A few days prior, Dave Delucchi told me that he planned to run this pretty hilly 10K race - it would be a good training run for his Ironman race in Tahoe later this summer. Ferrell joined in, and that had me thinking I might as well. However, my plan "A" had been to join the Santa Cruz Masters do their annual Picnic Basket Swim - a 2 mile swim out to the Santa Cruz harbor and the Picnic Basket cafe for brunch. However, I had some lung congestion, and the day dawned pretty cold and foggy and I decided to bail on the 2 mile swim in cold water, and instead do the 10K.
Ferrell does his kinesio moves to prep his run muscles |
Warm up run 'round the block, down to Costco and back. This little mile warmup turned out to exhaust half my psoas' reserves of painfree motion, alas.... |
Water - a good thing this hot morning. |
Dave looks ready for a good morning. |
So's Kathy Ferraro, in the cheering section |
Milling around, waiting for the start gun |
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And, we're off. I jumped in a moment later, after the jackrabbits cleared out. |
Past the Pogonip clubhouse, into the field before heading up the trails to the University boundary |
Starting to get a might hot, and well past the pain threshold for my poor left psoas. But I'm in, and no quitters at this point. |
In the Spring St neighborhood coming down - flagwaver looks a little tired herself, like me |
Still enthusiastic well-wishers on the next block down! |
During the last mile, the father of one of my great students of last year struck up a conversation and we came in together. She was out visiting from her new start at a good university back East. A very nice surprise! |
Steve Rigor! Still fast and with the shades to back it up |
errr... what was the point of this picture again? |
....better. |
Wait...Nolthenius is getting yet another photo... |
50-54 Age Group - Winner Dan Wirls, flanked by 2nd place Dave Delucchi at 43:34, and 3rd Place Rick Ferrell at 43:52. |
Great race, gentleman! |
To finish the brick, a 13 mile ride back home to the hills of Aptos |
Here's the race results . Don't look for me there - my left hip psoas inflammed at the end of mile 1. Sometimes it does that. I didn't officially enter and a good thing! My time was 1:21:09, my worst 10K ever.... Yow. Glad Dave and Rick doubled my average speed and had great races. More rehab and I'll be ready.... that's the plan anyway. In fact, progress has happened and I'm getting in some good long runs now later in '13 without near as much hip pain.
