Race Report: San Jose Shamrock Run 10K

Long time, no post!

To be honest I've been a bit down about running lately & didn't even bother running the March 3 5K I was signed up for a couple of weeks back because it was stressing me out so much. I have more to say about that, but the tl;dr of it is that (thanks in part to bt), I WAS able to psyche myself up for a local 10K over St. Patrick's Day weekend and it went relatively well, so for now, let's all just enjoy a relatively positive race report!

I found this race when I was just going through lists of races that could work with my schedule. There were a few different Bay Area options for a St. Patrick's Day race, but this one was the closest & looked to have the best course and was also put on by Represent Running, a reputable Bay Area race company, so it made it to the long list and then the short list of spring options.

It was the first one I was really supposed to RACE-race, but given how spotty my training has been lately, it was hard to get too excited about that. I did not feel like I was in great shape and it's hard to get psyched for an all-out effort when you're pretty sure you're only going to end up with a mediocre result. Sure, I could just go and do it as a workout (or even just an easy run), but I never find that very satisfying, and if I'm just going to do a workout or easy run, let's be real, I'd rather not get up at ass-o-clock in the morning and drive for an hour.

So when bt emailed me last week to say she was planning to do it as a tempo run and did I want to get brunch after, I was relieved because a) that meant I had motivation to actually go, and b) I'd have something to look forward to even if the race sucked.

In the end I decided, "You know, just go and race, all-out. No, it probably won't be your fastest 10K ever, but so what. Just go see what you can do." My training hadn't been *great*, but it also hadn't been completely non-existent, so why not just see where I am.

Early is on time & on time is late.

I woke up feeling well-rested and optimistic (which can never be taken for granted on race morning); the drive was easy (given that it was 5:45 in the morning) and I got myself parked with coffee and breakfast by 6:40am. At 7 I started warming up; originally the 10K course had been the 5K course with a 5K dogleg along the Guadalupe River Trail, but thanks to all the rain we've had lately the trail had flooded and the organizers had had to change the 10K course to be just two loops of the 5K course. This wasn't a huge deal to me, and I thought for my warm up I'd just run one loop of the course and then I'd know exactly what was coming up. (In actuality, I ended up running a little more than the first and last miles, which was good enough.)

At about 7:35 I had a text from bt that she was at the start with my bib. I finished my warm up, got my bib and chatted with bt for a bit, which left me just enough time to hit the port-a-potties, change into my flats, and squeeze my way up into the front corral. The National Anthem played, the race director counted down, the horn sounded, and I started my watch.

That is, I *thought* I started my watch. It turned out that it popped up the message to update but I didn't notice, so when I hit 'start,' it didn't actually start, which I didn't notice for, I don't know, .1 or .2 miles? And then I spent maybe another frantic .1 mashing the buttons and trying to get it to start while also trying to weave around people running 12:00 miles or walking who had decided starting in the front (sub-8) corral was a good idea. (WHY.) I don't know exactly how far I'd already run before my watch was finally reliably going, but I'm guessing somewhere in the three-tenths of a mile range.

Now, I thought, let me just settle into a 7:10-15ish place & see how it feels. Alas, my watch was no help as my current pace was constantly jumping back and forth between 7:50 and 6:40. I remembered that the Santa Run 5K course I ran in December had been in the same area and had the same problem; it's downtown and there are a lot of tall-ish buildings, as well as a few freeway underpasses to contend with, and I'd ended up running that race almost entirely by feel. Given that I already knew my Garmin data wouldn't be great thanks to the start-button shenanigans, I sort of resigned myself to doing the same--just run by feel, try to push hard but not so hard that I would blow up after the first loop.

Race pictures were free, so please enjoy this selection of facial expressions:

And, that was pretty much the race. Watch constantly showing wack-a-doo numbers. Distance completely off. I tried to mitigate the damage by hitting 'lap' at the 1st mile marker, but I missed it. (I tried getting back in sync with them at various mile markers, but then I'd forget or miss one and be off again, so oh well.)

Rather than getting down about all this, though, my attitude was more, "You know, how fast you run has absolutely nothing to do with your watch, so just run an honest race, fight the whole way, don't give up, and the time will be whatever it is." I think there are pros and cons to running without GPS numbers in front of you the whole way, but one of the pros CAN be that if you don't know what your pace is, exactly, you can't panic when you see numbers you don't like. (I could see numbers, but I knew they were completely unreliable, so it was basically the same as not being able to see numbers.)

