San Diego 5K "Downhill into Downtown"

Daylight savings time makes race morning particularly brutal! 5:00 a.m. felt much much earlier! It was a 7:14 a.m. start.

This race started less than a mile from my house, so I jogged up to the start and lined up just a few minutes before the race began.

Mile 1 - 6:14: Right on target. I planned on the first mile at 6:15, which I think is more or less my "5K pace."

Mile 2 - 6:05: I knew the downhill started toward the end of mile 2, so I picked up the pace.

Mile 3 - 5:42: This race is advertised as "Downhill into Downtown." It's fast. I didn't realize exactly how downhill this course was. In comparison to other 5Ks I've run, the last mile ran itself! So the challenge was to keep my effort level at a 5K effort - rather than just cruising down the hill at 5K pace.

There's 5K effort.

The last 0.1 - 5:25 pace: At the end of mile 3 and in the last stretch, I was trying to catch the 3rd and 4th place women. But they were playing cat and mouse with each other and picked up the pace too.

3rd and 4th place finishers with me (orange shorts) trying to catch them

But I was able to keep the 6th place finisher from passing me in the final stretch. It was a pretty competitive race. I guess every one had some gas left in the tank at the end.

6th place finisher on my tail!

18:47 (6:03 average pace)

2nd of 112 in division F30-34, and 5th female of 663. 27th of 1054 overall.

Two Little Runners

Kristen

January: A Salted Caramel Birthday and Great Ocean Road Run

Well its still Feb in the US. That means I can write a blog post about "last months runs" in a way that seems timely, right? 

Ok its not even February anymore. I even checked the calendar. Bummer. Ive got to stop doing this. 

Anyho, so the rest of Jan went down like this. 

In Melbourne with all the fam for New Years which went a little like this: 

Very low key, lots of kids, beer, sunshine (not all those things at once) and fun. We dont get to be all together a lot, so when we do, its great.

After running that tortuous Albert Park 5k, I spent a few days in the City with these crazy kids:

Before heading to the beach for my birthday! 31 years old. Yikes. 

My sister made some mad cupcakes for me though: 

Dark chocolate cupcakes, with salted caramel filling, salted caramel frosting and topped with pretzels. Ridiculous.

These babies fueled one of my favorite runs back in Australia so far. Being down in Anglesea, I really wanted to run along the Great Ocean Road trail between the road and the beach/cliffs. By way of reference here is Anglesea, and the GOR:

Anglesea is near Torquay, which is the location of the famous Bells Beach featured in Point Break. Oh Keanu... Your acting has brought me to my breaking point on many occasions.

Aaaanyway, the Great Ocean Road is kind of like the PCH in Cali, running most of the way along the coast from Melbourne to Adelaide (about 10-12 hours drive). Unlike California though, there are huge sections that are completely rural or protected National Park; just the sea, the cliffs, and the bush, in between the little beach towns it runs through.  

The trail itself is geeeee-orgeous. Really. I ran about 8 miles of it I think; the longest I had run since my injury. A great way to celebrate my old age.

Here are some pics for you:

Hot dang, this country just keeps getting better.

And by way of preview to my next post, half way through January I finally moved up to Sydney, our final destination, and seriously, probably, actually the most beautiful running city ever.