A 10K for my 10th!

Ok so I might be a little behind, but now it's time to catch up!

June 26th brought my 10th race of the year. In honor of it being the 10th I decided to do a 10K, the Summerfest 10K.  (Plus if I did the 10K I received a shirt that said in training for the Davis Moonlight!)

Dad and I traveled to Davis in order for me to run in this race. 

Here I am getting ready to start!

We arrived early enough for me to get rid of my pre race jitters.  When it was time for the race to start I realized there weren't going to be that many people racing with me, and the jitters set in again.  I told dad if he didn't see me after 1 and a half hours to send out a search party for me!

When the race started I set off to see what I could do!  Soon enough there was mile one right at 10 min! That was so exciting!  Then came mile 2 and mile 3.  I hadn't stopped to walk once I was doing really good.  I hit mile three at about 36 minutes. 

Here are some pictures of me!  Look closely I'm the dot in the bright yellow shirt!

My goal had become to hit the mile 5 marker at one hour....and I hit it right at 59 minutes!  I was thrilled.  I continued to run the next 1.2 miles, but I was a little slower than I had been the rest of the race. 

Just about to hit the mile 6 marker!

Dad I'm doing so good!

I finished off the last .2 miles of my race in a sprint. 

The finish line was unplugged! Soon after it was blown back up!

I finished the race in 1:20!  I was so proud of myself! 

I did it!

Since I am doing the Moonlight Run and I did Summerfest I recieved this shirt as well!

Summerfest was a great race to celebrate my 10th race of the year.
Next race: Run San Ramon, 10K 4th of July!

Numero Nueve

First off I can't believe it's already almost the end of June!  Man time sure does fly when you are having fun!  This past Saturday on June 18th, brought me to Pleasanton.  I had been anxiously been waiting for another Triathlon to come up in my race sequence.  This race was the first in a series of three Tri for Fun events.  Originally on my calendar I was going to do the whole series, however another race in July intrigued me a little more.  Although I'm still debating about doing both races next month...on the same day!

Getting ready for the swim!

I was feeling my usual butterflies as I headed towards the water, and I loved it.  As I headed to the starting area, I decided to feel the water, it was not very cold, but it was not bath water as a woman described behind me.  There were six waves that started the race, I was in wave  4.  There weren't that many people in wave 4, and I was actually towards the front of the pack for starting off the race, usually I stick to the back because I don't want to get kicked in the head. 

When the horn went off we started going, I was feeling great the first buoy seemed so close.  Next thing I knew I kicked someone in the head...it was very different as I'm usually dodging feet!

The water was so clear.  I turned and passed the first buoy and in no time I was to the second buoy.  Before I knew it I was getting out of the water.  The swim was 1/4 of a mile and I finished in 10 minutes.

This is actually me after the race. (I just felt a picture was needed here! :) )

I headed to my bike, threw my shoes and shirt on and was off!  I tackled the first climb and started riding as fast as I could go.  There were people flying passed me, I don't think I was in the right gear and my front tire might have been flat.  Hopefully I'll get that figured out before my next race.

I felt like I did a good job of going as fast as I could on the bike.

I  finished the 11 miles in 45 minutes!

Last came the run! My least and most favorite part.  Least because I always wish I was better, favorite because the race is almost done and I almost have another race under my belt.

The run was 3 miles.  My legs always take some adjusting, but I was having some pains in the arch of my foot.  As I was running I came upon a man that was running in a Hawaiian shirt I had already seen him twice on the race, and I felt like I had seen him before.  It wasn't until someone else said to him that she had seen him at a few different tris, that I realized that he was the Hawaiian shirt wearing man from my first triathlon, Scott Tinley!

I continued to run as I passed the water station a total of 3 times during the run.  I came in around 40 minutes.

I did it!!

All in all I am very proud of how I preformed on this race!  I can't wait to see how I do when this course faces a rematch with me in August!

Up next: (Just added 30 minutes ago :) hehe) Summerfest 10K in Sacramento!

Race number 8 .... sucked!

Race number 8 brought us to Lake Chabot on June 5th!  Alle and I were going to tackle this race together.  The race had a 3 hour time limit and Alle was set and determined to help me conquer this race!

This was a very low key event, with 210 runners.

Alle and I  at the official starting line!

Alle and I set off with high ambitions, and about a mile into the race realized we were at the very end of the pack when the sweepers (who were actually carrying brooms) caught up with us.  When we finally hit the trails it didn't take long for us to increase elevation.  For the next 3 miles we increased over 4000 feet in elevation (I just found out when I looked on the race website, someone noted that from their GPS watch!).  I felt bad that I was holding Alle back from competing like she normally does!  But she didn't care, she set out to help me and that she did, because I wanted to give up!

The race went on and continued to challenge me, as my shins and calves were burning.  I turned my ankle a few times as well.  My feet got stuck in mud, and I slid in the mud as well.  There was even a fallen eucalyptus tree on the path!  There was a shooting range very close to where we were and you could hear the gun shots, kinda crazy. 

During the race I kept dreaming of the time when I would meet "calf" rock as I dubbed it.  Calf rock was the perfect rock for stretching your calves.  The thought of it was very exciting!

Calf rock and I! :)

I was very excited to see the rock when Alle and I hit mile 13!

As we were nearing the finishing line Alle made a very good observation,  we had finished the second half of the half marathon faster then the first half of the half marathon!  

Even though we didn't finish before the time limit expired, I'm still proud to say I finished. I am very grateful to have had Alle to race with and to keep me motivated along the way.  Thanks so much Alle!

After the race!  Yay! 

I can't wait to see Alle compete in this race next year!  As for if I will do this race again, time will only tell...I think it was about mile 3 when I first told Alle I didn't ever want to do this race again, but we will see...

Next race is in 2 week! 

For now it's back to icing! :)