Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Summer Series #3 Rio Vista Park - 7/4/09


I know, how dare I post a race report when the race took place two weeks ago. In my defense, I wanted to write the race report that day, but the overall standings didn't post until after I started traveling again, and I just haven't gotten to it until now.
Also, see the swirling heat that is shown in the Summer Series logo? That's actually how it feels. Seriously.

Pre-Race: As always, the 4th of July race is generally my favorite race for the community feeling, but right up there as my least favorite due to the fact that it's been in the teens for the last two years. This year, it wasn't quite as hot, but it was really sticky. It was way worse than just being hot and dry.
Lilac and I had planned to meet at the Borders parking lot and take the long trip to Glendale together in her new car. Generally she texts me when she's left, and again right on time to tell me she'll be five minutes late. This happens almost every time we get together. So I get up at the ass crack, eat something, get dressed, set the alarm off again, frantically turn it off, and get my happy ass in the car to meet her at 5:15. As always, I am 10 minutes early. I wait, and then I realize - crap. She didn't text me. This means pretty much conclusively that she is still sleeping. But, who wants to call someone at 5:15am on a holiday and ask if they are still sleeping? I decided to wait the 5 minute standard grace period, and another 5 minutes, just in case. I finally text her at 5:25, when it is absolutely dire to get on the road for the race that starts in 65 minutes all the way across town. She's sleeping. She's frantic. She's convinced she can still make it to the race, even though she's at LEAST 25 minutes behind me. I tell her to go back to sleep. She absolutely refuses.

OK then, so I drove to the race, and hoped she'd make it. While I was driving, I decided that it didn't matter if we started with everyone else or not, it was more important to run with her, so I'd wait.

Due to the semi-narrowness of the course, they decided to start in waves. 6:30am, off goes the fast people, then the pretty fast people, then the semi-fast people, then the less fast people, then the slow pokes, then the walkers.... and then I get the call from Lilac - yes she's actually lost. So I walk her through how to get back to the freeway and start over. Meanwhile, I'm standing at the starting line by myself with and extra bib and chip, and the announcer is looking at me, and then says "Last call?" I explained the situation, and promised that we would not be the last finishers if I could just have 4 more minutes. Finally, she's parked and running through the long parking lot, right to the start line, throws her chip on, and off we go!

Race: Again, the weather was beastly. I had sweat pouring down my face in big droplets about 10 minutes into the race. I generally don't start to sweat at all until about 15 minutes in (why do runners know these things about themselves? I have no idea...). The course itself was all on a wide sidewalk that rolled up and down the banks of a fairly large (dry) wash. There were, unfortunately, no good consistent landmarks to run off of, so we just did the best that we could. We ran south along the eastern bank, under a bridge, and just as we were approaching a decent sized hill up to the top of the bank did we hit Mile 1. Just after we got up to the top of the hill, we hit a water station (thank you gatorade) and then continued cruising south to the turn around point - which crossed the wash at the bottom of the wash, and was sidewalk, but not the place I'd want to be if a flash flood was coming. Hit mile 2. The other side was just as boring, just as hilly, just as humid - and oh by the way they decided to make this a 4 mile race this year, because a good ole' 5K would have been too easy. Still we had hopes that the 4 miles would scare people off and we could get better spots in the series. There was a second water stop at Mile 3 - thank you! The finish of the race was across a pedestrian bridge, and right back to the starting line, now the finish line. Overall, I can't say that it was particularly interesting, exciting, or enjoyable. It was just another race. The good news is that I gave myself a very liberal you'd better finish by 60 minutes, or be embarassed for all time, and I finished before that, so all was good.
Post Race: Breakfast, and TWO cold chocolate milks.

Results Race #3: 58:55, 27/27 F25-F29, 230/245 F, 634/656.
Series Standings after #3: 20/85 F25-F29, 140/558 F, no overall available
*Also, let the record show that the female winner for every race has been in my age group. In addition, the record should also show that this was my slowest race of the season, yet I got the most points. Similarly, my best race is the one I have the fewest points in. My new goal is to get 500 points in either race #4 or race #5.

Next stop - Kiwanis, this weekend!


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