Seeded myself about three rows off the starting line. From last year's results, I felt I was probably going to be in the top 20 overall and I was set up in about the top 30. As I edged forward, a nice teenage guy who was with a girl who I assumed was his sister asked if I wanted to move in front of them. I said "Sure"...then thought about it. "Unless you're planning to go sub-20, in which case you'll be running up my back." He kind of muttered something about "sub-20" that I couldn't make out, so I started in front of him.

Of course he passed me about 400m into the race and never looked back (he did a 19-flat...finished 2nd in the under-18 AG).

My trusty Garmin 205 was still "in the shop" for this race, so it was a good test of my race management skills.

Did I say "race management"? Umm...not so much. Hit the 1 mile mark at 6:00. Six flat!? That's almost my PR for an open mile...heck, the last open mile race I did (in late 2007), I went 6:06. Too fast. But it also meant I had a cushion on the sub-20 front.

I could tell my pace was dragging a bit on the dirt trail section of the course (about the middle mile) and a few people passed me. But I held up my pace the rest of the way and two of those people blew up and walked the last half mile.

I felt pretty good about holding sub-20 and--although I was really gassed the last half mile--I did have a decent kick. Someone was pressing hard on my heels the last 200m (turned out to be the 2nd place woman), but I finished strong and solidly under 20.

Maybe go out a touch slower. But unlike the last time I went out way too fast on a 5K (Redondo Beach 2007), I didn't blow up. Really didn't have much of anything left, but I suspect I could maybe have gotten under 19:45.

Liz was out on the course for her 8K, so I walked around and did some jogging and then some stretching. Very spent immediately after the race...grabbed some freebie vitamin-water-type drinks...temperature was heading through the roof (by 5pm, it got up to 96F). Liz was hoping for a sub-10:00 mile pace for her race and I saw her coming in right where I suspected she'd be, making her goal comfortably. I had a bottle of some water-like product waiting for her and we headed over to the expo.

As always seems to be the case with the timing company that did this race, the results were a mess, but as they sorted them out, my placement didn't change. I came into the race expecting to be around the top 15-20 O/A and probably 2nd or 3rd in my AG and I hit both: 17th O/A (out of over 800) and 2nd of 26 in my AG.

I got a nice medal...but Liz got the real prize: She won tickets and VIP backstage passes for the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" show in the event raffle!


Nothing. I treated this like an 'A' race and was as prepared as I've ever been. Perfect timing in my taper for Wildflower, really.


I've been wanting to do this race for two years, but haven't been able to. I was surprised at how big an event it is: Over 800 finishers in the 5K and 350 in the 8K. Laker Girls, decathlon great Rafer Johnson, and local radio/TV traffic-helicopter fixture "Commander" Chuck Street were featured guests. Great raffle prizes. Flat course(s) made for PRs. Benefits a sexual assault victim unit at an area hospital.