Boo-Yea!

So I have two bits of good news regarding the race today: The first being that I ran straight through which was my personal goal for the SM Classic. The second bit was one that shocked me....I was magically (and consistently!)able to run under 10 minute miles throughout the race placing me under the 60 minute mark for the 6.2 mile stretch. I am still waiting for the official scores to be posted, but my finish line time read 59 minutes so my chip time will be 30 to 40 seconds faster as we took about a minute to get over the start. I had no idea I could pull that off on my first race! Boom!

So, the race was fantastic. The weather was rocky as I left Echo Park with rain pouring down at 6:15 this morning. As I made my way West, the rain subsided, but grey skies were still looming. However, like the second that Leslie and I pulled up into the beach parking lot around 7:25 the sun began to creep out. At 8:00, the start time for our race, we had full sunshine and about 60 degree weather. Amazing!

I have to admit, I was nervous going into the race. It had been literally over fifteen years since I came anywhere near running against an official clock. As soon as the horn blew to signal our start, I just got into the zone with a little help from Lupe FIasco:

(This is an AMAZING running song btw)

Funny thing is while I was running, I seemed to have all these moments that had me thinking blog posts in my head. However, as I type this (wrapped up in blankets, drinking coffee in recovery mode on the sofa) none of those so-called moments are surfacing. The fact that I was running with a crowd definitely boosted my speed big time. So did my iPod. I created an upbeat playlist last night and removed anything that did not have either a) an electronic beat or b)fast and loud guitars. Around mile 4 there was an incredible surge of energy. I just came to the final portion of the uphill and made my turn down San Vincente for the final 2.2 DOWNHILL portion and Ready for the Floor by Hot Chip popped up on the shuffle. That song put my feet in speed mode! I had a strong wind to finish. Ratatat and Ice-Cube ran me towards the finish line. I could have crossed the line with 'It was a Good Day", but about 100 yards before, I hit pause and just let the noise of the crowd carry me over. Can't wait to do it all again!