RACE RECAP: GO! ST. LOUIS HALLOWEEN 10K

Some of you may have heard of me talk about my Biz Bestie Kelli before.  If you haven’t, I’d be pretty surprised.  But, what you might not know about our friendship is that while we met online, we actually only live about an hour apart from each other!  So, we don’t get to see each other often, but we at least can meet up more frequently than if we were strictly online friends only.When Kelli started working for me last February, we both decided to sign up for the GO! St. Louis 17K Challenge.  You run the 7K race during Marathon weekend in April and then the 10K at the GO! St. Louis Halloween race in October.  (Funny that now OUR assistant actually works for the race organization!)I had EVERY intention of racing this race… until I got injured at the end of August and had to take some time off from training.  While I HATE having to take time off, I also know how valuable it is for me to do that - and how much quicker I was able to recovery because of the time I took off.  And while I considered racing it, I knew that my body just needed to focus on the mileage and take it easy during the race.  Luckily, for me, Kelli has a similar pace to me and this would allow us to run together!  YAY!Since it was a Halloween themed race, we talked about dressing up and wearing costumes.  We wanted some dynamic duo thing, but we ended up deciding that WE are the best dynamic duo out there and had shirts created the said “#bizbesties” with an arrow pointing to one another.  Totally not creative, but we are super proud of them!We met up that morning, took a few pictures, and then headed to the starting line.  We had been watching the weather all week, and of course with my luck, it was supposed to rain ALL morning.  And of course, my luck again, as soon as we go to the starting line, it started pouring.  Nothing too terrible to stand in, but it definitely made it chilly!The first 3 miles was all talking + gossiping.  I had just gotten back from Boston, so I was able to share details of our trip with her.  We talked business and gossiped about other influencers who both inspire + annoy us.  Ha!  This is what Biz Besties are for - you can chat about business and they GET IT.After the 3 mile point, I could tell Kelli was starting to get tired, so the talking slowed down a bit.  Plus, it started raining more once we passed the Arch, so we were both getting a little uncomfortable from being soaking wet.  And the last 2-ish miles were mostly uphill, so that made the race a little tougher as well.But, the miles flew by having Kelli by my side!  I barely EVER get to race with someone, so it was fun having a friend to keep me company (or maybe I was keeping her company) during the race - and be able to cross the finish line together!  As we were crossing, I spotted Kristin snapping photos of us crossing.  As you can tell, I was a little excited to see her!I know this was not an easy race for Kelli.  While it was an easy pace for me, it is a little fast for Kelli, but she pushed through the pain and finished with an AWESOME time!  We actually ended up finishing in the top 5 in our age group, which is super cool too!TIME:  51:52AVERAGE PACE: 8:21/mileI see many more races together in the future for sure!