Kaiser 5K

Last weekend, I raced the Kaiser 5k in Golden Gate Park.  Gracias to my friend, Jenica, for helping me out with parking/driving/coaching.....Of course, she also convinced me to race in buns, which contributed to narnar race photos :)

It was unseasonably warm for February in San Francisco (60s & sunny), and I was happy that I wasn't doing the half marathon.  At the start, I lined up very close to the front and went out pretty hard. For the first mile (7:05 pace), I settled into a good groove and let myself work hard on a couple short hills. There were mainly men running around me, and, of course, I enjoyed passing them! I tried concentrating hard on each individual mile.  In the second mile (6:55 pace), I focused on staying close to people around me and kept driving my legs.  I relished the downhills, too.  A couple times, I looked at Garmalade and really didn't believe my pace :> Frankly, I don't remember the 3rd mile (6:43 pace), but I believe that I kept telling myself that the race was almost over!

I know that once I hit 3.0, I left it all out there (6:29 pace) and knew that I couldn't accelerate even one more tiny bit.

Best news, I have a new 5k PR of 22:26 on a loooong course (Drat! It was almost 3.3 miles long!). I was the 9th woman in a pretty big race.  So, according to my Garmin, I ran at 6:53 pace.  I was SOOO excited after the race to average sub-7 for a 5k :)

Windmill 10K

On Sunday morning, I ran another DSE race in San Francisco.  This was a 10K race that went up and back down Golden Gate Park, starting and finishing at the windmills near the Great Highway.  I'd trained quite well for the past few weeks and tried my best to do quality workouts while on blizzard-cation in New Jersey  :> In addition, my coach had planned some tuning-workouts last week that were hard in a very good way.

I ran the race in 46:36 (7:29 pace) and was the 5th overall woman!! This is a personal best for me, and it represents a breakthrough in my race pace since the Fall.  Soooo, what does a breakthrough race feel like?

Well, I did a good warm up and lined up near the front.  It was a clear, cool, and crisp morning for a race. I worked hard but not too hard in the first mile.  I checked my heartrate and trusted my coach that Zone 4 was okay for racing, and that I could hang on for 40+ minutes in Zone 4. I focused on people in front of me and closing the gap. I also paid attention to the terrain---if it was flatter, I pushed myself, if it was the end of an uphill, I'd work my arms, and if it was a downhill, I'd let myself cruise.  I reminded myself it was only 6 miles and celebrated getting to the turnaround at 3.1 miles :) I also reminded myself that it was supposed to hurt and to go that "hurty" place :O

With less than a mile left, I just told myself to bring it in and keep moving.  I was pretty out of it for the last 1/2 mile and really could only concentrate on one stride at a time.  There's something about driving down to the finish line in which your vision ONLY sees the finish line. Woh, I think I might be addicted to 10Ks!

Run by me

If you go for a long run with someone, you end up talking a lot about running socks, fueling, future races, and life :) There's something about running that gives you space and time to share and reflect, which are pretty important things.

Today, I ran 20 miles with Tamara. We soaked up the California sunshine and took in some lovely views of the Cliff House, Pacific Ocean and Golden Gate Park.  It felt good to get into endurance mode and just let my legs tick off the miles. That meant no stressing over pace! And, I'm pleased to say that, although the last 3 miles took some extra determination, I managed the jump in mileage up to 20 quite well.

Racin' Lake Merced

I think this was one of the coldest races that I've ever run....and, yes, it was in San Francisco in July :) But, I never complain about running in cool weather!! My coach wanted me to treat this as a tune-up for the half marathon. So, I got a tiny-taper and made sure to gel-up, etc. I ran the 4.5 mile race around Lake Merced in 34:47 (7:46 pace). Here's the beef on my race:

7:43-- I started out with the speedy peeps, felt strong, and held myself back to not be a jackrabbit...

7:31--There was a rad downhill, I relaxed, and I passed a couple strong women runners. I was concerned that they'd pass-me-back, but....I got 'em!!

