Race #2 of the Season: Rockies' Home Run for the Homeless

Yes, this is my long overdue race report from LAST SUNDAY'S race. Results were finally posted a few days ago, but I'd been lazy (okay, too busy to) and hadn't uploaded my photos until today.

So, here we go ...


Brandon after his pre-race poop. I took mine right after.

After port-o-pottying and stretching, we found some poor sap (okay, some chick who offered) to take our picture.

We then found our way to the start line.



At about 8:15am, we were off. Brandon soon sprinted ahead of me, but I stayed steady. TONS of people passed me (we were kind of near the front because this race didn't have chip timing), but I wanted to stay consistent.

Mile 1: 10:22 (or so the dude called out)

Right after Mile 1, we headed out of downtown proper, up a hill and on the other side of I-25. Most of the second mile was over there. Up another hill, over another bridge and going back down into downtown finished it out.

Mile 2: 20:44 (see above)

At this point, I was apparently running EXACTLY a 10:22 pace which is kind of funny. Consistent? Ridiculously so.

After Mile 2 is when I started to hurt a little. At Mile 2, you're running next to the stadium, but then hang a right and loop back around and in. I was considering walking, but told myself "NO" and kept on plugging. Soon, it was time to enter the stadium ... and the deceptive part of the race (which brandon got a picture of because i gave him my camera).


It's kind of hard to see, but there's the finish line. You see it, maybe get a glimpse of your time ... and then, oh wait, you still have to run around the damn warning track.

Right after this point, I saw Brandon running out of Coors Field as I was running in and knew he was doing a lot better than I was. Still, I kept running. I also think I screwed myself a little by leaping up and high-fiving all the kids along the wall. Kicked my calves in the process and ow.

I also (somehow) had enough in me for my final kick.

I finished just under 32:00 with a 31:55 finish and a 10:17/mile pace, which means I kicked it up a tad for the final 1.1 miles.

According to the fun e-mail I got from the race people:
- I placed 737th out of 2184 finishers
- I was 309th out of 1227 women
- I was 92nd out of 246 in my age group (25-29). What doesn't help was that the winning female was also in my age group, with a time of 19:36. Ouch.

I'm not the happiest with my race performance, but I still improved on my first time of the season which is really all I care about right now.

Now, it's time to focus on training. No more races (most likely) until the Lone Tree Firecracker 5K, so it's time to beat my ass into shape.