Presidio 10

On Sunday we decided to get a little race action in.  The Presidio 10.  You can choose from either a 10k or a 10 miler.  I always choose the shorter route – so I went for the 10k (6.2 miles).  When I run a half marathon, I usually start hating life around mile 6.  So I figured this would be a great distance – and it was!

I conned 2 of my friends into doing it with me, Lisa and Caresse.  They decided they’d prefer to walk and take in the lovely SF scenery.  Can’t blame them!

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was set with luck number 401.  I had eaten a healthy sized bowl of cheerios with strawberries and downed a rice krispy treat for breakfast.  I was ready.  I was hoping for a sub 1 hr run…..didn’t set my sights too high.  Or so I thought.

Well…the roads were a little too narrow at the start.  There’s a decent sized hill within the first 400 yards and as soon as we hit the hill, a lot of runners started walking.  Right in front of me.  I had to bob and weave a bit and ended up going pretty slow up the hills.  When we reached the bridge it didn’t get much better.  I didn’t have my own space until we hit the turnaround.  All sorts of people grabbing water, so I took the opportunity to skip it and get ahead.

You get to run over the Golden Gate Bridge.  Literally uphill both ways and the downhill is not satisfying enough to counteract the uphill.  But I prefer uphill/downhill to flat.  So I actually didn’t mind the bridge – aside from all the people.

On my way back, I spotted Lisa and Caresse.  Caresse was nice enough to snap a little picture of me while I was running!

From here on out, I was free to run whatever pace I thought was necessary.  Lots of downhill and lots of fun.  Then I hit the flat with about a mile to go.  And I slowed.  A lot.  Oh well.  As I rounded the corner to the finish, I noticed 2 folks cheering me on – Dave (co worker) and Nick!  Nick had been at an epic bachelor party the night before in the city, but walked to the Presidio to cheer me on.  That’s nice.

After finishing, I got a breakfast burrito and waited for my lovely ladies to finish!

I then decided it was in my best interest to have another burrito and some pancakes.  And some pop chips. What?!  I just ran 6.2 miles.  Don’t judge.

Oh…didn’t make 1 hr.  1 hr, 2 minutes and 27 seconds.  While I keep telling myself I could have done it had there not been a million people in my way – I also think it was a blessing in disguise.  I have a tendency to burn out early on.  Too much adrenaline or something.  So maybe next year I’ll train a bit more and come in under an hour.  I’ll take it for now.