Today was the long awaited race day. It started out rather cool but it was perfect running weather. We got to the start line and had about 20 minutes to wait for the start of the race. The first thing I noticed was that there were a zillion
porta potties and literally no lines. I assumed this meant most people were staying nearby and able to "take care of business" before leaving their hotels.
There was a staggered start with 4 different corrals. Of course, that didn't stop some leisure walkers from starting in the very first corral -
Grrrrr! I wonder why they do that since it really is hazardous to have everyone need to move around them at the start of the race. But this was minimal and not worth complaining about.
The race started on time. My concern was that I was wearing brand new
sox, never worn, never tested, never even washed. That is against all conventional wisdom for a race but I thought it was worth the gamble because I have had such a bad problem with the toe seams cutting into my toes. I could feel my feel slide around in my shoes and hoped it wouldn't create a problem (and it didn't).
The course was nice, a little bit of an incline, very gentle, then as much of a descent. There were only a couple hills and they didn't phase me at all since I run so many hills.
OK, I'm kept my humility in check long enough . . . I just gotta say it . . . I was awesome! I can say that because I am 53 years old and I am very proud of how I ran this race. I ran the entire thing very strong and never felt weary. I am very happy with my run.
Speaking of happy, I am very happy with this race. Fresno rocks when it comes to this race. It is well put together, lots of "stuff" and they treat their runners really well. I got some photos, but being Blogger, they are out of order. And again, with Blogger, it's futile to try and move them around, so here they are in
Blogger's weird random order:
This first one is after the race, showing the finisher's sweatshirt and the runners eating their breakfast (eggs, sausage, potatoes, bagel, and fruit). It is a VERY nice sweatshirt too! I was impressed that we got the finisher's sweatshirt in addition to the long sleeved tech race shirt. I mean, who does that?

More of the same. As you can see, they were handling the large number of runners really well and it was in a secure area so the nonparticipants couldn't eat all the food up before the slower folks finished.

This is me coming into the finish line. I never did pull down my running sleeves but like I said, the weather was perfect for running.

Me wearing warm ups before the race started.

Hubby in his warm ups. Since the sun hadn't come up yet it really was quite chilly.

Me & hubby after race, with medals.

And yes we did get ice cream Sundae's after the race. They made them with brownies, topped with ice cream, chocolate syrup, whip cream, and topped with a cherry. Again, who does that?

They also had live entertainment at the finish area.

Hubby enjoying his 2 free beers at the finish area. Free beers, who does that?

The finish medal is really nice. Not sure if it shows here, but it's a large one too. Again, I was impressed.

So all in all, it was a great race. Fresno really did itself proud on this one. It might be the best race we've ever run (although our hometown race still has the best course). It was fun running past the street lined with palm trees, especially wh
en I reminded myself it was November. And as I said, I am very pleased with how I ran it. I don't know my official time yet but my GPS time (which is off by about 10 paces because I turned it off at the first mat only to find a second mat right on the finish line) is 2:10 and change. I'll post my official time when I get it.
I wouldn't be surprised
to find us at this race again next year. Now tomorrow, we're off to Yosemite where I believe we will not have a WIFI connection. So until next time . . .