Pasadena 10K

A couple of months ago, I ran the Pasadena 10K with my brother-in-law Dustin and Kristian. (Kristian ran the 5K).

What do I have to say about the race?

Well, I finished.

This was my first race after hurting myself last year and it was my first ever 10K. Which meant that, no matter how slow I ran, I was guaranteed a Personal Record (PR). And that I had extremely low expectations. I had two goals: to finish and to not hurt myself. A sub-goal was to run the entirety of the first 5K without stopping.

(Goals not necessarily presented in order of importance).

Well, I ran the first 5K straight through, I finished the whole 10K and there was no medical attention necessary.

Even though I placed pretty low in the rankings, I’m going to go ahead and call this one a win.

(The nice thing about being the only person keeping score is that I pretty much always manage to give myself a win).

The two best moments of the race? Starting off right behind the Biggest Loser’s Austin Andrews (hey, we were in the LA area, it would have been a damn, dirty shame if we hadn’t had some sort of “celebrity” sighting). And having my name announced to the entire crowd as I approached the finish line.

About 50 feet or so from the finish line, there was a mat that everyone ran over that informed the announcer about who was approaching. Pasadena isn’t exactly a major race (I mean, Austin Andrews was our only celebrity sighting), so the fact that I flew all the way out from Boston to run it was a much bigger deal than it would have been at some other races. Ok, most other races. I heard the announcer say something like “All the way from Boston! Hope Roth! Hope, where are you?”

And then I put my arm up.

And then the crowd cheered.

And then I was happy.

(Mostly because I finished).

(But also because it’s fun to feel like a celebrity).

For a moment, I felt a little bit of what it must feel like to be an elite runner. To finish strong to a crowd of people, all of them cheering just for you. Of course, if I really wanted to be an elite runner, I probably should have started training for it about 20 years ago. Which is why my new race strategy is going to be to fly to all sorts of small and random races around the country. And then bribe the race announcers.

The guy behind me, by the way? He and I finished that last mile at about the same pace, running and walking, never getting all that far from each other. He’d slowed to a walk right at the end and I encouraged him to finish strong with me. I wasn’t sure if it was really my place to be coaching some random dude, but he started running again. And then, with the finish in sight, I kicked into a higher gear. I wasn’t trying to, but I kindof left him in the dust. I hope he didn’t mind.

(My sister claims that he was staring at my butt).

(Which I’m guessing means he didn’t really mind).

My next scheduled race is right here in Malden. Which pretty much destroys that whole “far away and random” strategy in every way possible. I guess I’m going to need to bring along my own cheering section.