10K around Kungsholmen Island

Racing season has begun. 

For me it started over a month ago, on a 5k through a muddy, hilly forest north of Stockholm with mounds of snow alongside the trail and trees toppled over as obstacles. 

Not my best time, but a good start.

That day, however, is not the photo you see above. This photo, taken on May 5, is from the 

10-kilometer Kungsholmen Runt

just a few weeks later.

At this point in the race, we had just powered up one of the course's long, slow hills and were just under 2 kilometers from the finish. We also happened to be passing just by my apartment building, at which point, part of me wished I was still in my bed on a Saturday morning as I'm sure so many others were. But that momentary longing passed and I focused on a strong finish.

My goal was to finish in under 50 minutes. For some reason, from the first kilometer, I'd got it in my head that I needed to run 4:30-minute kilometers. Really no excuse for such lousy math in the first kilometer. But with the speed of my first few kilometers*, I was able to finish in

[drumroll please]

49:30!

and 87th out of 679 women

Next 10k goal> under 49:30   Next race> undecided     Next run> tomorrow

*it wasn't until halfway  through the race that I figured out my calculation error