7:55--Midway through this mile, I thought I was toast. My legs felt like jello, my breathing was off, there was a gradual uphill. I kept truckin' away and tried looking ahead to pull myself forward.

7:49--I'm really proud of this mile (even though it's slower than my goal 7:45 pace) because I convinced myself I was almost done. So, I pushed through some pain--with plenty of arm swinging and wheezing. My breathing felt a bit off by this point. Oh, and I was feeling pukey, too, which is GREAT sign that you're racin' and not just out for a run :O

7:57 (final 0.48)-- Oh, boy, I was giving it my all just reminding myself to move my legs. I lacked a kick. Near the finish, we had to run across a patch of grass, and I really had to concentrate to maintain my balance. My vision was wonky, too-- like I couldn't really focus. But, hey, I made it across the finish!

Post-race, there were plenty of refreshments (the chocolate cookies were delish), and I chatted with a few runners. Kudos again to the Dolphin South End running club because they put on really nice & low key races...this race had about 70 runners and the entry fee was $1! I'll be running more DSE races in the future.

Speed in Sunny SF

Today's totally fun fartlek workout was 3 minutes-2 minutes-1 minutes speedy with 2 minutes easy in-between. My legs were happy to be working, and I loved cruising down and up Lake Street in San Francisco (thanks, Jenica, for sharing that route with me!). It was a lovely afternoon, with plenty of sunshine :)

The next couple weeks will still technically be recovery time from the marathon, but I do want to incorporate speedwork into my low-mileage training plus some swimming. as summer is just around the corner....

8

Final long run of the training cycle---8 flat miles at Crissy Field in the lovely San Francisco sunshine--is done. Jenica and I talked about how the training flew by and felt easy--even though it was most definitely our longest and toughest training plan yet, so it'll be interesting to see what our results are. We celebrated with delectable waffles & some sunning :) I should take care of some house and work stuff this weekend but also want to spend some time relaxing, thinking about my race, and breathing.....

Marathon Pace in Golden Gate Park

I'm reporting back after a confidence building long pace workout. In honor of Jenica's birthday, we ran 20 miles with 9 miles at goal marathon pace (my best guess is that my pace range should be 8:45-55 minutes per mile). My first 3 mile set averaged 8:48, while the second averaged 8:41....For the final 3 mile set, I ran 8:35 with the final mile at 8:28 pace! Woot!!

Tomorrow, I will be watching and cheering on runners at the Oakland Marathon near mile 23. Looking forward to screaming & handing out treats to folks running through the streets of my city!

The Garm ate my data!

I promise I'm not making up these paces or nuttin'....I ran a bit over 14 miles in Golden Gate park and along the Great Highway. And the 5 pace miles felt terrific, with all of them speedier than my 8:55 goal marathon pace, plus several miles sub 8:45.

BUT- while Garmalade was syncing with my new laptop it deleted today's training data :( So, I manually entered my mileage, noted my pace, and am moving on with the weekend!

High fives

I had a blast pacing my running buddy, J-chica, to a ginormous PR of 2:10 at the Kaiser Half Marathon in San Francisco! So, congratulations to J, and this experience made me think more about how cool it is to coach runners :)

It was great running weather with some fantastic views of the Pacific's mean, winter waves. I felt like I did good job with hydration (lots of water yesterday afternoon & evening plus a bottle with Nuun during the race) and fueling (1 gel around mile 6.5). Garmalade was extremely helpful for maintaining an even pace over the 13 miles, and it was useful to think of each mile as a new lap to run at a certain speed.

Happy Hanukkah!

Best wishes for warm and joyous Hanukkah celebrations! Prior to this evening's fried potato pancakes and merriment, I went for a 13 mile run through the soaked city of SF with J (We ran through medium rain, mist, cloudiness, some sun, some piercing rain, light rain, and more medium rain. And, yes, our feet got soaked!).

Driving back home, I thought of some awesome running-related gifts....

