45 minutes well spent...

As a final tune-up for next weekend's half marathon in Sacramento, I decided to race the Blossom Trail 10K in Sanger yesterday.

And, as usual, my 10K goal was to break 50 minutes. A brief recap is in order:

In late September, my first race in ages was the Cross City 10K in downtown Fresno. I was just glad to finish. Time: 52:25, faster than expected.

Then, at Thanksgiving, I got all fired up to break 50 and entered a turkey trot in Sacramento. Everything looked great, until I ran into a wall of 28,000 other runners. The end result? 50 flat. Sick.

Next, on New Years, I entered a 10K up in Auburn and surely this would be the time! Little did I know that the course was, to put it mildly, mountainous. Rugged. Streams and rocks and stuff. I labored home with a 55:21, a pulled calf and a battered ego.

So to yesterday's race. What a beautiful day on a beautiful course. Beautiful time too! 45:00. Wow, how I wanted to break 45 as I approached the line! Alas. But I'll take 45 flat, with 5K splits of 23:08 and 21:52 (once again, shoulda gone out faster!).

On to the Shamrockin' half next Sunday!