Another weekend another race. Yes, that makes the third weekend in a row that I have had race. I clearly didn’t plan my September recovery period out very well. 🙂
Saturday’s race was the Break Free | End Human Trafficking race in Folsom. They have a kid’s fun run, a 5k, a 10k and a 9.8 mile race. I have never done this race before but the story behind it intrigued me.
This is taken directly from the Break Free Run webpage:
“Break Free Run was founded after a 17-year-old girl was taken from a sleepy suburb in Northern California and trafficked for eight days before she was found and rescued by the FBI. Together the mother of the teen, Vicki Zito, along with Ashlie Bryant, Stephanie Loos and Amy Johnson, founded Break Free Run.”
As the mother of two very little girls, this scares me tremendously. This happened to a family in our own area! That sleepy little suburb is here. No bueno.
So, I signed the Peanut up for the kid’s run and myself up for the 9.8 mile race. Vans, Squeaker and our friend visiting from Canada were our cheering section.
Going into this race I admit, I was tired. My legs had not recovered completely from my Headlands Trail Marathon, followed by the Emerald Bay race and then some random hill repeats with Stonegate at a nearby hill in our hood the very next day. Needless to say, I was not running wisely but I was happy. 🙂
The Peanut rocked the kid’s run. She has come a long way in the running world. There was a time, not that long ago, where she was too shy to run any races and just wouldn’t do it. Now that she is a cross country runner for her school, she has a whole new mind set.
She raced to the starting line of the race leaving me in the dust. “Well, I guess she is all set to run solo,” I thought to myself. And run she did! It was not an easy course and it was truly a hot day.
Super proud of this kid. She is really beginning to think about things lately. She used to not have a care in the world about “effort” or even trying for that matter. Now, not only does she try, she cares.
While she was finishing, I was lining up for my race. The 9.8 mile race didn’t have nearly the same number of participants as the other distances. There was 114 signed up total.
Our start was delayed by a firetruck and an ambulance in our path. A patron had felt dizzy and so our start was pushed back. I took that moment to race to a porta potty which apparently, was mentioned over the loud speaker. 🙂 Vans said everyone was concerned when I raced through the start arch and off the course … the MC had to inform everyone that I was just using the restroom bwahahahaha! That is awesome.
Finally the raced started and I took off … and noticed that there were only two guys ahead of me. “Where IS everyone? Why is no one passing me?”
I figured at some point, the wave would come by and all the elite fast women would pass me … but that never happened.
At mile 1, the kids cheering yelled, “first female go!” Okay, so that’s no big deal, it is only the first mile surely the fast people are coming (that first mile was a 7:12 pace which IS fast for me).
Then, mile 2 happens and mile 3 – no one is passing me. Â My brain starts churning … “Well, it is a small race, maybe there are no faster people? Could you? Really?”
Mile 4 and Mile 5 … still solo. Still pushing. Legs are feeling a little bit like jell-o at this point and my body is starting to revolt a little bit but I kept pushing.
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Mile 6 I see up ahead that all three races converge on the trail. The 9.8 mile course had us running like lab rats all around the Folsom bike path … I was dizzy from doing the same loop a few times. But when we reached mile 6, I could see the 5k, 10k and the 9.8 mile races all converge onto one tiny little bike path portion.
It was then, that a bright pink shirt Fleet Feet girl passed me. Sigh. It was bound to happen. For a moment, I was holding onto the hope that she was a 10k runner but then she made the same right turn us longer distance runners had to make and I crumbled.
We hit a tiny incline and my legs just said, “let her go” … which I did but I kept her in my sights for as long as I could. She was running effortlessly … I felt like I was carrying a sack of potatoes.
Still, I kept 2nd female over all for another 2 miles … until I hear the pitter patter of female feet behind me. Sure enough, this cute gal goes bouncing by me and said, “only 1.8 Â miles to go! You got this.”
Ugh, how could I get mad at that! She was too sweet and well, I was quickly losing steam and fast. My pace had dropped from 7:30 to a few 8 … and there were some inclines to deal with as well as the scorching hot sun and no shade.
Third. I’d settle for third but deep down, I was elated that I had held onto that #1 spot for a long as I had. Never in my life, for a race longer than a 5k, has this happened. Very cool.
So the final outcome was 3rd female overall and 2nd place age group (the girl above was also in my age group).
Both girls that had passed me told me they had been chasing me the whole race. They clearly had more steam and a better pacing system then I had (which in translation means I have no pacing system).
It was a fun tough course. It was cool to have the Peanut there and Vans there as well. JD, our Canadian friend was super helpful in entertaining the kids and being photographer.
The flowers were from Vans since Saturday was also our 11th wedding anniversary. 🙂 Gotta race on our anniversary right?
The best part of the day was a nice little date night with Vans that included free babysitting from JD. Overall, it was  pretty awesome day.
Now, I need to recover. No more races in my future until mid October which is good. I need to get back into the swing of speed work and tempo runs again. My mileage on the road also needs to get bumped up. Hopefully that will happen this upcoming weekend.
Lots to think about … CIM is just around the corner!
Happy Trails!
~Trailmomma
