Presidio 10

Sunday I ran the Presidio 10 with a bunch of friends. 10 as in your choice of a 10k or 10-miler. A nice little race, I signed up to do the 10k primarily because part of the proceeds goes to the "Ashlyn Dyer Foundation". Ashlyn was a runner who was a victim of a hit and run while running in the Presidio. They never caught the person who did it.

It was a quick and fast race and the sponsors made sure we were all taken care of. The schwag bag was filled with all kinds of relevant and fancy things; sunscreens, 15% coupons to restaurants and a sporting goods store, food, SF Magazine, even and electric toothbrush...you know to brush off all that energy gel out of your teeth after working out. At the finish Red Envelope was there and was handing out gifts till they ran out. Free massages, free food, even virgin Bloody Mary's which I just found out today is not my cup of tea.

I opted for the 10k since I needed to back down from the mileage and heavy workouts this week since I haven't fully recovered from last weekend's training weekend. Spoke to some folks and it seems like I'm not the only one. It was the quantity combined with the intensity. Having all those friends to bike and run with combined with great weather really got me going harder, longer and faster than I should have been. Nothing a little rest won't cure though. I did have some explaining to do to my friends. "So why are you only doing the 10k?" I ran a good smart race. Since I opted for the pre-race chatting instead of a warmup, I took the time to warmup first on my first mile. Lucky for me the first mile included a hill and the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge, nothing warms me up like a hill. Ran the rest at a good clip. Digging deep I could feel the fatigue in my muscles, my whole body, which only reaffirmed my decision to back off. It still hurt though, haha running as fast as I could muster is always painful as it probably is for everyone. This whole time the change in my pockets created a noise that bugged me the whole way. It was my bus fare for the way home, who runs with their bus fare on a race? In change no less...hahaha. I had nothing for breakfast but didn't need anything for the entire run either. It was nice to run without water bottles, gear and nutrition. Crossed the line at 46:40 and headed straight for the fruit table. I wouldn't call it a hilly course but it wasn't flat either. 3-4 minutes after I came in the winner of the 10-miler crossed the line, the 10-milers started 15 minutes before we did. The overall winner of that race was a woman, Tyler from Endurance Mill Valley. She was one of our coaches from the training weekend. She's a great triathlete who is turning pro this year. Sweet for her. I didn't get to meet her during our training weekend but I congratulated her anyway.

It was a lot of fun. I should do more short races like this to mix things up. Actually so far this year the only thing I've done is two short races. Training is good just a slow start to the races. Besides I rarely pay money for 50k's these days.