Alarm went off at 5:30AM, I hit snooze and fell right back to sleep! Went off again, I hit snooze, fell back to sleep! Finally I looked at my watch and realized I had 10 mins to get out of bed, get dressed and get on the road!
Put the coffee on...got into my race clothes, brushed my teeth and put on some mascara..YEH, laugh all you want! YOU know you race good when you look good..and it's all about the lashes!
Grabbed a balance bar (poor choice BTW!) and a cup of coffee, my gear and hit the road!
Heading to Los Gatos I noticed I forgot my Ipod! At that moment I wasn't sure what the race was gonna be for me...I need my MOJO and sometimes it comes from my Ipod. I scrambled around a bit and found the 13 yro's Ipod in my console. HELPFUL...to a certain degree.. If you like a lot of AC/DC (Good!) and other crap I would rather bang my head against the wall then listen to!
Arrived in Los Gatos with 17 minutes to race time! Met up at the goal posts with the Twitteratti group...Wished everyone luck and hit the bathroom lines! You know typical race stuff! Bathroom line was so long... I didn't even get into a porta potty until 7AM!! YEP, RACE TIME!
Got to the start right as the half marathon runners were heading out! CAN you say cluster of people?? OMG! I tried to maneuver my way around as many of them as I could and managed to break free around 3/4's of mile in...Happy to see my mile pace was a 7:36 when I hit mile 1!!!
As it turned out I paced pretty close to my 7:37 pace until I hit mile 10...it was hot, my quads were pissed and I had no salt or Gu on me! (MY bad race decision!) I was pacing ahead of this chick that I REALLY WANTED TO BEAT and she blew by me at mile 10.5! I wanted to walk...it was an out and back on slight gravel grade and I was a tad depleted...or maybe that was my excuse on getting passed. Once I hit the turn around I starting jamming again. Picking up my pace to around a 7:20 pace. The chick still ahead of me...BUT I was gaining on her...picking dudes off one by one..ALL I wanted to do was beat that chick. At about 12.5 miles I was shoulder to shoulder with her. RACE ON!!!
We stayed together onto the track and I decided I should probably have a conversation with her! As it turns out she is a 2 time Ironman! Awesome athlete and damn good racer! It also turns out that I beat her because I'm a pretty damn good racer too!
I got that PR, 1:41 and some change! Not what I wanted BUT I will take it! I learned a little more today about being a better racer...You need fuel pre-race NEVER skimp on that! (Balance BAR?? WTF?) ALWAYS come prepared... Saltsticks, NuuN, Gu...Carry extra! Lastly ALWAYS RACE YOUR OWN RACE!!!
Post race was a great time! We decided to celebrate at http://www.lgbrewingco.com/ with burgers and beers at 10:30AM...
Can't wait for my next run! Ragnar Relay in Seattle!
I didn't realize you had a blog.
ReplyDeleteGreat race and great lessons learned!
Congratulations on your new PR!
You are a rockstar!
Nice! Way to race and get that PR!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your race report! Comgrats on the PR!
ReplyDeletecongrats on a great race. love the jungle run...have done it twice. love your comment "always run your own race"...cheers.
ReplyDeleteWhat!?! You have a blog? How did I not know this!?!?
ReplyDeletePS I ran six the other day and was like ... now just 20 more or so to catch up to you and everyone else.
Riiiight. ;)
And BTW, mascara means EVERYTHING.
Nice race, Shelly. You are a continued inspiration to me. And yes, it's a definite good think to fuel up correctly before a race. lol
ReplyDeleteFunny race report! I could never arrive that late, just not in my nature! I praise you for that ability. Maybe that, and the fact that you are so very fast!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Thanks for sharing!