Hey there everyone who has stopped by my page. Thanks again.
Well unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share on this one, I was a bit nervous as it was my first 10k race and I haven't ran in many years. So long story short(OK maybe not short at all) this is how my weekend went. Saturday went to the expo to pick up my bib, goodie bag, and t-shirt there were quite a number of booths to check out but the heat was not exactly bearable for me. I picked up my things and then checked part of the race course that went from Pasadena City College on Colorado Blvd all the way close by Carmelita Gardens where the turn happens to go back to same way we came from but obviously staying on Colorado Blvd and on the opposite side of the cones that were put out on Sunday. So I pretty much rested on Saturday no extra runs no exercise, simply resting for Sunday aka race day. I believe I went to bed at about 10:00pm but didn't really fall asleep right away and I woke up twice once at 2:30am and then at about 4:10 or something close to that. Plus with the heat at night it was almost impossible to stay asleep, but never the less I got some good shut eye. Morning time I got going at 4:50 am ate breakfast. Now if you ask what's good to eat? I will say I honestly don't know. But I ate a light peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a banana. Drank some water since I forgot to buy orange juice. Left the house with my siblings and cousins aka my cheering squad.
Got to the race location and found plenty of parking very easy to find a spot no hassle no super waiting like its the first day at college, no sir/mam. It was a pleasant parking experience. Walked into the walkways of Pasadena City College and I started to get nervous haha. I started thinking what if''s, but luckily my family eased my nervousness down. There were many people and I knew it was going to be a fun race, I went for my warm up and returned 10 minutes just in time to get in place to start the race. The bib was pretty cool they had the timing chip affixed to the bib so easy, light, and extremely practical so as to not forget because its on the bib. So I didn't put myself in the best location amongst the large crowd or runners, even thou the announcer was kind enough to repeat several times that those with good mile pace below 8 minutes to move to the front. Usually I check my splits with MapMyRun app which i use quite some, running laps of 2.1-2.4 miles so my mile splits range from 6:50-8:05 I think. So I though naively well the middle shouldn't be bad since again I haven't ran a race in a long time I thought I was making the right call for myself. Race starts and then I realize "Oh my God" this is to slow I should have gone to the front. So I find myself moving up swerving at every open spot available to move forward as much as I can. Damn just into the first mile I feel the heat and how dry my throat got, so now I have to pace myself with the first person I see that has a good stable pace I like, and thankfully there was. As I try to salivate to ease up the dryness I pick up my pace once again and continue, but again the dryness, I was like "I have to tough it out" and then I see water station up ahead. "Yes!" of course not aloud, but in my head I'm thinking I found salvation. My first race I have no clue on how to grab that cup of water so I'm continuing my pace and stumble the cup and accidentally wet the volunteer, I was like oops and yell "Sorry!" luckily I grabbed the cup of water and sip into it and tossed it into the trash boxes available there. I continued in the race and I can see people putting in there effort from all age ranges and diverse ethnicity. Now you are probably wondering how is that so "WoW" , well I shall explain, I've lived in Los Angeles, but not really. I really just lived at home, at work and at school. So for me it was amazing seeing people putting in their effort and that's when I remembered I decided to do this, Sun or no Sun. I caught into my pace and began moving forward catching up to people ahead of me. This was exciting even thou many people are running all for several different reasons to me catching up moving ahead is fun I get to see how much I can push myself. Well as noted earlier I got to the turn point and I hear a few runners pushing it, and it was motivating because I didn't give way and pushed as well. On the way back I tried maintaining a good pace until the next water station this time sipping and splashing water on me.
After the fifth mile I tried to keep up with a group of runners that were close to each other there were three of them, 2 male and 1 female. I was like "got to keep a close distance behind them" I was tired by this point and I felt my back muscles reaching a limit, but limits are meant to be broken right?. So continuing into the last part of the race because I was so close to those three runners I sprinted towards the end and passed all three. I have to be thankful they were there so I could pace myself good and got motivated to go for my first record in a 10K, otherwise I would not have pushed at the end. Well after passing the finish line and my time getting recorded I was like "oh no I should not have sprinted" I felt like puking (vomiting) I was trying to walk but I could feel my breakfast would have come out, and I'm sure my face expression scared or made the volunteers laugh on the inside. I think I looked like a cartoon character who's cheeks look like balloons before he or she pukes them. Anyways I'm just trying to get out so I could walk it off and breath some air because it was packed with volunteers handing out the medals (participation medals, I assume) One of the volunteers hands me one after sometime and I make my way out and continue walking and finally slowly but surely catch my breath. It was good thou because they had water bottles, some energy drink mix, oranges, cold towels, and ice for what I saw. So I'm walking slowly all dazed and dorked out from the heat and that last sprint and I'm trying to ask for a water bottle and the volunteer says I could get one, I'm like oh cool I thought I had to ask. I'm still dazed and hadn't noticed people were just getting the stuff as they walked by. I'm here like a doofus asking if I can get one, a habit I guess. So after I'm like oh that's how it it is. I'm walking getting my orange slices drinking plenty of water to keep hydrated, and grabbing some ice to cool off. The only thing I didn't get was the cold towel, I felt like I didn't need it and someone else who did could use one, but I'm sure they had plenty. So I catch up with my siblings and cousins who were like "we didn't see you until the last second , and we were screaming "Rudy, Rudy", did you hear us?" . I was like I was sprinting I was pushing all I had left so everything was muffled and I nearly puked, we all just had a good laugh.
We stayed for the award ceremony as I saw the top 3 overall winners in the half-marathon, 10k, and 5k races. I was motivated and thought I'm going to train harder, smarter so that next time I get my shot at being there. There isn't anything we can't do if we put our minds to it, that's for sure. We just have to try and keep trying and never quit on ourselves. My first 10k was fun, exciting, and a feel of dizziness ha ha it was great I can't wait for the next race. I placed 36 overall for the 10k and in my age group of 25-29 I placed 4th with a time of 48:16 with a pace time of 7:46/M. I'm happy with the result, but I can't wait to improve and challenge the awesome people who are faster than me.
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