Highest mileage moth of the year so far even if it’s not quite where I had hoped it would be at the beginning of the month. Had I hit my weekend long run like planned, I would have been closer to 95. Which is so close to 100!! But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Did anyone else grow up with that expression? I never understood the point. I mean I do but why say it?
Anyways, moving on. This was still a damn good month. I stuck to my training plan fairly well considering I started the month with some crazy tightness and hamstring issues. March also saw me run a pretty great race , for me, so yay! I survived a work inspection and filled in at another location. My stomach was its’ asshat self but I tried to not let it disrupt training too much. I managed to some mile paces that I haven’t seen in months. I can’t hold them for very long yet, but even just seeing low 9’s and mid 8’s on my watch is kind of awesome! Now to work on maintaining them.
That means continuing to stick to my training as closely as I can. SLO is now less than 30 days away and I am looking forward to race weekend. A little vacation time, hanging out with runners and running an awesome race. There’s a local 5K I want to run the weekend after next. Firehouse 5K, it kicks my butt every year, but it’s such a fun race. I usually hurt for the following week so I am glad that it falls a little sooner this year. 🙂 All that said, I am glad that I already decided to make SLO a fun race as opposed to a goal race. At last week’s appointment with my gastro, we decided that the most recent prescription changes were not working. So I have a shiny new diet to follow. More on the specifics later, but I had to say goodbye to a lot of things for the next few months. So very many things. I am still figuring things out, so right now all I know is that the last few days have been some hungry, tired days.
I had a scheduling conflict today so I moved my easy run of the week to Monday. Woof, that was hard. Not sure if it was because it was a Monday, or because my side still hurt a bit or if it was the dietary changes but it was hard. So much harder than easy should feel. I was also testing out my new shoes. While I love getting new shoes, the break in period is always interesting. While I think I am going to really like them, I had unusual aches and niggles throughout the run. I stopped every mile or so to stretch out. I am not really concerned by this because it has happened every time I have broken in a new shoe style. It usually takes a week or so of alternating shoes to fully adjust. But that is one reason I bought them a month before SLO.
How long do you usually take to break in new shoes?
I registered for Wine Country knowing that it might not be the best idea given my recent hamstring issues. But, it being the very first half marathon I ran, I really do love this race, hills and all. I wanted to run it partially because of that and partially because it was year number 5 for me and you can’t break that streak right? That said, I was going into it with low expectations. I had a rough week with troubles sleeping. I pushed too hard on Thursday’s run and was feeling it in left leg. Plus the weather was predicted to be hot and cloudy. I was ok with the hot forecast but not so much with the cloudy. Clouds = moisture = asthma. So, very low expectations. Which I was ok with as I have been having some thought battles with myself while running lately. But more on that next time.
Race swag
She claimed it.
Saturday- So not a restful day before the race. I worked in the morning and had a full afternoon of errands and tire rotations. Lunch was mostly skipped due to that- smoothie for the win! In fact I ate less on Friday and Saturday then I have in weeks, let alone leading up to a race. I tried to catch part of the tennis team’s match but it was seriously over 90 and there was no shade at the courts so I only lasted 20 minutes. I picked up my bib and swag and did manage to drive the course. Yes, I know it well but I wanted to make sure there were no surprises. The plan was to update my playlist and go to bed early that night. Ha! I have been having troubles with my phone and it crapped out on me. It took me 2 hours to get it running again and by then it was late. So no new playlist. I ran to a mix of Fall Out Boy, Set It Off and Papa Roach.
Prior to the start
Race morning came all to soon. Since it was so close, I slept as long as possible before heading out. The lane to the grass lot where we park always backs up so I briefly thought about parking in a little lot about 1/4 of mile from the start line. I figured that wouldn’t be a horrible warm up but nah. I parked in the grass lot and wound up a stones throw from the start line. Literally, I could have thrown a rock and hit it. I ate nothing prior to the race and when I could have gotten out and warmed up a bit I stayed in my warm car. The morning had dawned a little cooler than expected. I was just feeling meh. It was kind of nice not being nervous. 🙂 While I had low expectations, I had told my mother I was aiming for 2:15, but really thought it would be more like 2:20. The plan was to text her at mile 10. I headed to the start about 3 minutes til. I met up with H real quick to say hi and then we were off!
