Carlsbad Road Race Weekend

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Woo hoo! This past weekend, I ran in the Junior Carlsbad Mile and the Carlsbad 5000. These are two of my favorite races because they are in my hometown, my teammates always run in it, too, and they have the best expo booths!

On Saturday, I ran in the 11 year old Mile race. This year was my 5th year in a row participating. I didn’t have a particular time goal in mind because I had experienced a bit of foot pain earlier in the week and wasn’t sure how it would go. I just wanted to have a good time and enjoy it. I felt pretty good and ended up with a new PR as well as my 4th win!

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Afterwards, we watched the rest of our teammates race and some of us went to eat a huge pancake breakfast. Yum! Then we spent several hours at the expo getting new freebies and giveaways.

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My buddy Connor, came over to my house afterwards and we had a blast playing dodge ball all afternoon. Ha ha! We always have a great time together, even at practices, too.

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The next morning, I headed back to Carlsbad Village to run in the Carlsbad 5000 race.  They had the music on super loud which I love. It always pumps me up.

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This time I did set a goal. I wanted to get a new PR and break the 18:00 mark. My previous best 5K was 18:11 in Oceanside back in November. Everything went as it should have. I was well-warmed up and found a good spot at the starting line. We had about 8 minutes to go before the start time and I was just moving my feet, staying loose, when I looked down at my feet where my timing chip was. I took a closer look and saw that it wasn’t the timing chip. My mom, who had placed it on my shoe that morning, had mistakenly put the other side on and left the actual timing chip side at home!

I immediately ran to the side where my parents were standing and let them know the situation. With only 8 minutes to go, I didn’t know how this could be resolved but I tried to stay calm. My mom looked everywhere for a race official to see if they might have a spare chip. Of course, no one had one. But she found a very nice lady who got on her radio and called back to the registration booth to see if someone could run a new timing chip and bib over. She hung up and said they were on their way. By now we had only 3 minutes.

We had no idea if the new chip would make it on time so we talked about the options in case it didn’t. Did I want to wait for the chip and then run in a later corral after the gun, or did I want to start with the first corral without a chip and not get an official time? I told my mom that I wanted to run without the chip. Either way, I was going to time my race on my watch and it would be very close to the gun time. I was good with that decision. (Deep breath.)

At this point a lady began to sing the national anthem. I knew that as soon as she finished, the gun was likely to go off. All of a sudden, we spotted a race volunteer running toward us waving a bib. My mom immediately grabbed the chip and within seconds had it on my shoe. I was thrilled! But then we were told we had to also switch bibs. So we fumbled trying to get all four pins off and repin the new bib on. I could hear her singing and she seemed to be singing faster than any other person I’d ever heard. You know how sometimes they really draw out the song? This woman was NOT. As my mom was pinning the last pin, I heard, “..and the hommmmmmeeee of the braaaaaaaaave….”

Wow. We made it. I immediately cleared my head, got back to the line and took off. Yeah!!

It was a really tough race for me. I took too fast of a start and ran a 5:25 first mile. That’s only 5 seconds slower than my mile race the day before. So I slowed up a bit in the second mile to a 5:55 pace. Yikes, too slow. In the final mile, I picked it up in order to hopefully reach my goal. I managed to do it and ended up running a 17:56. Whew! Tough run, but always fun. I was really happy with the result. Sometimes unforeseen things happen where there’s nothing you can do. I was prepared to still run a great race with or without my timing chip. It was helpful to remain calm and just go with the flow 🙂

Some photos after the race:

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Chelsea King’s 5K

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2013 Finish Chelseas Run logoThis past weekend I participated in a really unique 5K race. I recently learned about this event through some friends of mine who were putting together a team. Chelsea King was a high school cross country runner and straight-A student from Poway, CA.

In 2010 she was murdered while doing a practice run after school. I don’t like hearing stories like this. Her story felt particularly bad to me because she was a runner and was hurt while doing what she loved.

