First... THANK YOU ALL for the flood of birthday wishes yesterday, it was really quite overwhelming! The older I get the less I enjoy celebrating the day, preferring to let it quietly slip by, which is why I tend to lay low or go out of town on most birthdays. Thanks to my roomie extraordinaire for not letting me get away with it completely this year. D'jango Unchained was an exceptionally good movie in my opinion and I'd have never taken the time to watch it if she hadn't insisted on us celebrating at least a little. Love you sister, thank you for the company, dinner and gifts!
The other reason for laying low yesterday was to get ready for this morning's early rising... so that Rose and I could go revisit a race from last year - Run the Verdugos.
A "slightly" challenging 10k in Glendale, with a mere 1,745 in elevation gain. Now, it doesn't look so tough on this map, but when you look at the profile, it gives you a pretty good picture of what we signed up for...
Crazy looking profile wouldn't you say?!
This is the third annual race, and the first year with a chip start. It was Rose and I's second venture on this course and we were again joined by Craig Kinard, Dick Johnson and his daughter Heather. This year we also had Rose's nephew Nick with us, and he was a great addition who I hope will be with us again next year (because of course we will keep racing this course!) As we were leaving I saw a car that looked like my friend Carmen's, but I never saw her there so I figured I was wrong... that is until I saw her on the results list tonight. She did good and I'm sorry I missed her!
Also there representing in force were Shannon Franklin and her Team Magnum from CrossFit Survival. They have some very strong runners on that team and it earned them at least one medal. I loved seeing them coming down as I was nearing the top, very inspirational!
This year we got lucky with the weather... PERFECT race conditions. Cool, breezy and no sun. We were even gifted with a slight drizzle on the climb, but it stopped long before anything got muddy. Good thing too, because both Rose and I set personal records and I doubt seriously that I'd have been anywhere near as aggressive on the descent had it been even a little bit slippery. As it was, Rose and I compared notes as we were walking back to the car looking for Nick... we had both been passed by quite a few people on the climb, but had in turn passed dozens of people on the way back down. I was extra happy to say that only two people had passed me on the descent, both women, and I used them both as rabbits to chase... which worked perfectly with one of them in particular, because I was able to stay on her heels and actually passed her as we came to the finish line. What fun!
Sooooo, I guess the Arrogant Bastard training is paying off... in spite of my daily perspective on always being last place in the training, because I finished Top 10 in my age bracket with a 9:00 PR. I was only a few minutes faster coming down, but I made it to the top about 7:00 faster than last year. That's a pretty decent jump in a year and very good news with the Mt. Wilson Trail Race right around the corner! Here are the stats from the last two years...
2013: 1:16:23 finish - 8th of 29 in bracket, and 319 of 653 overall - top 49% of field
2012: 1:25:04 finish - 11th of 28 in bracket, and 373 of 616 overall - bottom 40% of field
What's on the horizon? This week brings more CrossFit, then Friday I get to go to Mountain High for spiritual conference and get in a bit of pleasure running with a new friend. I am so looking forward to next weekend. It's amazing what a difference it can make just knowing I'll have a like minded friend there!
13 more days until we're going to hiking the Grand Canyon! Yahoo!!!
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