13.1 to 26.2 and other

State Street Mile 

Running is fun and more so with family and friends.

A couple of weekends ago, I ran the State Street mile in Santa Barbara which is downhill on the main street downtown to benefit the Victim Witness Program of the Santa Barbara District Attorney's office. I PRd in my age group cutting 13 second from my mile run at this same race in 2009.  It was pretty funny because when the 30-39 year olds took off, I pretty quickly found myself in last place. Although I was running swiftly (for my usual pace), I felt as though I was strolling down state street in slow motion. Having the entire street to myself and waving to acquaintances, friends, and family - in this small town, I felt like I was coasting at 20 minute miles. I was shocked to set a PR. Go, me! I must admit however, I have not been training for a short run at all and the night before the race, I went wine tasting then ended up having a couple of cocktails before midnight. I may want to in the future, train for this race to find out how fast I can really go.

However, I did just find out from 23 and me that as Baymax from Big Hero 6 would say it, "I'm not fast." They reported the following, "Olivia, your fast-twitch muscle fibers likely do not have the alpha-actinin-3 protein...Endurance athletes tend to have more slow-twitch muscle, while sprinters tend to have more fast-twitch muscle. Some of the variation in fast-twitch muscle depends on a protein called alpha-actinin-3." So alas, it looks like running longer rather than faster seems to be my destiny - one that I'm plenty content with. Didn't really need a $200 test to tell me that...just look at my previous race times.  Haha

In addition to my one mile dash, I enlisted my husband and my dog to come out and play and participate in the DOG MILE. We also made plans to meet up with Finley the golden doodle and of course her mom and dad. The dog mile featured maybe 50 dogs plus their owners racing down state street. Some bolted, the winner finished in 4:13. Some dogs walked, the most amusing to me - a cocker spaniel like mine - hopped wildly from the floor onto her owners butt and back on the floor as she advanced down the hill. Mabel our 10 year old cocker had a blast and so did we, participating in a fitness event for the family and the community. Can't wait to do it again!