I had been dealing with pain in my right kidney within the past week, so my decision to run the race would be a race day decision. I did a somewhat easy run around my neighborhood on Sunday. Everything seemed relatively fine. Come Monday morning, my lower back felt sore, but it was more my familiar pain than the kidney pain. I decided to give it a go. If something goes really wrong, I'll make my way to the finish line and drop at the 5k mark.
Race packet pick-up was scheduled to start at 5:30 am. I got ready and left the house a little after 5 am to time my arrival for around the opening time. I planned to park at the usual lot next to Nordstrom Rack. However, when I pulled up, that lot was barricaded off to traffic. I ended up parking in the lot closer to BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse. From there, I walked over to the usual spot to get assigned a bib number. On my way there, I bumped into my buddy, Andrew. We chatted a little bit before we went our separate ways to get ready for the race. After getting my bib, I used one of the portapotties before heading back to my car. I hung out in my car until it was almost time for the start of the race which was scheduled for 7 am.
I used a portapotty one last time before heading over to the starting corral to queue up. Of course, I bumped into all of the usual suspects. During the last few race announcements, Young Kim was invited up to say a few words. She is the current US Representative for CA District 40.
I partially stumbled into the group photo :)
Luis pacing 2:45
Andrew pacing 2:20
Starting corral
US Representative (R-CA 40th District) Young Kim
My current level of fitness and endurance is so far from where I used to be. I ended up running that first mile in just under 8 minutes and I was pooped! While I was somewhat pleased to see that my body is starting to move a bit faster, that was pretty much all of the stress testing that I would want to do to my body this morning. Since I wasn't sure if my kidney was back to normal, I switched gears and decided to just run at whatever pace for the rest of the race. I was grateful that my body felt good enough that I wasn't tempted to bail at the 5k point. I pushed on to run the remaining 10 miles. Per the usual, it was good to see my running friends out on the course. Nadia was accompanying her father. She has been training him and he has been making a lot of progress! We did not hop on the single-track trail this year. I would venture to guess that either they had heard too many complaints about the congestion in that section or the weather was a bit moist this morning. The turnaround point was just before reaching mile 8.
Pic from Nadia
Eric
Nadia and her dad way ahead of me!
The last 5 miles were a bit of a grind as it was gradual incline all the way to the finish line. There was a lot of leapfrogging between me and a couple of runners as the course flattened out a bit and veered off of Aliso Canyon Rd. I made sure to save something in the tank for that steep short climb right before the final stretch. It was cool to have my friends at the top of that climb cheering us on! Somehow I managed a smile running up that section.
Pic from Dexter
Amador carrying Old Glory
That short steep final climb! Pic from Natalie
Finish: 2:15:37
Click here for my Garmin data.
I was pretty content just to cross that finish line! It was one of my slower races, but hey, I can only do what I do in training which involved mostly hiking. Those steep inclines didn't really bother me as my neighborhood is very hilly. However, I will need to start running hills if I want to be able to run up instead of hiking up those inclines.
Finish line
I collected my finisher medal and continued down the finisher chute. After grabbing some snacks and a bottle of water, I headed over to the tent to pick up my race shirt. Lo and behold, I got my shirt from Sergio, that same guy that volunteers at practically every race!
Finisher medal
Post race snacks and water bottle
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
I then headed over to that final hill before the finish line to join up with my friends and to wait for my friend, Albert to come across the finish line. That location was the perfect spot to cheer on the runners as that final hill was quite steep and will sap whatever strength and energy you had left in your legs!
Pic from Latino Heat
Luis and co-pacer bringing in 2:45 group
Albert
After Albert crossed the finish line, I joined up with him and we walked over to the location to catch a bus ride back to our cars. This year, they had several of those school buses to transport us so there wasn't that much of a wait to catch a ride. Unfortunately, our bus driver dropped us off on the northeast side near the freeway and the Firestone auto shop. During that long walk back to our cars, there was a race volunteer that ran over to the bus probably to tell the driver where to go next time.
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