Sunday, March 21, 2010

Benicia Run for Education

Hmmm, it's been a month since my last post, what I have been up to you ponder. I've been sick, pretty much since January. As I look back after completing my third race for the year, I have been ill pretty much for every run I have raced this year. It all started with back to back sinus infections and was follwed by the worst case of strep throat, ever. I basically started today's race as my first run in a month.

As you can imagine, I was not looking forward to the carnage that would be my body left somewhere on the course. I'm still not 100% but I'm going with the "I have allergies" bit, because there is just no way I'm really still sick. I arrived in Benicia got my bib and t-shirt and had time to run back to the car to ditch the t-shirt. I still had not spotted Molly or Ashley and Chris. I wondered around, did some stretching and finally found Ashley and Chris. As we headed to the start line I spotted Molly (not hard to miss in her super cute Lululemon orange top) and gave her a quick "go get e'm tiger" before moving back to my start place. And after lots of announcements I couldn't hear, we were off!

Running through downtown Benicia was cool and there people on the streets cheering us on. I didn't have any expectations for the day because I thought I might have to walk the entire race. As we hit the 5k/10k split I took my first walk break, I was monitoring my heart rate and trying to keep it in a nice range, which proved to be difficult when my monitor stopped transmitting. Oh well, we'll go with my best guess. I was not prepared for the rolling hills that just seemed to keep coming and coming. There were some kids keeping the same pace as I was and I overheard one of them say "you said that was the last hill!!!" Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I continued with my run/walk pace running all of the downhills to try and make up some time and power walking as much as I could. I was paying close attention to the street signs to see how close we were, and was never so excited to see the final turn. Once we made the turn it was a little bit of a bummer because you couldn't see the start/finish line, but I knew it was there and I promised myself no more walking.

The one thing about all of the hills, it pretty much I had nothing left at the finish line. I like to have something left to sprint at the end, and I would have loved to pass the women in front of me, but I really had nothing left. As I got closer I started to hear mad cheers and on my right side this guy came booking past me as I realized he was the first 10k runner coming in, I mustered up the energy to cheer for him as he passed me.


And much love to Molly who had a big PR today and came in 2nd in our AG, for snapping photos of me as I crossed the finish line.

She taught me to always smile as you cross the finish line!

Post race happiness!

Even though today was not a great time for me, I am so pleased that I got it done. I spent all of yesterday on my feet, first volunteering at the Diablo Trails Challenge hosted by Brazen Racing and then at my pool's Annual work day. Needless to say, i was dead tired last nigh and my legs and feet hurt. Not the best plan ever, but hey, I was trying to fill my weekend with cool activities. The one big positive that came out of today, is I'm ready. I'm ready to start running again and leave behind all of this winter illness!

Next up The Mermaid Run in April. Very excited to come back for my 2nd race with the mermaids.