Smiles at the end. 🙂
Miles 1-3- 9:36, 9:13, 9:15
And I went out of the gate too fast, what else is new? There is fairly large hill at the end of this race so I always intentionally positive split this race. A slightly fast start is one thing but this was ridiculous. There was no way I was maintaining that. Annoyingly enough, I had to stop and tie my shoe during mile 1. Ugh. The hills start in mile 2. I kept telling myself to slow down but my legs would just not listen. I even went so far as to try and bottleneck myself. I tried to intentionally run behind groups of people in an effort to slow down. No luck, but first hill done.
Miles 4-6- 9:19, 9:27, 9:28
Still too fast. I caught up to H around mile 3, it was a nice little check in. I admitted that I was going way too fast for my current fitness but had decided to just go with it. I figured I would hang on as long as I could but knew I was probably going to hit the wall hard at some point. But I was enjoying the views, the vineyards and the clouds and the morning sun and was having fun so I decided to go with it. My breathing was on point, so I figured why not? Just past mile 4, we turn onto the airport road. The road is Trashed. It makes the pic I posted the other day look like a walk in the park. After running this race so many times, I had a plan. I hopped onto the dirt shoulder and ran there for the next 3 miles. It was shale and slightly uneven but it was awesome. I lost H around mile 5. Miles 7-9- 9:25, 9:05, 9:03
Miles 6-9 are a series of rolling hills, I guess all my hills are finally paying off. Where the heck did those splits come from?! I was still feeling good but lost all math computing skills. I hit mile 8 at 1:15. Looking at my watch, I quickly did the math and knew that if I maintained a 10 minute pace I would hit the finish line around 2:07. However that didn’t take into account the big hill at the end so my math told me there was no way I was PR’ing or beating last year’s course time. I was really ok with that. I felt great and was having fun running and rocking out to music and that was the point. Do you see the problem with my math?
Just one of the on course spectators. (taken Saturday)
Miles 10-12- 9:44, 10:09, 9:34
Oh hello wall, nice of you to join me. My breathing had gone from nice and easy to labored. My left leg was feeling tighter as well. Both in my hamstring and my IT band. I took a walk break, texted my mother, and used my inhaler and then pushed on. I also used that walk break to restart a particular song. I have developed a weird fascination with Why Worry by Set It Off, I deliberately started the race with it and used that break to start it over. Guess it helped because look at mile 12.
Mile 13- 11:01
Damn hill. I walk this hill every year. If my math is right (ha!) the hill has an elevation grade of 10+%. It kicks my ass just walking. My heart rate usually increases so I end up walking more at the top too. But I know that going in so seeing an 11 minute split was fine by me. A girl ran past me on the way up, telling me not to give up and just keep running. Nope, I knew what I was doing worked for me. She started walking about 10 feet later. See, the hill is just a beast. I started running again but I was tired and it was so much harder than before. I pushed on though because I was so close to the finish. I really should have paid more attention to my watch. It didn’t occur to me until I was crossing the line what time it was. I crossed the finish line at 2:06:05.
Just a little tired.
Are you FREAKIN’ kidding me?! My PR is 2:05:57. 8 seconds. 8 seconds.
This race gives you a medal and a wine glass and a bottle of water at the finish. I always feel like I am going to drop something. My mother usually ends up rescuing the wine glass. 🙂 I had seen H a little ways behind me during the tiny out and back so I knew she wasn’t too far behind me, so we waited for her to cross. After chatting a bit, she headed off to find her co-workers and I headed off to stretch in the grass. I can think of 2-3 places where I could have shaved off 8 seconds. My math had been so off from mile 8 on and I just didn’t pay enough attention to my watch after that to know how close I was to my PR. Partly because I hadn’t thought I had a shot in hell of getting anywhere near that time. It honestly hadn’t occurred to me. That said, I am damn proud of how I ran this race. Yes, I started too fast but for the most part, I managed to maintain that. I ran the hills smart and I think running in the dirt for so long was a huge help. I also finally ran the freaking tangents! Which for the windy part meant running along the center yellow line. I just had to dodge a car every now and again. 🙂
Hills, hills, and more hills, I still love this race. Great set up, great views and always a good crowd. Did I mention that the male/ female winner gets their weight in wine? I will be back for another Wine Country.
