What’s up everyone! Here is my race report for the Valley Crest Half Marathon that I ran in on June 10th 2018!
Time = 2:44:49, Place = 144/220, Garmin Stats
Report:
I cannot believe that this was the 10th year in a row that I have participated in the Valley Crest Half Marathon, this was the 1st trail race I ever did as well as the 2nd half marathon ever when I did this back in 2009. How time flies! I do this race every year because of a lot of reasons, it is on a nice fire road with awesome views of the SF valley: #Trailrunevents who are the folks who put this race on always do a great job: it’s close driving distance from my house and for a trail race it is one of the more runnable ones with hills but not mountains to go over.
This year they added a 10k so when I arrived at my usual 6:30am for the 8am start the parking was already down below the parking lot of Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park where this race is held. I did the 10 min hike up to packet pickup and then went to my car to wait for the start. Since I am a veteran of this run I know there are 2 kinds of weather for this one: June gloom and drizzle or sunny clear and warm. This year’s race was of the sunny clear and warm variety and with this having an 8am start I knew it would get a little hot at the end but what can you do.
They lined us up and the RD Nancy gave us all of the usual pre-race instructions and promptly at 8am we were off! My goal for this run was to run the whole thing easy since I was getting ready for my first 12-hour timed race which is 2 weeks after this so time on my feet was the main goal here. Even with that being the case I was surprised about how slow I was going but it fit the pattern of the couple of months where my legs have felt extra dead. This run has 2 out and back portions, the first 3.5 miles are mostly downhill with a couple of rolling hills and then we turn around and have to run back up, I was able to run this whole first part albeit at a slow shuffle pace. At mile 7 we get a mile of downhill before the on big hill between miles 8 and 9. It was here that I did something I have never done in the 10 years of running this race: I walked the steepest parts. Luckily when you get to mile 9 the road levels out and you get some nice rolling fire road until the next turn around at the Nike Missile Base.
After the turn around it was getting hot, I was feeling OK but my legs were not with it so I just ran the flats and downhills and walked the up hills. It was a nice clear day so the views were awesome (I even took a selfie!). Before I knew it I was back to the start/finish area and VCHM #10 was in the books! It was by far my slowest one of these I’ve ever done but what can you do, you have to give what you can on the given day and that was all I had. I was really beat after this so I didn’t even hang out to grab some food like I usually do and just stumbled down to my car and left.
I keep saying I’m going to really train for this race one year. In my running/racing cycle though it is always after a spring Marathon and Ultra race so I’m usually coming off a break when this comes up so we will see next year!
Next Race: Cirque du Griffith Park 12hr, 6/23/2018