Race Report - Make Room for Santa 10K

Time for another race report! This time with a better outcome (and a few less people) than on Thanksgiving. After my little wet and wild adventure then, I waited with baited breath as the weatherman predicted rain Saturday night and Sunday. I had decided that if I woke to wet sidewalks, I was climbing back in bed. I parted the blinds to relief! It was a *beautiful* sunrise. Some high clouds, dry sidewalks and no wind. I packed my gear and took off up the road to Irvine.

I was in my car for just a couple of minutes when my car started dinging at me. What?!? I looked down at my instrument panel - what's that snowflake doing there? Yup. When it's below 37* out, my car switches into "Winter Mode" in case I run into ice. Guess what - 36* at 6:40 AM, and I'm less than a mile from the beach! Glad that I wore the long sleeves!

This race, even though a small affair, was well organized. Parking was a couple of miles away, but the buses were running frequently enough that the wait was less than 10 minutes. I got to the start line and was surprised to find hundreds of people milling about. I was hoping to set a PR. The people were only going to make it tougher.

This race is a combined 5K and 10K. All runners start at the same time, and a couple of miles in the 5K'ers split and then rejoin the race at the 5 mile point. So, it was a little crowded. In fact, when the horn sounded, it still took a minute to get to the start line (more on that later).

The race was sold as a "flat and fast course." My legs were telling me different though. My first two miles of 8:56 and 9:07 were as much about the steady climb as they were about dodging slower runners. After the race, the elevation profile showed a steady elevation gain of a little over 200 feet over the first three miles.









But, where there is uphill there must be downhill! At the three mile mark, the net uphill became a net downhill for the remainder of the race. By this time, we were about as far north as the City of Irvine goes. The views were nice, the streets were clear of traffic, and the crowds were thinning out. Time to push the pace a little to see if my goal PR (55:00) was within reach. I fell into a rhythm with a bunch of other runners. I glanced down at my Garmin and noticed that my pace was down in the 8:30 range. Wow! I've never run at this pace this far into a race before. The best part - my heart rate was sitting right at 160 and I felt good and strong!

The next two miles were on a wide open street with a couple of rolling hills thrown in for good measure. We passed the Mile 5 marker and turned left along the freeway. Just as the race organizers had promised, downhill finish! That's right! From mile 5 to the finish line! About 150 feet down! I pushed the pace even more. I was thinking that a 54:00 was within reach! I passed the 6 mile mark and pushed a little harder. All of a sudden - alarms were going off! I had set a new PR! Heart rate that is! 185! 108% MHR! I *had* to slow down for a few seconds to catch my breath - costing me about 15 seconds on my total time. Next thing I knew I was in the finish slot crossing the line. I looked at the clock and looked at my Garmin. I liked what the Garmin said - 54.11! But, the crowds conspired against me. The official clock said 55:32 as I crossed the line. Still - that meant a PR by over 2 minutes! I was happy that RoseRunner and travelmama from the Runners World forums talked me into this one! Thanks guys!



After race, I wandered around a bit grabbing some water and some of the snacks that had been laid out for us. I stopped and talked to Ted Newcomb from the shop I had bought my shoes from (which by the way are working out great). I ran into a few folks that I had run with before, including Lori and Matt from the OC Trail Runners (http://www.octrailrunners.org/).



I also ran into Santa:

Mrs. Claus:

The running nativity scene:

The Whos from Whoville:

And Rudolph (or was it Max?)!

All in all, a satisfying run and a nice way to spend a morning! I'm now done for the rest of this year. In fact, I am having some hip problems that may sideline me for a while. That, though is the subject of another blog entry...

A New PR, Time for the Next Cycle

Well - I'm back from my extended East Coast trip. I spent most of my time in New Jersey. Despite it's reputation as a dump (in large part thanks to Newark), much of New Jersey is heavily forested. I was hoping that I would be there in time for Autumn colors. But, the weather back there this year was awesome! I found out when I got there that it hasn't been cold yet, so it was too early for fall colors. The weather was so nice that it was just like Southern California on the East Coast last week!

I decided before I left that I was going to put training on the back burner for a week. My body would most likely appreciate the rest (I was starting to feel some fatigue during the final weeks of the program). Plus, I wasn't going to need to to try to find running routes. Anyone who has spent time in New Jersey understands - most of the major roads do not have sidewalks.

I'm back now, so it's time to start up again. On Monday, I will be starting the Higdon Intermediate Half Marathon plan culminating in the Southern California Half Marathon on January 10th. I'm going to ramp up the first couple of weeks to put my mileage back on the 35 to 40 per week to start and into the 50's on peak.