The type A personality in me was torn between posting this first or my January Recap- this won.
On the drive down
I first thought of running Surf City back in 2011 when I drove NikeC down so she could run it. I have thought about running it ever since but the timing was never right. It still wasn’t the best timing this year but I decided screw it, I’m gonna run it anyways. Even spectating it that once, from the finish line and mile 4ish, did not prepare me for the size of this thing. I knew going in that it was touted as 20,000 runners but I didn’t completely comprehend that until Sunday morning. My mother and I made a road tip of it and headed to Huntington Beach on Saturday. Other than parking packet pickup was fairly simple. Parking made it kind of nightmare-ish. I was less than impressed with the expo. For such a big race I was honestly expecting something better. But at least I got out of there cheap since all I bought was a new Fitletic belt.
That day we planned that my mom was going to drop me as close to the start as she could then go back to the overflow parking and kill some time before heading to the finish line. That worked out great as she got me within a half mile and we wouldn’t get stuck in the parking lot trying to leave after the race. It just meant I had a 2+ mile walk after the race. We got to the start so much quicker than planned so I had about a little over an hour to go. After some unfortunate experiences with Apple maps and the freeways the day before, we didn’t take any chance. After walking to the start line, most of my time was spent waiting in the bathroom lines. The race start was 7:45 but I knew my wave wasn’t scheduled to start until 7:55. Even so I headed over around 7:30 because this was my first experience with a wave start. This may have been my first time but even I know corrals only work if the guidelines were followed and I saw so many of the wrong bibs in my wave. At one point I was shoved out of the way by some spectators making their way through the corral- really? Thanks for stepping on my feet too. I crossed the start line at 8:01.
So many people!!
Miles 1-3 9:48, 9:55, 9:46
The goal for this race was to treat it like a long run not a race. I had been concerned that I would try to push it too hard at the start like I do most races. Luckily there were so many people, I don’t think I could have run any faster. What was concerning to me was that I hurt. My shins, calves and knees hurt right from the start and that is not normal. I’m not sure if it was because of waiting in the bathroom lines so long or the short beach walk the day before or hey the 25K the weekend before but I was hurting. The two hours of sleep I got the night before probably didn’t help. My goal was to keep the 2:10 pacer in sight.
Miles 3-6 10:11, 9:59, 10:12
Holy crap, the water stations were a cluster f***. There was just so many people and most just came to a completer stop mid run. And who flings their arms out at water stations? I am surprised I don’t have bruises from how many times I was pegged. But there were plenty of aid stations and volunteers on the course, so that was huge. My legs were still hurting but I was determined to keep the pacers in my sights.Miles 7-9 10:23, 10:38, 11:13
I lost the pacers around 6.5 when my lungs protested the humidity. Honestly I knew it was coming at some point I was just hoping it held off longer. When I had checked the weather that morning, I saw a scary number next to humidity- 95%. By the end of the race it had dropped to 70% and the temp was mid 60’s but by then my asthma was cranky. So from then on it was intervals of run til I wheeze, walk it out. I also felt like a disgusting mess thanks to the humidity. My arm warmers, which were unneeded, worked great at wiping down my face. I also started dumping water down my back at aid stations.
Miles 10-13 11:22, 11:49, 11:04, 11:09
I slowed down more but managed to pick it up a bit by the end. I was still surprised at how crowded it was even then. I am used to it thinning out but it never did. I underestimated how much the bobbing and weaving was going to take out of me and I was ready to be done.
Finish- 2:19:00 Pace 10:37Once crossing the line and receiving the medal, there were a few photographers taking pics there so we bottle necked. Then there we went through little stations about 20 feet apart- water bottles, space blankets, bag of snacks, bananas. Then there was a row of finishing pictures before walking through the medical tents. I felt so nasty from sweating that I didn’t even put on my medal, I didn’t want it be all nasty. I just held it up for the finisher pictures.
