Let’s Go 510 10k

Yikes! Where does the time go?

I’ll admit that too much (far, far too much time) time has passed for proper recaps of race #10 and race #11. Here is all you truly need to know about them:

Race #10 was Color Me Rad San Jose.
It wasn’t chip timed. It’s a fun run, people! Y’all know I take my silly runs very seriously.
I rocked it out in a very colorful fashion, as always, with my girl Jackie.
We finished and then I’m pretty sure we just acted like dusty, colorful fools for a bit before going home.

Race #11 was the 4th Annual Bay Area Title 9k.
It was chip timed but (a) I felt wrong (just plain wrong) running without my mom, who was injured, and
(b) even when I said “aw, f*ck it” and decided to run for fun and not time, I failed to start/stop my Garmin, and thus had no concept of pace or distance pretty much the entire race.
Regardless, I did end up with some great pictures. Okay, so more than some. Hey, the race Arch Run Angel or not, rock this sort of Sparkle Athletic get-up at any event, of course race photographers are going to show you some love!

You know I (sort of secretly, maybe not so secretly) love it when photographers show me some love.

Race 10 of 103 was done and race 11 came and went quickly thereafter, bringing me to recap the first 10k I ever ran with the intentions of running fast, not just running through the finish. As I stand here writing this today, I’ve completed a total of five 10ks. Not only had I been chosen as an ambassador for the inaugural Let’s Go 510 10k, I finished upright, with a smile, and something perhaps even better than a shiny new medal.

This was the plan initially. No, not to take pre-race selfies: to run this as my ‘baseline’ 10k, which in my overconfident head would be an automatic PR. If you’ve never tried to run a certain distance fast, then the first time you do run it ‘fast’ that’s a PR, right? Right. However, as it often does, life happened: for about two weeks heading into the race, I was ill. Really ill, enough to actually miss at least a of work. Since going vegan years ago I rarely if ever have a cold, let alone something that truly takes me down for the count. Who knows, maybe I hadn’t been eating enough dirt, but I found myself down with the plague. I began to have serious doubts as to whether or not I was going to be able to run, period, let alone run faster than I had run that distance in the past.

In what is apparently natural Christina fashion, I threw caution to the wind, threw back a first-ever round of pre-race EnergyBits and threw my shirt in the trunk. It would be a flat out lie to say that I didn’t stand out in the crowd, wearing gold sleeves, a black sparkle skirt, silver visor and a sports bra (my favorite, mind you.) She was cordial enough but the coworker I said hello to was with friends, so I hope I didn’t embarrass her. Thankfully, the race being in the Bay Area, the start just outside Berkeley, I am sure none of them thought I was too weird.

At any rate, I warmed up as coached via text message by Smasheton. The butterflies arrived. It was time to line up… but where? There were no corrals, and while I did not think I was going to be in the top 10 anything, I did know at a glance that I needed to be smart about where I placed myself in the pack. Too far back and I might get stuck, too far forward and I’d be a nuisance. However, the event was small and next thing I knew, I found myself in what might have been Corral A.

The lead bike in full jockey regalia was off and so were we. The benefits of being half naked: easier to spot in a crowd.

While I definitely started out fast, I somehow managed to cull back a little bit and lock in a good pace. During races there usually happens to be a person who becomes my unintentional rabbit.Within the first mile or two, I had fallen in behind a gent in an easy-to-spot blue jersey who was holding a pretty steady pace. It was warm enough that I pushed my sleeves down. Good thing I’d ditched my shirt!

We cruised along the water and I know I am not the only Bay Area born-and-raised participant out there who definitely felt this to be an affirmation of why we cannot leave this place we call home. It was an October morning and this is what we were given around mile 3:

Fall. In the Bay Area. (Also, thank you, volunteer photographers. These photos are stellar.)

Yes, the photographer captured exactly what I was feeling in that moment: genuine run happiness. I was enjoying the run. I was happy, feeling it, and apparently my shirtless noodle body was sort of also feeling the camera? However, be careful: if you have good race pictures, you might magically show up in places you never thought you’d see yourself. Literally see yourself. (I mean, if you’re going to use pictures of me, at least choose one where my aesthetics are more on point. Geez.)

So I smiled a lot, waved at a few random acquaintances here and there, followed Mr. Blue Jersey and had some very nice Raiders fans compliment my silver and black. (I was smart enough to not say I am a 49ers girl, but that’s another story.) I’ll be honest: I wasn’t sure how I was going to finish.

It wasn’t that I was bonking. It was that we literally finished on the track the horses run on and it went on and on forever (according to my tired legs.) It is unlike anything I have ever tread on in my entire life, and might I say, it was like some sort of cruel joke to run however many yards on it when we were simply trying to finish at that point. Yes, I’ve run half marathons, but a finish line that doesn’t seem to be getting any closer is a tease no matter what. Imagine trying to run through something that is a cross between tan bark and rubber track pieces, crossbred yet again with wood pulp guinea pig bedding. It was squishy, dense, as difficult as sand yet bouncy, but not forgiving in terms of propulsion… unless you weigh about a literal ton, maybe. Maybe it just felt that hard. Who knows. Yes I’m being overly dramatic. It was a struggle.

Well. Spoiler alert: I finished. Upright. Unassisted. And didn’t barf. Woo!

But even better than a medal: I brought home a new PR.

Somehow I managed to swing:

55:28 – my fastest 10k yet
7th in the women’s 30-34 AG – my 2nd race in this AG
41st women’s overall
147th overall

Maybe it was the course, the downhills, Mr. Blue Jersey (who received a thank you and high five at the finish) or my being powered by bits. Maybe it was my training pre-illness. Whatever it was, the formula was just right for me. Funny enough, with a bit over a mile to go I had decided to kick out and go a bit faster; it turns out that Mr. Blue Jersey said that he had been using me to pace himself and had noticed he’d lost me! It’s good to know we helped each other through the bulk of the course.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Let’s Go 510 race and would definitely run it again. I love Brazen Racing events, and while this was put on by Represent Running as the lead, the post-race fare had ‘Brazen’ written all over it. It all went so fast! It’s like I was lining up, then smiling at photographers, then suddenly I had a medal. Next thing I knew I was in my car, pulling on a jacket, throwing back some still-cold, stashed-for-post-race chocolate Zico coconut water and texting my husband about my accomplishments and desire for In-n-Out fries on the way home. Race 12 was in the books!

(run on October 19, 2013)