Although a bit sleepy from getting home on the later side last night, A and I managed to leave the house around 6:15 in order to get to the SAP Center, where the Sharks play, for Andrew's 6:45 start time. It was cool to get there so early, since it was just the 50-mile cyclists hanging around by the start, and was largely empty. San Jose "Sharkie," the Sharks mascot, was hanging around.
As the cyclists were off on their way, I realized I had an hour and then some before my 8:00am start time. So I took a trip to the port-o-potties before there was a giant line, and then went back to the car to read, sunscreen up, and generally get ready.
I was lucky to see my cousins, one of whom works for the SJ Sharks, and aunt and uncle, who were all doing the 10k race as well. Mini family reunion!
Time actually passed very quickly as the area behind the starting line began to fill up. I left my family and pushed up towards the front a bit, but still found that it was a bit crowded with people going all paces in every location. Many people were walking through the start, which was a little annoying as I wanted to start off quickly.
I got going pretty quickly, and found I was able to maintain my pace through mile 3 or 4. Miles 4 and 5 still felt good, just a bit slower, as my legs got tired. However, I saw on my watch that I was still maintaining a 9:15-9:20 pace on average, though, which was above my time goal.
As I neared the finish line, I was excited to get a time goal above my Turkey Trot 10k time from last year, which was 58:57. However, when I passed the finish line around 8:57, I realized my Garmin only said I had run 6.06 miles. I feel like people were cutting corners where the course was not particularly well designed... oops. So I jogged around to cool down a bit past the finish to get a 10k read on my watch.
However, even with the extra time on my watch, I still had a 10k PR! My watch time of 6.2 miles was 57:46... still >1min PR!
By myself and with my cousins. My cousins both ran awesome races - 59 minutes and 1 hr 12 minutes!
Here are my official results:
Time: 56:17
Pace: 9:04/mile
Place: 202/849 finishers, 23rd in age group and 74th female finisher
I'm really proud of my time and had an amazing race that went by very quickly. My speed work that I've been doing seems to have been paying off!
A finished very soon after I passed through the post-race expo for snacks and free stuff. The medals they gave us were awesome - even bigger than many of the half marathon medals I had received! A was not pleased that they had not marked the course well, so he and two other guys got lost on the way to the finish. However, he still came in 4th (would have been 3rd) of ALL the guys doing the 50-mile bike ride.
My boyfriend is a stud, basically.
Post-race (first joint race!) selfie:
Overall, although there were still some kinks to be worked out in this new-ish event, it was so much fun to have both cycling and running events - and sponsored by one of my favorite sports teams (and for a good cause).
Next up - SF Half Marathon 7/27! I'm actually really looking forward to it after getting back in the running groove. Can't wait!
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