Dr. John C Trettin Memorial 5K, Saturday, 3/24/2018

I had to rearrange my MP and speed runs to accommodate the rain. I'm glad I did my MP before it rained, because my MP route is still flooded. I should have done speed on Thursday, but it was raining, so I ran easy. I decided to skip the speed on Friday, and run a 5K today.

This 5K is one that I've run many times. There have been years that I have gotten first female, but I know that those days are gone. It is a tough course, and there is no way that I can hang with the young gals. It is a fun race, but it is single track with few opportunities to pass. There are lots of uphills and sand. You have to be very aggressive at the start, or you will get stuck behind slower runners and never make up the difference. I wasn't nearly aggressive enough to really compete. I never saw the two lead gals during the race.

I was actually in a good position. I ended up being behind some slower runners, but it allowed me to conserve my energy and pass a few women when I was able to make a move. No amount of race strategy or even luck would have changed the outcome. The two lead females were much faster than I am capable of running. I ended up 3rd female, 1st AG (40-49). I stayed for the awards which are always exciting, because they give away lots of raffle prizes.

Dr. John C Trettin Memorial 5K

Relive 'Morning Mar 24th'

I thought that I would go back out and run a few trail miles, but the wind picked up, and I lost the desire. I ran exactly 1.1 miles on the TM to insure a 50 mile week and called it quits. I pretty happy that, despite two unscheduled rest days, I still was able to complete the mileage.

Pier to Plunge Race Report, Monday 1/1/2018

I don't normally race on New Years Day, but I decided to run a race this New Years because I could do a polar plunge after.  I don't know why I wanted to do a polar plunge.  I, normally, won't put my big toe in the ocean without a shortie on, but I got this polar plunge thing in my head.

Prepping for the race, before bed at about one in the morning, I plugged in my garmin and it fell apart in my hand!  There is a crack in the plastic where the band attaches.  I have a Garmin Forerunner 310XT.  Garmin used to fix watches for $99, so I'll see if I can send it to them.  I hope that the price hasn't gone up too much.  Luckily, my husband has a Garmin too, so I used his for the race.

The wake-up was tough.  I didn't feel great after staying up late and indulging in champagne, but a bagel and coffee evened me out.  A friend picked me up, and we carpooled to the event.  When we got to the pier to check in, we were greeted with a pretty long, slow moving line.  If we hadn't actually pre-registered, we could have been in and out in a couple of minutes.  I don't know how long we waited in line, but it was long enough for my friend to go to the bathroom and return and for me to get chummy with the people around us.  We finally did check in and got a raffle ticket to put in a bucket for one of several great prizes.  There was a short wait in the t-shirt line, but the smallest shirt was an XL.  The shirt was signed by Jordan Hasay, however, who was there MCing the event.

My friend and I posed for a free pic which I thought was such a nice perk.  By the time we got down to the beach, the 5k should have just been getting ready to start.  It didn't start though.  There was music, and the atmosphere was generally entertaining.  After about 20 minutes, they held the kids race.  I'm not sure when the 5K actually started, but it was pretty late.

The weather was perfect. There was full sun, but it wasn't hot or cold, and the wind was still.The race began in the deep sand.  Runners sped past me.  I couldn't figure out the technique for moving quickly and I was in shock as to how difficult it was to run.  Runners veered immediately to the wet stuff.  Again, runners weaved pass me.  The sand was very wet, so it was sucked at your feet.  I was shocked and was moving very slowly. The race was difficult from start to finish.  During a hilly race, you can wrap you head around the ebb and flow of harder and easier running.  This was all hard.  We ran on loose sand and wet sand.  There was even much hard packed sand.  At some point I decided that there was nothing to do but run, so I had better get to it.  I settled down and tried to get into a rhythm.  I started passing people at this point.  I spotted a couple of gals running close together.  I assumed that they were friends, but as I got closer, I could see they were racing each other.  I thought that I could keep up with them, but when I reached them, they both began to surge.  I didn't have the heart to go chasing those two, so I set my sights on a pair of young girls.  The seemed in great spirits, but I was slowly gaining on them.  Just as I caught up to them, they stopped and started talking.  Young people are so funny.  After passing those two young gals, there were no more females to chase.  Since it was a loop, I could see who was ahead of me.  There was one or two women that might have been in my age group ahead of me.  I couldn't be sure, but there was nothing I could do about it anyway.  As I was just processing my position and probably slowing down, I noticed two guys racing me on both flanks. One died off, but the one on my left was sticking with me.  I held him off for a while, but he got me with about 1/4 mile to go.  If I had my head in the game, I probably could have stayed with him, but I was really distracted feeling sorry for myself.  We had to get back in the fluffy sand to go through the shoot.  I couldn't actually believe how slow I was going.  I honestly was just glad that it was over.  We were given a coin at the finish which was quite nice. (I forgot to stop my watch which would come back to bite me.)

