Lafayette Reservoir Run 10/25/2009
So after signing up for the Las Vegas Half-Marathon, I looked for a few 10k's while training to get me ready for the race in December. The Lafayette Reservoir run looked ideal for me cause 1) I run around that loop almost every week (1-2 times per run) and 2) It was kind of a home field for me to run. What I didn't do the whole time I've ran at the reservoir was running the loop in the difficult direction (for those who run the reservoir you know what I'm talking about) since the course for the race revolved around running the loop in the higher incline direction. So race day comes around and it's 45 degrees and I'm not used to this at all on race day, so I was pretty cold since I didn't have any warm gear on me at all. Prior to the race starting, they held an invitational one-mile race with selected individuals. The guy who won had a time of 4:03, but holy crap it looked like these guys were sprinting out of their minds. That was pretty amazing to see and maybe that'll be me one day (not)!! The race starts and once again I start out fast (a recurring theme), and I was at 7 minutes at mile 1. Then as mile 2 came upon, we were entering the reservoir with had a pretty steep incline to get to the reservoir. That zapped a good amount of energy from me. Then as we got to the loop, I was struggling on each of the big and small inclines since I exerted a lot of energy at the beginning. But as I finally got around the loop and towards the exit, I cruised the downhill portion to get back onto the main road. I looked at my Garmin ForeRunner and noted that I was on pace to finish under 8:00/mile. So as I got to the final mile, I kicked it to another gear and widened my strides. As I saw that finish line come close, I took it to my last gear and finished strong.
Final 10k time: 48:20
I was pretty excited that I finished under 50 minutes and had a pace of 7:47 a mile. Now I'm making some serious progress!! After doing this race, I made myself a training plan to be able to run the half-marathon in December. I designed it so that during the week, I would wake up around 5:30-5:45 (crazy huh??) and do 6-9 mile runs. Then on Saturday or Sunday I would build my long runs to double digits until I reached the half marathon distance. Heck on one of my runs I went beyond that distance and went 14. I never knew it was even possible that I can sustain double digit miles without stopping. Thank goodness for using a water belt that I can drink water while running. Also this was when I discovered using GU Energy Gel's and how much it has helped me with my trainings and my races.
Walnut Creek Turkey Trot 11/26/2009
So I was debating on doing this race versus the Nitro Trail Turkey Trot run in Pinole since it looked like a fun race to do. But since I wanted to stay close to home and wanted to get done with my race, shower, and head out to Brentwood for Thanksgiving dinner, I chose to do the local Turkey Trot race in Walnut Creek. It was really a home field advantage for me since the whole race was done on the Iron Horse Trail. What I didn't know was that my Cross Country coach and one of my favorite teachers from high school was running the Nitro Trail Turkey Trot run, so I was kind of bummed out when I found out afterward.
As for the race, the first couple of miles I was going pretty good. We ran through thr trails towards Heather Farms Park and looped back towards the middle school alongside the trail in which we had to semi-loop before getting back to the trail towards the finish. Here's where the big problem of how the race was organized (done by Walnut Creek Sports and Fitness Club if you're wondering): Since the trails were pretty narrow, the amount of people to participate in this race should have been capped, but it was not. There were tons of people on race day signing up at the last second, hence the start of the race was delayed by thirty minutes. Towards the end of the course, they merged all of the 10k runners (who started first), with the 5k runners/walkers (started second) and the rest of the 1-2 walkers. It was so ridiculously clustered that you could not get around anyone towards the end of the race (came close to giving a forearm by accident). Oh yeah it also doesn't help that you're avoiding multiple passenger strollers and dogs that people can't control on a leash. I had to dodge a dog from tripping me over and almost kicked one and dropped an f-bomb on one of the owners for being negligent.
Final 10K time: 45:44
My fastest 10k to date and I was pretty happy about it, but at the same time was pretty disappointed at the organization and design of the race. Having everyone merge like that was also a safety hazard as well. I went on the active.com boards to give "constructive criticism" and shockingly one of the organizers replied apologizing and really making an effort next year to make it better. We'll see though, I may look into other locations for the next turkey trot run. Nevertheless at least I got to eat Thanksgiving dinner guilt-free since I earned it by running that morning. Now it would be only a few weeks before making the leap from 10k to half-marathon.
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