On the weekend of the 22nd I ran the Eugene Holiday Hustle 5k. At this race they also had the half marathon and 10k. I didn't have high expectations for this race considering the week I had leading up to it.
Early in the week I had a muscle flair up that inhibited me from some of my training sessions. This, of course, really upset me because I already had a different muscle that has been giving me a little grief but have been able to work around it. I did not want to have another issue, since this one hurt even when I swam! Thankfully, after taking a little time off it was fine, but I knew I still had to be mindful of it, as not to have it flair up again!
On Thursday, me and a couple other members in my family had to drive down to San Jose to pick up my sister and her things from school. The drive is approximately 10.5 hours one way. We didn't want to have the hassle of finding a hotel while pulling a trailer so we decided to do this trip in one day. To San Jose and back home. We left at 2:00 am and made it to our destination at about 12:30ish. We had a little break there as we loaded up her stuff, stretched, and ate some food. Then it was time to hit the road again and try to get home at a decent time.
I was the one requested to drive through traffic since I, apparently, handle the vehicle well under "stress". I must say I made pretty good time to Redding. However, we were unable to go any further that night. They closed the pass down due to the severe winter storm. I learned later that it was closed mostly due to how many accidents there were. So that night we slept in the vehicle. It was quite uncomfortable and got increasingly cold as the night went on. I didn't sleep much cause I was desperately hoping the pass would open back up, but to my dismay it didn't open until the following morning around 9:00am, and they were only letting cars go. Which I was very thankful for because there were hundreds of semi trucks waiting to get over the pass.
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| Snow on the pass! I so badly wanted to disrupt the perfect snow! |
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| Playing in the snow at the rest stop. It was probably about 3 ft deep. |
When we started to enter the pass we had to put on chains. Although, I must say that we didn't really need them since the roads were actually quite clear. There was another check point about half way through the pass and then from there it was a straight shot home! Well, we did stop a couple times for bathroom breaks and to change drivers. At one rest stop there was lots of snow. So, of course, I had to play in it a little! We made it home around 4ish I think. Ah, it's always so nice to be at my final destination!
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| Still in the car! |
It was now race day! I had to get up at a decently early hour. I was still a bit tired from the previous days adventure, but not as tired as I thought I would have been. Which is good! But I must admit, I was looking forward to being done and getting back home to relax.
One of the only reasons I decided to race this particular race is because a friend of mine suggested it and said that his friend, Bridget Franek (who went to the Olympics in the steeple chase), was going to be racing the 10k and that he would introduce us. This would, however, have to wait until after the race.
There isn't much to say about the race. There wasn't a very big field, considering that this was the first year it was being put on. Both the 5k and 10k started at the same time and ran the same course. They had us start off the grass and it was very muddy. When the gun went off, I went to bolt out. But instead of going forward I went down... I slipped! I didn't stay down long. I probably got up in less than a second. It made me laugh for a bit, and my sister caught it all on film!
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| The start of the race. Kind of hard to see... |
The 10k runners had to complete the loop twice. Throughout the race there was only 3 people in front of me, one of whom was Bridget. The other two were men. The one in the lead was running the 10k as well and the other was behind Bridget and running the 5k. During the majority of the race I was by myself. I felt like I was running about a 20 minute pace, but to my surprise as I crossed the finish line I ran quite a bit faster. I ran an 18:30! This is the fastest 5k I've ran in a long time, and I was very pleased.
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| Just finished and pleased with my time! |
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| Got a medal and a holiday mug |
After both Bridget and I were finished racing and cooling down we met each other. She was very pleasant to talk with, and I was so happy that she was still a humble person after achieving such great things!
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| Me and Bridget showing our first place prizes. Me with a mug and Bridget with a reindeer ornament. |
The rest of the day went as I had hoped. Just relaxing and recovering from the long week!
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