First 10k Race

This Saturday morning, me and my friend Jen both completed our first ever 10k!

Up until mid January of this year, when I began training in freezing cold Kansas City, I had not really ran for about a year. When I got back to Saipan, I started running with Jen, who helped whip me into shape really fast. We spent a couple of months consistently running in late afternoons at American Memorial Park and along beach road (running along the beach path with the sun setting is so beautiful, and you get the cool ocean breeze).


 Warming up. We arrived at the race just as the half marathon racers were about to start- here they all are waiting at the starting line. Many of the runners had come from Japan for the race. A famous Japanese comedian was putting on a show later in the afternoon, and he also ran the 10k with us (complete with a camera crew following him the whole time... so fancy!)



Brian was so awesome and got up early with me and Jen. He rode his scooter a little ways down the track and got an action shot of us during the race- the sun was just beginning to come up. It felt so good to run in the (very) early morning- when the sun comes up in Saipan it is scorching all year round.

Finishing the race! Jen finished at 1 hour 12 minutes, and I finished at 1 hour 16 minutes. We're planning on doing another 10k soon and I want to cut my time down to one hour.







 Our friend Amber (below on the left) came in first for her age group in the half marathon! Saipan's race prizes are always awesome... she won 2 hundred dollars for coming in first place!


This weekend....XTERRA!!
Brian has been training his butt off and can't wait to compete on Saturday. My dad arrives in Saipan late this Thursday night, and will be there for Brian's race- I could not be more excited for this weekend. We've made a schedule of what we're going to do every day he is here and where we are going to eat- we want to make sure to fit all the best stuff in.