April 14, 2011: Run Club 10K of DOOM! :)
Tonight was the second time I’ve done the 10K distance at run club. And boy was it a tough one! This must have been the toughest, but best 10K I have ever ran in my life!
This route was new to me and quite brutal. Packed with two sets of difficult stairs. The first set was on Vallejo St. and the second set was up the Lombard St. steps (where the world’s most crooked road is). We went all the way up to tip of the pier at Aquatic park before turning back.
Injury aside: My left Achilles has been super sore and tight for the past couple weeks, and it got so bad after the last Saturday run. I think I added insult to injury by doing a wushu performance at the Cherry Blossom festival Sunday afternoon. I could barely walk Sunday night. 
All week, I’ve been sort of nursing my Achilles. I went to the gym Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and tried to work on some light stability and balance training so that the supporting muscles of the ankles, feet, and calves would get stronger to help. It was pretty depressing to be in pain just walking around, but I felt it getting better every day after waking up. I was hesitant to go to run club today because I didn’t want to re-injure it. But on Thursday morning, I felt a lot better and could actually go up stairs without being in pain. So I decided I would do the run club.
Now back to the 10K: I started feeling the side stitch coming on after the first set of stairs, but kept on pushing through it. Thank goodness it didn’t get too bad and subsided significantly after awhile. There was a pretty big group running the 10K, so I tried to keep up with a few people who were running around my pace. When I see them running faster or powering through the hills, I inherently feel the need to do the same. It was great, I couldn’t have done this challenging run at such a pace by myself. 
I didn’t really time myself, but I’m sure we were going at a pretty fast pace. Probably about 9 min pace. I was so relieved to not be in pain and was able to finish this tough 10K strong!
Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4428176
