Tag: race day

The SF Marathon Week 18 Recap

Race week, no, marathon week- holy crap.

I feel like it just last week that I was writing the post about signing up for the marathon. In some ways time flew and in some ways, I wish that I had had more time. I don’t think you ever really feel prepared for a race let alone your first marathon but I felt like a wreck.

Monday- Rest With my last longish run of 9 miles the day before, I knew I wasn’t running today. It was another day of flats at work and trying not to freak out.

Tuesday- 3.1 miles With the race so close, I knew I wanted to run but also didn’t want to go crazy with the miles. Especially since week 17 was such a small one. I thought abut running in work town to expose myself to more humidity but decided that was silly. I thought it would be akin to trying to run ALL the miles right before a race. So instead I headed to home town and temps of 93 degrees. Why not dry out the lungs? 😛 My calves were so tight. They might have gotten better if I had run more but as it was a short run, they never loosened up. It stressed me out and I headed home for a date with my foam roller.

Wednesday- Rest Not only did I think 2 days in a row would be silly, this was also the day I dropped a FULL 5 gallon water jug on my left foot. Son of a monkey. I later found a bruise where it hit my stomach on the way down too.

Thursday- Rest Yeah. I fell off my chair this day and re-bruised the same foot. Like fall on the ground, legs splayed in a dress. What the hell?!

Friday- 2.21 miles Last run before race day. I had the day off work and I forced myself to stay in bed until 9. Once up, I headed out for a very short run. Figured the heat wouldn’t be too bad as I was only running for 2 miles. I didn’t take the fires into account. Oops. The smoke from the Sobraones fire has been burning for over a week and the smoke coming our way made for a severe air quality warning last week. My legs felt ok but I was disgustingly sweaty and gasping for air after a slow 2 miles. I had taken a 24 oz bottle with Ultima in it and I drank the whole damn thing. It was only 2 miles!

Then I headed home to pack for San Francisco and to try to not stress. I watched a lot of Lost. 😛

Saturday- Expo day!! Ashley picked me up and we headed north. We made good time and checked into our hotel before heading for the expo. Seriously, roads and traffic in San Francisco are a giant cluster f***. Who designed that crap? It took the Uber driver 20 minutes to go less than 2 miles! It’s not even the time that made it stressful- that actually happens in Paso all the time but in apparently in SF red lights mean nothing and everyone loves their horn. Grrr.

I won’t lie- the second we got out of the car at the expo, my heart rate spiked. My Fitbit says it hit 105. Ha! We wandered around the expo a bit and picked up our bibs. I caved and bought a San Francisco marathon 3/4 zip. I hadn’t wanted to buy anything until after the race since I wasn’t even sure I was capable of finishing but they were selling out too fast. From there it was back to the hotel after picking up a pizza for me. I piled up my clothes for Sunday, tried not to panic and was in bed by 9. Once we had linens for the pull out bed that is. I think we frustrated room service that night. 😛 Surprisingly, I slept a decent amount of time. But race morning arrived all too quickly.

Sunday- Race day!! To be continued…

Anyone as accident prone as me?

Do you ever buy race themed apparel?

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2016 Rock’n Around the Pier Half Recap

I love beach races and I hate them at the same time. I have learned that I personally will never set a PR on sand. Partly due to the sand and partly due to how the humidity jacks with my lungs. Either way, I seem to be a glutton for punishment as I keep signing up for them. Plus this race tends to fall around my birthday so it’s become sort of an unofficial tradition.

This was my third year running some form of this race this year, second time running the half. I didn’t have many goals going in other than complete the first part of my last big run and maybe finish quicker than 2014’s hot mess.

Yeah, neither of those were achieved. In fact, I managed to turn in my slowest half ever! That said, this recap will be a little different than my usual ones.

The morning started off interesting as I made it all the way down my driveway before realizing that I had forgotten my Garmin. Seriously? I actually debated going on without it but in the end I went back to get it. I had hoped to run a little warm up prior to the race but my stomach was feeling iffy so I headed straight to the bathroom lines after parking. Major props to clean, well stocked real bathrooms. Once that was taken care of, I walked around the Rock parking lot and tried to shake loose. Then I headed for the starting chute. For the first time, I was actually in the chute when the race started. I can’t say that for the other years. 😛

It was clear at the start and I was hopeful it would stay that way. The first 2 miles actually felt pretty good. 9:59, 10:31. My legs were cooperating and the sand wasn’t too bad. I was naively hopeful that things were going to stay that way.

