Month: May 2008

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Avenue of the Vines – 2008

OverallDiv PlaceTimePace
90/7057/331:50:10.18:25/M

A PW Record

Well, the PW doesn’t include Disneyland, but between a lack of training, gross heat, and bad fueling, this race was a personal worst time. And well… that’s okay. Listening to other racers, comments like “This isn’t a day for a PR” or “I did five minutes worse than normal” says that my results came in just right. So yay?

In all honesty, the course was better than I remember, with actual wine fields that I ran by, and only a single dairy farm; the food afterwards was much better (Togo’s), the race management significantly improved, the problems of last year well resolved, and everything would have been great, were it not for the 100+ degree day. The end result was a fairly exhausting and miserable race from the heat, but otherwise a good race. Not much else to say, but I will be here next year.

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My first first place finish

The “Race”

Not just first in my AG, but first in the race! So there were only 20 racers or so, I was wearing a bib, so it felt official!

USAA, for their employees and family, held a 5k walk/run that was sponsored for their employees’ health benefits: race food, bibs, course markings, and everything! While I don’t in any way qualify as family, Diane allowed me join her since running is my cup of tea.

About twenty people were on the running circuit, and another twenty were there as walkers. The course was laid out as a four-lap circuit of the USAA campus, part of it along the streets and part along their run track. I wasn’t there to push any kind of 5k PR (I’d just been sick in Thailand, and I hadn’t really been training at all), so I paced Diane’s boss Cherie for the first three laps. Feeling great thereafter, I decided to pick up the pace to a normal 5k pace for me and finish at the front of the pack.

So, my time wasn’t great, and the race was small… but hey! I got first place in a race, and I don’t think I’ll ever get to say that again. So yay!