1) a shiny marathon PR :)

2) analysis of my running form

3) personal training for upper body/core strength

4) new running clothes, socks, and shoes

5) fresh pasta & new flavors of gels and Nuun hydration tablets

6) massage

7) spa/sauna

8) pedicure

Neither rain, nor thunder, nor hail shall keep me from training

An oddity arrived in the Bay Area--a thunderstorm that tried to throw a wrench into my training plans.

Despite the rain and storminess, I drove out to Great Highway in SF, and ran up past the Cliff House, then through Golden Gate Park past the De Young Museum (I should check out the Tut exhibit...), hearing some major rumblings 'o' thunder :O I ran back down through the park and out along Ocean Beach. There was some tiny hail at this point. Then ran up Lincoln to Sunset Ave. (site of my infamous fall during SF marathon trainin).

Sheesh- I guess it was quite a tour of the Richmond/Sunset!! All in all, a damp 19.4 miles. Thank goodness for hot showers, cold beers, and delish burgers :P

Racing up, down, and around SF

Here's an epic report of the 2009 San Francisco marathon, but if you want the hilariously short version, view this video!

Night before:
After a very slothful Saturday, I enjoyed a pasta dinner at home with Trader Joe's marinara sauce and red velvet cake from the Grand Lake farmers market for dessert! I got in bed before 10pm and actually managed to fall asleep without too much tossing and turning.

Rise and Shine:
I woke up with my 3:45 am alarm. I chugged some water, made coffee and toast with peanut butter and watched a few minutes of Valley Girl on tv (who knew that great 80s movies would be on at 3 am?!?). I took a quick, hot shower to help warm up. I got dressed and sunscreened up and felt surprisingly awake and alert. Thanks to adrenaline, it really didn't feel like 4 am. By the time we got in the car, I had the butterflies. Fortunately, the drive to the start was easy, and I only had to walk a couple blocks to the starting area and, oh so important, porta potties! After taking care of business, I walked and hopped around to get a little blood flowing and burn off nervous energy, and waited for Jenica in the dark with a zillion other runners doing their thang.


We lined up together in the 4-4:15 corral with full and half marathoners mixed together. I need to mention that races that combine fulls and halfs are kind of demoralizing for fullers. It's really not fair to see the halfers at mile 12- they have 1 mile to complete, but you have 14 to crank through. And at mile 20- they've done 7 miles, while your leggies have already done 20.

Start it Up: Miles 1-4
I stuck to my race plan for the first few miles. I kept reminding myself that it should feel too easy. If the pace felt at all hard, I forced myself to relax and jog a few steps. My breathing was easy and there wasn't a niggle or ache in the leggies. It was quite grey and cool- absolutely perfect running weather. I tried my best to run in straight lines and not do too much sprinting around people or weaving around because that only wastes energy and adds mileage.

Over and back the Golden Gate Bridge: Miles 5-10
Crossing the bridge was hectic, to say the least. I couldn't get in a relaxed groove because we were so packed on the bridge. Not everybody was so-well versed in race etiquette; there were walkers on the left and people stopping to take photos. So I had to dodge some mayhem. I felt really strong around mile 8 and ran with a really nice woman from BC, Canada, which was a great distraction.

Happy Miles: Miles 11-12
I worked hard getting up the Presidio Hill but had a blast cruising downhill toward Baker Beach, which was the most scenic part of the race course. The Pacific Ocean looked rad. I turned on my iPod, enjoyed the playlist, and found a good groove. These miles were pure flow because they felt more like a dance than a run.

In Da Park: Miles 13-19
I admit that the downhill through the park was fun, and I felt strong and terrific at mile 12ish. I looked around and was proud to be surrounded by other tenacious runners and was feeling confident in my ability to hang on! In fact, it was feeling too easy, but I told myself to concentrate on these middle miles of the race. Then there was an interminable, gradual climb through the park with the 2nd half marathoners. We had to read a bunch of signs to stay on course, and, at one point, I thought I'd gone in the wrong directions and almost broke down. But then I realized that I *was* on track with the full marathoners. Oh lordy, so many miles in that park. To add insult to injury, I've trained so much in that park so the views didn't provide any distraction.

