Manhattan Beach 10K

After moving to CA, I did not have much luck finding good road races in the Los Angeles area. For whatever reason, many courses are here are terrible with several out and backs. There's plenty of low key events, but competitive events with good courses seem to be a rarity. So I stumbled upon the Manhattan Beach 10K, no turnarounds, potentially competitive and an opportunity to finally put the 10K PR to rest and actually run to my ability in the distance. The only downside was it was 6 days after the Rock 'n' San Jose half and the longer races on the road can be taxing. I ran the Manchester Road race 5 days after Philadelphia half and was not fully recovered. But I did the Spring for the Trails half 6 days after Pittsburgh and was just fine. So a we'll see kind of deal. 

Course a little weird, but no turnarounds. 250' uphill, 300' downhill

Fast forward to race week and the half marathon destroyed me. Quads were completely wrecked for the first two days and easy pace a full 30 seconds slower per mile than usual. It slowly improved but I still had some sore spots and discomfort on Friday, the day before the race. I also was dealing with some achilles discomfort and this flared up a bit on Friday. I tried to massage it the best I could and not worry about it too much. With the combination of being really run down from San Jose and achilles discomfort, the smart thing to do would be to skip this one. Plus I had sunk very little money into it, just the $35 entry fee. But I don't bail on races I signed up for, and I had also convinced former NH teammate/roommate Matt Adams who moved to the area to race. So it would at least be worth it from a socializing perspective and having someone to run with. 

I got there probably an hour and 15 minute before the start and was disappointing registration was not set up yet despite being indicated on the website. I waited 10 minutes in the dark for them to get ready and got my bib. I was again disappointed to ask the volunteer where the bathrooms where and why there were two start lines and she didn't have a clue or care enough to find out. The bathrooms were literally across the street which I found by a short wander anyway. Warmed on the first few miles on the course with Matt and noticed right away my achilles was feeling sore and weak. Nothing to do at this point. The bathroom line was super long when we got because they didn't get enough bathrooms for the field. I only had times for a few strides. There were two starts on parallel streets so I just guessed and picked one. I guessed wrong because most of the top 10 eventual finishers were on the other start. 

Matt's a better runner than me, but had very little training under his belt and said he was just shooting for 6:30s. So it was funny when I went out around 4:50 pace and he was right on my tail. The one faster runner at our start I had dismissed as he was carrying his phone in his hand. I really don't know why people do this and he just looked like a fool. The first quarter mile felt decent from the adrenaline but it took very little time for my fatigue from through the week to catch up. I felt bad- flat legs, little/no drive and my achilles was noticeably sore and irritated. We merged with the other start and one guy was clearly well ahead and making a bid for the win. The next 5-6 guys strung out a bit in the battle for second. I settled into 3rd or so but got passed to 5th. The entire first mile was rolling and I felt powerless on the hills. 2nd was within reach but just felt too hard to run up there. Mile was a respectable 5:16 but not really trending in the right direction as the first quarter mile had been fairly quick. The slight uphills slowed me down and I ran an uninspiring 5:30 for mile 2. I found myself in 7th place, getting gapped and running 5:40s just after the 2 mile. I felt all around terrible and my achilles hurt. What was I doing out here? Should I just drop out? Run the rest at marathon effort? 

I decided to actually race and focus less on pace but rather running against those around me. Things had strung out a bit and it would take some time to catch up to 3rd/4th but it wasn't out of the question. Time probably wasn't going to be great but maybe I could at least race tough and catch some guys. I slowly closed the gap on the next runner. The 5K split wasn't very good around 16:50 but maybe if I closed well a PR was possible. I caught one runner shortly after and focused on getting two more just ahead. Rounded a few turns, pressed the uphills and found myself passing and dropping those two. Mile 4 was actually solid- 5:15. I was getting out my defeatist mood and trying to catch as many guys as possible. I looked at to the next guy and realized phone guy had dropped out, I was now in 3rd. 2nd was maybe 20s ahead and if I dug deep and really pressed maybe I could get him. The race was doomed from the start but I could make this a respectable effort if I moved from 7th to 2nd and closed well. 

Mile 5 was super hilly. We got a nice slight downhill to run fast on at first. Awkwardly crossed over grass in a park, then hit the biggest hill of the race- 80ft over a quarter mile. This was close to 10% grade and quite tough, I think I was running close to 7:00 minute pace here. But it was hurting 2nd place too and I was definitely making up ground. Steep downhill right after that and I didn't run it as fast as I had wanted, probably lost a few seconds. Few tight turns and we were on the strand- basically what the popular cement path along the beach in L.A. county is called. 

I had a flat mile to run down 2nd place, who was now about 10 seconds ahead. I thought if I dug really deep and found a sub-5:10 and a good kick, maybe I could nab him at the line. There was no such drama. I ran about 5:15 pace for a quarter mile before realized I was totally gassed and slowly fading. The flat path with no turns felt endless as I was simply exhausted and had zero extra gears. I'd check my watch only for the distance to have increased by 0.1 miles and now running 10s/mile slower. I ended up running as slow as 5:50 pace towards the end of the mile. He ended up closing fairly well and putting another 10s seconds on me anyway. Running on this path was terrible. I had managed it (in the Santa monica area) for a workout but in a race just not good. Basically a sidewalk and while not crowded, the openness/having pedestrains was quite annoying and killed my race mood. I managed a small, non-impressive kick to finish 3rd in 33:42. I wasn't sure how much extra distance I'd get and if I'd end up running under 34, so this could have been much worse. 

Ended up with a solid mile 1, 4, 5 and really dropped the ball (as in slower than half marathon pace) 2, 3, and 6.  With how flat and tired I felt the hilly course didn't do me any favors. Clearly I had not recovered from San Jose and the achilles problems set me back further. The smart thing to do would be skip this one, run easy and get healthy. Instead I pressed through and ran a poor race. The saving grace is that I didn't give up and pack it, instead I gritted my teeth and moved up the field. The effort was there, the result/body very much was not. After running 10K in 32:57 last weekend, 45 seconds slower today for less than half the distance was certainly a step back. Especially considering I ran 33:23 with half the race on a crowded sidewalk a month ago. 

I didn't think the course was very good or the race was well organized either. But good value at only $35 and the post race food was actually pretty good and I had a lot of snacks/drinks to bring home. It was nice to catch up with Matt who hadn't seen in a while and ran a respectable race for barely running at all. Full results here. This was my only race in the Los Angeles area so far, so at least I got that box checked. 

Lots of free food/drink!