I could not have asked for a better day than today to run a road race for the first time in about 20 years. Val and her friends had previously decided to run this race and Val entered me then told me this after the fact! I used to live in Seal Beach and remember this race well. It has a great small-town atmosphere about it and is certainly not the monstrosity the LA Marathon was a few weeks back. There were 3,500 people running and walking the events today. Val and I met her friend and co-worker, Jeanette at her Seal Beach home, blocks from the start. The previous evening, while dining at Lucille’s in Belmont Shore, our favorite bartender and server decided she would run the 5K on the spur of the moment! Our new friend Tracy proved her mettle and game by refusing to take the 5K turnaround and forge ahead to continue to run the 10K instead. My buddy Brent raced and although we did not have the good fortune to see him, he ran the 10K in 47: something…an absolutely awesome performance by “The Oak” who gets all his running, as I do, by doing Crossfit.

While we are talking about awesome performances, Val kicked butt and finished in 45:52 and took home the third place medal in her age division in the very first 10K race she has ever run! Way to go rookie! Some of her Snail’s Pace team runners also ran and did very well and we all had a great time afterwards at our post-race brunch.

My performance was pedestrian, which I suppose is another way to say I was almost walking. I did the 5K hokey-pokey, with more pokey than hokey in 28:04. It just happened that the next Crossfit WOD for me was to be the 5k run, for time. I did the 5K run, for a slow, but good time! 

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