Posts Tagged ‘race report’

Despite not getting my “A” goal (a PR), this was a great race, my best 5k since 2009.  The race is a USATF Grand Prix Circuit Race and the MidAtlantic 5K Championship so it brings out the fast guns and because of this, is lots of fun with great energy and people watching.  It’s in Haddonfield, NJ, about a 20 minute drive from Philly.

The Facts
20:45, 1st AG (50-54)
81.54% Age Grade
36/409 Female, 212/922 OA

Technically, I was 2nd AG because that World-class lady I’ve mentioned before who’s also 50 years-old, won 2nd Masters with 18:13 which bumped me up to 1st.  Anyway, I got a nice plaque and a Brooks hat.

The Race
Thanks to all the positive mental work I’ve been doing recently, I’m thrilled to report a lack of any pre-race dread, fear or anxiety.  It was all about being excited and happy to race which is a monumental win.

Visualizations, post-its stuck around my apartment, a written schedule for race morning to avoid any “chicken with head cut-off” moments, and a  warmup I very much enjoyed (using this great article) meant my head couldn’t have been in a better place.  I even listened to music for the warmup, which I’ve never done before (though I almost always listen to music on my easy runs) but it was a great help keeping me focused and internal instead of looking at everyone else and getting hyper like I generally do.

As for the race, aside from some stupid woman with a dog I almost tripped over (why in hell did she/they line up so far in the front?) it went without a hitch.  The only weird moment was on a downhill, the thing I’ve mentioned recently about losing control which kills me because I used to barrel downhills without a thought, caused a “Whoa!” moment where I had to put my arms out to steady myself and brake a bit.  I could have done without that.

My breathing was loud and wheezy before I hit mile 2 so I tried to make adjustments to ease it, concentrating on exhalations and making “oooh” sounds but it was what it was, nuthin’ I could do about it.  I eventually told myself “Wheezing is the way I’m racing today, accept it” so I did.

Splits were 6:35, 6:49 (hillish), 6:38 and last .1 was 6:35 pace.  Note: This is my 3rd time doing this race and I always lose the same amount of time in that 2nd mile.

People-wise, a woman I see in my park all the time, good runner, came up to introduce herself which was cool.  And a shout-out to Christopher and son who had a great race.  (I hope I have your name right, I’m old and the memory sucks)  He came up and asked “Are you Girl In Motion?” saying he reads the blog…always a joy to hear.

Reflections
One of the things I’ve found especially helpful from 10-Minute Toughness is the Success Log you write after your workouts and races.  I don’t do it for easy runs but have found a lot of value in doing it for quality work because, while some days it’s very clear what went well or didn’t, sometimes you have to go a little deeper to figure it out – but there’s always something if you think about it long enough.  Here’s my Success Log from the race:

What 3 Things Did I Do Well Today?
1. Followed the warm-up plan to a T
2. Kept even effort and pacing
3. Never got wigged out or had a “wish I could quit” moment

Based On Today’s Performance, What Do I Want To Improve?
The downhill balance thing is a concern.

What Is The One Thing I Can Do Differently That Can Lead To The Desired Improvement?
More museum hill loops with emphasis on the downs, I skipped it this week and shouldn’t have.

Projections
Considering I just started interval sessions 11 days ago and had my first good tempo run last week, plus have 4 more lbs to lose (worth ~20sec), I don’t think it’s a pipe dream to think sub-20 could happen this season.  While it might take a May race (though I’d love it to happen April 21st), my fitness is strong now –  it’s gotta be a matter of just bridging the gap between endurance and speed. Easier said than done, sure…but doable.  And that’s all I need to know.

First off, great race.  Shitty time, but I accomplished some important things.  In fact, I take back “shitty time”, it was actually the pace I predicted to my 3:20 forum friends (who called me a sandbagger, the cuties).  I figured I’d be doing low 7:00s because my 3mi tempo last week was at that pace and I couldn’t imagine holding anything faster for twice that.

This was also the first race I’ve ever “trained through”.  I’ve always been big on tapering properly, taking the 2nd day before the race off, then a shakeout with strides the day before.  Always.  But because this was a rustbuster (not only for the season but back from injury) keeping my head free of bad crap was of the utmost importance.  A purposeful amount of self-sabotage was just the thing – it totally took the pressure off.

