Last weekend I flew down to meet P in So Cal for fun in San Diego. I finally got to lace up my (new) running shoes to race! 2010 hasn't exactly been the year I'd planned in terms of racing, I've only completed 2 of the 5 races I'd signed up for so far this year with two DNS and 1 DNF. I was really ready to get out there and race the AFC Half Marathon on Sunday.

We did a mellow Saturday with breakfast, a course preview and a long nap before dinner. The course preview was interesting. I'd originally picked this race because it was a downhill and flat course, point to point, which I love and the timing was perfect. The "downhill" portion of the race was insane. It started off with some pretty steep rolling hills, and then plunged downhill for a solid 3 miles. There was flat in the middle, but the finish was a brutal climb of 300' in just under 2 miles. I must be bad at math, because I knew this from the course profile, but didn't grasp how bad it was until I saw it.

I felt mentally prepared going into this race and that I could rock it and just reminded myself to relax and go. I was pretty pleasantly surprised to not be terribly nervous, considering my lackluster performances/lack there of this year.

The race ended up being a LOT harder than I'd anticipated. Not much about this was easy. I found myself pushing a pace I couldn't maintain and then desperately struggling up the final hill which knocked me down a solid 3 minutes off my pace. Pretty much the same amount of time that I missed my goal of a PR by. At the time I was hurting so bad, I was pretty happy to finish, totally humbled by how difficult this was. Now I'm just pissed that for whatever reason, I'm still not reaching my goal. I came close, but I'm still bummed. That damn hill!
At least I look fast here
At any rate, I had a spectacularly cute outfit and lavender nail polish to match my shorts. I got several compliments on my shorts too! Lululemon should think about sponsoring this race, I saw more women wearing Lulu than anything else. We were quite a stylish group.


Really happy to be finished!
After the race, I hobbled around the finish area grabbing two of almost every food freebie they had. After suffering, I really wanted to reward my body and recover right! We hit up The Mission for an awesome brunch, where I had some divine French Toast.
So good.
I didn't have much energy to do anything the rest of the day, so I slept, ate some more and relaxed which was really nice. I've been in recovery mode all week, getting tons of sleep and trying to eat well. Next week I'm back at it with only SIX weeks until SGM. Yikes.
Oh yah, and P surprised me and took me to Rodeo beach 2 weeks ago and proposed! Of course, I said yes. That's the pretty shiny thing on my left hand in the 2nd pic :)

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