Forrest N Leamon Memorial 10k recap
After celebrating my sister Alex’s birthday Saturday night, I went home early took a dream water drink that I received in my Klutch Club last month and was in bed by nine. The girls decided to stay the night at moms and I was a little sad at first, but then I realized it would be much easier on everyone. I didn’t want to have to wake them up so early. I slept very well until 2 a.m. I woke up with my heart pounding and completely nervous. I always do this to myself. I’m so crazy because I have this irrational fear of my body shutting down when I’m about to start running. Does this happen to anyone else?!
Anyway, I went back to sleep an hour later and woke up at 6:10. A little later than I wanted but it turned out okay. We got the park at 7:15 and still had time to spare since the race was set to start at 8. I warmed up for a little while.
Forrest N Leamon was a DEA special agent who lost his life on October 26, 2009 when the U.S. military helicopter he was in crashed while returning from a mission in Afghanistan. He was 37 years old. Profits from the race benefit Survivors Benefit Fund.
The weather was perfect! 67 degrees but the sun was going to start shinning hard soon. Fall? We still don’t know what that is. The trees were still green and gorgeous.
I tried not to start out too fast with mile 1. I was feeling pretty good. I was just enjoying the scenery for the first 3 miles.
I started to pick up my speed around mile 4. I was not feeling any pain in my knee, so I kept going strong! I didn’t stop once to walk.
When I thought I was about to cross the finish line, I went a little bit faster but it turned out I still had a little more than half a mile to go. Dork. I slowed down a little but when I finally saw the finish line approaching I tried sprinting so that I could beat my goal time of 57 minutes. I did it! My final time was 56:44!
I was so happy for just meeting my own goal and getting a PR, I couldn’t contain myself!!
Here are my times:
Mile 1: 9:01 min/mi
Mile 2: 9:09 min/mi
Mile 3: 9:10 min/mi
Mile 4: 9:14 min/mi
Mile 5: 8:59 min/mi
Mile 6: 8:37 min/mi
We had to wait a while for the place results but they had such an array of snacks and even burgers for the participants. But it started to get pretty hot out. Even the organizers were trying to hurry things up because they knew everyone was starting to get a little uncomfortable. I knew I placed when I heard the time of the 3rd place winner in my age group. (20-29)
But are you kidding me?!!! FIRST PLACE!! I was in complete disbelief. If anyone would have told me I not only would have lost so much weight but run these races and actually place in every single one, I would have smacked them or something.
This is so unreal to me. I am such an emotional mess just typing this up. I’ve never said it before, but I am SO proud of myself. I never thought I’d be able to say that.
It just shows that YOU or I can do anything we set our minds to. Our head keeps us from pushing hard to make our dreams come true. We question ourselves way too much. The answer should always be Yes I can do this and I will do it so damn well! Nobody can stop you except yourself, and don’t you dare let that happen. You are so much stronger than that!
That’s what kept repeating in my head during the race.
This route was the most beautiful race I’ve ever ran in. The cause was even better. I can’t wait until next year. I wish I would have been able to take pictures, but I’m not that coordinated! 
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