Sunday, February 16, 2014

California 10/20 Race Recap

This morning Ryan and I ran the Inaugural California 10/20 Race.

The 10/20 stands for 10 miles and 20 bands. The race series started in Austin, TX (this year will be their third annual Austin 10/20) and this was the first year it came to Southern California (or anywhere else for that matter).

The course was beautiful! We started at the Del Mar Fair Grounds, ran through Del Mar, up through Solana Beach, spun around in Encinitas, and came on back. The course was right along the coast, which made for stunning views. The fog kept us on the cool side, although the humidity was in the 90% range the whole race. There were a few hills along the way, but we powered through them (and Ryan even said that they made the course a little more interesting). When we ran in the fair grounds (I would say we did probably a little under a mile at the beginning of the race and probably another half mile at the end), we were running back in the pony stable area, so it was fairly muddy. I wasn't expecting it, but it definitely kept things entertaining ;) And hey, I didn't slip-n-slide too much!

The music was fun, especially since I have been running without my iPod for a while now (who doesn't love hearing the ocean waves crashing on the beach?!). Since it was an out and back course, we ran on the left hand side of the road on the way out, and on the other side of the road on the way back. The issue with this was that for some reason they put a band on either side of the road in the same spot, so there were pockets along the course that you would be flooded with tunes (and couldn't actually tell which band was playing what since you were being bombarded on both sides) and other sections that were pretty quiet. I'm not sure if the reason was because of the power and where they could plug in, but I would probably suggest that they stagger the bands a little more, especially on the different sides of the course.

Ryan ROCKED this race. This was the first race he had run since the Holiday Half we ran together at the end of last year. If you don't remember, his IT Band was really flaring up during that race, so afterwards he took a couple weeks off of running. For the last few weeks he has been running on the elliptical and treadmill at work, and just recently started running again outside for a few miles. This race was the first time he had run 10 miles since the Holiday Half (actually it was the the first time he had done more than 5 miles since then) and probably only the third or fourth run back out on the pavement.

He always offers that I can run on my own, since his pace is a bit slower than mine for long distances, but I would rather run with my hubby than get a PR any day (okay, maybe sometimes it is hard to not focus on the times on my watch, but if I want him to continue running I want him to know I support him no matter what speed he goes). The live results that posted on my Facebook show that we crossed the finish line at 1:43:38, which put us around 10:20 minute miles. Not too shabby if I do say so myself!


Since Ryan, who is normally my race photog, was running with me, we don't have any of our own "action" shots (grabbed a couple screenshots of the "official" ones), but we did make sure to grab a few before and after the race. I just wish I would have taken some on the course to show how awesome it was (but honestly, I doubt the pictures would have done it justice).



Dense Fog Advisory... 

Ryan has really been enjoying the PocketFuel Coffee Shots!

We waited inside before going to our corrals - a nice feature, especially with the soggy weather!

Do these Shwings make my feet look fast?! I THINK SO!


One last shot in the corrals before storing my phone away for the race. 




After the race, what did Ryan do?! Sit down right away - BAD MOVE!

WE DID IT!!


Looks like we ran a little more than 10 miles... 

Free beer?! Since I don't drink it Ryan tried two ;)

Selfie!

Yep, I found Elvis!

10 Miles on a Sunday morning?! YES PLEASE! 



Tastes like Chicken... Or maybe an Olympic Gold!

Showing off my BLING BLING!

I really enjoyed this race. I hope they continue it! I would definitely sign up for it again! And you should join me next year!

Do you like signing up for inaugural races? Or prefer a tried and true race that has had all of the kinks worked out? 

4 comments:

Jennifer K. said...

I had this one on my list, but decided against it because a friend of mine wanted to do one next weekend. I was also a little hesitant about the first year status. I'm glad you liked it! I'll have to keep it in mind for next year.

Meridith said...

Looks like a lot of fun! I am so wishing I were in CA right about now because I'm over this east coast winter.

There's a race in AC that I ran the inaugural year of and have run every time since (this will be the 3rd year). It's fun to have that race!

Laura H. said...

I love 10 milers! I wish there were more of those!! I also love your Schwings- so cute.

Lauren @Will Run for Boston said...

So fun that you got to run together! Everyone kept asking my husband if he was running too and he had to be like "I'm just the cheerleader" (he used to run but now has really bad knee problems). I liked the course too and even though there were some pretty rough hills they weren't too bad! My watch had the course a little long too - 10.11. Oh well, it was still a really fun race!