Apple Hill

Apple Hill 8.5 Miler
Camino, CA

1:05:11 - 2nd 19-29 age group, 13th woman overall, 54th finisher overall (out of 491)

Missed 1st place by 17 seconds... oops! This was a 7:40 min/mile pace at about 3000 feet of elevation with over 1000 feet of climbing. Spent the entire race wheezing and it didn't occur to me until after the race that that was due to the elevation... ha

The first 5 or so miles are downhill... I did not pace correctly and instead of hammering the downhills I tried to hold back thinking I'd be able to make it up in the end. That wasn't the correct strategy. The race was not long enough to regain the time lost on the people ahead of me so I just ran out of distance. I went into the race thinking I would run hard though, and for the most part I did run hard. Just not as hard as I think I could have. But lesson learned for next year!

Deb and her husband drove me up since they were both doing the race. They also got half the gallon of cider I won for placing. I was like I'm one person, I live alone, what am I going to do with an entire gallon of cider? We also stopped at some country stores around Apple Hill and got lots of goodies. Mmm cider donuts! Makes me miss home.

The incredible KH was at the race and she talked me into probably running the California International Marathon so that looks like my next run. But it's going to be a "fun run" and I'm not going out to compete. For now it's trying to figure out next year's schedule... stay tuned.