I squeezed my August ½ marathon in by a hair. I ran the Santa Rosa ½ marathon on August 29th 2010, just enough time to count it as my August half. With two races under my belt, my ½ marathon-a-month plan is now a real journey.
Let me start by saying, Santa Rosa is a pretty place. You know all those California cheese commercials, the one that go on about how happy the cows are in California? These cows apparently live up in this neck of the woods. If you haven’t seen the ads they’re hilarious. Here’s one of my faves.
The other things that live up in this neck of the woods are vineyards, acres and acres of vineyards. We’re also barely weeks away from Crush (grape harvesting), so all the vines are bushy and pendulous with grapes.
Bottom line – Northern California pretty much rules this time of year.
This meant that I had set the bar pretty high on a scenic race.
It was even prettier.
The race started in downtown Santa Rosa. It’s a cute area but not mind blowing. Within the first mile we’d turned onto a local running/biking path that followed a small creek out of town.
And we stayed on this path the entire race. I ran for 13.1 miles in a park beside a creek. The views to my left (the creek was always on my right) were either of fields (filled with the happy cows) or vineyards.
Look, I even stopped to take a photo. It looked like this THE WHOLE TIME!
That was the good part of the race.
The not so good part of the race was that my legs decided they were done around 8 miles. What was even more irritating was that up until that point I’d been pacing faster than the San Francisco race and I had my heart set on another personal record. Each increment of mile that passed I felt the PR slip further and further away from reality. I was chasing a time that wasn’t going to be a reality.
I was chasing myself, and I just couldn’t quite catch myself. It was if there was someone in front of me who I could never quite pass. Very frustrating.
Now that being said, there was a guy on the race (running in Mickey Mouse ears I might add) who stayed right behind me almost the entire race. I could feel him trying desperately to catch and pass me, he’d then run out of steam just as he got to my shoulder. I finally left him behind me around mile 11. There’s part of me that thinks I should have backed off and let him pass. Let one of us beat the person we were chasing, even if mine wasn’t real.
Unfortunately for him I wasn’t that gracious that day. In running all these races I’ve found I have a bit of a competitive streak. I couldn’t let him pass AND lose to myself. Wow, writing this down makes me realize I’m a bit nuts.
But don’t feel bad. This story has a happy ending. When I got the results of the race, I ran a mere 2 or so minutes slower than the San Francisco ½ time. I finished in 2:20:05. The best part? I finished 19th in my age group. Yeah!
I’m totally running this one again. Anyone want to come with me next year?
Love the happy cows! Do you remember Dainty?
Posted by: Celia | October 01, 2010 at 06:35 AM