2014 LA Chinatown Firecracker 10K Race Report
Posted on Mar 01, 2014 under Race | 2 Comments
A Family that Runs Together, Stays Together
This is the 4th year I’ve ran this race now, and 2nd that I’ve ran it with my siblings and nephews. It’s always fun to run this race since I get to run it with family and compete against some other friends that are always trying to beat me. It’s also in LA so it gives me a reason to go visit the parents for the weekend and it’s a local race so it benefits my old high school too. I have a running competition with an old high school runner friend, so far I’ve beaten him in the last two 5Ks we’ve ran and was supposed to race this time too. But he didn’t get a chance to train and bailed out, so I ended up running the 10K like I have been the past 3 years. I actually did a few hill/trail runs before to prepare for this race. I guess it paid off. Results: 42:53 (6:54 min/mile), placing: 5/180 age group, 35/2387 overall. I actually got beat by my brother’s friend by 6 seconds last year (46:03), so my goal for this year was to hopefully run around 45 minutes (always nice to exceed expectations). This years’ time was the 2nd fastest I’ve ran this course, but I am still happy with the results and placing!
The course is pretty straight-forward, flat first mile then uphill for the next mile or two and then downhill for the rest of the race. I must have forgotten that there were some slight uphills around miles 4 and 5, which was unexpected. It really did feel like I was going up the hills very slowly, but I must have been able to make up for it on the downhills. I was tired for most of the race, but I don’t think I started off too fast since I was able to surge every now and then sprint at the end of the race. My pacing was pretty consistent too (outside of the uphills on miles 2 and 3): 6:45, 7:37, 7:20, 6:46, 6:41, 6:45. There is another 5K in LA that I ran the year before (was my first 5K victory against my friend) in April. We might race against each other in that race, but still unconfirmed. I did register for the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Half Marathon in June, so I should probably start training for that race soon. I also started looking for trail races in the next few months, as well as running meetups to find other runners and routes nearby. Once it warms up, I’m hoping to start swimming again and start training and completing my first triathlon!
March 3rd, 2014 at 1:04 PM
This race is always such a tough but fun challenge! I took it easy this year, though. Good luck in your training up until San Diego.