Killed the hill....my race is done

Today I ran my 10k race in Marin.  It was amazing to be around all the hype and also to be running on such a beautiful course.  It was also bloody cold, so cold that I had to wear my running jacket as well as my long sleeved running shirt.  I stayed Friday night in Corte Madera, north of San Fran and just 15mins from the Marin Headlands.  Given this is a two to two and a half hour drive from Santa Cruz I decided it was just easier to stay close by.  On my way through I stopped in San Fran and picked up my "race bag" which, most importantly, has the race "chip" you attach to your shoe so they can electronically record your time and your race number......at this point it was all starting to feel very real!  The 10k was part of a much larger event so runners set off at different times.  The 50 mile (yep you read correct) left at about 5am, 50k at 7, half marathoners at 9 and us little 'uns at 10.  I arrived in time to watch the half marathoners set off.  Given I aspire to run one in Feb I was somewhat awed to think that the 3.5 mile hill I have lamented over is repeated (all beit different hills) three times for the half marathoners!!!  There really were folks in all shapes and sizes.  Stereotyping is interesting - I look at the lean, tall women and freak out - they simply look athletic in the way I think athletes look and in a way I will never look :-( !  Yeah well, so much for that, there was one shortish (these things being relative) woman who was  big and a very unlikely looking runner.  We had two hours to complete the course and she came in 2mins before her time was up and she wasn't the last btw.   So note to self:  size doesn't matter!  While I'd felt sickly nervous in the days leading into the event I got increasingly calmer as we actually reached the point of heading off.  It was grand fun - toward the end we link up with the half marathoners for their final leg - it's more than humbling to be passed by people who have already run 3/4 more than the distance you are labouring over......everything about running is proving to be humbling.  Not least of which the privilege of being able to run at all!
Anyway, final results 1.05 total time, 84th out of a total of 213 runners (men and women, yes a certain satisfaction was had when I blew off some boys on the hill stage....), 4th for my age group out of a total of 21 (yes yes age group 40-49....).  Oh and as a nice finisher I won a North Face fleecy jacket in a random raffle (sometimes you just need to show up!).  Pictures next week.