Race Review: 2006 Mainly Masters 10k

Conditions were perfect on Fiesta Island this morning for the always low-key Mainly Masters 10k. Sunny and in the 40s with a nice breeze to keep the sweat from accumulating. The very flat course involves running an inner loop and then outer loop around the Mission Bay undeveloped island. There actually are two races: one for runners under 40 and one that starts 30 minutes later for masters runners.

There is, however, only one official clock, so those of us in the second race keep time on our stopwatches. Pacing off the mile markers usually isn’t a problem; however, the city repaved a big portion of the Fiesta Island road last week, so we had no mile markers to guide us, nor time keepers. Like I said, this one’s small and very low-key and, quite honestly, why it ranks as a local favorite for this Zen runner.

I picked a comfortable pace for the first loop and upon starting the second ran up to a track club member named John. (RBF members at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon meet-up: John’s the guy at another table who took our group photo at Sammy’s restaurant.) We stuck together the rest of the race, with me keeping the tempo up by talking during the middle miles and John pushing the pace for that last, endless and breathless stretch. The official clock said 1:2x something. I hit my stopwatch and vaguely remember 5x:40 but then the watch started again and in a panic I shut it off, thus also erasing my official time.


So I think I finished somewhere between 56 and 58 minutes. Or was it 55:40? 56:53 sounds kinda familiar. Then again, so does 57:28. John’s not sure either, but he’s thrilled he came in under his goal of “a day and a half.” Me too. Other than seriously wanting to vomit immediately afterward, I felt great the entire time. Now I have a benchmark, though I’ll have to wait for the race results to be posted to know just what it is.

So the review’s in, but the numbers aren’t. All other fuzzy recollections for the day can be directly attributed to my selected, seasonal post-race congratulatory beverage. Cheers!