Inspirational Movies to get you MOVING!!

I love watching movies.. and all kinds, too. Dramas, documentaries, comedies, suspense thriller, horror, independent, etc etc.. I’ll watch them all. Minh doesn’t LOVE movies as much as I do.. actually, I often think that he only watches movies because I want to watch movies. He gets sleepy/lazy afterwards, which does not make for a fun Minh.

Some of my favorite movies to watch are the ones that inspire me to go out and do something… and when I say “do something”, I’m not talking about saving the world or making a difference. I’m talking about going out to climb a mountain, sign up for a ridiculous race, run the “Best Race Ever” , bike hundred of miles across the state/country/continent…. you get the picture. So.. here’s a quick list of some of those movies that make me want to go out and do something… Maybe it’ll inspire you to go out and do something this year!

Race Across the Sky (2009 or 2010)

No surprise that this movie would make the cut of inspirational films. The Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race is on EVERY mountain bikers’ bucket list. I like watching the pro/elite race just like everyone else, but the real inspiration comes from the “normal” people riding that grueling 100 miles. The ones that have been doing it for years on the same bike with the same helmet and the same outfit.. or the ones that bounced back from something terrible only to make the 12 hour cut-off for that coveted belt buckle. Whoever you’re cheering for, watching the movie will either make you want to go out and ride or make you think people are CRAZY for putting themselves through that kind of hell. Me? It definitely makes me want to go out and RIDE!

Ride the Divide (2010)

The Great Divide Race usually solicits a response along the lines of: “Are you CRAZY? Do you want to DIE?!?!?” No, I’m not crazy.. and YES.. someday I would like to die.. but until then, I want to have fun and go on adventures. This is one of those adventures that I want to go on. Maybe not the entire race (which is completely solo and self-sufficient), but accomplish chunks of the race over time. How fun would it be to say that you rode your bike through the middle of the country.. BY YOURSELF!!! Best part about this race (if I ever do muster up enough gumption to actually do it) is that you can take AS LONG AS YOU WANT (I think within reason).

Bicycle Dreams (2009)

Another documentary about a race that traverses a LONG LONG LONG distance… but this time instead of dividing the country from north to south.. you set off from Coast to Coast… 3000 MILES!! This movie follows the epic journey that is the Race Across America (originally known as the Great American Bike Race, started in 1982).. across the dessert, over the mountains, traversing the Great Plains, grinding up seemingly un-ending switchbacks…. seeing America as few have seen it before. Another film that makes me want to go out and ride.

Hood to Coast (2010)

I had never even heard of Hood to Coast until I watched a trailer for a documentary about it before the 2010 Race Across the Sky showing. But.. like the spirit of the Ragnar Relay, which is really all about the experience and camaraderie and not about the race, Hood to Coast is one of those experiences that lasts a lifetime. From the base of Mount Hood to Seaside Beach, this race traverses all the beauties of Oregon that some people so rarely see. And the race draws all kinds of participants, from the elites and seasoned veterans out to win to the newbies just out for a challenge and a good time. The movie is not only enjoyable for hardcore runners who want to be inspired for their next challenge, but also non-runners who will gain a little more understanding on the craziness that drives someone to run a 5k, 10k, marathon, or ultra.

Run, Fatboy, Run (2007)

Steering away from the documentaries… here’s a HILARIOUS movie about a normal guy (Simon Pegg) who’s just trying to get his ex (Thandie Newton) back before she makes the mistake of her life by marrying a complete JERK (Hank Azaria). If you’ve ever hit “the WALL”, then you’ll totally relate to this film.. and by the end I wanted to sign up for my first marathon (DONE!).

Spirit of the Marathon (2007)

Speaking of marathons… how about a documentary about one of the BIGGEST marathons in the world? From what I’ve read/heard, THE big marathons to run (and qualify for) are Boston, New York, London and Chicago. This documentary follows the story of six runners (of varying levels of competitiveness) competing in the 2005 Chicago Marathon. It’s not just their story during the marathon itself, but how they prepared, what they’re motivation is, and all the struggles along the way. Having run two marathons (woefully unprepared) myself, I know what it’s like to hit the wall, want to give up, deal with injury, and finding the little bit of strength/will-power left to just keep going. Available on Hulu.

