Good day everyone! Today I ran my first race on the U.S. west coast, the Scripp's Ranch Old Pros Run and Bike 10K (they also had a 2-mile fun run). This was in or around the Scripp's Ranch neighborhood in San Diego, CA, conveniently down the hills and roads from my relatives' house. We had a lot of fun and while this was obviously not in Maryland, I still thought I'd mention this running event in my blogs! This was also one of the earliest races I've run, with the 10K starting at 7 in the mornin'. I had been up past midnight the night before at the San Diego County Fair in Del Mar with my brother, cousins and one of their friends, and only got about five hours of sleep tops I think. I know I broke 39 minutes at the flat Oxford Day 10K in Talbot County, MD towards the end of April on about four hours of sleep, but today I was expecting something between 40-42 minutes because I had done two races last Saturday and Sunday, and my legs were bound to cramp up. That in mind, I sorta backed off as far as my expectations.
One really nice thing about the race starting early was that since there was hardly any humidity, the temperatures were very conducive to running. When the race started we started up on an uphill and it was in that first mile of the race where we went up what was probably one of the toughest hills. I started the race behind the more elite runners and therefore it took me about two-to-three seconds to reach the starting line, and therefore my chip time would be about two-to-three seconds faster than what the clock would read at the finish. However, as close to the start as I thought I was it seemed like there were hundreds of runners in front of me during that first mile. It was during that first mile too, that my rather loosely attached chip (my clumsy fault) got kicked off of my shoe and I decided to press on without it, using my watch to check up on how I was running like I normally do.
I went through the first mile in about 6:07 (6:09 clock time), the second in lower 12's I think, the third in about 18:24 (the 5K in 19:02, and 19:05 clock time), 25:00 for the fourth mile, the fifth mile in about 31:43 (31:45 clock time), and then I had a strong finish with most of the last mile being either downhill or flat in 39:07/39:08 (clock), and 39:05/39:06 (my watch). I was pretty impressed. Even though this is comparatively my slowest 10K race of the year, I think it was the hilliest since all the 10K races I've run this year were on the fairly flat Maryland Eastern Shore, and that was before I started having the health and fitness issues I had in May with not being able to eat and sleep as much because of working so much. A little ways after the third mile, I felt my legs start to flail about as my legs began to feel empty, kinda like it did in Charles County's Civista Run for Wellness 5K and Cecil County's Run4Fun 5K, but not as bad. I backed off a little bit, hopin' maybe I could come back a little stronger. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I went through four miles in twenty-five minutes, a 6:15-per-mile pace that would have set me up to finish the 10K at about 38:50 (and my finishing time was not that far off). That fifth mile I felt my pace begin to drop more, but then the last mile I started to pick it up, thinking about how all my splits were faster than some of my race performances at events such as the Civista Run for Wellness 5K, Somerset County's McCready Health Services Founder's Day 8K Run, and Washington, D.C.'s Hugh Jascourt Four-Miler. Sometimes dwelling on all that and letting it inspire me helps boost the morale.
I was praying a few times throughout the race, thanking God for my splits and I was grateful that he helped me keep it together. I was definitely glad I ran a lot faster than I expected and kept a decent pace towards the end, what a blessing! It felt really good to hear my aunt cheering fo me over other people in the audience just before dashing through the finish line :)
I am definitely glad I woke myself up early to do this on my vacation. My aunt, uncle, twin cousins Lisa and Rachel, and our friends Kathryn and Kristen did the two-mile fun run/walk. Kristen and my uncle Michael ran it while my Aunt Melinda, cousins, and Kathryn walked it. We had so much fun and we were all glad we did it. In the pictures above, there's one of me finishing and one of all of us participants after we finished the event (one of the twins took the picture).
If I am ever out this way again around this time of year, this is goin' on my schedule :)
Note: I haven't seen the official results yet, so I'm not sure exactly how I placed. I lost my chip in the first mile, so I prolly won't even have a chip time, so it was a good thing I had my watch going. We'll see what happens!
Thank you for reading I hope you all are having an awesome Fourth of July and week!
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