Around mile 2.5, we hit the rocks at North Point. They were no joke. We bottle necked and slowed to crawl as we all tried to figure out the best way to cross them without breaking our faces. Once that was done, it was back to the beach to run on. Around mile 2 we had started to run into the marine layer. And it was dense. But I ignored it. Until I couldn’t. 11:18, 11:18, 11:31.

I could not breathe. My lungs were so tight. I was slowing down with every mile. I seriously considered quitting at the pier. When all the 10k’ers were heading to their finish line and I had to turn around and head the other way. I almost quit. Almost. But my car was at the rock, my parents were coming to the finish and San Francisco has fog right? Besides the pier was clear so I was hoping the marine layer was burning off. Mile 6-12:29

I was wrong. Half a mile later, we were back in it. And it seemed worse. I was struggling big time. I tried running .75 miles, walking .25. Couldn’t do it. Next was running .5 miles and walking .25. Another fail. Ok, how about .4 mile run, .1 mile walk. More fail. Ok, walking was fine. Walking was moving forward right? 12:55, 12:44, 12:41

Breathing was so damn hard. My throat was on fire, my lungs and chest hurt. I was beginning to wonder if you could OD on an inhaler. But there was no where to go but forward. There was only one way off the beach.

The rock patch the second time through was sketchier- by now I was mostly by myself and there was no one to follow. Plus I was tired. But I made it and knew I had less than 3 miles to go. The fog was so dense, I was beginning to worry I was going to miss the turn off to head up the beach for the loop around the park. Someone came up behind me and passed me so I just followed them. Between the rocks and sinking in the dune sand, I had slowed to a crawl but I just kept moving. 14:33, 15:59, 14:16

I was able to pick up a bit of speed on the pavement around the park but not much of anything. I suppose I could have quit at that aid station but the finish was less than 1.5 away. So back to the beach to finish out my crawl. I was a mile from the rock but I could not even see it through the marine layer. It was getting patchier so I was keeping my fingers crossed for sunshine. Half a mile from the finish and my wish was granted. Way too late but oh well. 13:13

The advantage of crawling? I was able to spot my parents and wave to the camera as I jogged in. 😛

Finish 2:46:15 New personal worst!!!

So yeah, that was fun. I actually finished with a smile on my face though. It is what is. Was it the race I wanted? No. But I listened to my body and slowed way down. Had there been anywhere to go, I may have quit but in reality there weren’t any shortcuts after the pier so I just kept going. I do wonder now if the race is prepared for emergencies though, I only saw what looked like a course monitor once. And it could have just been a cyclist in a yellow vest- who knows?

I do however know that I cannot run 26 miles like that. So now I am hoping for a clear day in San Francisco. Fingers crossed!!!!

I still really love this race. I will be back next year… but maybe just the 10k. 😛

The SF Marathon Training Week 15

I have no witty opening for this one. That’s also assuming anything I’ve ever opened with before was witty. Hmmm, maybe that was a reach.

Like I said in my Friday post last week, I am tired. Just tired. Running wise, the week was actually pretty good. Work wise, I think my brain went into vacation mode way too early. Oops. That wasn’t great considering my boss was on vacation Thursday and Friday. I needed to be firing on all cylinders. I believe I completed most of my piles but I can’t shake the feeling that I forgot something.

Monday- 6.7 miles. 4th of July!! I met with Ashley and Heather for a very patriotic themed run down at Avila Beach. The plan was to do 8 miles but it was my third day of running in a row and my shins and knee were pissed. I ended up falling behind taking walk breaks but I eventually just sat on a bench 2 miles from the beach and waited for them to come back my way. Truthfully, I wanted to swing on the swings while I waited but they were occupied by children. Once they were back, I was able to run the whole back with them. I was fine with fewer miles. Then we went for a super yummy breakfast – churro french toast for the win! It was a great way to spend the morning.

Tuesday- Rest. Yeah, there was no way I was running a 4th day in a row. Rest was awesome. Plus work is always insane the day after a 3 day weekend so it was nice being able to just go home and crash. I think I did something else but I can’t remember.

Wednesday-2.3 miles. My legs still felt wonky. Seriously one 20 miler less than 2 weeks ago and I’m broken for days. I did 2 laps of the lake and called it. They were a slow, crawling 2 laps but that’s better than no miles right?

Thursday- 3.75 miles. Uh oh, 2 days in a row again? However, this was the day that finally felt more normal. I kept it short and sweet though as I didn’t want to push it. Not only is the marathon super close but I had a half marathon on Saturday. But I really wanted to try out my new shorts.