A highlight of the race was seeing Erin who I did not know would be there! As I approached the end of my first loop, I thought I heard someone yelling my name but I couldn't figure out who it might be. Then I remembered that Erin was often out supporting Represent Running events. Sure enough when I headed back out on my second loop I spotted her yelling for me again. Thanks Erin!!

Heading off on loop 2

I can definitely say I ran an honest race. Things got really hard around mile 3.5-4 just as they should in an all-out 10K, and I suffered pretty honestly in those last two miles and especially the last mile and especially especially the last half mile. When I made the last turn toward the finish and tried to sprint I was absolutely dying. But, not dying so badly that I didn't notice the finish clock flip over to 43:00 and go, "Uhhhhh, what now?" My lifetime PR set 6.5 years ago is 44:24 and there is nothing in my current training to suggest that I should be even REMOTELY in shape to beat that by over a minute. Sure enough, when I stopped my Garmin at the finish it registered 5.7, and while I started it late, I'm pretty sure I didn't start it half a mile late.

Decoy finish line! You have to keep running past it another .05-.1 to get to the real finish line.

My official time was 43:05 which I knew right away was completely, utterly insane; as much as I'd like to pretend that I'd just run a 10K at 6:56 pace, it just wasn't believable. Sure enough, when I checked Strava lately, people's GPS data was all over the place, registering anything from 5.85 to 6.44. (bt had 5.94 and also knew right away from her time that there was no way she'd run a full 6.2 miles.)

So, I don't really know exactly how far I ran, but I suspect it was right around 6 miles, which puts my pace at 7:10-11 and still faster than I've run a 10K in quite some time. Even if it was 5.9 miles, that's 7:18, which is very respectable for me. And if it was 6.1, it's 5 seconds per mile faster than my PR pace! Sure, it would be nice to know exactly, but I'm truly just happy knowing that I ran an all-out honest race at a strong pace no matter how you slice it. (Now if only I could train consistently for a while....)

Overall: 35/838
Women: 4/456
A/G: 2/92

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~LOGISTICAL STUFF~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Location: San Jose, CA

Date: A Sunday near St. Patrick's Day, presumably (Sunday, March 17 this year)

The Deal: The race website informs us that "The San Jose Shamrock 5k & 10k Run/Walk & Leprechaun Kids Run benefiting the San Jose – Dublin Sister City Scholarship Program is the newest Represent Running event." Represent Running is a well-respected Bay Area race company that also puts on the 408K, Across the Bay 12K & 415K, Silicon Valley Half, and a few others. There was a 5K, 10K, & a children’s run after.

Price:

• 10K - $56
• 5K - $49
• Kids' race - $20
• Remote runner - $56

Deadlines/sellout factor: I don't think it sold out. I think I maybe even saw race day registration happening?

Field Size: 916 finishers in the 5K & 838 finishers in the 10K (though there were also a LOT of DNS or DNFers listed in the results)

Staging, Parking, etc.:

This year the race was staged at San Pedro Square in Downtown San Jose. There are several parking garages RIGHT there, so parking was incredibly easy. (I think it cost me $5.)

I don’t know if there was a gear check, but there was race day packet pickup, at tables right in front of San Pedro Square Market (along with a few other sponsor tens & tables).

The Course:

The 5K course meandered along the streets of Downtown San Jose in a sort of uber-contorted lollipop. The 10K was originally meant to start with the 5K, then do a dogleg along the Guadalupe Trail. Alas, due to flooding from the heavy rains we’ve had lately, the trail was flooded and the organizers had to change the 10K course at the last minute so that it was just two loops of the 5K course. Too bad, but not the end of the world. (Unfortunately, most of us agree that it ended up a bit short as a result, maybe ~6 miles.)

The loop was not bad; just be aware of 1) a downhill/uphill around mile 1 (& 4, for the 10Kers) due to a freeway underpass, 2) a number of hairpin turns, and 3) questionable GPS signal. So this *might* not be your PR course but it’s still prettty decent for a small local race.

Revised course, post-flooding

Swag:

A sparkly medal, logo tech T, & free race pictures.

I forgot to get my shirt from bt, but tbh who needs another race shirt.

If you decide to run:

• Who knows how the course will change in future years, but in its current incarnation, there are a lot of hairpin turns and one annoying hill, so look out for that.
• Watch the weather! March in San Jose can do just about anything except snow.

Overall Assessment:

I’d certainly consider this race again, though it was a bummer about the short course. I think the organizers did the best they could under the circumstances and everything was well run and seemed to go quite smoothly. I thought this was a solid local offering if you just want to go race a local 5 or 10K one weekend. Maybe not a PR course with all those turns, but you never know.