San Marcos 8k

Sat. Oct. 20, 2007

9:45 am - 8k

So the race this morning is down close to San Diego, which is about 2 hrs away. I woke up this morning at I think around 5:30ish am to eat. Breakfast this morning was a 4 egg omelette with cheese and 2 pieces of toast with PB, Banana and honey. I definitly like eating a good meal in the morning. Also I did not want to drive down this morning, so I hopped in the car with Skip for a relaxing 2 hr drive down. We chatted for the first 30 min then I just passed out for the rest of the ride. This meet was run by Steve Scott, the coach down at San Marcos, and he said this was going to be a flat, fast course. It was definintly not a fast course. However, it was a pretty cool course I have to admit.

Ozzie, Matt and myself warmed up about an hour before with a 2 mile warmup, followed by some drills and strides. I had 2 goals this morning, 1. Finish 2. break 26. I accomplished both of them, so it was a good day. I pretty much wanted to run a tempo for the first few miles just to keep my head in the game, I didn't want to kill myself my first race for the first 3-4 miles. I wanted to make it to 4 miles feeling comfortable and relaxed and I accomplished that.

The race started out like any race, a little quick at the start just to get out and then we settled in. There was a nice pack for the first half mile or so, then Ozzie tried to split the race open early. This backfired pretty bad. Matt went with Ozzie and later on both of them started coming back. I really didn't even bother myself with their move, I was busy running my own little race, I pretty much let everyone go and just ran with 2 other dudes for a while, then it was down to me and this other guy from San Marcos. This guy had also previously out-kicked me last year down in San Diego in a 1500. We ran together for the entire race. The thing was that I could have pulled away from him at any moment, but I didn't want to run by myself. For most of the race the next person was like 100 meters or more ahead, so when he slowed, I slowed, and I kept grabbing his attention to get him back running with me. So we worked together for the race, he definitly seemed way more tired than me, I was very comfortable, breathing was easy, and until the last mile my legs were very comfortable too. With like a half mile to go, they started getting a little heavy but nothing bad. I ended up hammering the last 200 meters cause we came onto the track and because I felt really relaxed. If you remember, I also said I wanted to break 26 as one of my goals. 25:57. A PR nonetheless. So it was a mental victory for the day. Stayed strong mentally and did what I needed to do. Matt, Ozzie and myself went 5,6 and 7. Not the best, but not too shabby. We cooled down then headed for home.

Today was also the first day that I have gotten to nap in a while, so that made the day even better.

Went for a 2 mile shake out run with Libby at about 5 pm. Then at 7:30 went to watch the CHIVAS soccer game at the Home Depot Center with our VIP tickets courtesy of my cousin Brendan.

13 miles today