Positive Results by Sabrina

It’s not like me to sign up for a race on short notice. In fact, I’ve never done it. I need time to prepare, check my training and overthink all of the things. I didn’t do that this time. My friends said they were driving out to a place I’ve enjoyed all of my life and if I wanted to use a race credit I’d been holding onto, I could join them. I haven’t raced a 10k since RnR ‘23. I’ve been thinking a lot about really focusing on the distance in 2026, after the marathon, to see if I can beat the clock from my very first race. I know a lot more about training and pacing now than I did back then. So why not start dipping my feet back in? I didn’t have a time goal for this weekend though. I wanted to see what my body would do with the general lack of sleep I’m accustomed to and the wet, bay breeze coming up off of the San Leandro Marina. I looked up my RnR time and had a party pace goal to be under 1:30 so that I would see my friends finish their Half Marathons and my ride wouldn’t be waiting too long for me.

But a funny thing happened at the start line. Cat was the only other Too Legit friend running the 10k so we lined up together. While we were talking, a lady walked by looking for a crowd to line up with to help block the morning breeze and warm up. Our new friend, Leslie,  talked to us for a few minutes and as you do at a race start line, we started talking about race experience. At 60 years old, this was to be her 2nd 10k ever and the first in 30 years. (I would later find out that she’d completed Wharf to Wharf the previous week but we all know that’s only 6 miles, so it doesn’t count, lol.) She was running with a friend that is much faster than her and had lined up closer to the front of the pack. As the count down started, we wished each other good luck and set off to complete our individual races.

As we crossed the start line, engulfed in the stampede that is the beginning of every race, we were still beside each other on the very narrow path. I started reminding Leslie to run her own race. She had mentioned having the same race pacing issues that many of us have. She starts fast, burns up all of her matches and then struggles slowly through the last half of the race. “Run your own race,” I reminded her. “Don’t let the crowd push you.”

“Yea, listen to her,” another runner yelled. “Don’t go too fast.” 

“Coach B teaches us, ‘Conserve and Crush. Don’t Dash and Crash.’” I called out. “Let your body warm up so you have fuel for the end!”

“I need you to keep yelling that at her,” said the other runner. “Slow down!”

“You’ve got this,” I yelled. “Run your Race.”

“I’m going to stay with you,” Leslie said. And she did. 

We chatted about her normal interval strategy. She had none. 

Just like I’d done for my first few races, Leslie ran until she got tired, walked a bit and then ran again. She knows of the Galloway Method but didn’t know how to set up intervals on her watch yet. No one needs to be staring at their watch while they’re running to count down intervals. I volunteered to start the intervals on my Garmin to give her a feel of the preplanned intervals and keep her slower for the first part of the race. I imagined we would run together for the first section and then she would pull off but we stayed together all the way until the end.

It was amazing to practice our conversational pace for the majority of the race. We talked about motherhood and racing with friends and running with kids and traveling for races and aging and TMI running issues and Klean Freak wipes and the blessing of fast friends who finish their races with fuel left in the tank to come back for you. When Kim, Leslies’ fast friend, came back for her after completing her own 10k in less than 49 minutes, we made her talk for a bit so that we could conserve a little fuel. We laughed when she said our walking pace was too fast for her, a problem we’d realized earlier that we had in common. Despite being slower runners, we were both steady walkers and many people have complained over the years that they didn’t like walking with us for that reason.

Leslie and I pushed each other over the last few miles, each starting to feel fatigued in different locations, on different terrains, as we transitioned from the paved trail to the gravel to the grass. When the 90 second intervals started to feel longer and longer, I counted down out loud to keep us moving, stretching to reach that next sign and pushing our legs just a little harder to remember what we had in us. When we rounded the park and could see the finish line I said “we’re about to hit another walk break or you can run for it because the finish is right there.”

Leslie replied, “We’re going for it,” and took off running. 

Kim and Cat yelled for us to take off and push the end (Cat even took my water bottle so I could pump my little arms harder.) We finished strong with looks of determination captured by the photographers. We finished feeling accomplished and smiling. Leslie and Kim both finished first in their age groups!

Even before finding out that Leslie had finished first in her ag, we were both feeling amazing. As a Coach, and an athlete used to running alone, I was proud that we’d stayed together the entire race and pushed each other. Just two hours prior, we were complete strangers. She’d driven all the way from Turlock for this race and there was no reason for us to meet but we did and we had a great race experience together. Looking back at my watch splits on the way home, I was filled with even more pride. After our first mile trying to get through the crowd, I had successfully kept us at a pretty steady pace, with the last few miles increasing slowly, and I had done it all by feel. My watch face was on the interval screen for 90 % of the race. I hadn’t been looking at the pace but I felt what was working for our cadence, breathing and conversation.

I learned so much about myself and about Leslie in the 1:21 time we spent together. This will go down as one of my favorite races for sure!!