15K for the 4th of J

This 4th of July I did what I did last year - I ran the Coronado Independence Day 15k!

I think the 15K is my new favorite race distance! Its a long enough run that it fits smoothly into my training schedule if I'm in the process of training for a marathon, but its also not so far that I end up sore from running harder at a pace much faster than I would normally train at.

I looked up last year's race results and my "official" race time last year was 1:21:48. I say "official" in parenthesis because this race doesn't use timing chips, so your time is only loosely accurate. I wanted to improve my finish time this year compared to last year, so I decided to set a goal for myself of a 1:15 finish. (That works out to a 8:04 minute/mile.) A six minute improvement over 9.3 miles is fairly significant, but its also realistic, so I was feeling good going into the race knowing that I had a good chance at an improved finish time this year thanks to the speedwork I had been doing preparing for my last marathon.

I arrived in Coronado with only 15 minutes to spare before race time and managed to find legal parking not too far from the start. I was pretty lucky with my parking spot. Last year I ended up parking illegally somewhere and I'm glad I didn't this year because when I came back to my car after the race I saw them towing several cars across the street from me! Yikes!

Anyways, I started off the race feeling pretty good and noticed that I finished the first two miles around a 7:48 pace. I knew I needed to average at least a 8:10 pace for the race to finish in under 1:16 so I slowed down a bit. I paced myself with various runners throughout the race who were running close to my goal time. I guess you can say I was a drafter! The miles ticked away and I felt good mile after mile, and towards the end of the race I stopped looking at my watch (obsessively) and focused on how I was feeling and pushed myself based on that.

As I approached the finish line I was so excited to see that my strategy had worked, I was going to finish in 1:15! According to my GPS watch I finished in 1:15:32. Unfortunately, according to the "official" race results I finished in 1:17:48. HMPH! I feel cheated! Oh well. I'm still happy with the results!

I think I can attribute my improvement in time to experience with the course, another year of experience with racing in general, and possibly the fact that I raced with my new Bite Tech mouthguard for the first time. I'm beginning to like the way it feels and have been wearing it to sleep each night in the place of my oringal big, rubber mouthguard.

As I ran the race I thought back to racing on 4th of July weekends in the past. Last year I ran this same race and really enjoyed the race becuase it was the first one I had run as a San Diego resident since moving to the area 5 months prior. Unfortunately, after running this race last year though I came home to do laundry, tripped and missed a step coming down the stairs, and severly sprained my left ankle! It was a pretty bad sprain and since it was a long, holiday weekend I didn't have my ankle looked at right away. I actually waited almost two months before I went to see a doctor when it finally got to the point that I realized that my ankle probably wasn't going to heal on its own. A number of xrays and MRI's later, my ankle was cleared of any possible bone damage, and I was sent off to physical therapy for a month.

I also raced another time on the 4th of July, back in 2002. Wow that was a long time ago! On July 4, 2002 I ran my second 10K and second road race ever. Its amazing to think of how many races of various lengths I've run since then. It feels good looking back on how far I've come with racing the past seven years. And run, literally. Ha ha.

After the race I went home, showered, did not make eye-contact with my evil laundry basket that tripped me down the stairs last year, packed a few things for the day including my dogs, and headed up to LA to spend the day with my cousin Donna and her family.

My Cousin's Family

We hung out at her house, went to two different playgrounds, watched Wipeout on TV, enjoyed a great homecooked meal from her husband, and then the dogs and I headed back South to San Diego late that night. There must be a lot of locations that sell fireworks in LA, because as I drove down the 5 freeway on my way home, I saw dozens of locations shooting off fireworks along the way. I wish I could have taken pictures, getting a long range view like that was really pretty. It felt like my own personal fireworks show!

The hands down cutest moment of the whole day was when my cousin decided that we were going to move from one park to another, and her daughter came up to me and said "Monika, we are going to the Washington Street park now. Do you want to come with us?" Awww, so sweet. I was going to be coming along anyways, but it was still cute to get a personal invite from an adorable 4 year old.

My Cousin's Daughter w/Kona
(Yep, she's dressed as a hot dog for the 4th!)

Overall this 4th of July was a sucess. I ran a race, hit my goal finish time, didn't sprain my ankle, got to spend time with some family, and was able to enjoy a beautiful fireworks show from the comfort of my car.