This weekend I entered one of the smallest races I have ever done while visiting my in-laws in Paso Robles. Just a week before the Silicon Valley Marathon, I was tapering and thought a 500m swim and a 5K run was just the right combination of aerobic effort and speed work. There must have been less than 20 people signed up for the event. No age groups, no race bibs, just a few people of all ages gathered for some friendly competition at the Kennedy Fitness Center. They have a really nice 50m lap pool which I had swam in before. I was in the first wave with a high school girl who I was told was crazy fast, a woman who swam for UCLA in her college days, and a couple of guys clearly older than me.
I was the last one out of the pool in my heat. It was a great reminder that despite the huge improvements I had made this year in my swim times, I have a long way to go to be competitive in the swim. I was so far behind that when I started the run, I could only see one person ahead of me on a long stretch of road. I didn't realize the first half of the run was uphill. I passed one guy who was clearly suffering but there wasn't another runner anywhere near me, so I decided to just make it a decent tempo run.
I have no idea where I finished in the standings, and I don't care. I didn't even get my final time. I just love to compete and enjoy doing different events. This was my 19th or 20th race of the year. The variety of events and the different locations have made it very fun and interesting. I'm not sure I'll do another Splash N Dash anytime soon, but it was great to do a race just for pure enjoyment.
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