San Diego, CA

October, 2013

I didn't really have any expectations for this race other than to have fun. I had raced another 10k two weekends prior that went well in terms of time, but I felt like crap pretty much the whole race. Since I was content with the time (51:04) which was also a 10k PR for me, I just wanted to run this one with no goal. SD is also a bit hilly, so I thought the course would be way more challenging than the race I had just run.

My friend Joel picked me up a bit late for this race, which made me nervous. When I don't have my packet beforehand, I always feel unprepared. Luckily parking was a breeze, and we only had to wait a few minutes for our packet pickup. Since Joel drove, we walked back to our car to dump our stuff instead of doing gear check.

Joel and I didn't really have a plan about running together or not. We just set off together, near the front of the pack. Joel is more of a distance runner than I am, but I have more speed. Not sure how that was going to translate for a 10K. Joel started off running too hard. He took off ahead of me, then turned around and started running backwards. I told him he was going to crash at like mile 4 if he kept doing that. Before we hit mile 1 we were running on dirt. We made it off the dirt, circled a large warship, then had to run up a hilly bridge. I live in a completely flat area. Any hill is challenging for me. My legs felt really good, so I took a deep breath and charged up it. Joel fell behind me at that point and never caught up. After the bridge, we turned a sharp corner, then were back on a very narrow dirt trail. I got caught behind a woman with a stroller which was frustrating. She was hauling ass though. I passed her up as soon as I could. Then we reached the main drag and ran along the side of it. At one point, we hit a sand area and had to run through that. Even though my legs felt good, I really only race on flat, hard ground. Anything different is harder for me. I didn't look at my watch at all, bc I wasn't worried about time. I didn't think I was going to beat my PR, so I was really running to have fun.

As we neared the turn around point, I could count the leaders passing me on my way back. By the time I actually hit the turnaround, I was 10th female, though just based on who started before me. Right after the turnaround, I passed a female, which put me in 9th. I picked up the pace after that, but only passed two other females before I finished. When I hit mile 4, I passed Joel, who by that point was 1.5 miles behind me. My legs still felt awesome, but I really had to pee. I kept running, running, running, down the narrow dirt path, back up and down the bridge, around the warship. Here was when things got dicey. I thought the course would be just an out and back. It was for a large portion, but on the way back, we started twisting and turning around small parks for the last 2 miles. It seemed like we were so close to the finish line, but then we'd turn around and were veering the other direction. At mile 5.5, I knew we were close so I picked up the pace. I had to go to the bathroom SO bad at this point. Running on a full bladder is really uncomfortable! I passed the 6 mile mark, then ran the last loop to the finish line.

Running severely limits my ability to do math. Not sure if it is because all my blood is in my legs and not my brain, but I can't do anything involving numbers at all when running. I knew my PR was 51:04. I hit mile 6 thinking I was already past my PR. In sight of the finish line, I realized my watch said 50:30. It was then I realized I was still under my PR and gunned it to the line.

50:45. A new PR two weeks after my first.

I actually felt really good upon finishing. I waited nearly 10 minutes for Joel to finish, then raced to the bathroom. We left our phones and stuff in Joel's car, so I grabbed his keys and ran to the car. As I was running, I realized if I still had a lot of energy left in my legs, I could have raced even harder! Considering the small challenges on the course, my legs never felt tired or heavy afterwards.

Joel and I went to a nearby breakfast place which was awesome. Then he took me back to Megan's house where I was staying.

8:08 pace. 3rd place in my age group.

I love destination running!