22 Min Run (Race) Culver City 5K

CULVER CITY, Calif. -- Back in SoCal and loving it. A picture perfect day and I'm glad I had a run to go to. We got back home last night just in time for a few In-N-Outs and bed, so it worked out just great.

It was a quick drive down to JDPs and met up with the team (Christine/JDP/Phled) for the race. Only JDP/Christine "Speedy G"/Myself running today, but we were entered in the team event. I wanted to do better than the Brentwood run, but wasn't gunning for anything mindblowing. I just wanted under 23. And I got it, though, by the skin of my teeth.

First mile went at 7:07, which is very quick considering there were a few seconds lost to the start. So I dialed back a bit...I thought. After the turn, the kid at mile 2 I swear said 13:40, which made me wonder what the hell I was doing. I noticed a slight downhill as we looped back, so I figured maybe I had unknowingly sped up a tad or had been going faster than I thought to begin with. JDP was right nearby hanging in like a champ. I dialed it back further still. I was feeling actually quite good, but had no interest in pushing this into the PR range because that wasn't what I was aiming for. I felt a bit tired heading through the last mile, putting off the end push as my body began to feel the strain of that pace.



Surprise, surprise at Mile 3 the kid says "22:12" or something like that. So now I have to haul ass just to beat 23. And surprise, surprise...now I've got all I want in my legs and head because I realize my pace has been basically weak as beans for the last two miles. Kid must have said 14:40 and I screwed it up. Wear a watch, dude.



Final time was 22:57, despite some DB trying to run me over right at the end to my left and nearly tackling us both. Anywho...got what I wanted...11 seconds over before, sub 23 and it really went very smooth. Great stride, I thought.

But it should have been more in the 22:30 range and I could have easily gotten that mark if I'd just kept my head together. Lots of good experience in this one.



So we hang around for a while (JDP 22:43 and Christine 26-something) knowing we stood a good chance of perhaps winning a team prize...turns out we were the top team overall. So cool. We got a trophy as the top "entertainment" team as that was what Edmunds fell under, I guess. But we had the best score of any team (all seven, hee hee).

Cool trophy. And a head up for next time. Team Turbo is racking up the hardware this year...take that Team Sony...right in your backyard.

22:57 (7:25)
#53 of 337 (overall)
#7 of 24 (div)

BONUS -- Here's the pic of the DB almost knocking me over. Incredibly, they had three race photo cameras right there for it...