Thursday I did 19mi, Fri was 15.25 but then at the last minute, yesterday I took an unscheduled rest day.  It had been 3½ weeks since I’d had one, it was a rainy morning and I was sniffly so I shushed my inner mileage whore and kept my ass indoors.

Last Night
I started reading “10 Minute Toughness” and damn, that is a great book.  I’m going to review it in the next post because I think everyone should get a copy.  It really helped me get my head in order and armed me with a couple important tools for the race.  Most importantly, it made me realize that I always think negatively during my warmup, “I’m slow, why are my strides so slow? etc” so I start races in a bad head to begin with.  I didn’t let that happen this time and I used the deep breathing exercise before the gun went off; that was super helpful, I’ll be doing more of that.

The Race
2.5 miles warmup (more than I usually do but I was all WTF today).  It was 40 degrees out with a 10mi headwind which, btw, was another thing I wasn’t stressing about.  Usually I’d be angsty about the wind since this race is on the river and I get my wind numbers from an inland weather station (so windier than what is reported) but I kept my environmental worries at bay.  Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be.

Gun goes off and we run into the fucking wind    for about 2.5 of the first 3 miles.  Not a lot of movement, the women who went ahead stayed there, I wasn’t even tempted to bridge the distance.  Me and another woman were running together for a while, then she dropped off at about mile 2.  Right before that, my pal Steph passed running the other way and told me I was 6th.  Then another woman came from behind and went ahead, and that was our order till the end.

While I was great with keeping my mental crap at a minimum, even while seeing 7:07 (I gave up on the watch early, just made a point to keep my place) my breath was as horrible as it gets.  This is a major problem with me sometimes and I hate it: I wheeze, not a little wheeze either.  It’s not the first time I apologized to a guy as I passed for being so loud.  If you were anywhere near me at mile 3 on, you’d have sworn I was about to drop out, it’s that labored and ragged.

So anyway, I was on the heels of two guys for the way back and apologized to the one I dropped in the last mile, the other guy looked behind him at one point and I know it’s because he was sick of hearing my noise for 2.5 miles.

Meanwhile, some other stranger on the park path tells me I’m 6th, which is so cool when people out of nowhere seem to care.  She came up to me after when I was waiting around for awards and told me it looked like I was flying (as did the lady I was running with at the beginning).  A sweet thing to hear.

Results
43:46, 1st AG 50-59, 6th Female, Age-Grade: 79.24%.  Splits were 6:55, 7:07, 7:00, 6:57, 7:07, 6:50, 6:40ish pace for the end.  Garmin was long so .08 needs to be absorbed into the total but I’m too lazy to do it.

Conclusions
I’m not embarrassed by my time.  No taper, 80 mile week after 91, just returned to fast stuff recently, windy chilly day…seems fine. Lots of excuses?  Yeah, but screw it, they’re valid.

Here’s why I’m not worried: when I did this race in 2009, my next 10k six weeks later (which I’m doing this year as well) was 2 minutes faster – and I tapered that year.  Two minutes is a lot but between the weather, more workouts, more races, 5lbs left to lose and some tapering, I’m confident of considerable improvement in the coming weeks.

Incidentally, I’ve got a race every other week from now till May 6th (with 2 consecutive weekend races in April) which I’ll talk about in detail in my next post.

In the meantime, I think I need to start researching the breathing thing, maybe give belly breathing a real look-see.  Being self-conscious about how you sound on the race course is aggravating and to feel compelled enough to waste breathe apologizing for it is embarrassing and non-helpful to my mental game.

But aside from that one thing, this race was a success.

I flew in Saturday afternoon and checked in to Mandalay Bay, chosen because that’s where the race started & ended.  I get up to my room and upon entering, see 2 pieces of luggage in the hall.  I’m taken aback but even moreso when I realize there’s a guy sitting at the desk, typing on a laptop and in a chair next to him sits a woman.

Perplexed and slightly weirded out, I say belligerently  “Uh, what’s up? this is supposed to my room.” and the guy stands up quickly, looking quite scared actually, and tells me they were given that room and didn’t like it but their replacement room isn’t ready.  While he’s explaining and quickly gathering his stuff together, I realize they’re very nice people, and I’m tired from traveling (7+  hours to get there) so I just plop down on the bed, insist they hang out till their room is ready and we shoot the breeze for a while.

