Jet to Jetty

Yesterday was my first 10K. I have run every race from 5K and under, and have done many marathons, but never have I felt the urge to do anything in between. So when a flyer came in the mail 2 weeks ago, I nearly tossed it into the trash.

There are a lot of races in the Los Angeles area, but this is not something I have taken advantage of. I am usually too busy training for another marathon. This time, however, I recruited Maureen, my running partner from work, and we decided to race.

It's called "Jet to Jetty" for obvious reasons: the race runs between LAX and Marina del Rey. It is a beautiful coure that I didn't really bother to look at during the race because I was too busy running. It is a small race, with approximately 300 participants in the 10K, but with about 500-1000 people completing the companion 5K.

Maureen and I decided on the 10K because of our distance running backgroung. The excitement of competition is always thrilling, and I was excited to see how well I could complete this race.

It started fast, with my first mile at 6:36. I slowed to a comfortable pace after that, but didn't have the energy (or motivation) to sprint out the end.

The race turned out well: I began and ended the race in 3rd place (overall women), as the first place woman in my age group (19-24), with a time of 44:05. My goal was under 42:00. Not bad considering I went into the race having biked 25 miles and run 40 miles already that week. I was intending to complete 20 miles that day , but after the race, I was too tired to bother (I did somewhere between 9-10). I did get a cool medal and all participants got a discount at Top to Top (a running store in Marina del Rey and Santa Monica). The great thing about this was that I had a good reason to go buy new running shoes (nevermind that I won't need them for a few more months.).