Our First Race

Today Jose and I ran our first race together!  It was put on by Frontera, a Tijuana newspaper.  It was pretty close to our place. The best part of all?  The race was free.  I love free races.

BEFORE THE RACE

To be completely honest, I wasn't entirely sure we were going to do the race until Jose got out of bed this morning.  He sleeps more than just about anyone I know.  The race started at 8am and we had to get up at 6am so we could find our way to the race, find parking, and register.  I don't think we've been up before 9am in the past three weeks. But Jose knew that I really wanted to go and it wasn't too hard to get him out of bed.

The day started out really cloudy and gray.  But clouds are fine for a run. By the time we were done, the clouds were parting and the sun was shining. This could be how Tijuana mornings usually are.  I wouldn't know.  But the day ended up being just as beautiful as they normally are here.

There were all different kinds of people at the race: old, young, serious runners, and non-runners.  I love seeing people at a race.  Seeing people out and enjoying running and exercise is very inspiring to me.

This is me and Jose warming up.  There were quite a few people running circles in the parking lot next to the start.  My unsolicited advice about running a race is:  warm up by jogging a little bit. My best 5k was at the 2008 Chicago Half-Marathon/5k.  That race is in Hyde Park and I decided to drive there.  I ended up having to park 2 miles away and it was raining.  So I jogged the 2 miles from my car to the race start. And it was the best I'd ever felt during a race.

AFTER THE RACE

The race was really packed at the beginning but it didn't take too long for the crowd to thin out. This is Jose and me at the finish with our complementary orange halves.  I finished in 25:29. I think that is pretty good for me considering I haven't been running real consistently lately.  Jose and I have been running together for the past week and a half.  (It's awesome having a running partner!)  He finished in 22:20.

I have been using these shoes, the New Balance Minimus, since the beginning of this year but this is the first time that I have raced in them.  I have a question for other people out there using minimalist shoes.  In the middle of the race, my feet got really hot.  Has this happened to anyone else? I don't know if it is because the shoes slide around on my feet more than normal shoes or what.  But let me know if anyone else has this problem and whether or not there is any way to stop it.

It was a really fun day.  At the end of the race, a guy was handing out fliers for another free race in August.  I hope we make that one too.