Haight Street: Miles 20-21
I had some pep at the beginning of Haight Street because I was stoked to have exited the never-ending Golden Gate park. My legs still felt decent , and I think my music and the mile 17 roctane was helping me. I was smiling and encouraging other runners, which also motivated me.

Mission Runpossible: Miles 21-22
Running down 16th street is when things got a bit weird...A bit past Mission St., I noticed that my visor was sliding down over my eyes, so I had to keep pushing it up. This had never happened before on any long runs, so I was a little annoyed and took my visor off. This might not sound like *that* much of a big deal, but you can ask anyone, I wear a hat or visor for 98% of my runs. Therefore, in hindsight, I'm deeming the visor removal around mile 21.5 as the beginning of the wall. I just don't think my brain worked quite right after this point!!

Potrero H-E-L-L & Dog Patch: Miles 22-24
To be fair, the Potrero neighborhood is totally rad (ie- delish Goat Hill pizza!). Plus, a friend from grad school was oh so nice to come out on Connecticut St. (at mile 23) to cheer me on (thanks, Lisa!). But, honestly, I was in my own personal runners hell during the segment through the Potrero Hill and Dogpatch neighborhoods of SF. There were some odd hills and plenty of turns. Yes, my legs were moving. In fact, I felt like I was working really, really hard to eek out a slooow pace. Oh well. I was progressing along the course and not stopping. Just telling myself to go another mile. I was staring at the ground.


At that point, there wasn't that much reflection or body-checks happening, and I'd forgotten about the various strategies for dealing with handling long runs. In future races, I'd love to remember to use my strategies to dig deep, breathe deeply, and say positive mantras during the final miles (I honestly think that's the #1 thing I need to work on!).

Ball Park: Mile 25
Yeah, I could see AT & T Park for awhile before getting there (due to the sloooowed down pace). I think I recall 'Highway to Hell' playing on my iPod- yikes! At this point, my breathing felt strange- somewhere between a hair ball (well, what I imagine a hair ball feels like for my cat, Amiga) and an asthma attack (which I've never really had). I actually forced myself to slow down to remind myself to breathe in and exhale; it was almost like I lacked the coordination of my nose, mouth, lungs, etc.

I was definitely looking forward to seeing that baseball stadium because I knew that meant that I had just another mile to survive. You'd think I was a crazed Giants fan or something, but I'm not! I ran for a little while with a really nice woman with long braids. We encouraged each other, and she was so sweet. It was helpful to get the positivity at this point in the race. After passing the stadium, I tried to figure out how to pull myself together so Jeff (who was going to be spectating around mile 26) wouldn't think I'd totally lost it. At one point, I was going to beg him to walk with me. Then I told myself that I needed to pick it up and force the speed when I saw him. But I also *had* to share with him that I was in pain. Don't know why, but it was really helpful to tell the hubby that I was suffering. I suppose I needed him to carry a bit of the exhausted pain for me :(

Finito: Mile 26
With the finish line in sight, I knew I needed to book it to get in under 4:20. I kicked and couldn't really feel my legs but focused on the big finish line banner and finished in 4:19:30. I'm proud to report that I finished in the top 30% of female finishers.

A fun statistic is that, according to Garmalade, I actually ran 26.6 miles (dang those extra .4 miles!) at an average pace of 9:46 min/mile, so if I'd run exactly 26.2 miles at that pace, my finish time would have been a smokin' 4:15!


The post-race celebration included fried chicken at Luka's plus grapefruit cocktails to die (or run 26.6 miles) for! And about 36 hours post-race, I have extraordinarily sore hamstrings and quads but I can say that I still love running and crazily want to complete more marathons ;)

4:19!

