Lake Merritt & Coyote Hills January 2012 & Isabelle Joins Raptors!

Post date: Jan 18, 2013 2:51:25 AM

January 22, 2012

Jared P.R.s at Lake Merritt and Raptors get a new member!

I don't think there could have been a better day for running than the one we were presented with for this race. The sun shone (unlike in Albany, which I'd left a few minutes before, shrouded in fog) but there was a mellow breeze. . . altogether nice. The 5K went off first, as always and when it ended we had more good Raptor performances. Nikhil, who had not been that thrilled about attending, since he'd been up LATE at a B-day party the night before still managed to win his age group with ease in 24:45! Nikhil was followed by Krisna, who took a startling one minute forty-two seconds off his Lake Merritt PR from January. Nice race Krisna! Krisna also finished 3rd in his age group. Next to finish was Laura who broke 30 yet again and finished 5th in her age group. Then came our new Raptor, Isabelle, also 5th in her age group with a 31:08, which is excellent since she and her Mom figured out that the last time she ran this far was back in November?

Three old Raptors and one new one (Isabelle on rt.)

We'd be thrilled to have Isabelle even if she was bone slow simply because a.) she's really nice--a perfect Raptors fit and b.) she's female (my team at MLK has twice as many girls as boys! Why Raptors has now doubled it's female membership and still has only two girls is somewhat baffling. . . ) but she is FAST! A 6:40 mile and 13th in the 6th grade XC finals! Yippee!!! Did I mention that she has a wonderful Mom, too? I don't know what the reason is (do we live right?) but Raptors has been blessed from the get-go with wonderful people. We don't grow that much in size but the quality of our members and the often elusive "fun quotient" they provide? Off the charts!

So, on to the 10K. Annabel had not had a chance to work out much because she has a lead part in the AMS play, but she was game to run. I told her that her base condition is excellent so she probably had one strong race in her, even lacking recent workouts. So she happily launched off the line and went out fast. Her first 5K was great but she pooped out on the second loop. Later she told me she spent a good part of that loop muttering: "Yeah, right Rick I have one good race in me. . . "

Near the end. Just because she feels awful doesn't mean she lets up! This is Annabel after all.

So Annabel had a less than pleasant time but she STILL took her age group and I'll rationalize it all by saying that it's good to have one crummy, painful race (which Annabel rarely, if ever has)! Now she has something to compare pain in other races with! She can ask herself "Is this as bad a Lake Merritt in April?" If the answer comes back negative, she can speed up!

Jared crosses the line with a new PR.

What can one say about Jared? He did it again! He PRd by almost a minute and finished seventh overall in the 10K, obviously taking his age group in the process! He's incredible AND one of the coolest, funniest, nicest kids you will ever meet. I'm still laughing about his scooting away and hiding behind a trash can to avoid getting a massage! It just cracked me up!

Jared escaping a massage!

Annabel finishes fifth woman at sold out Brazen "Coyote Hills" 10K

January 28, 2012

That's right, there we so many runners in this race that Brazen hit the limit of athletes allowed by the park and had to decline further entries. So that's a big race! But when it was all over a now-familiar-to-Brazen-racers name was up near the top yet again: Annabel! Yup, fifth woman, second in her age group and a stellar time of 46:03. Right behind her in the 10K was Tarq who finished 4th in his age group and 29th overall with a time of 46:05.

I love this pic! Tarq and Annabel celebrate after race.

Normally the coach would know if this was a "cooperative" run or they were racing but the coach was not there. The alarm went off at 6:00 a.m. I was wide awake but for some reason the central heating in our house is shortchanging my room. So it was cold. "Brrr." said I, "I think I'll just lay here for a minute and get up my courage." Bad idea. When I woke up again it was 9:15! Well, the good intentions were there! In the now-immortal words of Rick Perry (remember him?): "Oops."