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2018 PA USATF Sactown 10 Mile Race Report – Sacramento, CA

2018 PA USATF Sactown 10 Mile Race Report – Sacramento, CA

A week ago Sunday (4/8) was the SacTown 10 mile race up in — yup, you got it — Sacramento, a PA race, my first 10 mile race in a decade, and my first PA race post-stroke. I think at every big marathon I’ve ever run, I always see someone holding a sign that says something to the effect of “do something every day that scares you,” and let me assure you, as irrational as it was, returning to Sacramento to race — the very place where just 9 weeks before, I had driven to for another PA race and ended up sitting it out last minute because I had a blinding headache stroke, unbeknownst to me — yeah, that mightily qualified as “doing something that scares me.” Clearly, driving two hours to Sac and then racing there in February didn’t cause my stroke, but even though I had been medically cleared to run for the preceding 4.5 weeks come Sactown race day, it still felt a little weird to return. The wound was still fresh, though fortunately not as gaping as it once was.

Before I had gotten sick, I was really looking forward to this race — having not run a 10 miler in a literal decade, since the Perfect 10 Miler in NE Ohio back in summer 2008 — and to the possibility of utterly shattering my 10 mile PR, which was as soft and low-hanging as they come. Getting sick and sidelined for a bit changed all of that, though, so my focus shifted accordingly; the victory would come in finishing the thing and in helping to field a full women’s team that day. Those two components would be sufficient; anything else would be gravy.

In the weeks leading up to Sactown, I had cautiously bumped up my mileage, with my longest continuously-run run topping out at 11 and change over some great, hilly terrain in my ‘hood. I hadn’t done any speedwork whatsoever, so my pacing plan for Sac was something along the lines of “do what feels good” and “remember that you’ve only been running for 4 ½ weeks.” I figured that the pace would amount to something in the 8s, maybe flat-to-mids, but honestly, more than anything, the name of the game was to rely on feel. My Garmin was there just to capture data, not to dictate how I ought to be rolling.  

Once my teammates and I arrived to Sac on race morning, we ran a couple mile warm-up and then settled into the corrals pretty easily. The course was somewhat weird, though I imagine much more logistically easier to manage than other alternatives: two 5-mile loops, with scenery that included brief residential sections, a bike path, some industrial/office park area, and then a quick little jaunt through the mall area outside the Capitol. The race also offered a 5k distance — not part of the PA race — that began earlier in the morning, so I imagine that it was much easier to cordon off such a comparatively smaller section and less scenic portion of Sac and West Sacramento than, say, what the city had to do for a bigger race, like CIM. The Sactown 10 course, itself, was pretty average in my book, not really anything to write home about, and not particularly memorable, though with its very few inclines, I could see how it’d lend itself to some fast 10-mile times (which would make it memorable for many!).

Without a lot of fanfare, we were all off and running our two laps. It was a sunny and gorgeous spring morning, and by the race’s end, it felt like it had warmed up considerably. I felt pretty good throughout my race, just chugging along and doing my thing, and reminded myself how lucky I was to be there, doing what I was doing, given what could have been a dramatically different outcome just nine weeks earlier.

right off the yellow bridge, coming through the Capitol mall area, and going out for round two. (PC: WRC)

I tried to stay as evenly-paced as possible and ended up with a 7:40 average, with about a 20 second positive split, on a course that seemed to be at least .1 mile long, based on what I had heard from many of my teammates and what I had read about from last year’s race. (GPS and race distance discrepancies are part and parcel in this sport, it seems, and I try not to get too hung up about it. I’m assuming that it was USATF certified, since it was a PA race and all, so I figure being off .1 or so probably falls within the suitable discrepancy range for certification. For their purposes, it’s surely better to be over by a little than under).

 

the yellow bridge, not far from the finish line, IIRC

By the end of the day, I had posted 14 miles, with the warm-up and cool-down miles I shared with my team, which amounted to my biggest volume day post-stroke and just shy of 40 for the week, another new volume record post-stroke. It was honestly fantastic to be in Sac with my team, to be able to share the miles and the experience with them (including some awesome PRs!), and even with me being the DFL Wolfpack finisher that day, I honestly didn’t care; I was (am) just happy to be there, doing what I love to do. A little perspective can go a long way.

team cheesin’ (PC: WRC)

 

Running Sactown also gave me some good feedback about how my fitness was shaping up in the 4.5 weeks of running that I had been doing post-stroke and would help give Lisa and me both some direction as I begin training for the SF Marathon in earnest. Plus, Sactown was an excellent and fairly low-key and low-pressure stepping stone for me in April in advance of the Silicon Valley half marathon a week later and a couple April 5k races, too. There was definitely a point in my life where I’d only sign up for a race if I felt like I were in “racing shape,” but now — post-stroke or otherwise — I’m more inclined to sign-up and just run without expectation, being happy with whatever I can do on the day, with whatever effort I can muster. Race day is so fun, besides, and the feedback it can give you — the feedback I get from racing, anyway — is pretty invaluable. That, coupled with the social aspect that the morning brings — you can’t get much better than that.