I ran a shiny new personal-best-time at the SF Marathon today, 4:19!

There were hills. My version of hitting 'the wall' around mile 22 felt more like I fell off of a cliff into a vat of molasses. In other words, yes, the wheels fell off somewhat. But it was fun! Some highlights-- J also got a new PR, and I had some nice conversations with fellow runners on the course.



And here's a video from mile 26 (thanks, Jeff!) and a race report will be written later...

Stalk me on race day!

If you click here and then enter my name or bib number 5443, you should be able to track me as I traverse SF!!

My top 10 list

With only ten days to go, it seems fitting to share this list of top ten reasons to run the San Francisco marathon:

10) Enjoy the mandatory, professional-grade laziness of taper week
9) Hydrate & eat more pasta than humanly possible
8) Wake up at the ungodly hour of 3:45 am (that's *not* a typo!)
7) Cross the Golden Gate bridge via foot
6) Guzzle free electrolyte drink (that may or may not taste like disinfectant)
5) Consume Roctane and caffeinated Gus to your heart's content
4) Listen to cheering and groovy tunes
3) Run under the Bay Bridge when oh so close to the finish
2) Get another medal because every girl loves her hardware ;)

....AND 1) Finish the race, bask in the glory, and drink beer

Under construction

With 2299 feet of ascent and 2400 feet of decent, today's long run (15.6 miles) was challenging. The morning was cool and foggy enough, but it got a little muggy and the headwind toward the end of the run was a bit cruel. Other cruel things--dodging bikers and construction workers on the GG Bridge, the nasty uphill near the Legion of Honor & taking a cold water (no ice this time) bath to chill my legs!

Yikes- I'm trying to remind myself that right now is the building phase, so higher mileage and a bit more exhaustion. Things might not be so pretty right now & everything's working hard to get stronger, but it will pay off :)

Bay to Breakers '09

It was a hot, hot, hot California day. Bay to Breakers was a great race, and I'm pleased with my time of 1:09!

Garmalade calculated my average pace to be 9 min/mile (with a mile 2 of 10:05 and a speedy mile in GG Park of 8:25). The official results told me that I placed 178th out of over 1500 female runners in the 30-39 age group; the 1st place runner in my age group was Olympic medalist-Deena Kastor :) This is definitely a race that I want to run again.


I kept a relaxed pace for the first couple miles and then raced up Hayes Street Hill--very fun and some hard work for the legs. I was a sweaty mess on the top of the hill. I got a pretty bad side stitch (might have been caused by the post-Hayes St. downhill running!) around mile 5 but still managed to finish with a kick :O Yes, there were costumed and nekked runners! Yes, there was fun music along the course, and the course itself covers the diverse terrain of SF.



Here are some race pix...thanks, Jenica, for documenting this event!

Fun race

I'll be waking up at 5am and heading to a BART station. Why? Well, Bay to Breakers starts at 8am tomorrow :)

Yes, it's a race (pretty sure it's SF's largest road race, by far)- all 12k/7.4 miles of it- but I don't have a serious goal. I have a rough plan: start conservatively but work on the way up Hayes Street hill and then see if I can run a few fast downhill (!!) miles downhill in Golden Gate Park. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get race pictures :P And Garmalade will be on my wrist to record my every step.

Legendary

Every once in awhile, I imagine the type of tales that I will tell in 50 years. I might mention today's harrowing rainy day run in San Francisco. The 13.8 mile run involved 2608 feet of ascent and 2562 feet of descent. And yes, it was uphill both ways! The perks included cruising down past the Cliff House and hot coffee at the end (thanks, J!). Oh, and a Saul's pastrami sandwich for lunch really hit the spot :P

The run made me feel good about training for a marathon and ready for the challenging weeks ahead. I think my legs have the strength to take on the longer runs. I know that each run will help my heart and lungs can do the tough work over the legendary SF terrain.

Welcome to The San Francisco Marathon (TM) - July 26, 2009!

Yeah, I registered...