clarksburg country run 5K race report 11/14/10

Well, 1st race at Age 49 in the bag... I signed up for this at the last minute. Since I moved here in 2007, I've toyed with running one of the distances. The race has been held for years at Delta High School in Clarksburg, this was the 45th rendition. There's a 20 miler, half-marathon and 5K. Many people use the 20 miler as their last long training run before the California International Marathon the first weekend in December. The course(s) are out in the Sacramento River Delta, west and south of town, and up on the levee, you can see downtown Sacramento in the distance as well as the coastal ranges. Very cool.

Really pretty day to run and just about perfect temperature of around 50F. They start the 5K late, but since I hadn't been to the race before, I left early so I'd be able to find parking. That turned out to not be a problem, so if I do this next year I'm not going to rush to get over there. Or maybe I can car pool with someone...

This race attracts a lot of serious runners as its certified and fast (because its damn flat) and since it isn't really all that close to Sacramento, the more casual runners aren't likely to show up (I don't see why, but I'm closer to Clarksburg in Tahoe Park than say, someone who lives in Folsom or Roseville (would add a half hour to the drive easily). Of course, along with the serious runners you get the high maintenance people too, but the running world doesn't have as high a proportion of those as triathlon or cycling does. It always amazes me to see people running in expensive running clothes and makeup. Oh well...

I really get a kick out of the kids' races. Neither the half mile or the 1 mile had that many participants, though, compared to Urban Cow or Apple Hill and that kind of surprised me - then again, this event attracts more serious runners and I'm guessing they tend to leave their kids home if they don't have someone to watch them in the endless pursuit of the next PR before the get too old to PR LOL

So, there's really not a lot to report, other than I should have put my car key in the zippered pocket of my running pullover rather than attempt to attach it to one of the strings on the bib # holder on my race belt (oh, another stupid comment heard before the race "You can tell who the triathletes are because they all have race belts"- um, no, I don't do triathlons anymore and I do have a race belt because of that but that's so my expensive running shirts don't get pinholes in them that don't 'heal' like putting holes in a cotton t-shirt does with a pin. You pay $60 for a high quality The North Face running shirt, you're not going to mess it up by jamming pins though it. I'll abuse running shorts that way but not a shirt).

I again broke < 30:00 but man this process of coming back from almost 2 1/2 years off from running is so sloooooow. I feel fucking *old* (wait, I am fucking old). I would have probably run about 20 seconds faster if I'd not been screwing with moving the key from the belt to the pocket (and it did disrupt my rhythm, I know I slowed down  but hey, its no big deal), but I kept this run simple. The course was a simple triangle, it had a slight hill in the first mile and oh I love running up hills because I run past other people on hills, especially when said hills are at sea level rather than 3000+' up.

It was nice to run past vineyards, there's still some leaves on the trees but we are about to embark on our ironically "green" California winter. The rains will start soon, and everything turns green for a couple of months - usually until mid-April - and then the rains stop for six months and everything turns brown in the meantime LOL.

I did encourage a 12 (or maybe he was 13) year old boy who was initially in front of me to "outrun me, I'm old dude" but I dropped him about halfway through. I think I picked off a half dozen people on the way to the finish, but I should have run into the finish chute a little harder because a woman I thought I'd dropped way back pushed like hell to the end and actually wacked into my elbow at the finish line - it was cool.

I didn't beat my Urban Cow time, but, I did run < 30:00, and I know I ran hard because I felt like there Might Be A Hurling Moment after the finish and it did pass, so I put forth a good effort. I can also blame a mild upper respiratory infection perhaps, or my body adjusting to the 1/2 of a 25 mg pill of blood pressure meds I started this week. On the more upside, I've run since October 3rd four decent races considering how out of race shape I am in the first place, and Apple Hill was last weekend and very hard. That's a lot of racing for a 5-6 week period. :)

One nice thing about this race, you can take a shower in the gym afterwards. But I grabbed some pasta first, then showered, changed, and drove home. Another 5K knocked off and now I can concentrate on gradually increasing volume the next six weeks and decide whether I want to attempt the Davis half - or not (they do have a 5K and 10K as well) in February.

P.S. I am tempted to do the Davis Turkey Trot 5K next Saturday but it is supposed to be pouring rain at the end of the week... hmmm... excuse to go buy rain gear...