I heard that her favorite colors were orange and blue, so the night before as I was getting ready, I pulled out some orange shorts and a blue tech shirt to wear. When I got to the race, I saw people carrying sunflowers. This was her favorite flower. As I looked around, there were sunflowers everywhere. Pictures of them. People carrying them. It was really cool. I thought about Chelsea and even though I didn’t know here, I could feel how much she is loved and missed.

I didn’t have a lot of time to warm up for this race because we arrived a bit late. It was really hard for my mom to find parking so I just made it to the starting line with about 15 minutes to go. I found a place at the start and jogged in place a bit and did a few standing stretches.

Once the horn sounded I was off. The course was not flat. It had several gradual and long inclines that made it tougher than usual. Throughout my run, I just kept seeing sunflowers everywhere. There were a lot of runners wearing blue and orange, too. There was a band playing live music. I felt like Chelsea King was there. It was really neat.

As I made the final turn, I was relieved to see the finish line. This run was for Chelsea. I finished her run.

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Results

My 4th Annual Turkey Trot

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I ran at the Oceanside Turkey Trot for the 4th year in a row this year. It was great. I really love our family tradition of waking up really early on Thanksgiving morning and driving to Oceanside’s Pier to race. I started when I was 7 years old, running the mile race. This year, I decided to run in the 5k race AND the mile race.

It was another beautiful day and I hadn’t run a 5k in over a year, so I was excited to see if I could maybe get a new PR. Every year this event has grown and this year there were over 5000 runners in the 5k! I felt okay during this race. My tummy was bothering me for some reason but I just ignored it. I finished in 18:11 which was a new PR for me by over a minute. I wasn’t feeling to well after the race and I needed to sit down. After about 20 minutes and a little bit of food, I started to feel better.

The results were posted and it turned out that I won the 12-unders division- yeah! My mile race was coming up so I went to the starting line. I wasn’t sure how I would do since I already had a 5k in my legs, but I would do my best to run as if I were fresh.

I don’t know what happened but during the race, I FELT AMAZING! I felt so so so strong. I couldn’t believe how good everything felt. I caught up to the rabbits and passed one of them. As I neared the finish, I felt like I could have gone on and on. I didn’t feel tired. It was really really cool. I ended up winning the 12-unders and got a new PR for the mile, too, with a time of 5:23. This is me catching the rabbits 🙂

After my race, I quickly ran back to the starting line to meet my little sister who was also running the mile race. She is 7 years old and her race was going to start in less than 10 minutes. She likes it when I run with her so I wanted to make it back in time. Luckily, I did but I held back to let the kids get off the starting line. Mia was in the front group after about 50 meters when I hopped in next to her. Even though she doesn’t like running as much as I do, she runs really well.

As we neared the finish, I jumped out of the race to let her finish by herself. She took 2nd place with a time of 7:04! I was really proud of her.

What a way to start Thanksgiving! We all went home and Mom cooked a delicious turkey and we had the best apple crumble pie and ice cream for dessert! Yum!!!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!

Junior Carlsbad and Carlsbad 5000 Races

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This past weekend I ran in the Junior Carlsbad 1 mile race for my 3rd year in a row. I think this might be one of my favorite races. It is so exciting and there are so many kids running.

I love it.

As always, I get my usual nerves right before the race, but then they all disappear as soon as the horn sounds.

At the start, there was a boy running next to me. He got out ahead of me about 10 feet. We were the two leaders of the race. I passed him after our first turn and then managed to lead for the rest of the race. I finished with a time of 5:49.

My little sister also competed this year. She is 6 and she ran in a 1/2 mile race. She gets a little overwhelmed by all the people so I offered to run with her after my race was finished. This made her happy and I had fun running with her, too. She did great! She came in 7th place 🙂

On Sunday, I went back to run in the Carlsbad 5000 for my first time. It was so fun. I saw a LOT of my Roadrunners teammates there along with some other kids from school. This was my third 5K race and I was hoping to beat my previous time of 20:07 from the Bumblebee 5K in December. I felt strong throughout and came in at 19:53. Yeah! I was really proud of myself.

One of the things my mom always asks me is what was going through my head while I was racing. And I always tell her the same thing. I was either humming a song or absolutely NOTHING was going through my head.

