nike: we own the night

shortly after i moved here, i decided i wanted to sign up for a run.  it was mostly to motivate myself and because i wanted to see how i'd do since i'm still dealing with my knee injury.  ideally it would've been a half marathon, but there wasn't anything that fit my schedule in the near-ish future so instead i settled on the nike's we own the night series.  it's basically europe's equivalent to the nike women's half in SF and DC, but this one is just a 10k that they do in berlin, amsterdam and london.  i had one month to train and i ran a few days a week but didn't overdo it because of the knee.  in the past, i think i overtrained which has led to my demise in the two previous halfs.  i still did well time-wise but that's all due to the competitive runner in me.

anyway, i managed to get my coworker amz to sign up as well!  amz...does not run.  but amz and i signed up on the same day which mean she also had a month to train.  about a week before the race is when amz actually started her training which happened twice before the big day (not to mention she smoked a fag on the way TO the run. fml).  the guys at the office gave her a tough time, but i always had faith in her because i knew the energy during race day and the music would help her to the finish line!

the race was held at victoria park, a really large park east of london.  it had been raining that week but luckily the rain had stopped so we only dealt with very windy weather that evening!  i wasn't sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised.  they had a huge stage with a dj spinning music, lots of booths around and food/beer stands for spectators and participants.

the race went around the park twice and ended where we started.  throughout the race, they had created tunnels that we ran through with cool lights (remember...night run) and music to keep you pumped along the way.  i don't ever run races with music for whatever reason so it was nice to have some upbeat stuff every now and then.  i was feeling pretty good during the race then at a little after the halfway mark, the knee started to be a little unhappy with me.  i slowed it down for a bit which is very clear when i look at my splits but then it felt fine after a bit so i picked up the speed again!  i ended up finishing at 53:13 which is okay.  it's frustrating because endurance is not the issue for me!  i could've run much harder but the knee is what held me back which just means i need to do a better job rehabing it!  next time, i guess :)

after i finished, i waited for amz and was so proud of her when she came through the finishing corral!  she just kept saying to me, 'i can't believe it! i can't believe it, carolyn!'  she surprised herself during the race and was able to run most of it without walking which is awesome!  the energy from all the runners kept her going and she pushed through it all and finished in 1:15.  we snapped some pictures after the race and then called it a night! 

selfie at the start line

start line

finish line!

we did it!

finisher necklace

pretty consistent until the 7km mark!