Anyway, for a small race, it was very well-appointed. The course itself was in a state park, in a marshy area of Fremont, near the Dumbarton Bridge. Because parking was limited, they had us park at a local business park, and bused us to the course on these extremely luxurious commuter buses (not relevant to the race, but an interesting experience for me and my husband). Once we arrived, I was pleased to see a rather grand setup for such a small race - they had coffee, hot chocolate, vendors, bib pickup, music, and covered areas to stand out of the rain. These came in handy - since we came from out of town, I had to pick up my bib that morning, and arrived extra early, so I had a lot of time to literally chill while waiting for race time.
The half marathon was clearly the featured race, and due to recent torrential rains in California (mercifully bringing many counties out of drought), the course was partially flooded and re-routed. Still, they explained the new course and got the half marathoners off on time at 9:00. 15 minutes later, my 10k group got the same spiel, and also took off on time. We were also told that the course was a little long. The race director called it an "Ultra 10k" because of the extra distance, and said we could expect it to be about 6.3 miles. Okay, noted.
My goal was a consistent pace throughout, to the best of my ability. Left to my own devices, I am what I consider an 'emotional runner', and my pace can bop all over the place. However, I was left to my other devices, my Garmin and my Nike+ app. They kept me on target, and for the first three miles, I ran exactly 7:41. Bam! These miles were paved multi-use trail with rolling hills. Very nice, and very pretty. At the 3-mile mark, the course changed to hilly and muddy. Also very pretty and fun, if wetter and sloppier. The second three miles, I ran exactly 8:15. Very happy with that, although I'd have liked to go faster, but it was slippery. At mile six, I figured I'd kick it up a bit, so accelerated. When I hit 6.3 miles on my Garmin (which generally shorts me mileage), a volunteer called out, "Great job! Only a quarter mile left!" I laughed, and groaned, because I'd planned my acceleration to be only .3 miles. Anyway, when I passed the finish, Garmin and Nike both told me 6.56 miles. A bit long for a 5k, but a nice run all the same. My finish time was 51:53, which was definitely not a PR for 10k, but...the extra distance. My devices gave me an average pace of 7:54, which seems about right. The official race results say it's 8:14, because they divided by 6.2. Oh well.
I feel really good to have even that level of consistency right now at the start of my training for Olympia, and I did quite well in the race, too. I was the 6th woman across the finish line out of 153, 1st in Masters (out of I don't know how many because they didn't award masters), 1st in my age group out of 27, and 22nd across the finish line overall male and female, out of 277. Pretty satisfying for a run that is not my distance used as a barometer of finess. :-)
I'm not sure what the post-race looked like, or if they did any sort of awards. They had a delay getting the results, so after waiting for 30 minutes or so after the finish without any postings, I decided I was more cold than anything, so left. Other than that, though, the race was very well-organized, very well-appointed, friendly, and enjoyable. If I'm back in the Bay next year, I may try the half.
