The Great Race of Agoura Hills half marathon -
So much of a race day is in the preparation. Here's a quick summary of what you DON'T want to do the day and night before your race: Early in the afternoon, look out your office window at the hills behind the Hollywood sign and realize they are on fire. Not a fake Hollywood fire, but a rapidly progressing blaze with fifty foot high flames. As people gather in your office to stare in awe and comment about how the amount of water the helicopters are able to drop on the fire seems so insignificant, the thought dawns on you that you live on the other side of that burning hill and you should probably get home to save your dog and a few things. Drive home where you and your husband put the "what would you save in case of a fire" discussion into practice, discovering that our list comes down to our computer CPUs, some family pictures, that thing that reminds me of my grandma, and one bike each that will fit on our cars (mountain or road...the outdoor enthusiast's Sophie's Choice). Within a few hours, we hear that the fine folks of the LA area fire departments have got it under control, but they'll be watching for flare ups throughout the night. Just to be safe, we take our dog and our one packed car and leave them at a friend's place that night. Returning home around 11 pm, we try to gather our race wear and settle in for a good night's sleep in our own bed. But, the smell of smoke in the air and the frequent helicopter fly-overs have us waking up every twenty minutes and wondering if we should check the news for any updates. After getting up a couple of times only to find a TV full of infomercials (why do you taunt me, Chuck Norris?), we finally drift off for one and a half hours of sleep, before our 4:30 alarm.
With all of that fresh in mind, we head off to our favorite race of the year with not much expectation. Luckily, the night before is such a small part of preparation. Those months of steady workouts, trying to eat right, pre-running the course and, of course, training smart with my heartrate monitor don't go to waste in one bad night. I love this race and was reminded why as soon as I approached the start line. It is a great community race that benefits a local school district, the whole neighborhood supports it and the course is amazing. Of the 13.1 miles, roughly 8 of them are on trails, and there are a couple of great climbs right in the middle. I also started a running group at work about six months ago and we had a contingent of about 15 people doing either the half marathon or 10K, so it was motivating to see other friendly faces out there. I even ran into my Polar teammate Vince right before the race and saw him a few times on the course.When I finally reached the finish line, I was four minutes under my anticipated time and made my top five age group goal by placing 4th. My friends from work also had a great day and we celebrated at THE BEST after party of any race. Eventually we had
to leave to reclaim our dog and our car full of stuff and begin the tedious process of putting everything back where it belonged. But, all in all, it was a great weekend.
