10K Race for the Cure

After a kind of disappointing marathon I knew that I needed something to help me stay focused on my running.  My friend Bob told me about a 10K at the Imperial Palace and since it was a charity run it was on Saturday.  So after spending Thanksgiving up in Tokyo at the New Sanno we headed up to Tokyo once again for the 10K race.  We decided to all take the train which turned out to be a good idea.  It was so nice to have the family come cheer me on at this race.  I met up with Bob and other runners from the Nanban running group in Tokyo.   I saw a few ASIJ HS runners and many other Americans there.  I wasn't really sure how fast I was going to be able to run this race but I was aiming somewhere around 42 minutes.  I told Bob if he felt like running slow he could run with me and pace me.  Bob is fast and if it hadn't been for the fact that a few other fast male runners showed up he would have tried to race it and place to get one of the prizes.  Luck was on my side because after mile 1 I could see that I was catching up to Bob...or wait, he was slowing down to run with me.  I was so grateful he ran with me.  It was the first time in a long time that I had run with someone faster than me to pace me.  It was a nice feeling.  We were fortunate enough to run with Ueda who is a Japanese Olympic Triathlete.  She can run the 10K in 34 minutes and that is in a triathlon....WOW!  It was the coolest feeling rounding the last corner and seeing that I was going to place.  They even had a pink ribbon out for me as I crossed the finish line.  I was able to place 3rd for women with a time of 42:21 and an average pace of 6:53 min/mile.  I actually got some pretty fabulous prizes including two new pairs of shoes.  This race was just the thing I needed to push me into the winter running months!