Then we were finally turned loose into the crowd of spectators. I had no idea where my mom was and texts weren’t going through but I finally got a call through. The lifeguard stations worked as great landmarks. 🙂 I so wanted to just go sit in the ocean but wasn’t going to walk the 2 miles back to car barefoot nor was I going to put wet feet into my running shoes so I passed.
I’d dried off a bit by then 🙂
My overall pace was actually right where it was supposed to be for a long run according to the McMillan calculator. My pride would have preferred to be under 2:15 but considering the humidity and how unused to that many people I was, I am actually fine with my time. First half of the year complete and I finally got my surfboard!! Yay!
First race of the year, first 25K, first recap of the year! And it was a doozy. I tend to get long-winded in recaps so let’s see if I can condense this somewhat. And feel free to shake your head and grumble/ yell while you read.
Thursday- Checked the race website late that night and discovered a course change. They had offered a 5 mile, 7 mile, 25K and a 50k. Now the 7 mile was an 8 mile and the 25K course had changed. Previously the description said that the course was out the Bluff trail up and down Valencia Peak, back to start and then up to the grassy summit of Hazard Peak and back. Now, it stated that the course was up Hazard Peak, down the backside to a farther point before turning around. Waah. Truthfully, I had been trying to talk my mom out of doing the 25K for the last two weeks- all the way up to start time.
Race morning dawned bright and sunny. It was 65º at the start with not a cloud in the sky nor fog-in January. See where this may be going? There were a few pre-race announcements and we were off!
Miles 1-3 —-14:02, 14:02, 15:52
Ok, not too bad, we’re doing good. Damn, mom walks fast, I can’t keep pace, but when I jog I out pace her. Tricky, tricky. Mile 3 starts the climb.
Mile 4-5—- 18:34, 26:48
Hello Valencia. I start outpacing my mom, her knee was sore but it was manageable. I stopped and waited for her at times on the way up. Disclaimer- she told me to do that- shouldn’t have done that. The thing about Valencia is that it is deceptively tall, you think you’re near the top, but it takes so long. Plus the shale makes footing sketchy. But we made it- first climb done.
Mile 6-8 —- 22:14, 15:27, 15:38
Again, shale made the first part of the downhill sketchy but we turned to a different trail down. Hard pack, much better. Picked up the pace as we made our way down to the start line and only aid station. Those continuing on for the 25K and 50K went down some funky stairs behind the finish line before going through the parking lot up another set of funky stairs to another trail. Let’s call them the stairs of death. Man-made, uneven, random heights and absolute hell for someone with a sore knee. Can you guess what’s coming?
Mile 9-11 —- 20:53, 22:41, 25:37
Heading up Hazard in full sun, the temp had climbed to above 70º. My mom was in pain and slowing down. I was trying to not get too far ahead of her but sometimes I did and would double back. She started cramping at mile 10 but refused to quit. She had been drinking water and had eaten her fruit snacks but it was hot out there. We stopped and I made her drink more and gave her the pretzels that I had in my pack for the salt. I also took her pack at this point. We continued up pausing for all the runners coming back down and mountain bikers and horses. Once at the top of Hazard, I tried to get her to quit again. I also thought it was only .5 mile to the turn around. Ha!! Closer to a mile. A nice runner offered my mom a gel but we didn’t think it would help. I had become a water dictator and was telling my mom to drink every 2-3 minutes. I also noticed that my Garmin was off… by a lot.
Mile 12-14 —- 23:12, 23:35, 20:04
It was hot, she was cramping but refused to quit. I ate it on the shale but managed to pull some cool shale surfing move and stayed mostly upright. At least it felt cool, not sure what it actually looked like. At this point a woman passed us on her way back and says-“Oh, I thought I was last”. Umm, not cool. Particularly when there were 2 people behind us. On the way to the turn around, I pulled out my phone and noticed numerous texts from the Pops. Crap. I tried calling but lost signal. A nice runner man had given my mother 2 salt tabs at that point. They didn’t stop the cramps but probably kept them from getting worse. My phone rang when I was almost back to the top of Hazard- Pops!. My mom was a little behind me. He asked where we were (mile 13) and I predicted it would be another hour at least. He asked about our water- I said she still had a bottle and I had given her my Gatorade. What I didn’t tell either of them was that I was completely out by then and we had 3+ miles to go. I felt fine but knew it was getting warmer and that was still a fair amount of distance to go. I popped a piece of gum so I could trick myself. 🙂 I had started the day with 3x the amount of water I usually take for a half marathon.
