Day seven – Saturday

Woke up early to prepare for our Xterra off road 10k race. We picked up a lady on the way whom we had met on a dive a few days ago who we decided to carpool with. We got there about 7:15 and were able to warm up and scope out the competition. Let me mention that tomorrow is the Xterra Triathlon World Championships hosted at this same hotel and in fact the run they will be doing will be the same as the run we are doing today. Dave and I drove here a few days ago to check out the hotel and pick up our race packets. At that point I began to doubt my abilities. Talk about being in one place with the largest group of uber fit people I've ever been around. Granted these folks are doing the World Championship so of course they're fit....BUT I start to think..hmm should I be doing this off road 10k? This is when I tell Dave I'm not sure I want to do it and when he says "you are doing it". The fear in my head is everyone being done with the race and waiting .... staring expectantly at the finish line for the last person to arrive - and for that person to be me. Daves words of encouragement when I share this fear are "if you are the last person and you are embarrassed...just tear off your number and pretend you were just out walking and aren't part of the race".. SUPER

So.. back to scoping out the competition. There are a lot of people who I know will be beating me but I start to feel better the more I look around. Hey, these people look average too! So, we line up and wait for the gun. This race isn't too crowded - only 173 people signed up for the 10k portion (there is a 5k also). When the gun goes off we all start lumbering up the golf course trail to the road. I am nervous and its uphill.. so suddenly I start feeling like I can't catch my breath so I'm telling myself... just breathe... calm down and breathe. This makes it better but I'm still not 100% and I'm thinking how humiliating it will be to walk 100 yards into the run. But once we level out I catch my breath and all is well. Ahead of me I spot our carpooler; I'm right on her heels and think I'll pass her..but then the hill starts again and I fall back. At this point a guy passes me up (just barely) and pulls in front. This is when I notice the armpit smell. Its early in the race so it wasn't BAD at that point...but definitely armpit. Ok, so do I kick it in to pass Mr. armpit or do I suffer. Luckily a few people get in between us and I can't discern his smell from my own. Right then is when we take a turn up the biggest hill of the race. I haven't looked at the Garmin statistics yet to see how much of a climb it is but it feels really steep. This part of the course has no trees and its is SUNNY out. This hill climb goes on for 3 miles over dirt and rock. I see people around me taking walking breaks on and off and my willpower dies. I walk. Only on the steep hills though..when it flattens out I attempt to run. I keep passing and being passed by 2 guys over and over so I decide my goal is to keep up with them and not let them get ahead. This mental strategy must work because on the last hill I run and pass them both.

What goes up must come down. I thought the downhill would be the easy part but I was wrong. It wasn't hard from an actual running standpoint but this is a trail run so the trail is narrow and dirt and has a lot of rocks all over it. I'm not the most agile person to begin with and add fatigue onto that and its terrible. So about every other step I'm sure I'm going to turn an ankle. I start walk/running as best I can down the road. Then I hit the flat area...phew. Its still trail but at least its fast. I hear someone behind me and call out "if you need to pass let me know" he responds back that I've got a good pace so he's following me (small pat on the back to me). I turn to find its guy #1 that I kept passing and being passed by. We start chatting and the time flies. We hit 4 miles.. then 5 miles and I can't believe its almost over. Guy #1 slows to hydrate at the water station but I bypass it knowing I'm almost done.. so I pull away. I think at about 5.5 we hit beach run #1. This is when guy #1 passes me for the last time :( Wow, running on the sand is not as easy as those red suited baywatch babes made it look. I tried running it and soon discovered that was virtually impossible. The sand was NOT packed.. it was very unpacked and deep. I realized my running shoes were great for heat with the mesh on top...but not so good for sand. I could feel it building up in there. I lumbered through the first sand section and into the "spooky forest" which was actually kind of neat. It was a narrow trail that went over logs and under overhaning logs/trees. I had to stop and stoop to get under some of them. I didn't see anyone eat it but Dave said when he was running there was a girl in front of him he wanted to pass and had his opportunity when she ducked under 1 log only to miss ducking under the 2nd and smacked her head. He claims he stopped to ask her if she was ok.. but I'm not sure if we are using the same definition of "stop". Anyways.. I make it through the forest unscathed. On to sand section #2 which is much shorter but no easier. Finally I see golf course ahead. I make my last sprint across the finish line and hear my name called followed by the name of my city - Rancho Cucamonga. At this point there is a little break between me and the next person behind me so the announcer takes the opportunity to keep repeating Rancho Cucamonga... cucamonga..yes yes I get it.

They call this race a "10k" but its truly a 6.9 mile run. Here is the official results page http://www.jtltiming.com/results/mauirun.html. Dave finished ahead of me (of course) with a time of 1:06 and I came in at 1:20. The lady who carpooled with us (and is 58 years old) finished ahead of me by 3 minutes. Apparantly I need to step up my hill training. I feel pretty good about the results overall though. I don't ever run trails and don't get a whole lot of hill training in so I'm happy with my time and I was NOT the last person :) I finished 136 out of 173 people.

How else do you follow up a morning run like that than to hit the spa! We had appointments at the Grand Wailea for massages. The spa is gorgeous! Its hard to explain the whole process but so far that is the best spa I've ever been to. Not a bad way to finish off a good day. Oh yeah...and of course we went out to dinner afterwards. Went to a place called Nick's Fishmarket. Its fancier than it sounds. The food was so good and the scenery was beautiful. Had fish again and dessert!