Coloma River Run
What an amazing weekend!
Saturday morning our running team headed up to Coloma, Ca. for the 2nd annual Coloma River Run.
All week long I was battling with my feet after wearing a bad pair of New Balance shoes. The pain finally was bearable on Friday night.
I made a last minute decision to wear my Vibrams for this race. I had put out my Brooks Cascadias and was pretty certain it was going to be the smart choice, but when the morning came; I had to go with my trusty Vibram Five Fingers.
About a mile in I decided to go another half mile and if my feet were still hurting I was going to turn back and get a DNF. There was no logical reason to mess up my feet anymore than they already were. I had a lot of pain in the same place it had been hurting all week. I reached the end of the switchback hills and looked up the incline and decided to just give it a shot. This would determine if I could make it the whole race. The pulling of my feet muscles going up this kind of incline was making me want to throw up, but I kept going.
Victoria took an early lead in this race when I decided to walk across the rocks that zigzagged through the small stream. With the way my feet were feeling there was no way I was going to add blistering into the mix. She successfully held the lead until about the last mile. She was cheering me on though and I absolutely love her for that. “YOU CAN DO THIS!” She yelled from the top of that hill as I saw her head around the bend to the downhill stretch to the aid station. I made it to the top of the hill to catch this view of her so far ahead of me and with that little tiny dot of an aid station to the left. I went balls to the wall at this part of the race because as much as I love that she’s doing so well, I knew I couldn’t allow her to be THAT far ahead of me. She made it into the aid station and then kept going. Normally she will allow herself a minute. When I got there she was already gone. This is where pure determination kicked in and I forgot the fact that my feet hurt, my hip hurt, my calves hurt and it was hot. I ran until I could see the group she had just passed and a small dot of her and picked up the pace until I was right behind her and on her heels.
“Hi.” I panted. “You’re kicking ass.”
Because I was now at a certain pace, I kept it and passed her. She caught back up on the flat and passed me. I said, ‘fuck it’ and checked my watch. Holy shit, I was already at 4 miles. No turning back now.
The last bit of the race was the most fun for me. My whole body hurt so bad that my mind decided to just check out and I could just cruise in the rest of the way. I hit the incline again and I could see Victoria again and I caught up with her, but she pulled ahead as she hit the downhill. “What the fuck!?” I said out loud. She was so far ahead of me that I couldn’t see her through a long stretch. Again I had to balls to the wall run to catch up with her and I finally did. She had hit her wall in the middle of mile 5 of a 6.2 mile run. I thought she was just taking a breather and I blew past her and through the stream this time. I knew she would be right on my ass again because it was a flat section of the race. I didn’t hear her coming up behind me and I heard the people she was behind come up behind me. Then I saw her. Oh no, my friend was walking…on the flat part. I stopped and waited for her to catch up. Yep, she was tired and done. “Look! It’s the parking lot and the Fudrucker’s burger!” I said. “We run it in!” Across this huge field to the finish line we ran. She was so close behind me and as I got a few feet from the finish line I realized she had held the lead this whole damn race. She kicked my ass over and over all day long and no one deserved this more than she did. I stopped and let her catch up and pass me. She crossed the finish line a second before I did. If the clock had seen her the whole race her time would have been a good 3 minutes ahead of me.
Birdie and her husband, Glenn came out to the race to cheer us on. They brought our running team sign and It was one of those awesome moments in a race when you see your crew out there cheering you on.
I got to see Kate from The Getty Owl Foundation. She kicked ass on her 5k.
Brad took 10th overall in the 10 mile and 1st in his age group. Dan didn’t die like he was certain he would and this year I PRed my time from last year and this was the first run in 3 years that I beat Dan.
I’m not sure if this will be motivation for him to start running more or the thing that will piss him off enough where he won’t run with me ever again. You never know with Dan, he’s our wildcard.
This was Ben and Lester’s first 10k. I was a little worried that the hills would be a bit much for the little guy, but I had forgotten that they did K2 (training hill) and he did okay.
After the race we pulled out the Mimosas and chairs and enjoyed each other’s company as we recapped our race. Benjamin was still too full of energy. He might be ready for the 10 miler next year!
I was happy to hear that he really LOVED this race. Lester said he didn’t whine one bit of all and said he was having fun.
Next up is the Wounded Warrior run on Memorial day. Then we have the Twilight Run with a bunch of our running team and then SO many of our team is going to be at the Superhero Run. After that…WE GET TO REST!!
I want to say I’m taking July off, but knowing one of us we will end up getting the other to sign up for something else.
The second Half Marathon this year for our team is Folsom Blues. Interested in joining up, go to www.runswithrustyscissors.com and shoot me an email!