At one point, he asks how much the room costs and is shocked that it’s around $200/night.  I ask what he’s paying and he tells me it’s free.  Apparently, he lost a shitload of money there in a previous visit ($8000) and when you do that, the hotel will send invite after invite for you to stay there for free.  The good news is that the money he lost was actually won there first, so he came out even.  Anyway, that was my little education on how to get free rooms in Vegas.  Of course, I had to take a photo of them for Facebook because the situation was so ridiculous.

Roomies for an hour

About an hour after that, I meet up with my long-time yet never-previously-met online running sister, Carrie, who I’ve just loved for ages.  She and her friend Dina were hilarious and so easy to hang with, it was like we’d known each other forever (a theme for the entire weekend, actually).  We went to the Expo and dinner, then spent over an  hour trying to figure out how to get back to our hotel.  Here we are in the midst of the Venetian trying in vain to escape.

Dina, Me and Carrie

The next morning was CIM (California International Marathon) where the crazy doublers were doing their first marathon of the day along with a handful of non-doubling friends, so I had great fun tracking their races.  Almost every single person I knew PRd with a seamless, wonderful race…it was just a joyful morning.

After that, I went over to the Aria to meet Jay, who had flown in that morning after doing the Northface 50-miler the day before.  Jay is a gifted, speedy runner (he’s shooting for a 2:26 this Spring at Boston) and while he had signed up for the 50mile race, he hadn’t been training for it though he’d been doing some crazy stunt running in the weeks beforehand (Grand Canyon rim-to-rim-to-rim).  As it turned out, our friend Steve was doing the 50-miler but at the last minute, lost his pacer, so Jay offered to pace Steve.  Those guys kicked crazy ass, coming in well under Steve’s goal and almost 2 hours faster than the previous year.

Anyway, Jay was feeling amazingly good for having done 50mi the previous day.  We had brunch and bloody marys at around noon, which was my pre-race meal and hydration plan.  It was the last thing I had before the 5:30 race start, which worked out fine, except for me fighting drowsiness in the interim.

Jay and me brunchin' it up

At around 3pm, most of the CIM crew showed up in the lobby for a quick pre-race meeting.  It was so exciting to see them, some I’d met before and some for the first time: Paul, Matt, Kevin, Catherine, Holly, James and Matt’s girlfriend, Erin.

With a couple hours left, I went back to the room to get my running garb on before meeting Matt for the race.

The Race
First off, thank god I was injured for this one, because if it was a goal race, I’d have been incredibly pissed.  It was a clusterfuck on many levels, though for Matt and I, running at la-la-la pace, it didn’t affect us, but we could easily see the mess it was for those who were running the full or anyone trying to get a goal.

As far as my leg, I was really nervous about it.  My last run, a 5-miler on Friday, was not a feel-good run, my leg was pissed at me for having made it do two 8-milers before it was ready, so I was very nervous about how I was going to get through 13.  On the good side, Saturday was a rest day and I had most of Sunday as well.

Since the race started & ended at my hotel, the place was a madhouse with runners everywhere you looked (there were 44,000 participants).  Here I am with Matt before the race.

Matt and me before the race. I'm a dead ringer for Eddie Munster.

We line up, freezing our asses off (very windy at the start) and at 5:30pm, the gun goes off.  Matt and I, Lame and Lamer, begin our night-time journey up the Strip.  He was a total blast to run with, we talked and laughed, stopped at iHop so he could take a piss (44,000 runners and they had about 3 banks of Porta-pottys on the whole damn course).  I mentioned my leg but didn’t tell him how scared I was about it, so when I’d innocently ask “do you need to go slower, are you ok?” (he’d just run a 3:01 marathon that morning) I was actually doing it for myself as much as him, always relieved when he’d say “let’s pull it back”.

As it turned out, my leg was not a problem at all.  I was ever so slightly aware of my groin (all that’s left of the injury), but it never got worse so it wasn’t a factor at all.  And as the miles ticked by, I felt stronger and less careful, so he eventually had to ask me to pull it back regularly, which I was totally fine to do – the race was a wash as far as time, I couldn’t have cared less what we ended up with.

I wore my Garmin, btw, but the satellites didn’t catch for over an hour into the race, so I never looked at it, though I did press lap during the iHop stop, just for posterity’s sake.  With about 2 miles to go, Matt realizes if we speed up a bit, we can come in under 2hours.  I didn’t care but it was kind of fun having something to shoot for at the end.

