Sunday, April 1, 2007

10K

I got up before dawn yesterday morning to run my first 10K in Agoura Hills. I went with my discipler Marvin and his family and met with Jesse, Tammy, Wing, and Eunice at the event location. Despite a cold morning and a moderately long drive to get there, it was, well, a great race. The cold morning gave way to clear skies and 75-degree weather. There were several volunteers as well as many families and friends to cheer on all racers and not just people they knew. I can't quite imagine a really supportive group of strangers and there isn't another day where their cheering would be most appreciated by all.

As Marvin and Jesse went to run their half-marathon, Tammy and I took our places at the start line on top of a hill with some running friends Joe and Edgar. The gun went off at 8:35am and we took off down the hill and went through the tree-lined streets that run alongside Old Agoura. It was a challenging course, with a few trails and a STEEP hill in the last third of the race (funniest part: rounding the corners only to come face-to-face with the hills and hearing certain interjections from other runners...). But there was a downhill finish that brought me to cheering friends and free post-race food. Pancakes, sausage, eggs, El Pollo Loco burritos, fruits of all sorts, fresh coffee, energy drinks, and a plethora of Dole samples more than made up for our famishment. With most of the group being Asian and having freebee bags as well as empty water bottle boxes lying around the place, let's say that we were sure to make the best of the opportunities at hand....=)

All in all, I finished with a time of 56:41, which is decent given the elevation conditions, but I hope to finish faster if I ever do another race with a flatter profile. I'm glad I felt good before and after the race with no injuries, and really just thankful God made it a great race, indeed. =)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey albert!! its weird, somehow i always miss your calls!!! sorry about last night, i didnt get your call until late. how are you? thats so exciting that you ran a 10k! i actually havent run a race yet. just been runnning a lot on my own but dude, fun stuff!!! thanks for always calling though :) how are you? I'll email you in a bit

Jess Man said...

Hey dude, just so you know, it's "Joe" not Jon who ran with y'all in the 10K... :P

Anonymous said...

Great Race, man! Haha, no really good job on the race. It looked like you placed pretty well for your age group too! So, what's your next race going to be?

Albert said...

Fixed it, Jess Man! Thanks for the catch.
Umm...my next race? Hehe...not sure yet but sure let you know when it happens, Tammy! =)

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