"...In the end, people either have excuses or experiences; reasons or results; buts or
brilliance. They either have what they wanted or they have a detailed list of all the rational reasons why not."

~ Anonymous
(taken from Matt Erbele's, It Takes Time to Get Good)

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Race Report: Summit RockTrail 10k - December 11, 2010


As many of you know, a cute logo is often all it takes to get me to sign up for a race.

This little bugger was actually cute enough to get me up early on Saturday morning when I would have rather hid under the covers all day.

I do love that his round little face is trying to be all bad ass. (WAY over exposed picture of the back of the t-shirt.)

I really like Brazen races. They are well supported, well organized, and in beautiful locations. They have a very hometown race feel, with all the frills of a bigger race. Plus on the girly side, they usually have cute logos and nice t-shirts that are available in tech fabric and women specific fit.

Front of shirt and the finisher's medal.

I am pretty over the men's, size medium white, cotton race t-shirts that make me look like an asexual box (shut up, G).

"Oh, but RBR, you can make a super cool race t-shirt quilt," you may exclaim! I have enough shirts to make like 12 "super cool" quilts, and let's be serious, I barely have the wherewithal to fold my laundry on the weekend much less sew a goddamn quilt. Soooo... yeah, I will pass on the white cotton race tee.

"Super cool" race shirt quilt. I know one Type A personality with too much time on her hands.

Pre-run

A picture that captures my status for the past couple of weeks:

Me, all rhinoceros like, wallowing in my own muck.

Upside: Wallowing is very restful and my hip is feeling MUCH better, so I was a 'go' to run the Summit 10k this weekend.

Downside: My mood was piss poor from the moment I woke up Saturday morning.

Run

I was thrilled to learn that Ron and Katie were doing the run, but was also surprised and excited to find that Ann (trail turtle) was also in town and running today!

Ann, Ron, Katie, Moi.
Sheesh. I am thinking Jenny Craig will not be calling me anytime soon to be their next spokesmodel. Whatevs.

I registered for the 10k in my new "RBR is only going to do reasonable distances that she is actually trained for" resolution. Sadly the maiden voyage of this resolution was a bit of a miss, since I have only been doing runs from 0 -3 miles in length on the treadmill for the last month and a half and this was a 6.5 mile trail run with 1889 ft of climb.

Oopsies. Old habits die hard, I guess.


Elevation profile (grumble...Bimactive.com sold out to Adidas and now they do not accept gps data anymore. *Unhappy RBR face*)

Dirty Details:

Total Distance:
6.67 miles
Total climb: 1889 ft
Total time: 1:44:21

Ann was doing the 10k as well, so we decided to run together. Ron and Katie were doing the half marathon and I must admit there was a twinge of jealousy that they were doing the longer distance while I did the 10k. That lasted until about half a mile into the initial 3.25 mile climb, then I was pretty fucking glad to not be doing the half marathon and was wondering what the hell my aversion to the 5k distance was.

Yes, we are walking. It was more of a 3.25 mile hike, followed by a 3.25 mile run.

Ann claims to read my blog, but before the race she kept telling me that if I wanted to go faster I did not have to wait for her. Yeah, that is how my race reports ALWAYS play out, with ol' RBR leaving people in the dust, so I have my doubts about her actually reading it. Needless to say, despite the fact that she was having some hip issues I huffed and puffed behind her trying to keep up.

Ann waiting on Huff n' Puff the 'out-of-shape' Dragon behind her. Notice she is nicer about it than Ron was at the Tarantula 1/2. I am just saying.

The course was gorgeous. The fog made for perfect running conditions that were neither too hot nor too cold. I had run out here once before and it was as beautiful and hard as I remembered. The ascent was brutal, but the downhill was much better than I thought it would be and we were able to run the entire thing. At 41, I spend a lot of time and money trying to defy gravity, but gravity CAN be your friend when you are ass endowed and running downhill.

Obligatory race dog photo #1. Super cute french bulldog.

Obligatory race dog photo #2. For the record, that wadded up thing was a dog bed and was intact when we started the race. By the time we left it looked like it had snowed.

At the end, I was very glad I decided to come out and run despite my horrid mood leading up to Saturday. Plus deciding to do the 10k and not the half marathon had its benefits:

1. At Brazen races they have 'It's It' ice cream sandwiches at the finish line. Now, since I usually do the longest distance they offer and am usually the slowest runner there, I am never done when there are sandwiches left, but not today, baby!

Ann with RBR and her 'Hey-I-am-not-last!' It's It. Cappuccino flavored. I mean, come on! Does it get better than that?

2. There was food left. Lots of food left. Including pie!

Yes, I had pie AND ice cream after running only 6.5 miles. Jenny Craig is not going so well, as you can imagine.

3.
Judging from how Ron and Katie looked coming in, I could possibly still be out there trying to finish, if was doing the half marathon course.

4. I got to wait for Ron and Katie to come in. (That NEVER happens. They are always waiting on me)

And when they did come in I looked rested, and smug, and chock full of ice cream, pie and smugness. Did I mention the smugness?

They were a wee bit tired from the half marathon course, which did not get better after the 10k turn around from what I hear. I wouldn't know I was eating free ice cream.


Love you, man.


MANY thanks to Ann who helped me turn my mood around and have a really great run on Saturday.

You guys rock! Thank you all so much.

Next up Katie and I will be doing the 11 miler at Crystal Springs on January 8th. Ron didn't really think he could steal my girl without a fight, did he?

21 comments:

C said...

That rhino photo is only going to encourage G's comments. I do believe that is a boy rhino. That's all I'm saying.

P.S.-Love the pet photos. Keep em coming.

Kate Geisen said...