When we were almost done, we discussed how we’d cross the finish to which I instantly replied “holding hands!” because I’ve never had the occasion to do that and this was a special little situation we had here.  Some guy next to us heard us and said how sweet that was, so we chatted with him for a bit before giving it a “kick” (totally deserves quotation marks since our kick was probably around 8:30 pace, lol).  As we turned the corner to the finish area, we passed Cheap Trick playing their one big hit “I Want You To Want Me” which was kinda fun.  We made it in 1:59:54. Hilarious.

As for the finish, not only did we hold hands, but we did it total noob-style up in the air which makes for a totally goofy finish video but if you keep watching, you see us hug and that was a pretty sweet moment. 2nd video on this page, we come into the frame at 6 seconds.

We thought we got a racing shot together but I guess the photographer missed it, bummer.  Behold my general demeanor throughout the race:

Happy Me

As for the rest of our crew, Paul, who was supposed to do the double and is actually the person who thought up the crazy scheme in the first place, missed his plane to Sacramento, so Vegas was his “only” marathon of the day, but as mentioned, the race was a clusterfuck so while he did great, it was nowhere near his potential had it been a regular, not screwed-up race (ex. the pacers were having to run up on the sidewalks due to walkers in the one tiny lane they allotted to the Full people).  Carrie also had a tough time and gave up on it being a goal race after the merge of Halfers and Full people (terrible for the full folks) but luckily she found Dina so they finished together.  The doublers all finished between 4 and 5 hours, some of them stopping at a liquor store for beer, midway.

Party!
After the race, Kevin and his wonderful wife Catherine had reserved the Media Suite at Mandalay for a party pad and it was so cool:  floor to ceiling windows with a magnificent view of the city and a bathroom as big as my apartment.  Eventually, everyone trickled in, including some folks I hadn’t seen yet – Steve, who had done that studly 50-miler the day before the Vegas full, arrived with his wife Gina and her two friends, Melissa and Katy (who ended up being a total blast to hang with, more on that below) as well as Beth and her husband.  Beth has Lupus and was the impetus for Steve doing his particular contribution to the double race craziness, running it for charity.

We finally make it out to find dinner but because the place was so packed with runners, we didn’t eat until 2:30am.  After dinner, Steve, Jay and I hit the Black Jack tables…a totally new experience for me.  I’ve been to Vegas twice, once for work and once as a jump off for a Grand Canyon trip but the only gambling I’ve ever done involved one-armed bandits. The tables have always been a complete mystery to me, so it was really fun to watch and learn.  We stayed there till 4:30am.  Classic.

The next day, I met up with Steve and his harem for a little more Black Jack fun before meeting the folks who hadn’t left yet, for lunch.  There were about 13 of us still, so it was a pretty good crowd.  Here’s a photo of me and the guys from our forum thread.  What a studly lineup.

Kevin, me, Matt, Paul, Steve

Monday Night
Everyone had dispersed at this point but Steve and the ladies were still around so we had a blast perusing different casinos, doing this goofy novelty Photoshop thing where they Photoshop your head onto models who, of course, are bustier and hotter than you’ll ever be.  Here we are in the casino:

Katy, Gina, Steve, me, Melissa

Steve, btw, not only was my Black Jack instructor, he even let me lose some of his money, which scared the shit out of me, but to counter that, I conferred with him or Gina every time it was my turn to make a decision.  Was great fun, thanks again, Steve!!

At around 2am, drunk from margarita, beer and vodka, I ventured onto the karaoke stage.  I figured it out today, it’s been 12 years since I opened my mouth to sing so I knew I’d suck.  Choosing a song was crazy because there were so many to choose from and I don’t have a go-to karaoke song having only done it once before.  I ended up with Walk On By, and if it wasn’t humiliating enough sucking in general, the key was too high, so I had the guy start it again in a lower key.  I still warbled and ended up in pitch-hell, but fuck, it’s Vegas, so no regrets.  Here’s your proof:

2am Karaoke Hell. Note how I'm really getting my groove on (please God, when will this song be over?)

And that’s it.  An epic vacation and one of the most fun weekends I’ve had.  Big love to all you guys and gals that I got to hang with, I’m sure we’ll be doing it again sometime, somewhere.  Viva Las Vegas!

