Almost medaled!

We arrived to Helsinki on September 30th and I was registered to run a 10K the next day. This isn't a big deal since I have been running for few months very consistently and I felt that I was in good enough shape to race a 10K. The night before, I only slept four hours so I wasn't sure how fast I should try to attempt to run it. Troy said that I would be selling myself short if I ran slower than an 8 minute per mile. I was little worried that it would be too fast because of the circumstances, but I went for it.

The start was really crowded, which was irritating. I haven't done a race for a while so I had forgotten about that aspect of races. Once I was able to run around some people, I settled into a comfortable pace and was running around 7:35 per mile pace for the first mile or so. I kept glancing at my watch and was thrilled with the pace, and little worried but I was worried that it was too fast and I would not be able to keep it up and would end up running way slow in the end.

Right before the 5K mark, my left shoelace came undone. I had double knotted them, but they came undone anyways, so I had to stop and tie the shoe and start again. Not a big deal since it only took few seconds, but it obviously messed up with my running rhythm.

As I stopped to tie my shoe lace, a girl passed me and I decided to try to stay with her for the rest of the race. I was getting more tired as the race went on, but I felt mentally and physically strong and was maintaining a pace that was under 8 min/mile. The finish line was right next to the start line; however, I had not realized that this wasn't a 10K, it was a 10.5k. Yeah 50 meters doesn't make a huge difference physically, but mentally it threw me off. I had planned to get to the bridge and sort of sprint downhill to the finish. However, when I was running down the hill, I realized that people kept running past the finish line(or what I thought was the finish line) and it made me worried. It ended up that we had to run up another hill and turn back down to come to the finish line.

I didn't end up slowing down, but I didn't sprint to the finish line either. And I should have since I ended up being 4th place (out of 72 women) and lost the trophy by 5 seconds! My final time was 51:20 for 10.5 kilometers. They called it the 1/4 marathon, which I have never heard of before.

The good stuff:

I was so happy with my pace: 7:43 per mile according to the official results

the weather was beautiful

my body felt good throughout the race

Annoying stuff:

my lack of knowledge of the course

the fact that I had to hold my ipod in my hand

the shoelace incident

All the happy runners (pre-race) and Eerika , who doesn't look so happy.

1/4 marathon runners: Katja, Eevi and Risto and 1/2 marathon runners: Anna and dad

My coach and my cheerleader

The course started with a slight uphill over a bridge, but it was nice to know on the way back, we would have a downhill.

Risto and I after we had finished our race. I was way tired after the race and it seemed so hard to hold Eerika.

OK. This picture is embarassing, but I am so glad to see it. My form is terrible. Yes, I ran a great race and I am proud of myself, if I can say that without being prideful. But I looked awful! So I will be working on my form in the next few months.

Katja ran her first ever 10K (actually 10.5K)

Anna ran a great 1/2 marathon, even with the nasty foot pain.

Dad officially holds the Aura 1/2 marathon record: 1:54:32

All the runners, plus Eerika's legs, post-race. We got medals and a Fazer chocolate bar as we finished. My chocolate was gone in 10 seconds!

Garmin Watch Details

I didn't turn my watch on until we had run 300 meters or so, the distance is little off.

1	7:32.2	1.61	4:41.0
2	7:40.8	1.61	4:46.3
3	7:59.0	1.61	4:57.6
4	7:51.7	1.61	4:53.1
5	7:58.5	1.61	4:57.3
6	7:58.2	1.61	4:57.1
7	3:05.6	0.62	5:01.3

Overall, I feel that it was a great first race since Eerika was born and I had started training more seriously.