I was pretty concerned with the plunge, so I decided to get it over with and do what I came to do.  The water was cold, but bearable.  I thought that I would freeze waiting for my friend, but in the full sun, it wasn't very cold. By the time I caught up to my friend, she had already plunged as well.  We wanted to do it together, so we went in again.

At some point, I inquired about my time.  The person who I asked told me that there was a problem and that there were no times at all.  He offered me a small bear to make the news a little easier to hear.  I told him no worries.  I got my plunge beanie, and that was what mattered to me. I didn't turn off my watch after the race, so I have absolutely no idea what my time was.  We waited a little while for raffle announcements and headed out.

Without a doubt, there were problems related to organization and execution.  For this particular event, I really didn't care about my time but, under different circumstances, I would have probably been pretty heated about that. Despite the problems, I would give Pier to Plunge an A+ for effort, and I would run it again.

Turkey Trot Sunday, 1/19/2017

I ran a Turkey Trot, yesterday, in the park.  My time was slow, but it was enough for 2nd female.  As for a RR, there isn't much to report.  I ran 4.5 miles to the event.  Instead of a nice easy jog, I was rushing, so I pushed a little.  I arrived at the event with zero time to spare.  A timing person actually had to find me in line to get my bib number.  With a quick look around, I realized that my turkey aspiration would be thwarted by the UCLA running team.  What in the heck is the UCLA running team doing at this little event, I had no idea?  When we started, I took off too fast, but I felt like, "What the heck?"  The UCLA girl took off.  I stayed with her for about 1/2 mile.  Eventually, she was gone and I was left with no women in front of me and none behind me.  I was going to be second female and clearly nothing was going to change that, so I spotted a young teenage boy and tried to keep with him.  The course was two loops with two hills.  On one of the hills I caught up with him and tried to encourage him.  It worked at first.  He put some distance between us and kept it for about another 1/2 mile.  Then, I started gaining on him again.  I told him that he couldn't let up, because if he did I was going to beat him, and he only had one more hill.  He looked at me and said, "I can't," and he slowed up.  I figured that fight was over.  I had no one else to race, so I just ran as fast as I could to the finish.  As it turned out, the young man finished quite close to me.  After he peaked the hill that was killing him, he probably got a second wind and took off.  It is good that I had no one to race, because toward the end, I was feeling a little light headed.

After the race, a parent was talking to me about the Boston Marathon and a local reporter overheard.  She interviewed me as a participant and had her photographer take my picture watching the kids race.  Here is the article.



The 4.5 mile run home was quite tough.  Everything hurt--My toes, my abs, even my right leg.  Ugh..

Bull Canyon Run 2016 Race Report

The Bull Canyon Run has suffered from declining entries for a few years.  I can't figure it out.  It is a great race.  The weather is always fantastic.  The course is amazingly fast, and the race is always well organized.

Unfortunately, I ran while I was sick this year.  The race started on-time, as usual.  I can’t remember how I felt while I was running, but I couldn’t have felt too terrible, or I would remember.  The only thing I really remember about the race is that I tried to encourage a young racer on the home stretch.  I told him to stick with me or something like that.  He said OK and did stick with me for most of the last mile.

I finished second female, which competitively is the best that I’ve done in this race. Below is the info from athlinks.

After the race, the AG winners stand on a podium, get plaques and are recognized.  Everyone is happy and chatty.  The ladies tried to chat with me.  I fear that they think that I was stand-offish.  I didn't want to say anything, because I knew that the moment I spoke, I would start coughing uncontrollably.  After the race, initially, I couldn't stop coughing.  While I was on the stage, I happened to have 2 minutes of relief, but I knew if I spoke I wouldn't be able to control the cough.

The woman standing next to me told me that she was glad when she heard that I had moved up in my age group.  That made me smile.

I have been trying to sub 22, again, for a long time, but I was, honestly, so sick I couldn't enjoy it much.