Last week I chipped away by one of my running goals for 2009 by running a 10K. This was the Firecracker 10K in LA's Chinatown. Actually it starts & ends in Chinatown, but covers most of its distance circling Dodger Stadium and Elysian Park. Normally LA seems like--and is--a big, sprawling place, with no real downtown. However, this event showed how close lots of the cities landmarks and neighborhoods are to each other. That was a nice side benefit of the race, getting a feel for the old downtown.
There were several things I didn't like about this race, and many more that I did. First of all, I had already figured out that the 10K training program (which I had to accelerate to finish in time for this race) wasn't something I wanted to do. Last year's half-marathon was a personal goal I'm so glad I accomplished, though in the process I learned that I pushed myself beyond what was smart. I'm most worried about injuring something (most likely my right knee), and also worried about making running unfun. The 10K is less than half that distance, but I still found these same issues. In fact, I wish I'd only signed up for the 5K, since I was starting to enjoy training for that distance.
But no, I had already registered for the 10K distance. And since running a couple 10K's is a goal for 2009, at least I would knock one out early. Now I can delay the second until much later in the year, and get back to more fun running again.
The other downside of this race was how unprepared the organizers were. Which is weird, because this is the 31st annual running of it! I guess they had many more people turning out (which is a good thing). They actually ran out of cups at almost all of the water stations, which would've been dangerous had it been hot. Instead, it was drizzly and very cool.
On the upside, the shirts are great! Best race shirt yet. Also good was how I felt during the race--pretty much fine despite a lot of hills. For once I even turned on the gas toward the end (it helped that some good music was starting on my MP3 player), and felt strong through the finish. In fact, I wished I'd started pushing toward that finish earlier. So that was good. Finally, I love how my entire family did this race, with Candy, Molly, and now Sam running in the 5K. Sam even ran ahead on his own, and said he had a good time!
I finished the 10K in 1:08:24, which was right at a 11 minute mile pace. I'll take it!