The hideous I’m out of water face
Miles 15-16.2 —-18:12, 17:56, 3:17
We kept plugging along. I stilled yelled drink every few minutes and we paused when she had a cramp. She now says she will never tell a tennis player to play through the pain again. Just before mile 15, I looked ahead on the trail as it had widened out and saw something awesome. Pops!!! I literally threw my hands in the air and yelled this. He’d come to see the finish but brought supplies because he’s awesome like that and had started hiking our way when we had talked on the phone. He had his camelbak and 2 20oz bottles of water. He’s the best. I took a bottle and we trekked on. .3 miles from the finish line, the only 25K person who was still behind us ran past. Boo. Once again we ended with the damn stairs before crossing the parking lot to the finish line.
Finish — 5:18:10
Once crossing, a volunteer saw me first and asked if I wanted a soda or water. I said my mom needs water, she grabbed a bottle and ran to my mom. We made her drink that and brought her some watermelon as well. She was glad she finished but she was hurting. After water and some stretching I realized that we should have seen Pops by now. So I left her at a picnic table with the packs and water and went to find my pops and get the car so she didn’t have to walk back up to where we parked. I found pops waiting in his truck, he said he’d already walked more than planned and was not going down to the cove. We chatted for a bit and I went to move my car to go pick up my mom so we could all go to lunch.
I was stuck. I tried to back up and just spun my tires. Seriously?! My poor car. I was near my pop’s truck, so I opened my door and yelled for my daddy. There was group of high school boys out hiking that day and 2 of them came over to help too. I finally got loose and headed back to the cove. By now my mother was walking up because she was wondering where the heck I was. So with all the drama, we have no finish line pictures. Boo.
But we finished! Should we have? Probably not. She agrees that next time she will stick to the 8 mile. If this race had been last November like usual, I think she could have rocked it. It wouldn’t have been so warm and she wasn’t hurt yet.
I am not sure why my Garmin was almost a mile longer. I know I walked balk to her a few times but even she agrees it wasn’t enough to get anywhere near a mile. I am not sure if anyone else had a similar issue as we were the last 25k finishers and didn’t do a lot of chatting after. The race was very explicit about the fact that they only had the one aid station and that you needed to carry your own water in between but I think with the temperature being so freakishly high they should have put some water bottles up by the turn around. Just after we left my pops on the trail, a volunteer with a full camelbak was heading up. His plan was to be a roving water station, but by then everyone was 5 hours in. Looking at the finishing times, one 50K’er took the full 9 hours. It hit over 80 that day. Which is great for a day at the beach not so much for an ultra marathon.
Giant shout outs to everyone who helped that day- the girl who offered the gel, the man who shared his salt tabs, the awesome volunteer at the end who helped my mom. I am horrible and didn’t get names but they were all awesome! And I met another SLO ambassador at the top of Valencia- Hi Jason! And to my awesome pops, he saved the day,
A top 20 finish! I got lost! Have I peaked your interest? 🙂
Having been feeling under the weather for a week, hearing the alarm go off on Saturday morning was rough. It was cold outside, I was tired and my bed was so warm. What was I thinking? Oh I know, it was my pride. I wanted to prove to myself that even feeling crappy all the time, I could still pull a 30 minute 5K in a race. Stupid, I know. Since it was a cold morning and I was fearing asthma issues, I layered up in clothing. Yes, I know it’s cold air I breathe in that causes my issues but I just felt like the layers helped me be mentally prepared. As I still wasn’t feeling great I told myself 31 minutes would be a good adjustment. Like that made a huge difference. Head games, much?It was a smaller local race so I headed out around 8:15 for a 9:00 start time. My mom and the puppy were with me as well. I knew what winery it was at and its general location. Driving out I never saw any signs that said Villa 46, we came up on another winery that I had a run a race at and I knew that we had gone to far. We turned around and headed back the other way, this time paying attention to the street numbers. We find what we are looking for but it says Villa Toscana… and we couldn’t pull in the main drive. Continuing on a little farther we found a delivery driveway with yet another name but same street numbers. We pulled in there and parked next to some trucks that had already parked. Seeing the number of cars parked and then seeing the page of pre-registered runners confirmed that this was going to be the smallest race I have ever run. Only 17 people pre-registered. I think we barely hit 20 by start time. After a little announcement, a race volunteer told us there would be kids guiding us at each turn so we wouldn’t get lost. He also mentioned staying inside the fence. Then we were off! The first mile started on a dirt road but it fairly flat and wide so it was easy to run on. The kids directed us right and we headed out towards the street. As we got to the street I saw an arrow pointing right again but it kind of looked like it was telling us to run on the uneven grass. That didn’t seem right and everyone was running on the street so I followed. Let me clarify that the grass was on the inside of the fence.
