Santa Barbara

I love Santa Barbara! I think that Adrienne and I will end up there eventually. Hopefully sooner than later, but that will depend on what we can get together financially over the next bunch of years. Well, I was there for a wedding, which is not too conducive to racing great, but I think I did alright. We drove out and arrived on Wednesday after 10 hours from Green River, UT. We arrived at about 5:30 and I knew there was a race series down along the beach. We drove in, parked, and I registered for the Nite Moves 5k. Warmed up for a bit and was off. The first half of the race is uphill and I went out hard. The incline varies from about 3%-5% and I have been running my fair share of hills. Hit the mile in 5:00 and then finished up to the turn-around at 7:22. I decided to take it easy from then on. I came down nice and easy, thinking about Saturday's 10k, and ended up running right around 16:00. I will have to look up the exact time, but was happy to win.

Next up, after the bachelor's party and a nice rehearsal lunch, came the 10k. Nice warm-up and I was off. Took off and separated from the other guys. I was hoping to run around 30ish, but I did not have the speed for it. I have not done anything faster than 5:00/mi, and it showed up today. The race itself was not too difficult, but I found that I could not turn over any faster than I was. I ran even the whole race and that was a nice thing. I ran 33:28, which was a bit disappointing, but happy again to win. There have been some pretty good runners on this course before that ran around 33 and change, so that was encouraging. I am sure with speed work the time would have been dramatically faster, but I had to remind myself that I am not focusing on flat fast races. I ran fast uphill in the 5k and that is what I have been training for, UPHILL! So, a good week of racing and a great way to start the season. 33:23 off base is not great, but not bad. I am looking forward to racing the hills and seeing what I can hold out there.

Adrienne ran great as well. Her hamstring has been hurting her a bit (she tore it back in her soccer days), and it was really sore on race day. She ran awesome for her FIRST ever road race!!! 23:32! I was very proud of her. She got her first taste of the suffering that settles in toward the end of a race and I think she liked it (after it was over):) I thought it would be great if she ran under 23, and I am sure she would have if her hamstring was feeling better. She lost about 30sec on the way back. So, a great start to the season for her, and off no speed work. Very nice!

I will post some pics soon.