Touching the Void (2003)

Steering away from races, biking and running, for a moment…. here’s a great story about the will to live and having to make life-or-death decisions in perilous situations. I first watch Touching the Void with my friend Karen. Based on the 1988 book by Joe Simpson, this is a great story about two climbers (Joe Simpson and Simon Yates) and the sacrifices they made during their journey in the Peruvian Andes. I don’t want to give anything away, but tough decisions are made (and nobody dies). Part documentary/interview, part reenactment.

127 Hours (2010)

Based on the New York Times Bestseller Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston, this wonderfully filmed movie recounts the life of Aron Ralston and his entrapment in a canyon for… wait for it… 127 hours (go figure). James Franco does an amazing job portraying Aron Ralston and his mental struggle during this ordeal. Another great movie about the will to live.

Not Movies.. but Inspirational Nonetheless

NBC Sports coverage of Ironman World Championships (every year)

Every year, around December, NBC airs a special on the Ironman World Championships. Minh downloaded pretty much every single one that he could find, and I’ve watched all of them since they started doing this special, even the 25th anniversary special (which is the best). I love watching this every year because it reinforces my love for racing. It also makes me feel like a horrible person… I either want to (1) quit my job and train full time so that I can aspire to become a pro (not happening in my lifetime) or (2) hope for a life-altering struggle in which I come back to do something incredible (lose a leg, get a horrible, incurable disease, or the like).. which no one should ever hope for anyone, let alone oneself. But.. seriously.. have you watched this thing.. it’s all about the pros and then the stories of overcoming personal struggle or life’s curveballs. It’s amazing.

Molly’s Run (2009)

Image from Molly Sheridan

I had the privilege of seeing Molly Sheridan speak last year… which made me want to run the Badwater Ultramarathon… SOMEDAY!!! To go from non-runner, to marathoner, to ultramarathoner in such a short time and so late in life…. it’s reminiscent of Michelle Barton (the most kick-ass ultramarathoner out there). Her journey and race was documented in a great short by Justin Yurkanin.

You vs. Second Place (2010)

Awesome promotional videos by Versus.com… Just watch… You’ll never want to be second place ever again…

So.. do YOU have any inspirational movies or videos that make you want to get out and DO SOMETHING?

2011 Training Reset… already?

Only 6 days into 2011 and I already need to stop and reflect on my (lack of) training and reset my schedule (meaning, actually make one). The year has started very poorly in terms of training. I had a week off between Christmas and New Years. The plan was to swim each weekday and go for a ride or run after or before my swim session. I swam 3 out of 6 weekdays I had off, rode my bike only 2 days, and ran (on the treadmill) probably 5 or 6 days. I blame it all on the rain and perhaps a little bit on my desire to do other things while off work. Now that the New Year is officially here.. what have I done to help my training?

Jan 1: Slept in from the late night. Woke up and ran errands. Maybe did an hour on the treadmill.
Jan 2: Rain.. no workout.
Jan 3: Ran for 2 hours on the treadmill (rained on and off all morning). Did a good 45 minutes at the pool (kickboard intervals, and 25yd sprint intervals).
Jan 4: Hit up the HB Farmers’ Market.. no workout
Jan 5: 1 hour on treadmill… really really bad aggravated shin splints on left leg.

Answer to the question: NOT MUCH. It’s sad actually. I really want to hop on my mountain bike, but the trails are mostly closed around here due to mudslides and poor conditions (thanks a lot RAIN!). I would love to do some trail running.. or running outside.. but I don’t like running when it’s dark out (especially when I’m by myself), and with these shin splints.. it would almost seem like I need to lay off the running for a week or so. Luckily for me.. Groupon came to the rescue!!!

