Brazen New Years 10K fun

I managed to get Mrs Notthat to agree to sign up for the Brazen Racing New Year's Run at Lake Chabot. She managed to talk me out of going for the half marathon, instead going for the 10K (which is 6.2 miles) since it was her first race. Since I have spent the last week fighting a bad cold and have not been able to do any kind of exercise, this turned out to be a good thing for me.

A couple of quick points about this event: Since it is all on trails, they have no time limit and encourage walkers. This also makes it possible for the event to be on a Saturday instead of Sunday (as most things like this are). They also limit it to 350 people, so the crowds are easy to deal with. They have a couple more events scheduled - one a lot like this one on January 30th and one on flat ground on February 20th where we all intend to do the half marathon. I really thought Brazen Racing did a great job putting this on and managing it.

Mrs Notthat managed to talk a couple of friends, Aleakim and Aicram (not their real names), into coming along. Here they are all putting on their race bibs. There were also timing chips we wore on our ankles.

As a complete surprise, Uidualc (not his real name either) from the San Jose Fit winter program also signed up, but for the half marathon.

Coach Luap, if he happens to be reading this, will be pleased to know that we all warmed up properly before the race started.

Probably the only thing that many would have complained about was that there should have been a few bonus porta-potties around the starting area. This is the line to get into the women's room a few minutes before the races started.

Not everyone at the lake was there for the race. There were a lot of people there for the fishing, who were no doubt startled by the large number of perky racers hanging around.

Mrs Notthat and I hanging out before the start.

Mrs Notthat, Aicram, and Aleakim hanging out before the start.

"You guys are going to hate me when you hit the hill at two miles into this" said Sam just before we started out. "No Sam, I love hills and can't wait to go up this thing!" I wanted to say. Sam's hill was a killer though - it was a mile long and climbed 600 feet. At the end, while I didn't hate Sam, his hill was not on my list of fun things about this event. Because of my inability to do any kind of workout before this event and my lingering cold, that hill nearly killed me.

This is the first aid station and the 5K turnaround point. Up to here, the trail had been pretty flat and fast. Shortly after this point though, The Hill started.

This is Aleakim's back - of our group, she was the only one that actually ran. At this point, I was struggling up the hill and was totally surprised to see her heading back already. So surprised I failed to get a picture of her from the front.

This is the aid station at the 10K turn-around. The people at these stations were great at providing things to drink and eat, but even better, they were great at encouraging you to keep going. At this point they had the bonus of being able to tell you The Hill was over.

Shortly after I turned around, I met Mrs Notthat cruising up the hill.

And then shortly after that I met Aicram coming up the hill, in WAY too good of a mood at this point. (Nobody else I passed coming up this hill was smiling.)

Shortly after I finished, Mrs Notthat crossed the finish line.

And had a Krispy Kreme donut. (There were a variety of things to eat at the finish line. I was good and saved my appetite for later.)

And here we all are, showing off our medals.

It was a huge amount of fun. It was cool and overcast which made it perfect for walking. Everyone ended up injury-free and we all headed to Carrows (motto: "Not NEARLY As Good As Stacks") for breakfast/lunch.

This is the shirt and bling from today. There was also a goody bag filled with 70SPF sunscreen, Paul Prudhomme seasoning salt (?), an ESPN plaque with an odd slogan on it (mostly saying that it's fun to watch sports), and other assorted nutritional goodies.

This is a close up of the medal.

So now Mrs Notthat is excited about February 20th, when we are all doing the Bay Breeze half marathon that is also put on by Brazen Racing. A cool thing is that it is flat and fast.

And we will be ready for more bling by then.

That's it - move along...

PS: Here are the official race results. For the 10K, there were 153 runners, and none of us were last. There were 110 half marathon runners and 132 runners in the 5K - this makes a total of 395 runners.