Finally, before I left last Saturday, I ran the Harbor Heritage 5K here in Newport Beach. I set a new PR, but I was still a little disappointed at my performance. I was hoping to break 26 minutes. But I was caught near the back of the pack at the start (becuase I wasn't paying attention) and had to pick my way through the crowds for the first mile. Then, it was a beautiful day - but very dry. I started having some breathing problems at mile 2 with a dry throat and cough, so had to slow down a little to grab some water and catch my breath. I ended up with an 8:40 split over mile 2, which pretty much shot my chance at 26 minutes. My other two miles ( mile 1 and mile 3) were at 8:20. The 26 minute pace was an 8:22. So, bottom line was a 26:11. That put my 12 of 24 in my age group, and 241 out of 656 overall. Not bad, but I had expected better. Guess I need to put in the miles and keep my nose to the grindstone!

New 5K PR

Yesterday I decided to have a little fun and run a race. After Saturday's 14 miler, I wasn't holding out for a great run or anything, but it is still fun to do something other than practice every now and then. So, off to Hermosa Beach for the Hermosa Beach 5K.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect. My posting on the Runner's World forum went unanswered. so I wasn't expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised! It was a well run event! Small, but very cool! Sure beat the snot out of Spirit Run. The run was *very* cool. Start was a short uphill, back down past the start line, a mile and a half or so along the Strand, then out and back on the pier. Very scenic run the whole way. The run was organized into a Men's Open, Women's Open, Men's over 40, and a Women's over 30. No race was too crowded. No pushing and shoving. No tripping over people at the start. The finish line was well organized with plenty of food and drink afterwards. Very well run event!

As far as my performance, I started out okay, but the uphill push had me out of breath for a while. I hit the first mile at an 8:15 pace. My heart rate was fine, but it seemed that my breathing was labored, so I slowed down a bit and got my breathing back where I was comfortable. But by then, I think Saturday's 14 got to me, and my legs started tiring. Unfortunately, I still had a mile plus to go at that point. So I settled into cruise and legged it out. I still ended up at an 8:42 pace with a new PR of 26:56. Not the 25:30 I was hoping for, but still a nice relaxing run.

The coolest thing though was watching the L.A Co Fire Department run! There was an entire station that showed up to run the Open Class. It was like watching a scene out of the movie Platoon as they ran in formation chanting the entire way. And they finished in less than 30 minutes! Great entertainment!

This is a run that I'll be back to. Well worth the drive!

Spirit Run, 10K and a new PR!

I had a chance to run a race in my backyard this weekend, so I decided to see how well I could do by running a 10K after my long run on Saturday.

I had a good rest Saturday night, so was excited to be running. My last 10K was the Dana Point Turkey Trot back on Thanksgiving. I woke up Sunday to a surprise - everything was wet outside! There was a heavy mist/drizzle out. So, I wrapped up in an extra layer and drove across the street to Fashion Island.

At the 10K start time, there was still a drizzle coming down, but this made the conditions perfect! Temperature was about 55, light cooling mist, and about a thousand runners. The only thing that would have made it perfect would have been chip timing instead of gun timing.

Since I had run 9 miles on Saturday, I wanted to make sure that I didn't kill myself. But, I did want to set a new PR for the distance. So, I used my trusty Virtual Partner and set a 10K distance and a 9:30 pace. This would put me at a 59 minute finish and would better my PR of 1:00.00 set at the Turkey Trot. The first thing I noticed about my run is how good I felt at this pace. I didn't want to repeat my normal "out too fast run out of gas", so I stuck to my pace. After about two miles, I decided that I would try to improve just a little and go out ahead of my virtual partner. Ever so slowly, I increased my pace. By mile 4 I was about an eighth of a mile ahead my my buddy, and still felt pretty good. I slowed a bit on the last uphill grade, but maintained by lead over VP. I knew that this meant that I would be setting a PR, because I still felt pretty good. At mile 5.5, I decided I would leave whatever I had left on the course. It was a great feeling to actually be passing people at this point as I increased my pace. It wasn't until later when I downloaded my Garmin that I saw that I was able to maintain a 7:45 pace for the last 3/4 of a mile. Wow! (at least for me!).

Needless to day, the day's events resulted in a new PR of 57.47 (gun time)! Yea! And, I still had enough to jog about 3/4 of the 5K course looking for my daughter and niece running that event. All in all a great day and a great weekend of running!