Yesterday’s Groupon was for 1-month membership to Los Caballeros for only $25. There are two reasons why this is more awesome than a 24 Hour Fitness membership, which has the bonus of being cheaper and more locations:

1. Los Caballeros is right by my house.. within walking distance, less than a mile – don’t need to drive
2. Los Cabelleros has a large pool that gets crowded, but has TONS of open lanes – don’t need to share with TWO other people (which is super annoying – splitting lanes is ok)

I’m actually excited to be getting a gym membership again, even if just for a month. Even though I can do weights at home, I usually don’t dedicate as much time to it as I would if I were at the gym. Also, I prefer using the machines than the freeweights I have at home. I’m hoping this will give me a good solid month to build up muscle to prevent injury and get me a bit stronger. It’s also nice that I can swim and then do weights without a big time delay in between.

First race is February 12 with Race #1 of the OC Chili Winter Trail Run Series, but the first MAJOR race is Kenda Cup West #1 – Sagebrush Safari at the end of February. I really want to be prepared for this, which means I need to get back on the bike (Rain, please stay away).. and build up some muscles so I can push harder. Hopefully I’m ready. A month is a long time.. but can also fly by very quickly.

Tagged!

This is my first time being “tagged” on my blog.. heck.. I didn’t even know such a thing existed until Stuart tagged me on Christmas Eve Eve. So.. without further adieu…

1. What are you most proud of accomplishing in 2010?

That’s an easy one.. HANDS DOWN, my biggest and most proud accomplishment of 2010 was finishing Ironman 70.3 California in Oceanside back in March. I was so happy to finish that race, especially with the short experience I had with triathlons and the lack of preparations.

Crossing the FINISH LINE (!!!) of IM 70.3 CA!

The next big and proud accomplishment of 2010 is deciding to torture myself again with another half-iron distance race with even less preparation (if that was even possible).

Not the most graceful of my triathlon performances.. but still a FINISH!

2. What are your running goals for 2011?

I’ve already posted up my race schedule for 2011, but the main running goal isn’t to just finish races. I really want to start being competitive instead of ending up in the middle of the pack (which is still better than the back, but only marginally). So the real running goal for 2011 is to get faster. Key milestones: sub-25 minute 5k (ok.. that’s not THAT fast, but it’s faster than what I can do now) and sub-2 hour half marathon (aiming for 1:45 at Disneyland Half Marathon during Labor Day Weekend).

3. What is your favorite race?

It’s hard to pick a favorite race for 2010 since I did so many. In terms of running, I absolutely LOVED Xterra Trail Race #1 – Point Mugu State Park. That’s one race that affirmed my preference for trail running over street running and made me realize that running is actually fun when the scenery and terrain changes and challenges you.

Awesome course.. and I'll probably come back and do it again!

4. What is your most embarassing running moment?

I’m lucky enough to NOT have had ANY embarrassing running moments to date, let alone in 2011. Although, on a personal note, the San Diego Rock’n'Roll Marathon was pretty much a DISASTER for me. I was grossly unprepared for it (as I have been for most of my 2010 races) which was ok at the start, but escalated quickly from uncomfortable to painful to downright depressing. My legs throbbed and my spirit broke.. I cried.. I almost gave up.. and then somehow I managed to find the will-power to keep going (it mainly had to do with running into my cousins just about when I was ready to throw in the towel).

One of the many "eye-opening" races that told me: "You better be prepared next time!!"

So… that was my first attempt at playing this blog-tagging game… Now it’s my turn to do some tagging…

Elise, Kelly, Skyler, and Allison (you can change it to biking, as that is more applicable)… TAG! YOU’RE IT!

On the Trails: Post Turkey Day Biking

Since Minh and I weren’t going anywhere near the malls or shopping centers on Black Friday, we headed out to the Santa Ana Mountains for a nice long-ish mountain bike ride. Since we were going for a longer, more difficult ride, Minh said we could take our geared bikes. This meant no work for me since I have two mountain bikes, but loads of work for Minh since he had to convert his singlespeed back to a geared bike by adding a cassette to the back (and all the other stuff that is needed, i.e. shifter.. and then the tuning and adjusting). What was supposed to be a 15 minute job ended up taking about an hour, and Minh ended up giving up. For some reason, he couldn’t get the chainstay adjusted properly, and he was getting very frustrated. Instead, he took his cross bike.. it seemed like an OK idea at the time.. but ended up being a very very very bad idea…

Our planned route was Black Star Canyon – Motorway. This was a good training ride and eye-opener for what to expect for Traverse in May. I’d never ridden this before, so it was definitely a humbling experience.