Friday- Rest. My boss is on vacation so it was an open to close kind of day. I did manage to sneak away for 10 minutes and grab my packet for Saturday’s race. And a Diet Coke because by that time I needed one. 😛

Saturday- 13.1 miles. Rock’n Around the Pier Half. My hope was to run the race in the morning and do another 7 in the evening to complete a disjointed 20. Yeah, that didn’t happen. The race was rough and I had some problems, but more on that next post. I did however get in a few miles of walking around SLO with some post race shopping.

Sunday- Rest. Unless miles of walking around Santa Barbara shopping count as exercise. 😛 My mom, S and I headed to Santa Barbara for a day of birthday shopping, S has hers on Monday and mine is Tuesday. It was fun but it made me realize how much I prefer SLO. However I am jealous they have a PizzaRev, that place was awesome. It was a long and tiring day and my legs/feet were fried by the end. By the time I was home I was too tired to even finish this post in time for it go up on Monday. On the upshot- I may have found my marathon outfit. Priorities right?

Overall, it was a good running week, I was just exhausted. I know that time frame wise I am at the point in training that I should be exhausted but I don’t feel like I’ve really trained enough for that. Life has been a little crazy for a few months as well but it doesn’t usually affect me like this. Maybe my upcoming birthday is just making me moody? That’s a thing right?

Going forward, this week would start a traditional taper period for the marathon. However I feel like the past few months have been a taper. So we will see. I know I still need to figure out water. My handheld is not enough and my pack is crap. Hey I rhymed! Non running life- I have 2 vacation days!! Happy dance, happy dance. 😃😃 I have nothing planned- it sounds awesome.

How as your weekend?

When was you last vacation? What did you do?

Bands on the Run 10K 2016

I love this race but man I have a short term memory when it comes to dune sand. 😝

This is my 3rd time running the 10K portion of the event and I keep cracking jokes that I get slower every year. The race benefits a local high school music program and is very low frills. Which is fine by me, I am always impressed that they have their own designed bibs. Most smaller, local races use the free Road ID ones. They offer a 5k, 10k and a half marathon. All the races are out and backs. I considered running the half in lieu of my long run that week but decided against it. I am so glad I made that choice.

Packet pickup took less than 5 minutes on Friday and that included parking. 😃 I was able to get what is a decent nights sleep for me pre-race- 6 hours- but that was only because the race had a late start. The races started at 10. 10? This is California! I have never had a race start that late. Most half marathons start at 7 or earlier, 10K’s around 8. If you’re really lucky, a 5K may start at 9. Maybe. I have troubles fueling properly on a normal basis, how the hell do I fuel for a late 10K? I know that beach races are dictated by the tides though so this must have been the best option. It was ridiculously cold when we first got to the high school so I was optimistic it would stay that way. After a fitness warm-up, the presenting of the flag, the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem, we lined up and were off!

Miles 1-2 9:35, 10:41

Mile 1 takes you around the track out the parking lot into the cypress tunnel trail and down to the beach. Since I was running this in place of the week’s tempo, I was perfectly content with mile 1. I also don’t think I could PR this course if I tried. 😝 Just before you exit the cypress tunnel to hit the beach you run through the drum line which is always awesome. Then mile 2 starts. And I pretty much came to a standstill. I’ve run 6 races on the beach but I still have no idea how to run over soft dune sand. I just keep sinking. I swear one of these times I am just going to take my shoes off and carry them. I tried to bring my pace back down once on the hard pack but the damage was done.

Miles 3-4 9:59, 10:03

I was tiring and that was not cool. I wasn’t even halfway, what was going on? I also noticed that there were more rocks and pebbles and things on the beach, then I realized how far up the beach we were. This was not low tide. We had to cross some rocks to get to the turn around point. Little rocks but they were still wet. The half marathoners were scrambling over big rocks as they kept going. To my untrained eye, it seemed like the tide was coming in but I had to have been wrong. How were the half marathoners going to come back?! Once at the turn around, I knew I only had 3 miles left and told myself to pick up the pace. Except I couldn’t seem to find another gear. The moisture in the air was aggravating my asthma but I just tried to ignore it. I just told myself to focus on running towards the rock.

From 2014, the tide was much higher on Saturday

Miles 5-6 10:42, 10:31

Damn, I’m consistent on the dune sand. Those miles are within 1 second of each other. I hit the dune sand with a lap pace of 9:40 for mile 5. By the time I was out, I was at 10:42. I was also regretting running without my headphones as all I could hear was myself sucking wind- ha! I was hoping to pick up the pace on the last mile but I was toast. The sun had come out the last 2 miles and it felt like the temp had jumped 20 degrees. Once more through the drum line and the cypress tunnel then back around the track to the finish. I saw my mother on the sidelines and tried to muster up a smile. Some of the pictures she shot show that smile, some show some truly horrible form. 😛 My Garmin shows that I picked up the pace for the last bit but I felt like I was running in quicksand.

