finished. A year ago I never would have thought that this was even possible.
This was such a great experience that I signed up for next years 10k. However, next year, I will run the whole 10k and I will do it in less than 1 hour.
3 Responses to “Birthday Weekend Recap Part 2: My First 10k”
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Ricky!!!!! I am so proud of you! See?! You didn’t need me there after all… Although I still feel sad and stupid about getting the day wrong, I am even happier that you still did it even though you had to go it alone. It shows how dedicated you are to your health and your goals and that you don’t let anything get in the way!!!!
Great job!
Nice work bro!
[...] my time of 1:24:20 for a 10k (my time for the 2010 Underwear Affair, my first [...]