2014 she.is.beautiful Pinkest Race review
Got up at 05:30 (that’s what Mike said) and had a great drive to Santa Cruz. I met Ellen, Gina & Jenny before running the she.is.beautiful Pinkest 10K. They were a lot of fun and took the edge off the ole race nerves. Thanks for hanging with me ladies!
After chatting it up, we joined the sea of pink at the start line where life motivator Jenny Schatezle got us all pumped and ready to run. Girlfriend was full of energy, she and Bam would be BFF’s.
Right at 8:00am we were off. I love it when races start on time, it’s kind of a big thing for me.
We ran along the beautiful Santa Cruz coast. It was overcast and 50ish-perfect running weather.
This race is probably one of the most inspiring, encouraging races I’ve ever ran. There were fun signs sayings along the course to keep us motivated. Here are a couple of my favorites.
I started off feeling pretty good. My legs paws were ready to fly, but the ole GI was like not uh girlfriend. I tried ignore that punk and run my race.
We ran through a more industrial area just like last year which wasn’t anything to write home about, but not terrible either. Since it’s an out back course it was a lot of fun seeing other runners along the whole course cheering each other on and giving high fives.
Then we hit up a trail which was an awesome new addition. SIB please make this apart of the course next year mmmkay. Love, SCB
I was able to ignore the GI punk until mile 5 where it was so painful, I had to do the run/walk thing for a bit. Dang IBS. But about a half mile later, I was ready to kick it to the finish line. Mike told me it has hard to find me for this picture, because everyone was wearing pink. I hope he never claimed to be smart.
I’m really happy with the race. I did the best I could on that day, but I definitely felt like I finished with some fuel left in the tank. If it weren’t for the GI thing, I know I could have pulled off a faster pace and raced a little harder. It’s all good because there are a lot more races, so let the registration begin!!
Official time: 57:22
68th out of 314 in my age group, 439 out of 2,363 overall.
That’s right, I’m officially not in the middle of the pack any more. Mike said that I’m more like 5/8’s of the pack. What the heck does that even mean? I don’t agree with math, and I sure as heck don’t do fractions. But it’s like the scale, it’s just a number. I’m happy I get to run and do what I love!
Pros of SIB:
- An organization nerds dream. I should mention I picked up my bib the morning of the race.
- Starts on time.
- So many porta potties I couldn’t even count {remember that whole I don’t agree with math thing?} plus a couple along the course. No bushes were violated, by me anyway.
- Amazing course views support.
- Perfect amount of water stations, never ran out at least from what I saw.
- Super cute Nike dry-fit tops.
- A lot of details. I can tell the director{s} take this race seriously and put a lot of hard work into making it a very encouraging, inspiring and fun!
- Major bonus points for picking up finisher shirts after the race.
Cons of SIB:
- The last half mile to mile the 5K 10K runners/walkers merge to the finish line which caused quite a bit of congestion. I had to weave through a lot of folks and finally gave up and ran on the sidewalk.
- I heard packet pick up was a little congested as well, but again I didn’t attend so I don’t have an opinion about it.
- Okay so this one’s from Mike, bring the food truck back! Ha that boy wanted breakfast coffee.
A huge thank you to she.is.beautiful for the bib in exchange for this honest review!! I’m looking forward to running with you again!!
And because I know I’ll be asked about the gear I’m rocking:
Pro Compression sleeves
Mizuno Wave Hitogami’s
Tell me about your favorite race! What made it so special?
Anyone run SIB yesterday? How did you do?
If you had a chance to sit down with a race director, what would you tell them from a runners perspective?
