May I have another 10K please?!

May has been the month of 10Ks for me, with 3 total... 2 of them in the same weekend (that was a little painful, haha).

With all the symptoms I was experiencing in April, it had me a bit concerned about my runs in May. As any runner can tell you, 6 miles is a long way to go when you need to go to the bathroom. And port-o-potties along the course... well, use them at your own risk. Thankfully, May has been a decidedly quiet month for me, symptom-wise. Whether that's because I've been a little less stressed or because the amount of exercise has been helping (or maybe I've been less stressed because of the exercise), I'm not sure. I've had the occasional pang in my gut to remind me that I'm still dealing with my Crohn's internally, but its been few and far between, which allowed me to run without too much worry.

I kicked it off with my sisters at the L+M Memorial Spring Stride 10k in New London. It was perfect running weather: overcast and breezy, but still warm enough that we weren't shivering at the start line. This was an entirely new course for us... sorta. The course actually ran right by Angie's college, so she was more than familiar with the area thanks to 4 years of running around with the soccer team. All in all it was a great course, despite being a double loop (in other words, we ran the 5k course twice, with only a slight deviation).

The medal was a shoe. A SHOE. How cute is that?

I'm not sure if it was bad planning on my part, the immediate impulse to sign up for a new race added to the HMF calendar, or a combination of both, but the next day saw me up and at another 10k, the Collinsville Classic. This is one of my favorite courses, and I've run every year since the inaugural race. Every year the weather for Collinsville gets worse and worse, and this year was no exception, with a soft but steady rain falling from start to finish (next year I'm expecting a full-on downpour, and the year after that should be a hurricane).

Not pictured: the Farmington River to the right, which made for even lovelier views than the backs of all the people faster than me!

It runs along the Farmington River trail, starting in Burlington and ending in Collinsville. What made this 10k extra special was that I was running with a few of my favorite running buddies for their FIRST 10K EVER... including my Aunt Kathy (the same one who was nervous about running the 4 O'Races in a row, but proceeded to rock all of them). To add to it, Aunt Kathy actually BEAT both me and Mandy (although she's quick to point out that we must have been tired/sore from the 10k we ran the previous day, but I dunno about that one... my time wasn't THAT much slower from the day before. She just wants to be humble about whooping our butts)!

Amy (far left), Kathy (center), and Amy (far right), along with Mandy and me at the finish of the Collinsville Classic. It was so rainy that I actually wore a visor, which happens even less often than me wearing a winter hat!

I let myself have a break the next weekend (sorta... I was stuck working and traveling for a business trip), but the next weekend was the Mystic 10k. Arguably one of the prettiest courses HMF offers. There's also the option for a half marathon with this one, but we've stuck with the 10k for this race so far... and it has nothing to do with the amount of hills that show on the course map after mile 6. Noooo, nothing at all with avoiding all those hills.

It's a REALLY early start for this one (7am) and Mystic is a bit of a haul, so Mandy and I got a hotel nearby. Nothing feels better than rolling out of bed and practically landing at the start line. It was a bright, beautiful day, so it made up for the miserable weather at Collinsville.

We obviously take running very seriously. Very seriously indeed.

As mentioned, Mystic is probably the prettiest course offered by HMF, running along the main seaport with all the boats docked, through the downtown, over the iron bridge, and along the shoreline, finally finishing at Mystic Aquarium.

I didn't want to stop for too many pictures... I had to redeem myself after  the previous runs.

I managed to knock 2 minutes off my best time from the last weekend's races... although I didn't come close to my 10k PR (that's a time I managed to get much later in the running season a couple years ago).

Along the way I managed to find Amy, so we were all able to regroup at the finish line. I think it was a satisfying race for all of us... although Mandy is mad that we kept trading places until the end, when I opened my stride and got ahead of her in the last .2 miles.

Every year the Mystic 10k medal is a different animal from the aquarium, and the back features a short story about one specific animal of that type. Last year's was a penguin, this year featured a seal.

Look at the seal!

I felt pretty good after the Mystic 10k. Since I started running them, I've always said that 10ks are my sweet spot run. 5ks are great, but it can sometimes feel like I'm just warming up as I cross the finish line. Half marathons are a challenging distance with great reward, but take a heck of a toll on my body by the end. (And let's not talk about full marathons yet... while its definitely on my bucket list to do one, I can't imagine how I'm gonna feel when I officially sign up for one.) But 10ks... I get to find and keep my pace for a distance, without feeling like my legs are immovable objects the next day.

Unless I run two of them in one weekend. Then all bets are off, and I will gladly become a couch potato after the second one.