Drink Wine and Race

First - We Drink Wine

Saturday, Walter and I invited some friends to a wine tasting that we'd won a couple of months ago through a silent auction at a San Diego River Foundation event.

BTW...I NEVER win things at silent auctions because I always get outbid, but somehow at this auction I won two things. The best part is that we didn't have to travel far because the San Pasqual Winery has a local tasting room. Funny thing is that I've ridden past the tasting room on several occasions as it is located just around the corner from My Bush (which I had to point out to Walter).

Here we are...learning about wine...in a garage like atmosphere. No fancy-shmancy stuff...just the wine.

Afterward, we went to dinner at a family style restaurant in Pacific Beach called Mamma Mia. Walter discovered it. To be honest, at first I was a little nervous about the place. I think its always a little risky to suggest a restaurant that you've never eaten at. But we were lucky. This place was wonderful...very authentic italian food, served family style.

Our friends, Ari and Michelle sampling the calamari antipasto.

Two awesome things about the place. First, they let us bring in wine (which we had cleverly purchased at the winery) and since we ordered "family style," we didn't get charged a corkage fee.

To be honest, we're not sure what we were charged for. Here was the check.

Maybe it's Italian math? I love where it says "beverage" and the waiter just wrote "drinks."

Just in case you think we got ripped off, we didn't. There were 10 of us. We had more food than we could eat and we drank wine and we had dessert (Yes JoLynn, I saved room for dessert this time). $302? I think we made out!

Another good thing about the night is that we got home relatively early and I was in bed by 10pm. Which was important because I was up at the butt-crack of dawn to get to the Shelter Island 5K this morning!

Second - We Race

I woke up at about 5am and was pretty surprised that I didn't feel like ass from all the pasta eating and wine drinking from the night before. Hooray for drinking LOTS of water and taking motrin before bed...and also for getting enough sleep.

The plan, which was made after I got home from wine drinking, was to pick up Mik and then to meet Elsie at the race. The Shelter Island 5K is a point to point race, and yes, even though it is only three miles, we decided to leave a car at finish because we are lazy asses who didn't want to walk back to the car after our breakfast.

After finding a perfect parking lot, and some good comedy that involved watching as Elsie, trying to find us, taking a right onto a one way street, then deciding to flip a U turn (soooo wish I'd have recorded it) in front of a whole lot of cars.

Having located each other, we headed to the start. I dropped off Elsie and Mik to pick up our bibs, parked the car a couple of blocks away, and did my "warm up run" on the way to the start.

On my way in, I spotted Glenn from The Running Fat Guy! I knew it was him right away, and he is truly not a fat guy! Like all blog-friend meetups I've had so far, I felt like I was meeting an old friend. We hugged and chatted, then Irene walked up and said hello! As I still had to find Mik and Elsie (and my bib), we agreed to find each other at the end of the race for breakfast!

We did the usual pre-race potty stop (short lines at the porta potties), very little stretching, then finding a place toward the front of the field. Because this run/walk ends at Humphries by the Bay and includes a "real" champagne breakfast, there are plenty of walkers. I don't mind walkers. Hell, I've been a walker. When I run, I just prefer to be in front of them.

Elsie, Mik and I pre-race. Lotsa green.

Of course, as the race horn went off, Elsie and Mik took off. I managed to almost keep pace with Elsie for the first mile or so, but was decidedly behind her.

My race strategy, real honestly, was just to take it easy. I ran three miles yesterday on the 'mill, and I haven't run two days in a row in MONTHS. However, I guess I just have almost no capacity to "take it easy" in a 5K.

Mile 1 - Despite moving to the front of the field, the start of the race was still pretty crazy with a fair amount of bobbing and weaving, but as I was trying to keep pace with Elsie, I knew I was moving pretty quickly, and was more likely to pass people than be passed. The first mile includes a couple of turns onto some side-streets as we headed toward Shelter Island, and I tried as best I could to run the tangents. As we tut the first mile, I pulled my earpiece to hear the time. I don't quite remember what she said, but I know I hear NINE: SOMETHING, SOMETHING. I looked at my Garmin and it read 9:41. So of course, I got all excited that maybe I could come close to setting a PR. (my current 5K PR is 30:18, which I set last year in this very race).

Mile 2 - As we headed into Shelter Island, I started to think about the night before, and remembered to think of Ari, who said, as we opened another bottle of wine, that I'd remember that moment. For the most part, I felt pretty good and started thinking that maybe I wouldn't stop for water. I mean in a three mile race, do I really need hydration (in November?). I think not. Time at 2 miles was 19:25...still under a 10 minute mile, but probably not enough to break 30 minutes...darn that last .10 mile.

Mile 3 - Saw Glenn, then Mik, then Irene as they headed back. I made it around the turnaround, and THIS is when I really started to feel the effects of the night before, or maybe even the effects of running the day before. I wanted to pick up the pace, but just couldn't. Mile 3 pace was 9:57, still under 10 minutes.

Finish - I picked it up through the finish. My Garmin, when I stop it, says 30:31:22. The clock says something like 30:40. I was probably closer to 30:20. I don't think it was a PR, but I'll take it.

Mostly, I wanted to get to BREAKFAST!

Breakfast with Glenn and the herd...well Elsie got breakfast right away. Mik and I had different priorities.

More photos with Irene and her husband Michael. We met a really nice woman named who was from San Francisco and who was our personal photographer for the morning.

So, it was a great morning...meeting a new blog-friend. I think that Glenn is a better people organizer than I am. He made us promise to keep in touch with him because he's organizing a pre-race pasta-fest before Surf City in February. Thanks Glenn. It was great to get to hang out with you!