Finish- 1:02:38
See, slowest one yet! 😉

Now, if my intention was to treat it as a true tempo for marathon training, then I mostly succeeded. My overall pace was right where I needed it to be even with dune sand miles. In all honesty though, I was hoping for a better showing. I don’t even think it was my time that disappointed me, it was how hard it felt. This was only 6 miles, how on earth am I ever going to run a marathon?!

All that aside, I still love this race. Sore calves, sand in my shoes and all. I look forward to running it next year. Maybe a little faster? 😉

2016 SLO Half Marathon Recap

Sometimes it’s just not your day. And that’s not always a bad thing.

Race day came early but I felt like I had slept ok. Much better than last year at least, my Up band tells me I got around 5 hours of sleep. Could have been worse. I had no idea what I was going to wear until I put it on. It was not one of the outfits I had tried on the day before. 😝

My mom was my driver once again (thanks mom!) so we headed out around 5:45. She was able to drop me off at the same place as previous years, so I only had a short walk to the start line. I ran into Heather along the way. Perfect timing! We headed straight to the porta potties. Lines for days! Seriously, for the second year in a row I started way behind all the pacers. The race started right on time at 6:45. I had no clue what I was going to run- I would have thrown a party for a sub 2:10 but also been happy with a 2:10-2:15. While April was a very strong training month, I was tired. Perhaps more than I thought.

Miles 1-3: 10:08, 10:07, 10:49

Not too bad. Miles 1 and 2 were about what I was expecting Mile 1 is downhill and 2 is uphill so keeping at that pace was where I wanted to be. Heather and I were running together and it was cool getting to race together. Mile 3 is where one of the longest climbs starts. Last year I motored up it with no problems. This year, it was kicking my ass. It should not have felt that hard.

Miles 4-6: 11:06, 9:47, 10:48

And my first walking break. I was already tired, I couldn’t seem to get into gear. Strange thing- my toes went numb on both feet around mile 4. Umm, what? It leveled off a bit and we picked up the pace. I don’t remember that mile feeling any different but it clocked in at the fastest. We made it past where I fell last year and kept running. Mile 6 was where we started uphill again. This is not a course for the faint of heart.

Miles 7-9: 11:44, 10:47, 10:29

Hello, walking again. This time longer. I am so thankful for Heather sticking with me, I was realizing that this was not going to be my best showing. We passed through the Cliff shot zone and I grabbed a citrus shot in hopes that it would help. The turn around comes a little past the 7 mile mark, then we get some downhill to enjoy. There was more walking in those miles as well. Heather knows everyone, so we made some friends along the course. 😊

Miles 10-12: 11:19, 10:45, 11:19

With only 4 miles to go and it being mostly flat to downhill, I was optimistic that I could pick up the pace. I say I because I was the one slowing us down. I was dragging, couldn’t find another gear to get into and had to use my inhaler a few times. It had turned out to be a very warm morning and was a little more humid than I would have liked but those things shouldn’t have effected me that much. Mile 12 has a bridge that we have to switchback up then down and it kicks my butt every year. This mile also had the last aid station. It was manned by volunteers from one my work locations- and my boss’s boss- so I tried to at least smile at them when we past. It may have looked more like a grimace. 😝

Mile 13: 10:43 -13.1 (8:31 pace to finish)-

Seriously, I was in a dark tunnel of misery here. Not really sure why. My calves were achy but nothing major, I was just beat and really needed to see that finish line. Once again, Heather was awesome- I probably would have walked so much more without her keeping me going. There is a tiny climb right at mile 13 that feels like a mountain and then it is all downhill to the finish. That road seemed so long!!! I spotted my mother along the side and tried to smile but again I think it was more of a grimace. I dodged some people and crossed the finish line.

Finish- 2:21:55

We got our medals and headed for the water. The expo area was kind of a hot mess when it came to recovery. Water was the only thing that was easy to locate. It took some effort to find the food and then more to find my mom. Once I did, we took some pics before heading out. I may have stuck around a little longer but that gel hadn’t settled well with my stomach so I was ready to get going.

Not the race I was hoping for but you can’t always get what you want. However, the day was still good. I got to run a course I love- hills and all- and it has pretty great spectators. I got to run with a great friend and there is nothing bad about that. 🙂