Seal Beach 10K Race Report

I was looking forward to this race for a while because one year ago, this was the first race I had ever entered and I wanted to see how I would do a year later.   I'm currently training for the OC Half Marathon on May 2 so I was mainly treating this as a training run for the half marathon.  The schedule called for 9 miles this weekend so all I needed to do was add an additional 3 miles.

Unfortunately, the Thursday before the 10K, I had to stop my 6-mile tempo run short (at about 3.5 miles) due to some pain I was experiencing in my foot/ankle area.  After that, I wasn't sure whether I would even be able to run the 10K because I didn't want to make it worse.  I iced it on Thursday and Friday and on Saturday morning, it felt okay enough that I decided I would go ahead and do the run.  If I felt any pain come back, I would slow way down or walk if necessary.

The kids all stayed over at the grandparent's house on Friday night so Kat and I didn't have to worry about waking the kids up to drop them off in the morning.   That also gave us a few extra minutes of sleep which was well appreciated. 

Got there around 7am and parked in the marina parking lot northwest of the starting line area.  Last year we parked by the pier to be closer to the finish line but had to pay for parking.  This other parking lot was free and the walk back from the finish line wasn't too bad (maybe about a 7-8 minute walk).

After getting our bibs, I headed back to the car because I was still wearing my regular glasses and forgot to switch to my prescription sunglasses.  I also still had my sweatshirt on which I wasn't planning on wearing for the race.  I get back to the car and noticed a sign in the lot that I was in that a permit was required to park there.   Wasn't sure if this was being enforced that morning but didn't want to take the chance and decided to just move the car to the adjacent parking lot since there was plenty of space over there.  As I got out of the car, I spotted our friend Tam in the parking lot who just go there as well.  She was also running in the 10K.

So, finally got my bib pinned and headed back towards the start line, got in line to use the port-o-potty and line seemed to be about 10 people deep.

As I waited for the race to start, I found another twitter friend, Rithy (aka @baboo128, and met his wife My.  Also, got to meet Sheila (aka @sheswimbikerun) and her daughter Jenny.  They were doing the 5K as a family.  Chatted a little bit but stupid me, forgot to take a picture.  Sheila was actually my high school math teacher back at Mater Dei!

They did wave starts this year.  Kat and I were going to run with wave 3 but I think we ended up actually starting at the end of wave 2. 

• mile 1 - 10:02
• mile 2 - 10:01

First couple of miles were crazy crowded.  Lots of walkers, strollers, people with dogs so had to do a lot of weaving.   I still had a little bit of a tender foot/ankle so I was kind of taking this time to gauge how my foot was feeling.  So far, it felt fine but I knew it would around mile 3 where I would be able to tell whether I would be able to finish the race without having to stop or walk.  The first water stop came up and although I wasn't thirsty I decided I would get a drink anyway and as I always do, I walk just long enough to pick up the water and drink it.  This way I'm not choking or spilling water all over myself.

• mile 3 - 8:59
• mile 4 - 9:18

At this point, my foot was still feeling fine so I decided to pick up the pace.  I started thinking back about the same spots on the course last year and was feeling good at how much easier it felt now than it did a  year ago.  A year ago, I was starting to struggle at this point already and breathing pretty heavily. 

• mile 5 - 9:19
• mile 6.2 - 8:47

Last miles along the bike path went by pretty quick and main thing I remember was passing this guy that had passed me earlier in mile 1.  He was clearing his throat quite a bit and spitting a lot and since he was pretty tall, some of that spit was getting blown back to people behind him (like me!).  Pretty nasty...   Anyway, when I saw him I made sure not to run behind him and did my best to get by him as quickly as possible.

The final sprint to the finish was great especially knowing that I was going to come in under 1 hour like I had hoped.

official time:  57:52

All in all, I felt really good and was glad to be able to experience the same race that had been my first ever race one year ago.  Thanks Seal Beach!