2017 PA USATF Cross Country (XC) Championship – SF, CA

2017 PA USATF Cross Country (XC) Championship – SF, CA

The PA USATF cross-country season concluded with the championship meet in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park a week ago, over at Lindley Meadow, very near where we were when we ran the GGP open in September. This time around, we had just a few noticeable differences: women ran two laps of the 2 mile-ish course (for 4ish miles), whereas the men ran 3 (for 6ish); we started and finished in the grassy Lindley Meadow, which was closed and thus, off-limits for us in September; and finally, we spent very little time running on the polo fields’ track and had a slightly different course coming into and out of the woods that abut the polo fields. Having run the September course, I had an inkling of an idea about what to expect for the day, but I nonetheless went into the race without thinking too much about it. If I’ve learned anything this autumn from doing XC for the first time in my life, it’s that a) this shit’s hard, and b) it’s unpredictable. Even if you run the course as a warm-up, everything still feels so different — and so much more challenging — when you’re trying to run it fast. (Einstein realization, I know). 

Unfortunately, the ladies Wolfpack contingent has been struggling a bit this year due to the usual suspect of reasons: injuries, people relocating, scheduling constraints, and the like. Due to some weird, extenuating medical stuff that I’ve been dealing with, Lisa and I didn’t decide that I’d run until sometime the day before the race, so I was really happy to be there. I had no idea how I’d fare — hence, that aforementioned XC is so unpredictable sentiment — but I was happy to at least have the opportunity. With just a little time before our ladies’ race started, we had a complete team — hooray! — and we were ready to roll: Lisa, Claire, Megan, Lalida, and me.

I look cold! with Lisa and Lalida pre-race. (It was “California crisp,” by the way, about 50 or so). (PC: Wolfpack Running Club)

 

the ladies! L-R Lalida, Megan, Lisa, and Claire (PC: WRC)

 

The gun went off, and suddenly a sea of women began sprinting over wet (and probably muddy) grass before we left the field and picked up a dirt-path straightaway that ran parallel to the road in GGP. Just like in many of the other PA races, there aren’t chip-timed starts, so it behooves you to start as close to the starting line as possible. I hung a couple rows back at the line out of self-preservation mode more than anything else, maybe a 1 or 2 second difference, and I figured I’d go with the flow for the first lap, aiming to negative split on round two, just as Lisa had suggested. Once we were off the meadow and onto the straight, I avoided riding the downhill hard and just tried to stay put, working with the women around me and actively not passing anyone. (Shoutout to all the masters’ women around me here. For the first mile, mile and a half, I was pretty boxed-in by women who were 40+, 50+, and even 60+ years old. The only reason I knew their ages was due to the numbers they had to wear on their backs, demarcating their masters’ statuses, but hot damn: all I could think was god I hope to be kicking as much ass as they are when I’m their age).

and we’re off (PC: WRC)

Between miles .5 to 1.5, as far as I can remember, we went through the same little woods, singletrack, mud, sand, and grassy area that we did during the GGP open in September. These areas are especially tricky because of the quickly-changing terrain, and the narrow passageways, but at the same time, if you’re trying to run conservatively, getting boxed in isn’t the worst thing that can happen to you, either. Once we got close to the polo fields, we ran just a few strides on the track before hopping off and making our way into the same woods where we ran at GGP. Here, though, instead of running into the woods, making a hairpin turn, and running back down, we ran straight through, cresting the little mini-hill, and descended fast and furiously to the other side, where we then hung a hard left and began making our way back to the meadow — think running through woods, followed by running on pavement, followed by running on wet grass, thick with mud — before doing the same thing all over again for round 2, miles 3 and 4. It was a ton of fun, but shit. Cross country is hard. Trying to run fast while getting a bit “lactic,” as Robin said (perf description!), while oh yeah running through fucking mud or sand is crazy — crazy hard but crazy fun.

beginning lap 2 (PC: WRC)

 

finishing, praise the lord (PC: WRC)

True to form, I didn’t look at my watch during the race and barely caught my splits when my alarm sounded. I was aiming for the this should feel pretty hard sentiment for the duration of the race, but on the second lap, I tried to open things up a bit and begin to cautiously and still somewhat conservatively pick-off women around me. At the end of the day, I finished in about a 29:16 for 4.06 miles — so nothing blazing — but with a negative split that left me pretty stoked. I’m pretty sure I played it a bit too safely out there — I think I should have gone harder, earlier — but with CIM just two weeks’ out from the XC Championships, my eye was on the bigger prize.

post-race with my teammates who raced plus those who came out to cheer (CT, Julie and canine Alice, and Mona) (PC: WRC)

 

All told, it ended up being 12 and change for the day between the race, warm-up, and cooldown miles, and it was a lot of fun to have a little team picnic in the park after the guys’ race. Watching and cheering for them was also a ton of fun (as evidenced by the 100+ pictures I got of our team running). Abundant inspiration, friends.

cooling down with the women while the men’s masters race takes off (PC: Lisa)

 

our guys’ contingent (PC: WRC)

 

yay team! (PC: WRC)

The Championship race was only my third XC event of the season/my life — the other two being GGP and Santa Cruz — but I’m looking forward to next year’s XC season already. It’s such a different type of running — you’re inherently going to be slower than you are on roads, but it’s also not like you’re trying to sprint up something relentless and crazy steep like Monument Peak for miles on end — but the challenge is extremely gratifying. I guess you could call it a different opportunity to red-line. 🙂

I know I’ve said it before, but seriously, if you have the chance to do XC — even if you’ve never done it before in your life (hi!) — take the chance. It is such a good time.

And now, we CIM.