travels, races, and other musings

I can't really ask for much more from a race than I had from this morning. My goal was 2:10 - a 10:00/mi pace and while I didn't quite meet my goal, I was pretty close and it was still a PR by two and a half minutes so I'm happy. I gave every last bit I had; I stuck to my race plan and had a good day. Everything went very smoothly in the morning. The race started at 7 AM, but we had to be in line for the shuttle buses up to the start line (the race is a point to point with no parking at the start) no later than 5:30 AM. I woke up at 3:30 AM, left the house at 4 AM and headed to meet up with a friend from Texas Iron for a carpool. Mark grew up here and had come out for the race, too. I arrived at his house and we left around 4:45 and got to the race site around 5:15. We parked easily, hopped on the bus and headed for the start. The start point at Cabrillo National Monument was at the top of a hill and was quite beautiful. We hopped into the port a potty line (in the larg