Kaiser Permanente Race

I couldn't have asked for a better day for a race, it was beautiful this morning! When I left the apartment it was 49 and the sun was just coming up. By the time the race started it was about 52, best of all, it seemed like there was no wind out there today!

After a brief warm up, I started making my way to the 7 minute pace section of the starting coral and ran into someone from work, we chatted briefly and I wished him luck before finding my spot. After a few minutes I was pleasantly surprised by a couple of gals I met at the last race I ran! We hung out in the corral jumping and trying to get ready to go until finally the gun went off and we were on our way.

This race was pretty big, over 6000 half marathoners and about 2700 5k runners. It took about 30 seconds to cross the starting line. I was a little disappointed when I realized that there were tons of people who started in the 5 and 6 minute per mile sections that were barely running at 9 minute pace, this meant that navigation was very difficult for the first mile.

The race headed east and looped around the panhandle before heading back into the park down a nice long incline and then out to the ocean. I started out at an OK pace, about 7:15ish average, but after about 8 miles, the legs started getting really sore and my pace slowed quite a bit. The last few miles were not too fun since I was getting passed quite a bit, but I tried to stay positive keeping in mind that I only started the marathon training four weeks ago and have not put in very much tempo or faster paced work and that this race can be a baseline to see where my fitness is. So now I know that I have a lot of work to do before May 3rd if I want to get a good marathon time!

After the race I picked up my t-shirt, drink, etc and walked around the expo for a bit before meeting up with the girls who had invited me over for brunch. Nothing like enjoying a mimosa and some delicious food with new friends after a nice race! I also found out that one of the gals runs as early as I do in the mornings, so looks like I may have some company on some of my morning runs.

Here's the race breakdown:
7:25 (150)
7:07 (161)
7:15 (163)
7:03 (162)
7:14 (161)
6:52 (162)
7:13 (158)
7:31 (159)
7:36 (159)
7:36 (160)
7:44 (159)
7:52 (155)
8:01 (155)
1:45 (158) - .22 (guess I didn't run the tangents very well)
1:38:22 ... quite a bit off the old PR!