Sunday, August 24, 2008

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.).

4 comments:

EY Thrift Store said...

Congrats April! You make me proud!

jaredandjen said...

Congratulations! That's awesome.

KB said...

Nice work! Third place???...you're amazing! My best overall mile prob isn't even close to your 1st amazing marathon mile time of 6:36. I don't know how you do it :)

That's cool about the new shoes coupon. Those good running shoes sure are pricey. I'm long over due for a new pair but keep putting off the shopping process.

Anonymous said...

Wow - now I know what a true marathon and ultra marathon runner looks like ;-) Thank you April for motivating me to try my 1st race ever!! You even ran with me the last few hundred yards to the finish line (a few mintues after your finish, of course =), cheering me on! Too much fun...