Edit: Days after the race, walking had become increasingly painful so I finally went to the doctor, got an MRI and was diagnosed with a Stress Reaction, which explained the previous 4 weeks of pain and the disconcerting finish time of this race.

I spent most of the week wondering if I’d be able to race today.  My runs have been progressively better, though they all start with a painful beginning, like I’m running on a wooden leg (extreme compression upon impact).  Thankfully, the hobbled part has decreased with each run and continues to dim with each successive mile.  So I was able to get in a couple 10-milers this week and by mile 6 or 7, forget about my leg completely, even picking up the pace on one run to 7:45-7:30s for the last few.

Still, I wasn’t sure if I should race on Saturday since the painful start is an ongoing issue and I was a bit nervous that racing might retweak me.  To test it out, on Thursday’s run I included a few pickups.  The first one felt twingy and made me think I better not race, but I then tried a couple more at around Half pace and they were fine.  Yesterday, I did a 5-miler w/4 pickups and those were totally uneventful, so I decided that Yes, I would race!

Funny how my initial worry when I signed up for all these 5ks was “It’s been so long since I’ve done anything near 5k pace, my times are going to suck whale dicks”.  Now, after a month of injury crap, my worries were “I hope this won’t hurt too much” and “I hope I don’t fuck myself up”.

To remove as much pain as I could out of the equation, I warmed up longer than I ever have before a race: 4 miles.  Luckily, I also had less wooden-leg-syndrome today so I was super pleased about that.  As for the race itself…

I had a hard time, just could not get my pace down and ran crazily close to my Half pace just a month ago.  My time sucked, 21:28, but I won 1st AG.

Last year at this same race, when I was far less fit then I am now, I got a disappointing 21:05, so all I can do is chalk it up to a month’s worth of injury.  On the positive side, my leg didn’t hurt during the race and feels fine now, plus I got an extremely oxidized rust-buster out of the way and my first bit of hard running in weeks.  Hopefully, next weekend’s 4-mile race will be smoother and my leg will be done with these injury shenanigans completely.

I was feeling all mopey about it when it was over and almost bagged the awards ceremony but instead, chose to kill time by walking home for a jacket since I live only a couple blocks away.  As I passed the finish clock ticking at 33:xx with a good amount of people still coming in, I saw the faces on these racers and the effort they were putting out and, I don’t know if it’s hormones or what, my eyes welled up.  Hell, they’re welling up right now thinking about it.  I just wanted to hug them all and let them know I thought they were great.

When I got to my apartment building, the girl who lives downstairs was also going inside.  Until now, she’s seemed kind of bitchy to me, barely said a couple words but she’d also come from the race, so we had a chat about running and she totally opened up.  She asked me my time and when I replied, she made it like I was some fast thing – it was really sweet.  Then I get back to the race site and chatted with a couple women separately who also asked me how I did and they, too, made me feel like a fast thing.  After I got my award (a medal), a woman that I recognized from those 33:xx finishers walked up to me to shake my hand saying “I’m in your age group and wanted to see what the winner looked like. Congratulations!”.

So listen, how can I whine about 21:xx when, for the luck of whatever, it could have been me trying to get that 33:xx and going up to shake someone’s hand?  This humbles me beyond belief. There will be no moping today, just gratitude for enjoying something I never dreamed I’d ever want to do, much less be kinda good at.  And to find it this late in life?  I’m one lucky, extremely grateful lady.

But I still hope next weekend is better.

Race facts:
1:32:10
4th in 50-54 AG (3rd was 1:32:08…ouch)
149 out of 9507 femmes
793 out of 16,517 OA
Age-Grade 80.91%

Training beforehand
Might as well post a graph of my mileage since that’s been my focal point for the year.  The graph begins on Feb. 7th after taking a voluntary 2-week running break due to burnout.

Weight
I had mentioned how I was going to lose weight for this race and start counting calories again.  I did for a couple weeks but when the move started, I gave up on the counting and just ate healthy as ever, there was enough stressing without being nitpicky with food.

Turns out that while I only lost a couple pounds, holding at 119-120, thanks to the physical labor of moving to the new apartment, my bodyfat percentage dropped by 1.5%!  It’s been steady like that for about 2 weeks, so while I know my fancy-ass scale can’t be accurate as far as the base percentage (I’m surely not 14.5%) I do believe it’s trustable as a comparison unto itself.  So anyway, while I wasn’t at my best racing weight, the bodyfat thing made it A-OK.

