Carbon Canyon

The day began extremely early. How early? Try 4:56 AM. Awake after my alarm rang for the third time in 6 long minutes. Sleep deprivation again, haven't been able to sleep comfortably in weeks. I awoke logged on and got directions for coach's house. I take a shower and get dressed. It's now 5:29 AM. Start up the car and I'm off, it is now 5:31 AM. Mapquest says 29 minutes. I say I can get there faster than that.

I arrive in Yorba Linda at 5:53. 22 Minutes. Told you I'd make it there with time to spare.

The run in mind was going to be another easy 10 miles.

The run began. Something clicked in my head. It's time to try to keep up. I am supposed to be running with this group. We ran up to Carbon Canyon. We pass that spot where my race was destroyed here less than a year ago.

It was senior year. It was the day of Brea Invitational 2009. The last time I came here was freshman year, I remembered the race quite well and knew what to watch out for, at least I thought I did. 4 years had changed a lot. I was 6 minutes faster than my first race, I was more than a foot taller, and I was no longer running frosh/soph but rather 1/2's. Brea is set up like this, A race with just the 1's and 2's, then another race with the 3's and 4's, and then a race with 4's 5's and 6's. The race was stacked, I knew the teams involved, Arcadia, Esperanza, Valencia, Brea, and of coarse our rival schools Colony and Azusa. Colony was our league rival, we had been wanting to beat them for years and were the team holding us back from taking league champs. Azusa was Alex and I's rival. They had two guys that beat us at our season opener, they wore racing shoes and we wore trainers. This was our time to finally show them that the first race was just a fluke. Bang! The race began and soon we were all packed in tight. Elbows brushing other runners legs somehow not tripping over the ones next to us. I was 400 meters into it when it happened. We begin running through the side of a playground. Person two in front of me moves out of the way of an oncoming bench. Person in front of me hits it head on, I fly over him and my knee smashes into concrete. Leg is completely bloody and this should have been the end of the story. Instead I get myself up and keep going. I had a medal streak going and I was not going to break it because I fell. So the race continues and we begin running through what seems like beach sand. You can't really pass people because it is too narrow so you are basically just tiring yourself out. All throughout this I can see my teammate and the Azusa guy battling. I can't do anything about it. I just keep going as my cuts begin to get covered up with sand. So painful. We hit the downhill and coach yells, "You are in 35th, lets get that medal." I put the hammer down and pass people instantly, 1 goes by 34, 2 goes by 33, 3 goes by 32, 4 goes by 31, 5 goes by 30, and the sixth guy barely outs me for 29th. I had no idea what was going on, all I knew is that I got the last medal.

It gave me a strange feeling to pass this place. But I couldn't stay I had to keep going. Teammates end up losing me at 4 miles, turns out they picked it up to 6:30 pace. I am left running on my own encouraging myself to keep going even though my ankle feels like it is going to snap after each unforgiving step. I finally arrive at the 6 mile mark at 46 minutes. Nice solid sub 8 pace. I get some time to relax. Then we are off back to coach's house. 6 miles to go. Surprisingly after 6 miles my pace has relaxed but has quickened. It's just Bradley, AJ and I running pretty relaxed talking about camp. One thing that connects all of us, something we didn't know at the time is that we are all Runner's Workshop Alumni. Crazy huh. We pass two high school teams on the way back, Villa Park and Valencia. They had such huge teams.

I finish the run at a time of 1 hour 29 minutes. Right under sub 7:30 pace.

The top guys get back soon after. We eat donuts at coach's house.

Then we head off to Original Pancake house. It's just Matt, AJ, Bradley and I there. Speaking of past relationships, hopefully future relationships, and just other random stuff. It was a nice break from all the running. The food was amazing.

Cherry crepes are so bomb!



Week Total:46