Woke up at 5:00am, and was in the car by 5:30 to pick up Michele in Mission Viejo. On the drive down, I was greeted with rain and dense fog. Camp Pendleton is World Famous for it's mud runs!
By the time we got to the base, it wasn't pretty out, but it was nice and cool. Easily found my sis-in-law Rochelle and her friend Chris, and spent some time talking about how treacherous the course map looked.
Chris in the back, Rochelle, Me, Michele - Ready to Kick some Buffalo Alley @$$Here's that course map... Click on it to really look at that elevation profile.
The real breakdown:
Mile 1: The uphill is no joke. I kept running to .94 miles, then realized that I could walk faster than run. Up, Up, UP for over 1.5 miles...Mile 2: Reprieve!! Singing, working the downhills to make up some of that lost time...
Mile 3: More uphill!
Mile 4: This was the bad part, especially around 4.4 miles. The course map makes everything look virtually flat, but it's not. The downhill was much more severe, and I still have trouble on the downhill. My knee stiffens up and won't bend - like an old woman, I tell ya! I had to "pull over" a few times, stretch my right quad to loosen things up. This worked and I was able to keep going.
Mile 5: This was a nice steady downhill, mostly flat, and it felt good. I was able to stretch the leg out, get back to a strong pace, and nothing felt better than the last turn and seeing the balloons! I had enough left to push in a little kick for a strong finish!!
Final time by my watch: 1:07:18. With such cruel, cruel hills, I'm super happy - I'll take it!! Definitely want to come back next year and see what I can do when I'm not coming off a 3+ month hiatus.
Actual chip time: 1:07:50 Yes! :)Rochelle came in at 1:12:21, and Michele finished, at 1:15:46. Yay, us!!
Was home by 11am to have lunch with my family, and put the kids - and myself - down for a nap. Yep, crashed for 3 hours... I do not apologize - Feels great to be back!!
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