CIM relay 2018

I love CIM.  I ran my marathon PR of 4:04 there over a decade ago, as well as a come-back marathon of 4:09 4 years later.  In 2012, I ran my last marathon there for a monsoon PR of 4:39.

These days, I'm more of a relay marathoner, and I love that CIM offers one.  Last year's first leg of the relay was my longest race effort run of 2017, and I had a great time running with friends.

This year, I was scheduled to run the relay with my sis & bestie, D.  It was a classic perfect CIM day: start in the high 30s, finish in the high 40s, clear and calm and beautiful.

Sis is fast.  She ran the first two legs and got to the 13.5ish mile relay handoff at about an 8 minute/mile pace.  Then it was my turn.

I spent the next 7 miles running as hard as I comfortably could, watching the various pace groups swallow me up every mile or so.  First it was the 3:40 group.  Then 3:45.  Then 3:50.  3:55.  Finally, about a mile before I finished, the 4 hour pace group arrived.  I tried to go with them, but given that I didn't have a 9:09 mile in me at the start, it wasn't surprising that I didn't have one in me at the end either.

After a little bit of chaos, I handed off the relay chip to D, who picked up the pace and ran to the finish.  Then we ate delicious Mexican food and I took the train home.  A beautiful day, time with people I love, and a good run?  There's a reason I keep coming back to this race.

Sis & Bestie kept our average pace nice and low!

My goals were:

A) average sub 10 minutes/mile -- I wasn't sure if I was in good enough shape yet to hit this one, but I felt close enough that I wanted to give it a try.

B) average sub 10:30 and get my decade PR for the 10K on my Garmin, since the 1:02 I ran in September measured a short course.

C) Keep it below 10:47 to beat my Rock 'n Roll 10K time.

Splits:

1- 9:33
2- 10:22
3- 10:22 (I abandoned the sub 10 minute/mile goal and focused on trying to keep it sub 10:30 here)
4- 10:54 (walked through the water stop, probably could have skipped fluids entirely, but I wasn't sure how that would play out, so I played it safe)
5- 10:39
6- 10:56 (I was bummed to see this number as I thought I'd picked up the pace after mile 5)
10K - 1:05:00 (10:28/mile)
7- 10:37

Total Garmin: 7.02 @ 10:29/mile

The views and relaxation of Amtrak vs. driving to SAC

make the comparison *no* contest.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how I ran and the race itself.  I definitely didn't push myself to the edge of my fitness, but I hit my best sustained pace for 7 miles in a few years, which felt great.

Sunset over the bay on the way into Richmond on the train.

Plus, now that I've got the half marathon and the 7 mile race out of the way, I can enjoy the two 5Ks that are coming up.  As I noted earlier -- the 5K is absolutely my favorite race distance right now and I'm excited to see if I can improve on my decade PR in both of them.