I ran a 10K on my 36th birthday. I have been training since January for the event billed as the most challenging 10K in Southern California. The 22nd Annual Race Through the Vineyards was a cross country, all terrain, x-games style run that takes you 6.2 miles zig-zagging through the wine vineyards of Temecula, CA. Many of the winners of this event were marathoners and long time runners.
Julie flew in from San Antonio and ran the race with me while Jennifer cheered us on and took our pictures. I was so happy to be celebrating my one year of weight loss and my 36th birthday with two amazing women.
The race was challenging and mentally tough...so sick of seeing grape vines after 4 miles. If I saw another sand trap or pothole to run through I may have contemplated purposely twisting my ankle so that I did not have to run another step. Around mile 5 a grape vine was twisting it's way toward the sun and sticking out into the path...I slapped it as I went by. Frustrated at that point. Julie and I kept great pace with each other. Sometimes I went ahead, sometimes she went ahead, but eventually we both were always side by side. We celebrated the halfway point by pausing to take a picture with the 5K terrain behind us. At the end of a long flat stretch of running we were next to each other and I smiled and said "I'm so happy that we're perfect running partners" and she smiled back and said "I've been praying to God that you would stop running so I could catch you", well...I didn't stop running so God must have just given her the strength to run faster to catch up with me at that point.
Our official race times were:
Me
18th in the 35-40 age bracket (out of 35 runners)
159th overall (out of 265 runners)
80th overall for females
Time: 1:10:44 (the winner finished in 40 minutes)
Pace 11:25/mile (we did the first mile in exactly 9 minutes)
Julie's times were the same as mine except she placed 12th in her age bracket (30-35).
The race was AMAZING!
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