The first part of the ride was pretty straightforward… head up Black Star Canyon to Beek’s Place. I’ve done this before… easy peezy. The rest of the ride was not so straightforward. After we pass the big white ball, each foot of riding is a foot further that I’ve gone into the Santa Anas, each foot of extra elevation gained is a foot higher I’ve been in Orange County. It was fun and exciting being on my bike and seeing new places, but it was also a little terrifying since I had no idea what to expect and no idea where I was going. It was also a lot of stopping and waiting because Minh’s bike (and legs) stopped working for him and started working against him. The brakes weren’t working so great, so he had to walk most of the downhills. And the easiest gear ratio on his cross bike was still harder than the one on his singlespeed, so he had to walk a lot of the uphills (after his legs died from powering up Black Star Canyon).

No brakes means having to walk the descents...

... or carry the bike down the descents..

... or figure out that it's too heavy to carry that far and just walk..

Eventually, he told me to just go on ahead. So I did. What I didn’t hear him say was to wait for him at the white gate. My plan was to go ahead until I saw the turnoff to head down the mountain and wait for him there. I completely misse the turn and kept going, went past it about 3 miles before a truck came by and told me that Minh was waiting for me eating a sandwich. Lucky for us the truck was on the trail, or else I could have gone on forever (well.. not forever, but a long time). My phone had also died while one the trail, so Minh had NO WAY of contacting me.

here's the trail sign that I COMPLETELY missed...

Here’s what I ended up doing actually riding…

The little "tail" on the right is the "extra bonus" that I biked...

Actually, I ended up having to walk a lot. My quads stopped wanting to climb and my morale was deteriorating fast since there seemed no end to the trail. I went through some emotional ups and downs since I had no idea where I was, no idea where Minh was, no idea where I was supposed to stop, and no one around crossing my path at all. That and I was a little afraid of mountain lions after I saw some tracks. We were EXTREMELY lucky that a truck was out doing trail maintenance work… if not for the truck, I would probably have gone on for 10 miles, stuck in the mountains with no communication and only half a ham and cheese croissant sandwich and some gels. Minh was actually worst off, since he also had no idea where I was and couldn’t ride much (he had also cramped up pretty bad). He waited for me for a while at the white gate, but eventually started walking towards my direction looking for me, stopping every five minutes to yell out my name just in case I had fallen off the trail or gotten hurt. It really freaked him out…

Lesson Learned: Don’t go on ahead… and if I do… make sure I stop at regular intervals to regroup.

2011 Race Schedule

Minh made me sit down last week and plan out my 2011 race schedule.. as best as I could. It seriously took me about a week to figure out what events I really wanted to do and what events I could skip so that I got good training in rather than racing all the time… And also make sure that I didn’t get burned out on racing or signed up for races spontaneously all year…

Current List of Events for 2011:
OC Chili Winter Trail Run Series – O’Neill Regional Park, Mission Viejo, CA
Kenda Cup West Series – throughout SoCal
Traverse – BlackStar Canyon to Trabuco Canyon, Silverado, CA
Huntington Beach Pier Swim (maybe) – Main Street Pier, Huntington Beach, CA
Harding Hustle 30/50K – Harding Truck Trail, Silverado, CA
Xterra Off-Road Triathlons and SoCal Trail Runs (not all, but some)
Xterra USA Championships – Snowbasin Resort, Ogden, UT
Disneyland Half Marathon - Disneyland, Anaheim, CA
Pacific Coast Triathlon – Crystal Cove, Newport Beach, CA
OC International Triathlon – Mission Viejo, CA
Triple Crown Series – throughout SoCal
Santiago Canyon Time Trials (maybe) – Santiago Canyon, CA
SoCal Cross (maybe) – throughout SoCal

I tried to mix things up a bit in terms of events, but generally it’s a lot of off-road events and A LOT of mountain biking. I would LOVE to qualify for Xterra Worlds in Maui, but we’ll see. Should be a good year, though.. better than 2010 maybe?

