Run the Road to Super Bowl 50!

What an absolutely insane day! We can go ahead and call it Seahawk Sunday (even though I spent most of it in 49er enemy territory!) 

Today marked the first running event of 2016 with the Run the Road to Superbowl 10k. This was put on by the same organization that did the Seahawk 5K last year, so I knew it would be pretty fun. I'm also trying to soak in all the Superbowl events that I can. (Who knows when I'll be in a Super Bowl City again anytime soon.)

Being the good 12 that I am, I decked out in Seahawks gear, tweeted my devotion to the Hawks (and they tweeted back!) 

 

First off, I had the task of finding my way down to Santa Clara (which FYI, for all you Bay Area peeps...is not on the other side of a bridge. It's just South of Oakland. Who knew?). Since it was 0 dark 30, there was no traffic and I made it to the Stadium just in time for a glorious sunrise. 

(Yes, that early)

My race didn't start until 8:45, but I had to pick up the bib and parking shut down at 7:30. I did end up having a lot of time to take photos and dink around until it was time to line up. Being the avid Hawks fan that I am, I of course, brought my infamous Pete Carroll signed poster to show off. 

    I may have gotten some jeers from those around me...however, all I had to say to them was, "Well, at least we're playing today..." And they, of course, couldn't deny it.

When it was finally time for the race to start, the whiny voice inside my head began its usually banter: "Why are you doing this? You should have just run the 5k? Don't you know the game is starting soon. RUN FASTER"

I will admit, knowing there was a game on in an hour motivated me quite a bit. I was able to quickly shake off the negativity and get into my groove. The nice thing about this course was that it was flat and pretty darn open, so there was not a lot of squashed runners. My pace was pretty good the entire time even though I was a little sore from the 8.5 mile training run I did the day before. I wanted to push myself and see what my base pace time was for the start of the year.

Just like the Seahawks run, this one ended at Levi Stadium, which will soon be host to Superbowl 50. It was cool to run out onto the field (even though there was very little field left) and see the inside of the stadium.

I really enjoyed this race. I also really enjoyed the free photos that they took. I wish more races did that. We pay so much in entry fees that it would be nice to get a little memento without having to shell out more money! And for once, I actually got some decent "in motion" shots.