Yesterday
My sweet pal and race buddy Kat arrived in the afternoon. I’d picked up both our packets already, so all we had to do was chat and eat dinner.  I made her accompany me to an old-fashioned diner in my neighborhood that I wanted to try because they served spaghetti and meatballs and I thought that’d be a funny place to go.  We were not disappointed.  It was Early Bird Prime Time so we were the only ones there who still had pigment in our hair.  Was good, made me feel fast.

This Morning
My new apartment is amazing for Philly races -  located 2 blocks from the start, it allowed us to take our time and pee to our heart’s content…luxurious.  We ventured out at 7:30, ran into my friend Peggy who was on the way to her long run.  She wished us great races (so cool to see her), then split up while Kat looked for our friend Lynn to run with.  I did a mile warmup with strides and got into my corral.  While standing there, I see my young friend Steph, one half of the twins I’ve befriended in my racing/running travels.  She didn’t have a firm goal but we decided to run together with the understanding that neither of us were “talkers”, which worked out great.

The Race
No big details here.  First mile seemed right on, then the Garmin went insane as it always does downtown, so for a couple miles I only had the mile markers to rely on, though I hadn’t noted when we’d left in relation to them and I missed the first one entirely, so my Garmin was saying anywhere from 8:46 – 5:xx, and for the first few miles, I thought we were off goal.  Around mile 4 I realized we were dead on, so that was a relief.

I wasn’t very stuck to the Garmin for this race because it was off for a great part of it and required quite a few “catch-up” lap presses (was on Autolap), it told me that for the most part I was running 6:4x-6:5x so after adding the leftover lap press, I figured I was right under 7:00 territory.  I did think I was in line for a sub 1:32, btw, right up until I saw the finish line.

I felt solid throughout this race.  There were points where I recognized my breathing was getting louder or that funny exhale whistle was happening but I would make a point to try and relax at those times, which helped.  Because of my previous collapsing/medical adventures, I was very mindful about how much effort I was putting out and told myself in the days before this that should anything feel strange, to not try and power through but to back off and slow down, race times be damned.

At this point we were at the park, my day-to-day running ground, and as we approached it I turned to Steph and said “home”.  Once there, I had a gel at mile 5 with a half-spilled cup of water to chase it. Never wanted for more, the temps were great (57, though breezy at times with 14mph wind) so it was extremely comfortable out there.

Once we hit Falls Bridge, with about 4 miles left, I felt like it was all downhill from there.  Steph dropped back at mile 9 so I was on my own from that point. Coach Adam/A muse had told me to keep steady till mile 10, then go into L’ Assassina mode, and I had to smile at the thought – while I was able to pick off people, I didn’t have an extra gear so I just kinda kept chugging was all.

About the park: since I started running in 2007, it’s been my gym, my confidant, my shoulder to cry on and an unparalleled source of joy.  I talked to the park this morning and thanked it for taking care of me.  I told it how much I loved it and reminded it where my favorite spot is and that even though it’s been the location of some scary health moments, I know it loves me too.  I communed with that park today.  But back to L’ Assassina…

There was this one girl that I don’t like from the park, she always gives me a bitchy look, and in the last few miles, she jumped into the race to run a few friends in.  When I finally passed them I heard her tell her friends they had to speed up, which I know was totally prompted by my presence so I took pleasure in moving farther ahead and out of their vicinity.

As I closed in on the finish, my friend Kev yelled out “just 1/2 mile more, you’ve got it!” which was great.  But even with all my park adoration, that last 1/2 mile is a scary spot for me, it’s the finish of many a Philly race and where 2 of those silly race collapses have occurred, so while other people were kicking it to the finish, I repeated to myself “feet under you, feet under you, keep your feet…”  and slowed down a tad until the finish line was right there.

After
I mentioned before that I thought I had my “A” goal right until the end so it was a disappointment to find I didn’t.  But really, it’s nothing but a few seconds and since this was my first race since January and I’ve had no real idea of where I was at, I’ve got nothing to be poopy about.  I know this and anything else is just plain Ego.  The main thing is after 2 long years, I finally got a PR when I’d pretty much convinced myself I’d not see another, ever.  I’m also pleased as punch with the Age-Grade and the Age Group placing.  This is such a competitive destination Half, I thought I’d be lucky to be in the top 6, so 4th is a nice bonus.