GOALS: Getting to the End of the Year..

I have some goals to hit before the end of the year now that the season is over… Just some small goals to help improve my overall phsyical ability and performance going into 2011…

• Improve 5K time to 25 minutes
• Be able to do 5 pull-ups
• Be able to do 20 push-ups (real ones, not girly ones).
• Balance for 1 minute on the wobble board

The goals aren’t incredibly difficult, but being able to reach them will mean that I’m getting harder, better, faster, stronger….

Season’s End

First… Silverman Half Triathlon race report forthcoming.. just need to sift through pictures and actually put together a write-up.

FINALLY… the 2010 season is officially over.. I’m celebrating with a breakfast of four cupcakes my sister picked up from Cupcake Camp IE over the weekend.

CUPCAKES!! - clockwise from top left: lemon, banana, something with lemon frosting, coconut pineapple

I’m a little sad races are over for the year (true.. I’ve got two more races before we ring in the new year, but I’m not REALLY counting those… especially since they’re technically in the 2011 Xterra SoCal Trail Run Series), but I’m also relieved to get a little break to rebuid a good base for next year. It’s been a tough year for me.. racing, motivation, training, etc.. but it was definitely a good year: 2 marathons, 6 trail runs (+ 2 more this year), 13 bike races (all but one on the mountain bike), 7 triathlons (2 70.3 distance, 2 olympic, 1 off-road, 2 sprint), and 1 mud run. I’m not sure if I’ve improved much, considering my relaxed approach to training and lack of focus, but I did learn a lot of lessons on how to attack the 2011 season.

Lessons Learned

1. Quality not Quantitiy – Focused and quality (speed work, intervals, hills) short workouts will benefit me more than half-assed long workouts.
2. Nutrition is KEY – I really need to figure out race-day nutrition for better performance. I noticed that it isn’t physical fatigue or inability that slows me down during the races, it’s debilitating stomach aches from not paying attention to what I’m eating at the aid stations.
3. Minh is usually RIGHT – As much as I hate to admit it, this is true when it comes to working out, nutrition, race strategy and focus, and generally what’s good for me. This is not true when it comes to directions, random trivial knowledge, or scheduling… among other things not related to training and competing.

The year was fun and I’m definitely looking forward to next year. Hoping I improve more with more focused training and better plans.

One More Week

One week away from the Silverman Triathlon and GETTING EXCITED!!!! For the final full weekend of training, I got it a “long” (in time, not in distance) run and a hill-y bike ride. The original schedule (as it always is) was to ride on Saturday and run on Sunday (while Minh went into work). But, since the forecast called for rain on Saturday, we swapped days – ran on Saturday while Minh went into work and ride on Sunday.

Even though the weather cleared up rather nicely Saturday morning, I still opted to run indoors on the treadmill than outside. I just didn’t feel like going outside, and even though I don’t really like running on the treadmill (the pace always feels different than on the road), I really didn’t want to leave the house. So.. I toasted a mango coconut scone from Blackmarket Bakery and got ready for a nice long-ish jog on the treadmill.

Popped in one of my favorite movies, the Royal Tenenbaums, and started jogging. I kept the pace fairly easy since I didn’t want to push too hard so close to the race.. but I stayed on during the entire movie. Afterwards, I cleaned up, made myself pizza for lunch, and attempted my first sewing project in a LONG LONG time. More on that later.

Sunday’s ride was nice. We (meaning Minh) packed up the bikes and we headed up a little past the Marketplace to start the ride. We were doing a 30+ mile hill-y loop that would take us through Santiago Canyon. The weather was great for this – not too hot and a little breezy – and the ride was pretty good. The hills were hard, but not as bad as they were a few months ago. We were originally going to do two loops, but needed the rest of the day to do other Sunday thing, so we did one loop plus a little extra heading up Jamboree to Chapman and back to the car. It all added up to about 42 miles of good hills. Should be good prep for the hills awaiting me in Henderson.

