This morning I ran the 10K in the Saskatchewan Marathon.

It was incredible to see the number of people gather near the exhibition grounds to run anywhere from 10 to 42 kilometers at 7 a.m. with rain threatening.

It was about three kilometers into the run, that I realized there was something even more cool than us all being there – it was the number of volunteers and people in the community who came out to cheer us runners on. They were holding signs, playing drums, pumping the car sound systems and screaming and cheering on almost every corner I ran past. Every time I thought I might have to slow down, someone cheered for me by name and I picked up the pace again.

It was my first 10K, I wanted to finish in an hour, but wasn’t really sure what to expect. From the time I crossed the finish line it was about 59:45 (or about 1:00:10 from the gun time). I can hardly wait for the next one.