Navy Ten Nautical Miler

Today Chasen and I completed the Navy Ten Nautical Miler around and on the naval base in Millington, Tennessee. As always I will tell you WHY I chose to do this race: simply put, it is local and has an AWESOME medal. As such, it was a bucket list race for me. Once Chasen caught wind of it, he decided to join me. I really enjoy getting to do races with him!

Because the race begins at 6 AM (yawn), we opted to drive up yesterday to the expo. I did not want to run the risk of being late today and not being able to get my bib, etc. It's about an hour away, and one never knows how morning traffic will be. We were both quite pleased with the race swag!

  

                                                                                       

Those are a lot of goodies!

Today we got up at 3:30 AM (double yawn). Oh, the things I do for running! We had to leave at 4:30 AM, and I wanted to eat and make sure my oatmeal had time to settle. Then, a minor miracle happened. We actually left a few minutes before 4:30! I am an early bird (when I have to be), but Chasen is NOT. Thus the minor miracle...

We got to park a few hundred feet from the start line!

Here we are before the race, fresh as tired daisies.

Before the race a Naval Chaplain sang us his rendeition of Elvis's "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" that ended with something like, "Runner Dear, You'll Need Motrin Tonight." We all roared. He did a great job, as well as with the prayer. The lady who did the National Anthem also did an outstanding job. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't say that it actually felt almost COOL at the start of the race. 68F with only 81% humidity is quite a treat for the Memphis area! I knew the heat would rise, so I aimed to enjoy the lower temps while I could. I was doing a conservative run-walk ratio and feeling GREAT!

One nautical mile is 1.15 land miles, FYI. Learn something new every day!

Because I was expecting it to be super hot, I was quite surprised at how well I felt for the longest time. I was taking Powerade at every stop, which was at each nautical mile, plus drinking my own water and having an occasional Gu. It dawned on me that this was the perfect day to close out my racing season, because I could bookend the middle two difficult races with successes. That's a great feeling to have as you are passing people!

We ran around the "military town" of Millington, and we even ran on base a bit. This event was very well staffed with both civilian police officers and military volunteers at literally every turn. I can't say enough good things about the organization of it all. Of course, I would expect nothing less from the U.S. Navy! 

There was actually quite a bit of shade on the course until the very end. At this point I did not feel so great, since the temperature was indeed rising. Once I got to land mile 10, which is just before nautical mile 9, I felt my body getting really warm for a second. This is how my brain works: I literally thought to myself, "If I pass out, I won't get my medal." So, I began to mostly walk. I could surely make it just over one more land mile!

  

                                                                                      

 Almost there! In full sun! Ick. 

It's kind of tough to be "almost there" when you feel like you're out of gas. All you can do it keep on putting one foot in front of the other, ya know. So, I did. I finally got to the point where I knew it was one more straightaway, and then a sharp turn to the finish line. I could hear the hooplah, and I was ready for it! 

Because this race had a four hour time limit, it was very walker friendly. Thus, I had a lot of people behind me since I only started fully walking at the end. I smoothed out my shirt and shorts, turned that sharp corner, and tried to book it to the finish line. Done! 

 Just wait until you see that beautiful medal!

I met up with Chasen who was, of course, way ahead of me and had already completed the race (on basically no training, might I add). We went into the cool expo area again and got more drinks and snacks. It was GREAT to be out of the sun! 

Since this was my first nautical mile rice, by golly I set a PR!

There is my handsome husband!

It was so nice to not have a ridiculously long walk to Chasen's truck. That's a first! We got in the air conditioning and headed home. The best part was that we got to talk about the race the entire time. I love being able to do things with my hubby! 

 Ba-bam! Look at that gorgeous thing! 

This is the perfect way to end spring/summer 2019 racing.

The opposite side of the ribbon... Hooyah!

Now I have about eight weeks to simply base train before I get into my fall training season. These past four races have been such a long time coming; I can't wait to see how the rest of the year pans out!