Monday, September 20, 2010

Prefontaine Memorial 10K

Of all races, this is the one that meant the most to me. It is in honor of my running inspiration, Steve Prefontaine. We ran one of his old training courses, right in front of his house, and finished with a lap around the high school track that he began his "career" on. This is the race that I wanted to really do my best at. All of my work has gone into this one day. Going into it I wasn't expecting to have a great performance. I was just going to have fun and remember it was all for Pre.  I was pleasantly surprised when I ended up having a fantastic time and having my best 10K performance so far!

I woke up extra early so I could get to registration before the rest of the runners. I was bib #47 - proving that I was one of those early people to register (there were over 1500 participants)! After getting my bib and shirt I went over to the merchandise table to pick up a nice long-sleeved Pre shirt to wear after the race when I was certain I'd be soaking wet. Immediately I went up to Marshfield High School to get a parking spot at the finish area. I kid you not, I was the very first person to do so! Go me! -- so much for my normal procrastinating and running late!


After getting my bib attached to the Pre shirt I had brought to run in, I prepared for the mile walk to the start area. It was already pouring out, so I just threw on my visor and jacket, and went out with a smile! Happily they did end up having a bag drop at the start. Phew! Here's a photo of me before hand - when I'm still mostly dry.

The night before I had made a fly by of Pre's home, so I figured since I had over an hour and a half until start time I should walk by his house. It was so cute. It was very coastal, and very grandma-ish. My mom would have loved the girly interior of it all. You could definitely tell it was the home of an elderly woman - the living room was very pink, flowery and dainty!  (It's the greenish/blueish house on the corner)

I got to the start area very early, so I wandered around downtown doing some window-shopping. The Egyptian Theater was having an 8pm showing of Back to the Future I noticed, and I was very tempted to stay longer just to go see it!  Without even trying, I ended up at another Pre Memorial at the Coos Bay visitor center.

Visiting that made me very ready to run! As race time got closer, a local band was playing and you could smell food from all the vendors that were setting up for part of some Cruz the Coos festival that was going on. The atmosphere was fun, and the runners were all charged and ready to tackle what would be the toughest course I've ever done!

I think we all accepted the rain, and I was happy it was raining. I do my best running in the rain, so this was perfect for me. Over 1500 runners - and no chip timing? That didn't please me. I like to have an accurate time, and I knew my time would show longer than it really was since I put myself near the back of the pack. I wish someone would have told the walkers to be at the very back because I was passing them constantly for the first few blocks. And really - 5 high school boys walking 5 across just taking their time? That was annoying. There were many high schoolers there, and a lot of them were just out to flirt, impress the opposite sex, be in crazy costumes, and apparently make fun of people that were out there seriously trying to do their best. I even made a comment to one that was right on the heels of a woman in her late 70's. She was doing a lot better than he was, and I just found it disrespectful to make fun of other people!

The first 5K flew by. It was a roller coaster of uphill and downhill, mostly down on the first 5K. Ooh - I have my Garmin results, I'll insert that graph soon!  Along the path were posters with Pre quotes. I loved it! They only helped give me more determination to really go for it and do my best. The killer part came after completely 4 miles. It was Agony Hill. 6/10 of a mile all uphill. The name suited it, that's for sure! But once it was done we had a fast downhill for most of the last mile.  After the final climb up to the track I was ready to hurl. I almost vomited 4 times during this race. I don't know why and I wish I could get over it. The last bit was around the track with the crowd watching. That was pretty awesome!  I crossed the finish and stopped my Garmin at 1:13:20. Not a PR, but Great considering this crazy course!



I really felt this was my best performance. Had it not been so crazy I think I'd have been even faster. I finished feeling Great! Satisfied! I did better than I ever thought I would, and I can't wait for next year's run!



10 comments:

  1. Great job! Love all your pics and I just love your shirt!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Woo-hoo. Awesome run.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice run, looks like you rocked the hills!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sounds like a great race! I am a spoiled with no hills around here.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great job, lots of hills, lots of agony!! You should be proud of yourself and I also loved your pictures and shirt. You didn't even look very wet at all.

    ReplyDelete
  6. wow! Agony hill just sounds scary! lol... GREAT JOB!! :D Glad you had a great time and are looking forward to next years race! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great run! The hills look crazy!! I loe your shirt!

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a great run. I don't mind rain but what I hate is rain drops hitting the backs of my legs and sliding down into my shoes. Maybe if I wore running tights. Hmm.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for reading my little blog, your comments rock my compression socks!! ºoº