Rick, Dave and I make this an annual tradition; and once again this year we had good weather. I'd spent the previous New Year's Eve evening at Karl's, until 9pm. I'd arrived up there, on Summit, at 3pm to get in one final ride for 2012. A bit of a late start, and only got in 10 miles, along Summit between the Summit Store and a rock slide 5 miles east, on Highland. After sharing the evening with the von Ahnens and friends, I headed down to the Observatory where I spent the night. It was cold, and I slept well in my down sleeping bag in the dark quiet there. It was a Herculean effort for my alarm to pull me out of a deep sleep at 6:30am.

Dave was not in prime race-ready shape - a lingering bug, and staying up till 2:30am the night before for his and Diane's anniversary party. Rick was all good. And me, I was not sure; I'd put in over 50 miles on the bike in the previous 3 days, and no stretching or roller work as I'd been doing up till the hectic last week of '12. I can never tell when my left hip area tendons are going to act up; but they usually do. Not at all on last year's Rio race, I was ecstatic to find, but this year not so lucky.

Nippy this morning. Ferrell's prepared, with an overshirt that almost reaches his navel. Almost.

Is there some issue with the race shirt? It's, well .... festive, like usual.

OK - No more tom-foolery - it's game face on. Crank up those pain threshold's, men!

Actually, as I approached the start, I could tell me psoas was going to flame out early, so no need to put on the game face after all.

Cypress and very pricey homes along the Carmel beach part of the 10K route

Adorable cheering section at mile 4

Gorgeous scenery, partially hidden by a pain-contorted visage

The finish line, finally. Next to the Carmel Mission

Smiles all around

Holly, Carmen, and posse, were also in the mix

Dave was the Big Banana of our group, beating Ferrell, and me by a substantial margin

Dave still had enough spring in his step, it appears, to out-sprint this poor senior citizen... and get our names on the wait list at Toastie's - a favorite Pacific Grove breakfast spot. Victory is sweet!

my left psoas swelling kicks in about now. I could use a little protein to start the repair.

Omlets!

 

Rick had a great record on this tough course; very hilly and with endless right angle turns through the streets of Carmel. His time was 43:52 for 5th in the 50-60 age group. Dave was about a minute faster, despite the handicaps. Probably would've been 4th in the same age group. I had a good first mile - and that was all; the rest of my race was crippled by an inflammed TFL and psoas tendonitis. I came in at 1:11:34, which was over 12 minutes slower than last year. It's still throbbing, 36 hrs later as I type this up.