My alarm woke me at 6:30 a.m. and I had to make my choice -- go run the Ventura 5K or go downstairs, eat some Cheerios, open a beer, and start watching the 8 hour Super Bowl pre-game show. I quickly decided I had seen enough fluff pieces on football players and I didn't want to hear the overanalysis of the Colts-Bears game. But, the Cheerios and beer sounded good. So, I compromised.
After my Cheerios and beer, Kristi and I made our way to Westpark in Ventura. She would run the half-marathon with her friend Rita and I would run the 5K and then position myself .3 miles out to shout encouragment to her as she finished. I was trying to ease back into running and not make my old mistake of training too hard too soon. So, I had spent every other day in January running either a 5K loop or a 4.2 loop at a moderate pace.
We parked, registered, and met up with my friend Matt who would run the half-marathon. Matt's 24 and is training for L.A. in March. Although an athlete, he had never run a competitive race. Rita showed up ten minutes before the start to register. Usually she would've been a few minutes late, so this was good. I had to admire Rita's bravery/craziness. Kristi had told her of the run on Wednesday and she said "I'll do it." She had not run in the past two months although she was on the cardio machine at the gym last week for 10-20 minutes! I couldn't wait to see what'd happen.
The half-marathoners started first shortly after 8:00. It was good to see a few Rinconers in the group.
The 5K started 15 minutes later. During that time I ran keys, gloves, and sweatshirts back to the car and did a short warm-up jog. I was apprehensive. Running a 5K when my longest run in the past month had been 4.2 miles wasn't my idea of good training. But, I reminded myself that I was here to have fun and see what I could do without pushing too hard.
The 5K drew about 90 runners and when the gun went off I went with the lead group. Within a half-mile the group had broken into two and I was in the back of the second group. At the turn-around the packs were gone and the runners were mostly alone or in groups of 2 or 3. It was the roomiest 5K I had ever run! My split at the turn-around was 12:19, I felt tired, and I didn't think I could keep the pace. My closest competitor was about 30 yards ahead and running consistently so I decided to just try to stay with him. I did, and finished at 24:35.
Matt ran a 1:39:XX half-marathon. Ahhh, youth. I'm not even sure he was wearing running shoes! Kristi can tell you her results in her report. Rita finished before the awards ceremony started and then went to work waitressing at Rookies in Ventura. So, my accomplishments for the day paled compared to others'!
Now, I know what you're thinking -- it took me longer to read this race report than it took you to run the race. True, but I had to do something while I was waiting for the Super Bowl to start!
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