March 26th, 2011 – The Great Race of Agoura Hills 10K

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

This was truly a great race. I was nervous about this one because I really wanted to PR but I knew the route to be very challenging. Even one of my dearest running buddies, who has experience with this race told me that this was a “Just Finish It” race.

The race started with a little bit of downhill work. I wanted to work hard but take it easy at the beginning because I wanted to finish strong.

The first 3 miles were really OK. There was some climbing but it wasn’t too bad. A year ago, they would have slayed me immediately, but I was feeling pretty strong this time. I knew I had to maintain an 11:29 min/mi pace if I wanted to finish in under 1:10. That was my goal, even though my previous PR was 1:16 and I really would have been OK if I finished around that time because I’d heard the hills in this race are atrocious.

So I was feeling pretty good up to the 4 mile mark. The hills were challenging but I was able to power through them and maintain about an 11:15 min/mi pace.

Then we hit a U-Turn at the 4 mile mark. We had a brief decline then the hills *really* started. And these hills were kickin’ my ass!!!! There as a point where I actually paused and said, “You have *got* to be kidding me!” And I wasn’t the only one!

I wasn’t about to be bested today, though. I was about 4.25 miles in and I had just heard my 45 minute audio cue. My PR was within reach. I just knew I could do it!!! So I took a deep breath and powered up the hill as fast as I could. I knew my pace was taking a beating but I just had to do the best I could.

At about the 5.55 mile mark, we made a turn and started up an unpaved hill with wet clay. This almost wrecked my resolve. After fighting these hills for nearly an hour, I just didn’t think I could handle wet clay weighing down my shoes.

But somehow, I dug deep and kept fighting. That PR was so close, I could taste it.

By the time I hit the 6 mile mark I had already heard my 1:05 audio cue. I was *so* exhausted, but I just had to keep fighting because I was desperate to finish before the 1:10 cue sounded.

As I was charging toward the Finish Line with all that was in me, I noticed that the race clock said 55:54. Of course, there was no way that was correct but it gave me that extra push to kick even harder to cross over the sensors.

Turned out, the clock at the finish was off. WAAAYYY off! I knew there was no way I’d finished with a sub 60 time, but it felt good to believe it for a split second.

I did PR, however. I finished in 1:09:13. I will take that and be glad. Feels good. I got to bring home a medal to give Jordan for his birthday.



Now, Zzzzzzz……….