Make room for Santa 10k Race Report

Today was my 12th race since I started running in March of 2010.  It was my second 10k race and.....

I PR by over 5 minutes!!!!

I am so happy!!!  I got up at 4:20 this morning to get ready and have my coffee and hopefully get the system going..if you know what I mean....well no luck...so I was a little worried...Got the supporting crew up at 5 am and out the door at 5:20 am.  Got to Tustin at 6:20 am and had plenty of time to get bib and goody bag (they had great goody bag and long sleeve t-shirt!) and hit the lovely porta potty.  Temperature was low 50s so perfect for me.  I was anxious, did not sleep well last night, tried to warm up as best as I could.  I wanted to beat my time really bad.  Lot's of people had Holiday costumes, a few Santas, lots of elves! I had the cutest elves on my supporting crew I think...

 Went towards the back for the start, I did not want to start too fast and I figured it would be better to pass people as I go then to be in the way.  The course was 2 5k loops.  I saw my kids at the start, they had their bells to cheer everybody passing in front of them, I was told they were a big hit!!!

I started not too fast and was feeling pretty good..the course was FLAT, a nice change from last week.  I passed the first water station and I decided not to stop until the 2nd loop. 

 

 

 First 5k went by fast!  I saw my kids again coming out of the first loop and decided to take the gloves off for the 2nd half.  This is me trying to get my son's attention to get him to catch my gloves!

I was still feeling pretty good at mile 4..no side pain and I passed the water station and again decided to skip it and continue...I knew after that the last one would be at mile 5.5 after the turning point at the top of the loop.  When I got to that one, I was afraid to stop and loose my momentum and was afraid to drink and get side pain for the last stretch.  My mouth was really dry so I grabbed a cup and just rinsed and did not stop to drink any water.

Saw my crew for the last time before getting to the finish line.  I was tired but I still had some juice in the tank, I did not want to stop, I had not stopped once and was not about to do it at that point!  I looked at my watch there and I knew that I would beat my time for sure.

After that I just focused of passing one person at the time and keeping my pace and oh yeah not throwing up...(sorry gross portion of the post).

I passed all these gals

 Celebration pose where I look like a dork

PR by over 5 minutes!!!

I was so happy with my time and that I did better then a month ago.  I tried something different and it was better for me:  no walking breaks. Of course it helped that it was flat and we had no winds.  A good last race for my first year of running!  Next is the BIG ONE!

The big guy was there!

Got a free massage after the race! They told me I need to find a good chiropractor pronto!