One year ago this week, I ran my very first 10K on the road to finishing my very first half-marathon as well. I remember doing some 5Ks after Siobhan’s birth (although I don’t think I ever trained for them) and thinking I could never be good enough to finish a 10K—I was about to prove myself wrong.
Bright and early last Forth of July, I drove my two sons down to Scripps Ranch to keep me company as I dragged my not yet flabulous body over 6.1 miles of beautiful landscape surrounding Lake Miramar. Right from the beginning Niall took off, but Eoin, who was in a jogging stroller, was forced to move at my not-yet-stellar pace. Now, I don’t know if you have ever run a race with a jogging stroller, but no matter how polite I tried to be people seemed annoyed that I was clogging up their road even if they were slower than me. I have since had to run with joggers and understand their frustration. Nothing is worse than a huge stroller blocking your path, or worse yet, having a person pushing a stroller actually zoom past you. I was able to push myself and Eoin across the finish line in 1:23, which is not bad considering all the extra weight I was pushing.
Fast forward one year and here I was back at the Scripp’s Ranch Old Pro 10K race—no sons in sight, at least not mine. This time it was all girl teams. I was running with Stephanie, my mentor and friend from Team in Training, and Mary had her two college friends running with her. Steph and I were dressed in our red, white, and blue, but we were definitely “out-costumed” by Mary and her twin Malinda. We were also outdone by the group of college boys dressed in nothing but patriotic Speedos (which would have been Sean's costume of choice--thankfully he was injured for this race). As you can probably visualize, this is a crazy-fun race!
Bright and early last Forth of July, I drove my two sons down to Scripps Ranch to keep me company as I dragged my not yet flabulous body over 6.1 miles of beautiful landscape surrounding Lake Miramar. Right from the beginning Niall took off, but Eoin, who was in a jogging stroller, was forced to move at my not-yet-stellar pace. Now, I don’t know if you have ever run a race with a jogging stroller, but no matter how polite I tried to be people seemed annoyed that I was clogging up their road even if they were slower than me. I have since had to run with joggers and understand their frustration. Nothing is worse than a huge stroller blocking your path, or worse yet, having a person pushing a stroller actually zoom past you. I was able to push myself and Eoin across the finish line in 1:23, which is not bad considering all the extra weight I was pushing.
Fast forward one year and here I was back at the Scripp’s Ranch Old Pro 10K race—no sons in sight, at least not mine. This time it was all girl teams. I was running with Stephanie, my mentor and friend from Team in Training, and Mary had her two college friends running with her. Steph and I were dressed in our red, white, and blue, but we were definitely “out-costumed” by Mary and her twin Malinda. We were also outdone by the group of college boys dressed in nothing but patriotic Speedos (which would have been Sean's costume of choice--thankfully he was injured for this race). As you can probably visualize, this is a crazy-fun race!
Unlike the previous year, the weather was hot and humid, so I knew it would still be challenging even without the jogging stroller. I was hoping with all the training I had done and without the stroller this year I would be able to finish this race in under an hour. When the race started we all took off toward Lake Miramar—except for poor Steph who was knocked down by an inconsiderate runner before we even reached the bottom of the hill. Ever the mentor, she insisted I go on without her even hiding behind other runners so I couldn’t see her when I turned around.
Despite the miserable weather, I love this race. The scenery is amazing (see the port-o-potty view), and the costumed runners never fail to entertain. I spent most of my run right next to Speedo Boys who were pushing a jogger with a boom box, which by the way never worked because they had failed to supply it with batteries. And at about mile 5 when I was feeling pretty exhausted heading over the dam, our friends Jeremiah and James were right there at the top waiting to cheer us on—I am very lucky to have such supportive friends! One of the great things about this race is that the last half-mile is all downhill. So, despite a kind of rocky start. I was still able to race across the finish line in a little over 1:03—just shy of my under one hour goal (and quite a few minutes ahead of Speedo Boys). I had shaved 20 minutes off last year’s time, and I am pretty proud of that.
Despite the miserable weather, I love this race. The scenery is amazing (see the port-o-potty view), and the costumed runners never fail to entertain. I spent most of my run right next to Speedo Boys who were pushing a jogger with a boom box, which by the way never worked because they had failed to supply it with batteries. And at about mile 5 when I was feeling pretty exhausted heading over the dam, our friends Jeremiah and James were right there at the top waiting to cheer us on—I am very lucky to have such supportive friends! One of the great things about this race is that the last half-mile is all downhill. So, despite a kind of rocky start. I was still able to race across the finish line in a little over 1:03—just shy of my under one hour goal (and quite a few minutes ahead of Speedo Boys). I had shaved 20 minutes off last year’s time, and I am pretty proud of that.
Now, for those of you that were thinking how awful I was to let my competitive nature take over and leave an injured friend to finish the race on her own, I did run back and cross the finish line a second time with Stephanie. Despite a pretty banged up knee, she pushed her way through the pain to complete her first 10K. One thing I have learned through this whole run to flabuluos journey is that runners are a tough breed who always respect and support everyone's individual goals—and they make pretty amazing friends, too!
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