Running in Santa Cruz

About two months ago, a friend asked me if I would be interested in running a race with her in Santa Cruz. She had been training for her first half-marathon and was looking for a friend to go with her. Knowing that I enjoyed running and had done races in the past, she asked if I would want to run too. Because I didn’t know I would be running ahead of time and also just didn’t have much free time to train (there is no way in the world I could train for a half in 2 months), I told her I would try the 10k (6.2 miles).

I have run a few 5ks, one 10k and one half-marathon, but I would by no means consider myself a “runner”. I like to run because it’s a great stress reliever, but I’m not very fast or very good. With work and school this year I have not had much time to run at all, so I pretty much knew from the get-go that I would need to walk part of the race. As the race approached, I became even more aware that this would likely happen. In the past, that would have driven me nuts. I may even have just dropped out of the race or switched to the 5k, but I've learned that the real fun comes from just getting out there and being around a group of people that enjoy doing what they are doing.

The big day came 10 days ago and I was the calmest I have ever been before a race. I’m normally scared and anxious, but for whatever reason, this time I was just ready to go with the flow. I’d love to be that person who could say that with limited training I ran the whole thing and it was my fastest time ever, but alas, that is not me. I did run the majority of the race, but as expected I walked a portion (probably a mile total). Even with the walking, I crossed the finish line about 10 minutes earlier than I expected which was a nice surprise. It was a beautiful day and a gorgeous course and I loved every minute. The race atmosphere has me itching to sign up (and actually train) for another one in the area. We'll see what happens.

Peace,
Sarah