Great race report as always. I was just thinking of you and hoping that life was treating you OK. I ran a similar race this weekend and after taking an hour to get through the first 4 miles would have gladly jumped off the trail if offered an ice cream. Or if it was possible to find my way back.

Unknown said...

How come none of the races I do ever have pie?!?

Tina Mickelson said...

any reason to run a race is a good reason but running a shorter race to get an "Its It" is a GREAT REASON!

Detroit Runner(Jeff) said...

Wow. Tough race. I like the shirt but couldn't they put the sponsors on the back? It would be a much better shirt then.

Bootchez said...

All I could see was rhino dick. BIG RHINO DICK! (ok, I'm done now).

Ice cream, pie and smugness. Love it!

If you ever figure out how to run distances that you HAVE trained for, please let me know. I think I've got the 5k distance covered, but anything longer than that and I'm pushing it. People really train?

Katie A. said...

YOU ARE SMARTER THAN YOU THINK! I just have to say, that was the HARDEST run ever!!! BUT, I'm so glad I got to see you and hug you and bask in your awesomeness. Can't wait for Crystal Springs!
Enjoy the last few days of school!

Carolina John said...

Rock on getting back on the racehorse!

PunkRockRunner said...

Um, first of all I thought we agreed not to post photos of Ron if he looks fat in them (you'll need to delete all of them or photo shop my 1984 face as applicable).

Also - "I do love that his round little face is trying to be all bad ass." used to be how you described ME. I'm hurt.

Are we really going to battle over Katie? I'll race you for her ;-)

Love ya'

Ron

Christi said...

Ice cream and pie! That is a great race!

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Pffffttt! Shows what Xenia knows! I'm only into rhino c*ck as an aphrodisiac.

And, man! Did that rhino pic ever give me a boner!

Good call, Xenia!

Sheesh. I am thinking Jenny Craig will not be calling me anytime soon to be their next spokesmodel.

O, fuck Jenny Craig. And if you don't I will because what else am I going to do with this RHINO-SIZED BONER!1!?!1?

And in other news in creative post-editing:

G[,] ...¹ it was as beautiful and hard as I remembered ...

Thank you. Next time, please also mention its length and girth. The Ladies need to know that, too, to be properly envious.

Hahahahahah! I am SUCH a rhino dick!

Welcome back and good job on the race! I hate pie, but I love ice cream, so it only partially sucks that I am not allowed to eat either of them. But YOU can!

CRIFF REE!1!
_______

¹ "..." = Approx. 482 extraneous words redacted, but I don't think I changed the essential meaning of this passage in the process.

Lindsay said...

I've had a pile of t-shirts sitting for 2+ yrs waiting to be made into an *awesome* quilt. Not by me. I don't even take clothes out of the dryer. May as well call that my closet.

B.o.B. said...

Ok, now I am 100% percent completely moving to California. You AND Ron AND Katie are all there.

That race looks hellacious, but totally cool. Congrats!

SteveQ said...

I grumble that there's nothing in my Reader, then WHAM, there's 50 items (and this one was last, so it was published first) and Xenia beat me to my comment AND Glaven beat me to my comment on Xenia's comment.

Sheesh! I didn't know French Bulldogs came in any color but black. [That just sounds like it needs a Glavenish comment itself.]

I thought about doing something with my 600 race tees, but a threadbare quilt with yellow sweatstains doesn't do it for me.

trailturtle said...

Stacey,
Thanks you so much for being such great company and brightening up a dreary day (for CA). Our chatting on the downhill took my mind off of the hips and made the miles fly by, too!
Have fun at Crystal Springs/Woodside (I've done that course 3 times now)--you and Katie will be glad you did this one, especially if you build on it with your training the next couple of weeks. After an initial net downhill mile, the CS one has over 4 miles of nearly continuous uphill that most people walk/run AND over 4 miles of nearly continuous downhill (with one small "bump" around mile 8-9) in those 11 miles. Much of it is not quite as relentlessly steep and you won't have to step aside for runners on single track, but it is very taxing, mentally and physically, nonetheless. It CAN be a fast course if you don't have physical issues (it is hard on hips/knees)--my trail PR pace for distances greater than 15K is on this course. Good luck! Ann

Herself, the GeekGirl said...

Well THANK YOU for saying that cotton T-shirts are the least flattering thing one can don. I cut the bands of the short sleeves and off the end of the torso section, and it kind of passes for cute after that. The owl, by the way, is adorable.
Whoo-eee! That's a climb. I'd have been swearing and cursing the entire way. I know you are a delicate flower and wouldn't do such a thing. The trip down had to be fun, though.

trailturtle said...

Came back to check/compare your Garmin data with mine...reasonably comparable with mine registering slighty more elevation gain and distance. My sampling is every 4 sec--I suspect yours is every 1 sec given the shorter battery life. Mine only does 1 sec pts when connected to a power meter cycling--no manual change option like your old 305 has :(

Anyway, also realized that you HAVE done Woodside before--I couldn't remember and actually looked at your lists to see and obviously didn't see--one of the consequences of turning 50 :(.
So, you know how hard and BEAUTIFUL it is!

Finally, forgot to say thanks for the nice race report... BUT...you've used up your quota for close-up photos of me now :))).

Sending positive energy to you and your husband...Happy Holidays! Ann

Anonymous said...

Super cute shirt! I think I would have been just fine doing the 10k! trail runs kick my ass!

Southbaygirl said...

I really want to run a Brazen race-they look like so much fun!!!! maybe if my work schedule understood that I would like to travel north to run with some of my friends!!!!

LJ said...

Brazen racing rocks! Our new Thanksgiving tradition is the Nitro Turkey Trot in Pinole

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