Iron Girl/Athleta Del Mar 10K

The Iron Girl/Athleta Del Mar 10K was a freaking good time this morning.

(Man, I’m on a hot streak with race selection lately…)

Del Mar is about 80 minutes away, so I had butt-crack-of-dawn date with my steering wheel.  Since I’ve permanently burned Emily & my disastrous Long Beach morning into the very front of my runner brain, I left a tidbit earlier than necessary.

Jammin, coffee’in, Siri-hosted convos with East Coasters I hadn’t beat out of bed… everything was going swell.

Until about 40 minutes in…

I considered turning around and scrapping the whole race – race without a constant stream of pace, splits, and number anxiety?!!!  How did our great-great ancestors ever do it?

(or, how did I up until a year and a half ago)

By the time I worked up the guts to turn around or drive off a cliff, I was exiting the 5 at Del Mar Race Track.

Ok fine, I’ll run.  Since I’m already here and all…

I was obnoxiously early so parking, packet pick up, and toilets were a breeze. 

Ran back to my car to hide from the cold (laugh it up, Ohio) until around 7:20 when I finally pushed my way up to the front of the 10K start.

Look who I found!  Superwoman!

Seriously – Nicole is stupid fast, has a crazy job, and a ridic 6-pack after popping out two of the cutest & most well-behaved children ever.  I want to grow up to be just like her.

Or just be her right now.  Either or.

…

For the first mile Ms. Garmin-less relied on a woman behind me yelling out paces to the three 10 year-olds running in front of me.  I vowed that NO MATTER what else happened, I would not be beaten by a gaggle of pre-pubescent girls.

(I wonder if the Softcup in the race bag caused any awkward mommy/daughter talks…)

((I know it did with Brian))

They (and their pace announcer) fizzled out shortly after, and I was back on my own.  I ran based on feel – because what else could I do?  I’m a rookie 10k’er (one last year, one the year before)  so I just stayed in an uncomfortable-yet-sustainable pace and tried not to let many people pass me.

Ashley’s boyfriend, P, snapped this – he said going rate on Brightroom is $120/photo but he’d give me a deal for $118.  I jacked it from Ashley’s post and picnik’d it past recognition instead.

Better put a watermark on it next time, P.

In an impressive showing of my own in-race photography (that I probably won’t be charging for), I captured these stunningly blurry shots of my Ragnar friends :

(Heather, I’d suggest working on that form a little – your elbow bending backwards like that can’t be good for your stride length or wind-resistance…)

We finally made the turn back into the racetrack (we didn’t run on the ACTUAL track, thank Jeeb) – I felt I did a good job holding pace and pushing myself the whole time, but again Ms Garmin-Dependent was totally lost.  I probably positive split and took horrible tangents.  The world will never know!

Once I got about .004 miles from the race clock and could actually read it (mental note : schedule optometrist appt) I realized I was going to PR by about 25 seconds.

Booyah, Garmin.

Impressive showings by everyone of Ragnar Team So Much Cooler Online – Nicole was 14/721 overall (10k), Chacha & Heather both PR’d the 5K, and Ashley fell madly in love with 6.2 after breaking her 10K virginity this morning.

I know, I told her not to be so easy but you know those San Diego girls…

Nicole, Chacha, Heather, Tall Girl, Ashley

Iron Girl/Athleta 10K, 11.6.11 : 48:06  NEW PR

*

If you’re keeping score at home, that caps off a quad-fecta (?) of new PRs on the year :

Marathon – LA (March)

Half * – Fontana (June)

10K – Iron Girl Del Mar (Nov)

5K – Chapman (Oct)

I don’t know WHAT has gotten into these little legs of mine – haha ok I couldn’t resist throwing a MONSTERGIRL jab in there.

post-race brunch at Naked Cafe

Seriously, Chacha, Ashley, and Linzay are the 3 smallest people on the face of the Earth.  I’m starting to think this is all a big joke – like, “hahahaha look at that huge girl and all her tiny friends! What a giant!”

Real funny.

Sarah OUaL

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