As I mentioned earlier, this race was a last minute addition to my schedule because a) I need to get my butt in gear and b) I was able to get a REALLY good deal on Groupon for this race. My friend Lita had signed up as well and we were planning to stick together for the race.
We arrived at Festival Park in Orlando around 7 am for a 7:30 am race start time. Unfortunately it was already getting warm and I knew it was going to be a rough morning of running. After catching up with some friends we made our way to the start time and were super happy when the race started exactly on time. Woo hoo!
We started off doing 2/1 intervals and that lasted for the first half of the race. Just past the 5k mark the heat was starting to catch up with us and we had to reverse our intervals. Our goal was just to finish in an upright position, so we were going to do whatever it took to keep moving. Thankfully around mile 5 we started around Lake Underhill so we had some shade and a nice break from the sun.
The last half mile of the race, in my opinion, was the most brutal. It was pretty much a straight shot in direct sun to the finish line. All I wanted was some shade and a whole lot of water. But we pushed through and finished the race right around the time that we wanted.
One of the best things about this race was that Toasted had their food truck there. What did that mean exactly? It meant that after 6.2 miles I was handed a wonderful and delicious grilled cheese sandwich. Score! I think grilled cheese sandwiches after races should totally be “a thing.”
For each kilometer completed by each participant, Bimbo Bakeries USA donates two slices of bread to a local Feeding America food bank – one loaf of bread per completed 10K. Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida was the participating charitable partner in Orlando so that made this race even more important to me. We found out after the race that they ended up donating 1500 loaves of bread to Second Harvest Food Bank. How cool is that?
It was a rough race, but I’m still glad I did it to support a great cause and remind myself that I can totally run a 10k. Now I just gotta get ready to run a couple of half marathons. No big deal right?