Wow, that looks like bad form
As we ran down the street, we passed the delivery driveway. Some people turned up it only to turn around and run back to the street. A volunteer was yelling something towards us but we couldn’t hear him. A group of us chatted, figured they told us to stay on the street and all kept running towards the main driveway. Turned in there, headed back across the start line and back to the first Y. This time the kids sent us left. Mile 1- 9:22. I was feeling good so I was very happy with that time.
Then mile 2 came. Going left this time sent us down into the vineyard. Gorgeous views but I have run trails up mountains that had better maintained paths than that. I should have worn my trail shoes. By now I had decided to try to pace a tall guy wearing red in front of me and a woman in front of him. Then the inclines started. Ok, all were less than 100 ft but all were short and steep and on loose ground riddled with divets. I know I have maintained an average base lately but I don’t have it in me to run hills right now. However, I can power walk them faster than I can run them. So that is what I did. I lost red shirt here but was able to pass the woman who was struggling with the climb too. From there it was another small climb and out on a grassy section. Mile 2- 10:54. Ouch.
Mile 3 led us around another set of vines and through the actual vines. Have you ever tried to run between vines? It’s hard! Then a little down hill section that I flew down before heading back to the first set of vines. This is where I passed a woman in blue, caught up to red shirt and passed him too. I could have sworn we were going right and up that hill again but the kids waved us left. Wait, what? We should be close to done not running the opposite way of the start line!
I was also way too damn hot. Capri’s and long sleeves were way too much for high 50’s. I passed a guy in white shirt before rounding a corner and another little incline. Red shirt caught back up. No! I sped up. Another trek between two vines and it was up the last biggest hill and back towards the start. I briefly checked my watch because I knew I had to be close to 30. 32:something, ugh.Then I noticed the mileage. 3.2 miles and I still had more to go. What?! Rounded a corner to the start and a woman waved me on through another gate and up the main drive way and finally to the finish. Finaltime- around 34:4? It took me a moment to stop my Garmin. Finalmileage- 3.44. My mileage was echoed by other runners watches as well. According to my mother I was the second woman across the finish line.
Leading up to the finish line
So no, I did not hit the arbitrary time goal that I had set myself. But I felt good throughout the race, my lungs and my stomach behaved for the entire thing. And I passed people!!!! It has been so long since I have done that, it felt kind of awesome. Childish, I know, but still awesome. 🙂 The finish line was kind of gorgeous so we took enjoyed the scenery for a while before heading home. There was a man who ran the race with his chocolate lab so we let Zoey and her meet. Zoey was so excited to meet a dog that wanted to play and not attack her. The lab was small for the breed and super sweet. She put up with Zoey’s hyper level well. So it was a good morning all around! 🙂
Can you guess where we all got lost? The kids did a good job directing us which way to go. However there were no kids at the corner where we went on to the street. When we were supposed to stay inside the fence. Yeah. Oops. Poor listening skills aside, getting lost driving there as well, it was still a good race. I felt a little bad for the poor turn out. I hope they try it again next year. This time, I’ll wear my trail shoes. Oh and blogger fail, I didn’t go back down into the vineyard to get pictures of the course.
Slacker Runner 