At the Junior Carlsbad event, there was a live band of young kids. As we were walking by I heard them perform a cool song that I had never heard before and really liked. I asked my dad what it was and he said it was “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne. The band singing it was a local band called Zip Zap.

Cool. I immediately decided I wanted to add the song to my iPod.

That ended up being the song going through my head during the races 🙂

Have a listen:

Bumblebee Foods 5K at the Big Bay Balloon Parade

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Today I ran in my second 5K. It was the Bumble Bee Foods 5K at the Port of San Diego Big Bay Balloon Parade. The race kicked off the nationally televised parade at 9:45 a.m. There were 100,000 spectators there!

I was very excited about this race since I hadn’t been running much since school let out for winter break. My plan was to have a strong start, run at a solid race pace, and empty out with a very strong finish.

I’ve noticed that with 5K races, there isn’t a big emphasis at the starts. Since there are so many people including a lot of walkers, the start is not as intense as with the 1-mile races or my cross country races.

Your time doesn’t start until your chip crosses the start, but I think it’s a good idea to still start near the front because it eliminates the need to have to weave through so many people when you’re racing.

I got to the starting line pretty early and waited. There were a lot of adults around and by the time the race started, I got pushed back several rows. I think people couldn’t see me or just decided to get in front of me. Oh well.

I did not feel I had a good start because there were so many people to run around and the road was very narrow. Everyone was trying to get out so fast that somebody even fell in front of me!

Once I was passed the start, not as many people were in the way. Then I went into my maintaining pace. At the end I was too tired to sprint so I just went as fast as I possibly could.

I was looking for some other kids that might be my age but didn’t see any. During the race, I thought I was running kind of slow, but when I got near the finish and saw the clock, I was surprised to see that I was way faster that my last 5k! My time was 20:07.

After the race, my legs felt weird because I used all the fuel in them. I was sweating a lot and breathing hard.

I didn’t know how I did or what- it was hard to tell. We were going to go home, but the remembered to watch the balloon parade. The balloons were huge!

My mom decided to ask about the race results and guess what? She found out that I had won for mens 12-and-unders!! I was so excited and proud of myself. I couldn’t believe that I came in 1st place. What a fun morning.

Click here to see the race results.

My First 5K

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This past weekend I competed in my first 5K. That is about 3.1 miles. I had never done it before and thought why not?

The youngest age division was 12-and-under. It was a very different start than when I do the 1-mile races. The start was very very casual. They didn’t give any announcements, just all of a sudden a horn went off and tons and tons of people just started moving. There were a lot of people walking, pushing strollers… I was nowhere near the front and tried to just weave my way through all the people. I knew that my time wouldn’t start until I crossed the starting line, but I was excited to get going.

Once I got past the starting line, I took off. There were so many people to go around. I noticed as I ran by, I overheard several comments. Someone said, “Hey look at that little guy- good job buddy!”

Another man pushing a jogger said to his baby, “Wow look at this kid, I hope you are like that one day.”

Several people just said, “Way to go, kid!”

I thought that was nice.

The track had several cones so I knew exactly which way to run. After each mile, they also had an announcer tell you the gun’s split time. After the first mile, it was 7:50. After the 2nd mile it was 14:25. I came into the finish at 22-something. My official race time was 21:10.

Somewhere during the 3rd mile, I saw someone ahead of me who looked like he could be in my age division. He looked 11 or 12. I decided to try to catch up to him. As I got very close, he saw me and started sprinting away.

I kept increasing my pace and about a minute later I caught up to him again and passed him. I thought he might try to catch back up with me so I kept my pace high but I wasn’t sprinting. He never did catch up. Later, I found out I placed in 2nd and he placed 3rd, 30 seconds after me.

Have you watched Secretariat? I saw it a few weekends ago. I sort of felt like Secretariat during that part. Secretariat comes from behind and then increases his lengths ahead of who he passes. That was such an inspiring movie.

Anyway, I had a blast at the race and hope to try one again soon.

There was a really nice man at the end of the race who said he felt awesome during his entire race and not a single person passed him, until I did. He wanted a picture with me. He was really nice 🙂