C.S.U.B. PEAK Valentine's 10k Run 2018; Race Report #24

     On February 10th, Robin and I once again made the trip to Bakersfield for a 10k run at Cal State Bakersfield. The PEAK Valentines Day run benefited the kinesiology department and is always a great race with awesome awards. Last year at this time the Valentines Day Race was the first time I tried to walk and run after my prostate surgery and I did the 5k with Robin. This year since we are currently focusing our training on Robin being able to run the trail marathon at Lone Pine in May we opted for the longer distance. I also thought it would be cool if I could run the 10k as fast as we did the 5k the previous year but a recent bout with a bad sinus and chest cold nixed that plan. Our friends Trevor and Andrea pre-entered also but were kept away because of the flu and late night issues out of town.

     We arrived, got our packets and shirts, and I went for a warm-up run along with my several pre-race bathroom stops.

Everyone checking in prior to the start of the race

     The race was timed by the Bakersfield Track Club, and they were trying out a new system where we wore a tag on our shoe as well as pinning one on our hip. This brought about a few glitches which meant the race started a few minutes late but it wasn't a big deal. The weather was warm for this time of year so it's not like we had to keep doing strides to keep warm. When the gun went off I started out easy and tried to settle into my 7 to 7:10 pace so as not to burn myself out too quickly.

Everyone taking off at the start of the 5 and 10k.

     My son Kris gave me a pair of Nike Lunarepic Flyknit 2 shoes for Christmas and I decided to wear them in the race. They were very comfortable, and after I do a few more runs in them I will do a shoe report on them.

     I hit the first mile in 7:03 which was right about what I wanted. I hit miles 2 and 3 in 7:01 and 7:07 and felt great, but that's when things changed. First, most of the runners took the turn to run just a 5k. I had no one left to chase. Second, the course had a lot of tight turns in the fourth mile which made it hard to keep up a steady pace. Between having no one to follow and hitting the sharp turns I lost my momentum. My pace for the fourth mile dropped to 7:26. On mile five I picked it back up to 7:19, but then fell back to 7:26 for mile six. I finished the race in 45:36 and the race came out to 6.3 miles. I didn't quite reach my goal of mid 42's that I had run the 5k in a year earlier after surgery.

     I grabbed a bottle of water and headed out back on the course in search of Robin for my cool down. It took me just over a mile to find her. She was running for 2 songs and walking for one and looked great. I paced her into the finish chute in a time of 1:22.

Robin heading to the finish of the PEAK Valentines Day Run.

     There was a lot of confusion after the race since some people that signed up for the 10k actually ran the 5k so it took quite awhile for the results to be finished and the awards to be handed out. When it was done though the awards and raffle were awesome. I was first in my age group, even though they announced me as second. The other guy ran the 5k. Robin got second in her age group and we both won fantastic raffle prizes. 

The awards for the race were fantastic. Each one was unique.

     After the race was over we headed to Lengthwise Brewing next to the C.S.U.B. campus for some much-deserved post-race food and refreshments.

Tacos and beer at Lengthwise after the race.

     As far as a rating for this race I have to mark it down 2 beers. It was a fantastic race, great awards, inexpensive to enter, and great raffle prizes. Since it was a flat course I'm, calling this a lager race. It's good for flatlanders and walkers. My final race rating then is a four lager race. We are definitely looking forward to next year and doing it again.