“California Love” – Ok, so that isn’t the song that I have
been singing lately, but it is where I spent the last two weeks with teammates
Jamie Cheever and Matt Llano. While we were not singing along to 2Pac, we did
become obsessed with Los Angeles group Maroon 5 and their new song “
Payphone”! This was only appropriate because Los Angeles
is where our journey began.
We flew out on Wed. the 18th from MSP to LAX to
get ready to race at the MT. SAC Relays. The relays are extremely popular
because the weather is always perfect and the best talent shows up there to
compete. Of the 5 years that I have competed at Mt. SAC, only once has the meet
been delayed due to water on the track - no, not because it was raining, but
because a water main burst under the finish line! Otherwise, every year has
been ideal. As the sun goes down over the San Gabriel Valley, the wind
disappears, the temperature drops to a perfect 50-60 degrees, the crowds gather
with their kettle corn and water bottles to watch – the raised arm of the
starter, cuffed in orange, the report of the starter pistol – the races are
under way.
There are several races before my own, so when I arrive at
the track an hour and a half before my race, the meet is in full swing. I sit
in a grassy area at the back of the stadium, sipping on my water and waiting
for the appointed hour to arrive when I will start my warm-up. I’m running the
5K on this night, trying to get a new PR, 15:35 would be awesome! Once my
warm-up is all done I head over to the “hipping tent” (where you get your hip
numbers for the race) and put on my Mizuno Osaka spikes. Ready to go!
First mile: 5:04 – great 15:42 pace, just right at my PR. I
know I need to work on the next two miles.
Mile 2: I still feel good and still clicking off the splits
I want for the first half of this mile. But, at about half way the wheels start
to become a little unglued.
Mile 3: I maintain my position in the race, but I’m not
going to hit the time I want. Final time: 16:14
Bummmmmmer. Workouts have been going really well, so I am
surprised to not have the leg speed that I wanted. In years past I would have been devastated,
but I am trying a new approach. I just tell myself “Shake it off, it’s just one
race. Next time will be better. It is still only April and all the important
races are still to come.”
Mt. SAC concluded, we moved on. We flew from LAX to SFO the
next day, where we would spend the next week. We have plans while we are in the
Bay Area to stay with a relative of a friend and his roommates (did you catch
that? Yes, that means we are staying with someone none of us knew). So we have
an address and a phone number – let the adventure begin.
So once we arrive at SFO and get our rental car squared
away, Matt call the people we will be staying with – all who are fantastic
athletes that competed for Stanford (Elliot Heath, JT Sullivan, Brendan Gregg,
Whitney Liehr, and Jake Riley) - but no one answers. We decide to drive to the
address we have, since it is an hour drive, and hope that by the time we get
there we will get in touch with one of them.
We reach the house an hour later, and I think Jamie and Matt
are excited to get out of the car, because the last 15min of the drive were
EXTREMLY curvy. The house sits almost at the top of a mountain, and the road to
get to it is very scenic, but you have to drive slowly and avoid all of the
bikers that are challenging themselves to get up the 4 mile climb. When we get
to the house, we still have not heard from its occupants, so after a few
minutes of looking around on the front porch I decide to try the door knob….lo
and behold it’s open! Sweet.
We let ourselves in,
and are immediately aware that indeed it is the right house by the number of running
shoes that greet us at the door and the NCAA trophies that stand proudly on a
shelf. Whew, we sigh with relief. At least we know we are in the right place.
So we settle our bags in and head out the door for our long run. Hopefully our
roommates will be back when we are finished with our long run.
Out the door the three of us go to find the awesome running
trails that we were told about. Find them we did, and they were awesome, but
they were also super hilly; a fact that was only exacerbated by the fact that
we had all raced the day before. I was tired. We made it back to the house an
hour and forty minutes later, and still no one is home or has answered the text
message that we sent. So we shower up and I call my brother-in-law Kyle to meet
up for dinner. Pizza at Patxi’s is just what the doctor ordered after a very
long day of travelling and running.
After dinner we make our way back up to the house, and are
greeted by a driveway full of cars. At last! Once we are inside and make everyone’s
introduction, we find out that the group had been at the beach all day, because
it was one of the first beautiful days to be had in the Bay, and there was no
cell reception. It really ended up not being an issue at all that we didn’t get
to talk to them before we got to the house, it really just made for an adventurous
day!
The rest of the week went by smoothly. We made some great
new friends, got to explore San Fran for a bit – including going to Alcatraz,
and rest up for our next races at the Payton Jordan Invitational.
The next Sunday, race day finally arrived. And we all tried
to relax and get ready for the evening when we would race. Jamie was scheduled
to run the steeple at 6:40pm, myself the 10K at 9:07pm and Matt also the 10K at
10:20pm. The evening started off well with Jamie matching her PR in the Steeple
with a 10:02, though she was slightly disappointed because she wanted to run
the Olympic Trials ‘A’ standard of 9:55, but it was her first competitive
steeple of the year and I have no doubt that she will get the time she wants in
her next attempt.
I was up next – I started off at a brisk pace, because I
wanted to hit a huge PR, 5:10 at the mile, 10:20 at two miles….final time
33:26. Again, my legs didn’t have the juice that they needed to finish at my
desired pace and to make matters even a little more disagreeable, I missed the
Trials A standard of 32:45. So the question now is, will my previous time of
32:59 make it into the race? That is what I currently analyzing… trying to
figure out what my next move should be. Run another 10K? Switch gears to another
race? Not one ounce of me doesn’t want to be in Eugene this June, so I am going
to have to think long and hard about what I am going to do next.
Stay tuned for more on what my strategy will be...
