California International Marathon

Alright… I have to admit, I was NOT excited about this race. At first I was, and then I started thinking about all the things I needed to get done before Halloween, Baby Girls first birthday, and Thanksgiving dinner. How in the world was I going to find the time to stick to my training program? And then there was the weather factor. I hate being cold!!! I wear a hoodie to bed with two down comforters. During the wintertime I’ll take multiple showers a day just to stay warm. What was I thinking when I agreed to this relay?

When our relay team, “Relay Rookies” signed up, I said the only leg I would NOT run was the first one. So Amy took the first leg, then her dad Alan, myself, and Amy’s mom Susan finished. Our girlfriend Tracey was suppose to run the last leg but she decided to get knocked and developed horrible morning sickness. The miles for each leg broke down as; 5.9, 7.6, 7.0, and 5.7.

The morning of the race I was just glad to look out the window and see it not raining. And the fact I didn’t need to be to my relay point till 9am, unlike Amy who took off at 7am. The weather report from Weather.com logged 7:00am at 29f feeling like 22f and 9:00am at 37f feeling more like 28f. All in all… it was COLD!!

To be honest, I didn’t start getting excited about this race until I was actually standing in the sea of people waiting for my relay buddy Alan to arrive. The relay points were very unorganized and there was a lot of confusion amongst everyone. Amy decided to stand on the other side of the street keeping a lookout for her dad to arrive. Once she saw him and started yelling at me, that is when my heart started pounding and all the nervousness rushed over me. A quick exchanged of the timing chip and I was off.

For some odd reason I thought most of my leg and the finishing leg was down hill. Yeah, not so much. Grant it, it was nothing like the second leg (there was also a few good hills in the 1st leg). But when your in the mind set that your leg is fairly flat and you start running rolling hills with a head wind, you get thrown off your game a little. It took me the first few miles to get myself into a good running rhythm.

By mile four I hear someone shouting out pace times, 11:22. OK, no way he just said that. I must have heard him wrong. I haven’t ran a 11 minute mile in over seven years. Mile five rolls along and I listen, 11:08. Mile six 11:15. Mile seven and I’m strapping the timing chip to Susan’s ankle. Done! And I’m actually not to cold. :)

My goal for this race was to finish in 1:40 with an overall pace of 13:29 (according to my training program). I am VERY proud to say, I surpassed my goal and finished in 1:30 with an overall pace of 12:85. And yes I did cry when I called Adam to tell him my finishing time.

A special thank you to Amy for pushing me bound my boundaries. A thank you to Alan for running the hilliest part of the race. And thank you Susan for having us finish 26.2 miles under 5 hours. For a bunch of rookies (other then Alan) I think we did pretty damn good!

P.S. Congrats Tracey and Jay on baby number 2!