AFC Half-Marathon in the books for Booth

Most of you know by now my second passion is running. Don’t get me wrong… I’m not in the same class as these true runners…my ugly style and heavy feet would make most runners cringe. It’s my stubbornest not to give up and to accept the pain that brings me across the finish line.

This year I focused on four big races which ranged in size from 6,000 to 50,000 runners. The 50,000 head count was May’s Bay to Breakers 12k race in SF. This weekend’s San Diego’s America’s Finest Cities Half Marathon was full with 8,000 entries. My goal was to place in the top three in the Master’s Open (fastest guys over 40 yrs old). The goal has been met in the first three races with one more left in November which is the Big Sur Half in Monterey.

COMPLETE RESULTS

It is amazing the amount of effort it takes to put on an event with so many competitors. For example, many of the running races are point to point. The problem event organizers face is to get the thousands of runners to the start and find enough parking at the finish. These means buses, and a lot of them!!! This morning I counted twenty “Greyhound” style buses making over five trips to the start each!!! That’s a lot of runners…. Another observation I made while waiting for the start at 5am is “what are all these people doing up this early and raring for hours of muscle pain and sore feet”. I know cyclists put themselves through torture in a race, but most of them have trained for years and many have a different mindset. While observing all the runners getting warmed up and stretched out I noticed many are everyday folks, weekend warriors. What made it great to see was there were thousands of people ready to conquer their goals. I applaud the running community for introducing so many new runners into the sport.

It doesn’t matter what amount of miles you have in your training….a long running race beats you up pretty good. I feel my running mileage has decreased as this year has come to an end. What that means is paying for it during the race.

The AFC race was brutal to the legs. The start was a three mile downhill. That may sound good for a cyclist, but it puts a ton of pressure on the feet and quads. Runners are also more prone to blisters on descents. The race leveled out on a 7 mile flat mid section. Then they smacked the runners with a solid 2 mile climb up to Balboa Park. That really hurt!!

Todd Booth, left, with master's champ John Reich

At mile 8, last years master’s champion, John Reich from Arizona, made a solid pass on me. I kept him within 100? the rest of the race. Unfortunately, I was fried by the time we hit the hill. He didn’t pull away but kept the 14 second distance on me.

The amazing part of the story was at the end. While I was sprinting after John in the last mile, I noticed another runner gaining time on me. At the time, I thought he was another masters runner. So I really put a little more effort into the sprint. In the end, I kept that runner off me. When we crossed the line I looked back and noticed the runner was running in a flat moccasin with straps around his ankle to keep it stable. It looked like something out of the Roman times. I asked the runner named Patrick Sweeney if his feet hurt as much as mind did. And he replied, “they feel great!” Maybe that’s the answer..but I doubt it. This race had really fast runners at world elite caliber. The Kenyan woman that smoked my time also set a new course record for the woman with a time of 1:10:28. That’s flying! A 5:23 pace on a tough course. In fact, this race had super fast women in it. I was passed by four woman in total. Kudos to the woman! I’m used to the top international male runners kicking my butt, but now the woman…. uhhhh I’m getting old. Not that there’s anything wrong with getting beat by a woman. My goal was accomplished with a 2nd place finish in the Master’s Open. Plus, 22nd overall out of 6,645 runners. I’ll take it…