Well, I am savoring my last couple of hours in beautiful San Diego this morning before I head back home. If you have been following along then you know that Kristie and I headed out here Friday to go to Carlsbad for the Carlsbad 5000 Run All Day 20k. In case you don't know about this race, it is 4 different 5k's in one day.
They start with the Men's Masters race, then the Women's Masters, Men 39 and Under and finally Women 39 and Under. Most people come out for their specific race, but you also have the option of running all 4 of them by signing up for the Run All Day event, which is what Kristie and I did so we could add 4 more races to our 50 for the year.
I have not run over a 10k since last year's Vegas Half Marathon so I was a bit worried about doing 12.4 miles in one day!! Turns out it was for good reason, I was dying for the last two races!!! Kristie ran like a rock star. I ran more like an old rock star, maybe Keith Richard-like. I finished them all though so that is what mattered!!
The first race we took it easy and used it as a good warm up. The second race was our age group so we tried to push it. The third race is where things got really hard. The third race was scheduled to start at 9:04 and the 4th race at 9:45. So, you had 41 minutes to finish and get yourself back over to the start line which was not right next to the finish and you had to get through crowds of people who had just finished their one and only 5k for the day.
Because of the train schedule they had to delay the start of our third race by 5 minutes. So, I am sure you are doing the math and can figure out that we now had 36 minutes to finish and get back over to the start or we weren't going to be able to do the 4th race. We were going to have to do a 10:30 race that was scheduled as a Party Race if we didn't get to the start on time for the 4th race.
We knew we didn't want to do the 10:30 race because Kristie had to drive back to Arizona after all of this madness. So, after we finished the 3rd race we didn't even stop running in the finish chute. We just ran straight over to the start again. Kristie was ahead of me so I knew she was going to make it but I didn't know if I was going to make it. I think that stretch from finish to start line felt like some of the hardest running I did all day!!
Well, I made it but as soon as I stepped over the start line, which was after everyone else except walkers and strollers had gone the lady with the microphone said to slow down and take our time because they would hold the start line open for us due to our late start. What??? At the start of the race they said they would not do that so basically we had to get our butts back there before it started!!
By the time I crossed the start line for the 4th race I was toast!! I just walked for a couple of minutes!! In fact, I had to walk for quite a bit of the last race because I was just done!! Anyway, I finished with a new PR-my slowest 5k time ever!! Or, as my friend Kyle would say, "a new low." My time was 39:58 by the race results!! Whew, I made it under 40!! I guess that is not too bad for having to walk A LOT!! I didn't even care. I just knew I needed to finish and that was all that mattered!
This was a pretty cool race to do but I think I should really have been running higher mileage before I did it. Carlsbad is absolutely beautiful. What a great place for a race! I wish I could live there or at a minimum retire there but I am going to have to be homeless if I want to live there. It is so expensive. Maybe they want to keep the riff-raff like me out!! Anyway, we had a great time doing our first in person race together.
Here are some pictures from the weekend.
Here are a few other photos of Carlsbad.
Well, I hope your week is off to a great start! I have to get ready to head to the airport so I need to go for now. Have a great week! 14 races done!!