Lake Chabot 30K - 3:36 PR
I got back from South Korea on Tuesday and was too happy to be back to taper properly. Ran ~3 miles Tuesday, 6 miles down to Ocean Beach Wednesday, 3 miles Thursday, and the weather was so nice on Friday that after work I did 9 miles on Pirates Cove loop. So the opposite of a taper, in fact - more like a ramp up!
Ken & Karen drove me to the start, where I was happy to see familiar faces. Catra Corbett had matching gaiter with her dog, Trumie, and Alvin Lubrino took a photo of the two of us at the start. I decided to just take my pack as I was carrying my Clipper Card and house keys. Ken was only running the half marathon as he had to work that day, so Karen & I planned to BART back later.
First two miles I was "in the mix" with the pack for the flat around the reservoir. The half, 30K and 50K all started together, so hard to tell if I'd gone out too fast or too slow. I heard the jingle of Trumie's dog tags as they passed me running the half.
Settled into an easy rhythm - walk the ups, run the downs. I'd run the course before so knew the "lollipop" for the 30K was fairly far along. Kept flip-flopping with 3 people as they'd RUN the ups that I'd walk, then I'd past them on the downs.
Steep hill up and over Equestrian Center as steep as I remembered. At the top I started dropping the hammer and passing people.
At the last aid station, Sabine Gilbert was there to cheer! Bummed to realize it was still 4 miles - I'd hoped only 3. Then I remembered I'd thought the exact same thing 2 years ago. Nothing to do but tuck in and pound it out to the end - trying to pick off other runners. Right before the finish line, I surged to pass a woman by ONE second. I found out the next day that it was a chip race so she actually finished 10 seconds ahead of me.
Happy to see Kevin Luu chatting with Ken at finish line. Kevin's training for a 125 mile race and Ken 200! Kevin gave me a ride home.
Did well:
Tried to say thanks to volunteers
Stayed hydrated
Picked off people at end
To improve on:
Could have gone faster if had tapered, but too much fun to run on Friday.