Beautiful day for a ride through the Canyon.. (that's Minh)

Cruising along Irvine Blvd...

I’m supposed to take it easy this week leading up to the race. I’ll probably go for a couple swim session and some light jogs and easy spins during the week. I’m feeling pretty good about my level of preparation, but I’m also not really sure what to expect in terms of weather conditions or course conditions – hot or cold, winds, potholes, etc. Should be a good time though, either way.

Thoughts on the Lazy River

I have got to be one of the laziest (if not THE laziest) triathletes out there. I don’t know what it is, but I always seem to find excuses to get out of working out.. here are some examples: “my tummy hurts”, “I have a headache”, “I’m hungry”, “there isn’t enough time”, … etc etc. Sometimes I just don’t feel like it and don’t even bother making up an excuse. Let’s look at the last week (October 4-10) of working out..

The Schedule:

Monday – REST
Tuesday – SWIM + RUN INTERVALS
Wednesday – BIKE INTERVALS OR TRAINER
Thursday – SWIM + RUN TEMPO
Friday – TRAVEL
Saturday – LONG RUN
Sunday – WEDDING

What Actually Happened:

Monday – Chiropractor and REST
Tuesday – RUN INTERVALS (10x .2-mile sprint + .1 mile rest + warm-up/cool-down) + SWIM (40ish minutes)
Wednesday – Was set up to do weights, but ended up not. Made pizza and watched TV.

Pepperoni, jalapenos, and mushroom pizza on whole wheat crust. Made at my house and transported to Minh's house (because my TV was not cooperating).

Thursday – Chiropractor and I don’t even know what else
Friday – set the alarm to wake up and run, but ended up sleeping in. Travel day (to DC)
Saturday – Might have had time to run in the morning, but slept in. Did A LOT of walking around DC.
Sunday – Woke up for a rather pathetic 5.75-mile run along part of the Capital Crescent trail (as it crosses through Bethesda). Wedding prep and festivities.

The Capital Crescent Trail is approximately 10 miles of "rails-to-trails" that goes from Silver Spring, MD, to Georgetown (Washington, DC).

My run on Sunday was pathetic more from low-energy than from physical pain. My intervals on Tuesday were spiked with pain in my shins and overall muscle fatigue because I’ve been super laxed about my “training”.

My slow pace forced me to turn around here.. not even close to where I had originally planned to turn back

I’ve got a race (Big Rock Triathlon) this weekend, and I have no idea how I’ll fare, but all signs so far are pointing to “not good”. We’ll see. Hoping to shake this feeling before (much before) the BIG RACE in a month (SilverMan Half Distance Triathlon at Lake Las Vegas). I can’t go into that race feeling like this (unprepared, unmotivated, and weak).

Race Review: Xterra SoCal Trail Run #1 – Point Mugu 18k

Sunday marked my first venture into Xterra country with the start of the Xterra Trail Run SoCal Series. Four hundred or so runners headed out to Point Mugu State Park (just on the edge of LA and Ventura counties, between Malibu and Oxnard) for the Point Mugu Trail Run. I had previewed the course in September, so I more or less knew what to expect. Goal time was 2 hours (that’s about a 10:45 min/mile pace) – I knew I would be able to handle the flats and the downhills, but it was the climbs and the singletrack (getting stuck behind people) that really made me worried I’d be on the slow side.

Sunday morning came, and Minh and I got up EARLY (5AM) for the drive up to Malibu. The plan was to leave by 5:30AM for the 2 hour drive. We made it to the race earlier than expected (7:00AM), either due to Minh’s crazy speedracer driving or the lack of traffic, or both. I was asleep most of the time, so I can’t really say. We got a pretty good parking spot, since we were there early. Checked in and hung out in the car for a little while.

The essentials for the race.. number, GU, and Garmin

Marked for the run... I haven't put one of these on in YEARS...

At about 8AM, I decided to go for a warm-up run and hit the potties for the last time before the race. I have been suffering from a mild case of shin splints for the last couple weeks, so I hoped that the compression socks would do the trick.

