My race report is up here on the new site I launched today.
Please take a moment to read. Thanks.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Race Report: 2011 Palisades Will Rogers 10K
Well, so much for taking time off from racing.
On pretty much a whim, I decided to make the early drive over to Pacific Palisades to take part in the Palisades-Will Rogers 10K. Why? I have no earthly idea. I guess part of the impetus was to support my buddy Christian who would be running in only his 2nd race ever. Another reason I suppose was to make the most of a rare day off for me and do something active that could justify the copious amount of food + drinks I planned on shoveling down later.
After taking almost two full weeks off since Comrades, all I've been doing has been some easy trail runs in my dirt backyard of the Santa Monica Mountains. Little to no road running and certainly no speedwork of any kind (I'm already making excuses for my run...can you tell?).
No but it was good to be in a race environment again. I rocked my USA singlet in the spirit of Independence Day and decided to run in my KSWISS Blade Lights. Saw many familiar and friendly faces after my girlfriend and I got there about an hour before the start to register. And after getting together with Christian, the two of us hopped over a gate and squeezed into the corral about 15 minutes before the horn sounded. It was already very warm out so I decided to run with a plastic water bottle that I could just chuck later.
The first mile of course was the usual clusterfuck of weaving, dodging, sidestepping, leaping on and off sidewalks, etc. And in a rookie mistake, I got swept up by the energy of the 5 & 10K runners (we all started together) and went out too fast. Of course the downhill start made that easy to do as well. As we meandered through the affluent neighborhood of Pacific Palisades once we spilled back out to Sunset Blvd, the 5K-ers made a U-turn towards the finish while we continued down Sunset towards the big climb up Will Rogers Park. I probably poured water over my head a couple of times by this point and both the legs and cardio system were red-lining.
Why do I keep running these 10Ks when I suck so hard at them? I wondered.
424' gain/417' loss
The climb up the switchback towards Will Rogers, while not as steep as I thought they'd be, still took a lot out of me and I was reduced to a slow trudge up to the top. Still, I managed to pass a couple of folks before beginning the swift descent down steep Will Rogers Rd. Once we rejoined Sunset Blvd however, we had another last bit of uphill awaiting us which reduced me to yet another slow crawl.
You didn't come out here to run a PR today so just suck it up and enjoy the run, I told myself.
With under a mile to go, the road finally leveled off and I slowly started to put more gas down. When I made the final turn towards the finish, I broke into an all-out sprint and clicked off my watch - 44:59 (44:57 officially). Pleasantly surprised to come so close to my PR - albeit somewhat soft to begin with - especially considering how unfit I felt to run a short road race like this.
I walked over to meet my girl, peeled off my soaked singlet and spent the next several minutes cheering in runners before Christian came through about 10 minutes later. It was good to get out there and run fast again (relatively speaking of course) but for now I think I'll retreat back into my hole and go back to enjoying the solitude and joy of running in the mountains again.
Me & JB
Me & Christian
Thanks as always for stopping by. Til next time.
On pretty much a whim, I decided to make the early drive over to Pacific Palisades to take part in the Palisades-Will Rogers 10K. Why? I have no earthly idea. I guess part of the impetus was to support my buddy Christian who would be running in only his 2nd race ever. Another reason I suppose was to make the most of a rare day off for me and do something active that could justify the copious amount of food + drinks I planned on shoveling down later.
After taking almost two full weeks off since Comrades, all I've been doing has been some easy trail runs in my dirt backyard of the Santa Monica Mountains. Little to no road running and certainly no speedwork of any kind (I'm already making excuses for my run...can you tell?).
No but it was good to be in a race environment again. I rocked my USA singlet in the spirit of Independence Day and decided to run in my KSWISS Blade Lights. Saw many familiar and friendly faces after my girlfriend and I got there about an hour before the start to register. And after getting together with Christian, the two of us hopped over a gate and squeezed into the corral about 15 minutes before the horn sounded. It was already very warm out so I decided to run with a plastic water bottle that I could just chuck later.
The first mile of course was the usual clusterfuck of weaving, dodging, sidestepping, leaping on and off sidewalks, etc. And in a rookie mistake, I got swept up by the energy of the 5 & 10K runners (we all started together) and went out too fast. Of course the downhill start made that easy to do as well. As we meandered through the affluent neighborhood of Pacific Palisades once we spilled back out to Sunset Blvd, the 5K-ers made a U-turn towards the finish while we continued down Sunset towards the big climb up Will Rogers Park. I probably poured water over my head a couple of times by this point and both the legs and cardio system were red-lining.
Why do I keep running these 10Ks when I suck so hard at them? I wondered.
424' gain/417' loss
The climb up the switchback towards Will Rogers, while not as steep as I thought they'd be, still took a lot out of me and I was reduced to a slow trudge up to the top. Still, I managed to pass a couple of folks before beginning the swift descent down steep Will Rogers Rd. Once we rejoined Sunset Blvd however, we had another last bit of uphill awaiting us which reduced me to yet another slow crawl.
You didn't come out here to run a PR today so just suck it up and enjoy the run, I told myself.
With under a mile to go, the road finally leveled off and I slowly started to put more gas down. When I made the final turn towards the finish, I broke into an all-out sprint and clicked off my watch - 44:59 (44:57 officially). Pleasantly surprised to come so close to my PR - albeit somewhat soft to begin with - especially considering how unfit I felt to run a short road race like this.
I walked over to meet my girl, peeled off my soaked singlet and spent the next several minutes cheering in runners before Christian came through about 10 minutes later. It was good to get out there and run fast again (relatively speaking of course) but for now I think I'll retreat back into my hole and go back to enjoying the solitude and joy of running in the mountains again.
Me & JB
Me & Christian
Thanks as always for stopping by. Til next time.
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