super bowl 10k - race report

first race of the season. success.

dave and i have been running a lot lately, especially considering a month and a half ago i would run maybe 2-3 times a MONTH. now i'm up to 3-4 times a week. but i'm not complaining. anyway, we did my first 6 miler the other day, and i was very pleased with the results. there's not a single flat road around our house, so we're always climbing slowly, or hauling ass down some hill. again, not really complaining. so today was going to be interesting.

woke up, and really didn't want to. had a tough(er) ride yesterday, which left me pretty tired. and worried. my asslet really takes a long time to settle after rides - translation: not a quick transition/start to the run for triathlon. it's just painful. i've decided it must swell during the ride, which wouldn't surprise me. so then by the time i'm out on the run, my shorts are no longer as tight as they were when i started the ride, and i've got swelling. and all that movement on the run just hurts me. like it did when i first started running after the surgery (remember, when i couldn't run?). the negative self-talk had already begun towards the end of the ride, and then we go out and i couldn't do anything faster than walk. luckily dave was there to talk me down a bit.

so, as i was saying, this morning i was tired. alarm went off and i had no intention of getting up. i was lax about the run because my coach told me it wasn't a race - i was to treat it as a normal training run, sticking to 3/1 intervals. well, hell, i can do that at home, after i sleep in a bit. but, we got up and got out the door.

parking is always a bitch at this race, especially since the 5k goes off an hour earlier. and we had lucca. we got down and got our chips without issue, and made it to the start line with time to spare, after the obligatory porta-potty stop of course. the gun went off and it still took another 25 seconds for me to get across the line - lots of folks out there today. took me awhile to find a good pace, especially with the walking thrown in there. i told myself i was sticking to the 3/1 intervals regardless of hills - i knew this course from last year (did the 5k last year), and i know the stupid-shit hill towards the end. so i challenged myself to stick with it. i got discouraged by the 3.5 mile mark due to time, thinking i was slower than i had been on my recent 6 miler with dave. but i blew it off, at least i thought i did. looking back, i probably didn't. it fueled me. i made sure to cheer everyone on that i passed, i high-fived with random strangers. i didn't let the fact that i was still in the very slow/fat/old group get me down. ok, maybe i did for a little while, but then i got over it.

for the first time i was told by another girl that i was her 'official pacer'. i told her i was sticking with 3/1 intervals, and to join me. this was with a mile left. there's some nice downhills (which we cheered all the way down) before the crazy-shit hill at esplanade. i told everyone around me to enjoy the downhill while it lasted, because it didn't last very long and there was a bitch of a hill coming up. they didn't seem very appreciative of the heads-up.

OF COURSE that hill came at just the time i had to start running again. OF COURSE it did. i knew it'd happen. but, i kept it up anyway. by the top, i was in a nasty little attack, HR through the roof and my breathing all out of whack. but i still had another 1.5 min left to run in that set. made it.

by the last 0.2 miles i was telling everyone around me to pick it up. my pacer friend wasn't having a good time of it, so i told her she could run the last 0.2 miles. she started running with me, and proceeded to crack. bummed me out a bit. i came around the last turn and realized i could make it in under 1:20, so i started kicking. final time 1:19:30. official PR. the only other timed 10k i've done was at LA tri in '09. my time then was 1:21. granted then i'd done an absolute bitch of a swim, and a bike leg, but i'm still pleased. i hadn't been hit by a truck months before that race, and i had my ridley...things are a little different now...