Off on my warm-up.. see you later..

Practicing "technical" stuff on the warm-up.. this isn't even the half of it..

Course talk from the "devil" (race # 666)... "watch out for the unavoidable poison oak."

Even though I’m not the fastest runner, I always like to start these races near the front. It’s a little disheartening to get passed by 100+ runners early on in the race, but it beats adding a few minutes on my overall time from starting in the back. I tried my best to keep to the side so that people could pass me easily too. I may have expended a little too much energy at the beginning though, because I was feeling it pretty hard on the ascents during the first few miles.

"And they're off!!" Already getting passed by atleast 100 runners...

After the start, Minh headed off the assigned meeting location (somewhere between Mile 5 and 6, where the 11k course meets up with the 18k course). He took some pretty nice pictures of the trail, so you can see how much MORE technical it is compared to our local OC trails. I’ve never run anything like this before, and I’m pretty sure we DON’T have trails this technical in OC. Most of our trails pretty smooth, and even the rocky ones are pretty wide.

It was pretty foggy throughout the whole race..

I got passed quite a bit during the run, but I was still keeping a good pace. I ran when I could, but had to walk a lot of the ascent. I didn’t feel too bad though, because I didn’t really get in anyone’s way. For the most part, I slowed to a walk/hike when the people behind or in front were also slowing, and I always stepped to the side when I could to let people pass. I picked up the pace a little bit on flats and downhills to make up for whatever time I had loss on the climbs.

The first water station wasn’t where it was supposed to be (around 4.5 miles).. but luckily I still had enough water to sustain me until I did hit the water station (a little past mile 5). I also didn’t cover myself in poison oak like they had warned would be inevitable. There was poison oak all over the first half of the course, but I was able to avoid it. Even the one spot that was COVERED in poison oak overgrowth didn’t affect me…. perhaps I’m one of the few lucky ones that’s not sensitive to it? Minh’s not even sure if he saw any poison oak.. but then again.. he doesn’t know what it looks like.

FOG! You could hear the ocean, but you couldn't see it..

Just before Mile 6, and the last long steady uphill of the race, I met up with Minh for the bottle hand-off. He prepared a bottle with Heed and a gel for me. It was nice to get a COLD bottle, since my bottle was starting to become not satisfying. Luckily, the weather was cool and foggy, instead of sunny and hot like the preview run. It stayed nice and foggy the entire morning, so it made for PERFECT running weather.

Ready for my bottle hand off...

18k and 11k course merges for the rest of the race

Once we hit the top of the last climb, I was feeling good. I knew that the rest of the course was just downhill switchbacks, and I decided to just let my momentum carry me to the bottom. My knees were starting to hurt, but my shins were feeling pretty good. What’s great about this downhill is that you can occasionally see the start/finish area, and you can HEAR the announcements going on. It’s really motivating to get to the finish. I passed a few people on the downhill, but mostly I just stuck to my pace and tried to finish strong.

FINISH LINE!!!

The picture being taken by the guy in red can be seen below..

Pretty cool picture... I'm gonna buy it.. but haven't gotten around to it yet..

FINISHED... see you at the next one!

I finished in 2:03:13, which is a lot better than the preview run and about what I had expected for myself. Things to work on if I want to be competitve (and I do)… overall speed, hills, ability to recover after hills (this probably goes for cycling and general running also).

Xterra Trail Run SoCal Series #1 – Point Mugu 18k
2:03:13
6 out of 15 AG F25-29 (190 overall)

After this first race, I’ve decided that trail running is a million times BETTER than road running (marathons specifically). On the road, it’s pretty boring. You don’t see anything interesting and it’s just the same road over and over again, 90° turns, and thousands of people around you the whole time. With trail running, sometimes it’s just you and nature, the terrain changes completely from wide and flat to technical singletrack to switchbacks. The views are INCREDIBLE, whether it be of the ocean or the mountains or a wide open field. Sometimes you see someone ahead or hear someone behind, but for the most part it’s just you and nature. It’s great. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to road running only… Maybe if I think I’ll qualify for Boston. That’s still a goal in the back of my mind somewhere.