WOHOO!!! I placed in my first 10k race today!

Well I just got home from my sister Sarah's house in Tyler Texas. This morning I woke up at 6: 30am to get ready for my race. We didn't get to bed until about 11:00pm  and it was a rough night with Emma sleeping in the bed with me, and Craig sleeping on the floor since she kept kicking us. So I am exhausted right now and about ready to hit the sac. I have been fighting shin splints, a hurt knee and ankle all on my left leg for about two weeks now, off and on. The first mile of the race they were hurting pretty bad but I soon forgot the pain as the adrenaline kicked in. The trail was so beautiful! We ran through an old neighborhood of gorgeous southern houses and azaleas in bloom. I kept a pretty good pace and was passing a lot of people the first few miles and I felt good, but worried that I might now be able to keep it going for the whole race. There were a number of girls ahead of me in my eye sight that I one by one caught up to and stepped in front of. One girl wearing bright pink shoes was riding my tail hard for most of the race. At one point she got in front of me but in the end I didn't let her beat me. About 4 miles in we went up a very long hill that I felt would never end. I tried to do like I have been reading and keep my arms low and relaxed and push through as I went up hill and then lengthen my stride and lift my arms on the way down. I think this really gave me an advantage over the others because it was in these hills that I passed up a lot of people. There were two girls though that kept catching up to me and I was determined to beat them. I also ran steady for a while with a 60 year old man! Isn't that amazing? And I had a hard time with it at 21! When the pointers told us we had one mile left I really kicked it into gear. I sped up and put enough comfortable distance between me and those other girls and tried to keep up the pace. When I saw the finish line about 100 yards ahead I started bolting and as I crossed the finish line the announcer exclaimed, "Wow! What a finish!"  It felt so good for my first 10k. I however didn't even see all the other girls that were still way ahead of me and I finished 11th over all (in women). My time was 49.37. Which is less than an 8 minute mile! (My goal was to do it in under and hour) And I placed third in my age division and got a plaque. I am not sure how many people I was up against but it was a huge crowd! This was definitely the most competitive group I have ran with! As always the best part of the race was coming up to the finish line and hearing my family cheering me on and my hubby telling me to push it through, giving me just enough encouragement to find what energy was left inside of me. Thank you Sarah, Paul, and Troy too for cheering me on! I cant begin to explain how rewarding it is to have smiling faces greet you at the finish! Hours after the race my calves were still burning! This is a good sign! I am proud of my first 10k.