A Year In Races

1/9/10: Kaiser Permanente Southern California Half Marathon
My first half marathon. The whole 13.1 miles were pretty awful. It was hot, and I was unprepared. I cried the moment I realized the finish line was coming up, partly from sheer exhaustion, but mostly joy, knowing it would be over soon. Based on my experience, I thought running a marathon would be IMPOSSIBLE.


3/7/10: Ventura Half Marathon
For reasons unknown to me, I signed up for a second half marathon. This half was significantly smaller than the first (maybe 1/10th of the size). It was very low key, and everyone was super nice. The entire first half was a slow, steady up hill, which meant a fast second half. The course was quiet and beautiful. I twisted my ankle on mile 8, and hobbled for about 2 miles before recovering, and still finished faster than my first, and feeling significantly better. In fact, I felt AMAZING. I was filled with joy, hope, and ambition. THIS is what running long distances was supposed to feel like. Suddenly, a marathon seemed possible.


4/10/10: Warrior Dash
3.1 miles of obstacles in the hot hot inland empire sun. I was riding high on my hlaf mary accomplishments, and went in a little too cocky. The heat and the long drive bitchslapped me from the start line. My legs were lead. I apologized repeatedly to my trainer, who was prepared to go much faster, but stayed with me instead. But, climbing over cars and up giant net ladders, jumping over fire, and crawling through mud made the whole thing worth it. I love a good mud run, so I still enjoyed myself, even if there were no awesome feats of physical ability that day.


4/24/10: Lake Casitas Half Marathon
You think I would have learned my less about being cocky during the Warrior Dash, but no. My running companion Mike and I signed up for this third half mary in the midst of our marathon training. We were running much further, so, 13.1 miles was nothing at this point. We were looking forward to an easy run with amazing times. What we were not looking at was the elevation chart. Whoops. It was pretty gnarly. I still eeked out a PR by a few seconds, but, man. There was about a mile of steep up hill, plus lots of awful rolling hills. It was humbling, and very, very hard.


6/6/10: San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon
Ahhh, Marathon day. I knew the marathon would be hard, but it was not something I wanted to be right about. I was suffering from an ankle injury left over from a 2009 triathlon. Training for such long distances made it poke its ugly head out, as you can see from my beautiful ankle brace. That paired with a good chunk of miles on an uneven slope, and Mike and I spent the last few miles of the race alternative between walking and hobbling. We managed to cross the finish line running, but it was tough. The whole day was tough. It was the satisfying type of tough, though. We may have been slow, but it was still a job well done.


8/21/10: Los Angeles Mud Run, Pasadena
I was hesitant to include this, but it was too awesome not to. I'll start with the disclaimer: I only ran a mile of this mud run, but it was the first and muddiest mile. Also, while you can't see in the picture (but you can see here), the dress was full length (with about a three foot trail). The bottom part just got ripped off in the mud. I won first place in the costume contest, which was awesome, but we left without finishing the race because we had other bachelorette party events to attend to. Yes, I did a mud run in a wedding dress for my bachelorette party. Oh yeah.


12/5/10: Las Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon
I knocked 30 minutes off my time, and I finished, both of which make me winners in the Book Of Rose.

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2010 was the year of the long distance run. I went through 3 pairs of shoes, ran 5 distance races, and totally felt like a rock star. I didn't run as many 5ks as I'm used to, but some awesome running, and totally checked a life goal off my list. Yay!

How was your year of running?