Waking up at 4:30am on a Saturday is not totally my idea of fun. However, since enlisting in this new multi-sport lifestyle, it's true that I wake up earlier on weekends now than I do for work.
Today was a first for me. A friend of mine was going to compete in the Corona del Mar Scenic 5k and said "Hey, you should come along. It will be fun! And there will be food at the end!" I didn't really think too much about her invitation because the race was only 2 days away and what kind of person can just decide that late that they are going to compete in something. Someone who is fit and confident, that's who.
So later on Friday night I started thinking about my plan for the weekend: Some sort of run on Saturday, some grocery shopping, maybe a movie. Then our first ocean swim on Sunday and a date to see Adam Carolla. Going back to the run on Saturday morning, I thought to myself "Why not just go run with 1,000 other crazy people and see some new sights?" I decided I'd just give it a whirl.
That morning I woke up at the aforementioned 4:30 and headed up the coast a few miles to CdM. It's beautiful, cold, and calm.
I parked in the beach lot, which is down at sea level. Unfortunately, the registration tent is up at the top of the hill at street level. So began my first of several climbs to the top. Once registered, it was back down to the car to drop off my new t-shirt. Then it was back up to the top. But, oh, oops, left my timing chip in the trunk! Back down to the car. A few minutes later, my friend Kelly arrived and then we walked back up to the top. At this point, my legs are tired. Thankfully we still have 2 whole hours until the women's wave is set to begin.We wait. We use the porta potties. We hang out at Kelly's car (which is at street level, thankfully). We meet up with her friend Linda. We take this picture:
About 10 minutes before the men's wave is to start, we ran into some other friends of Kelly's. There are both men and women in their group and they said that they're all planning to start with the men's wave. We ultimately decide to do that too. Why not? The race starts off with a huge group. This route is really neat because it's on narrow roads that are lined with unique, expensive homes. There's always something interesting to look at. Oh, there are also hills. I began to realize that "Scenic 5k" was just another way of saying "hilly 5k". We continued on doing Martha's run/walk routine. Eventually it became more of a social walk, as we chatted with each other and other random volunteers and participants.
I believe it was around 2.83 miles in, when a siren was approaching signaling that the lead runners from the women's wave were approaching us from behind. Mind you that they started 30 minutes after us. Kelly and Linda turned on their afterburners and made a bee line for the finish. I didn't want to push things too far, so I kept a steady pace. Just as we were nearing the finish, the first two women passed me headed for the line. I laughed to myself because to the casual observer, I looked like I was coming in 3rd!!
I digress. We finished the race and it was fun. No personal records were broken, but it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning. The big draw for this particular 5k is that the local restaurants put on a free buffet for participants. Upon finishing, we were corralled over to a food line and handed a paper plate to fill with whatever it could hold. Being that it was single-ply and obviously not Chinet, it couldn't hold much. Why yes, those *are* mini creme brulee!
In the end, it was a super-fun day and I'm thankful to Kelly (my half-marathon-running-inspirational-friend) for encouraging me to join her.