This race also unveiled the new race me: one that is confident but at the same time, reticent about pushing it to the Nth degree, probably won’t ever again as a matter of fact, but will do what I can within a comfort level that feels safe.  Because of this, I’ll never be a great racer – I believe you do need that balls-to-the-wall ability to do it properly, but I’m ok with that.  I think I have many great races ahead, just within those parameters is all.

After After
Kat and I went out for food and bloody marys before she embarked upon her journey home (Love you Kat, thanks for being such a fun and calming influence).  I sat here for a bit, thinking about the blog post I had to write and looking forward to seeing my ex-hubby tomorrow for the first time in eight years when he stops for a visit on his way home from that 12-week sailing adventure.  But after a few minutes, I said fuck this and went to the drugstore and bought a shitload of shit to stuff in my piehole.  Doritos, Reeses Pieces and Twizzlers.  All huge size.  After being good for so long, tonight I will be bad (or have a really bad stomach ache, whatever comes first).  All that’s missing is a cigarette.

Before I close, I want to thank all my dear friends from the 3:20 thread, even the hopeful crazies who predicted a sub90 (Matt), which I knew was not ever on the table.  Your confidence in me was beautiful, albeit overly hopeful.  And that huge collection of messages from my Facebook friends filled my heart like you wouldn’t believe.  I just love all you internet and real-life pals of mine – you make it all so much fun. Thank you for being so great.

I hope to have at least one ok race picture but until then, here's me and my dinner.

Before anything, I want to thank my friends and hosts for the weekend, Jackie and Louis.  I can’t believe how lucky I am to have such incredibly giving people in my life. They took care of me from the moment my plane touched down with such unabashed generosity, sweetness and humor, the weekend was one huge-ass party.  There are not enough Thank You’s in the world to let them know how grateful I am.  I love you two kooky kids!

Jackie, me and Louis at Point Loma

Pre-race dinner: Charlie, Matt, Jackie, Louis, Me, Pete, Barb and Skye the Wonder Husky

The race
When we drove the course the day before, I realized this was going to be harder than I thought but I was cool with it, just unsure of what pace to target.   I decided to go with the 1:35 pace group,  a possibly optimistic but seemingly sensible goal.  Other than that, I had no plan, no splits referenced, just que sera sera would be the theme of the morning.

Pacer Madness

We get into our corrals and I ask the pacers what their plan is and they tell me they’re planning on straight 7:15s which sounded ok but tough, since there’s a steep uphill straight off the bat and I’d prefer to take it slower to start, but figured they knew what they were doing.   Unfortunately, the pacers, while very nice guys, went much faster than 7:15s.  By mile 2, we were running near my 10k pace! This was not sensible, especially for me, who considered the rollers to be a real challenge.  First 4 miles were:

7:10
6:51
6:57
6:50

At mile 4, one of the pacers tells us proudly “we’re 35 seconds ahead of schedule” though looking at these splits after the fact, it was over a minute.  Even 35 seconds would have been too much considering the course.  Meanwhile, this guy behind me (who is not with the group) sees their 1:35 sign and says to no one in particular “You guys are going at 1:30 pace!”  I have him to thank for whooping some sense into me because it was then that I realized it would not end well if I continued, my breath was already labored, so I let the group go and  focused on getting back into a calmer mode.

Honestly, I’m annoyed with myself more than the pacers – I was wearing a Garmin and saw my average lap paces so I should have backed off much earlier.  Anyway, live and learn, it was a good lesson to trust my instincts more.

Cheering Squads!
Mile 4 and 9, I see my friend from the 3:20 thread, Matt, cheering me on.  What a great boost that was.

Mile 7, a woman takes my picture and yells out “Flo! I’m a blog stalker!” which was hilarious and so unexpected, I loved it.  Hope she pipes up here since I have no idea who she is.

Shoe Lace
In the 4 years I’ve been running, my shoelace has never come untied, I always double-knot and it hasn’t failed me, until mile 7 of this race.  Here I was with 6 miles to go and my laces are flopping around.  I decided to ignore it as long as I could and keep running but then, out of nowhere behind me comes one of the pacers, who had dropped back for some reason. He says “Tie your shoe!”  I reply, “Nah, I’m ok, I’ll just ride it out”  He says again, more authoritatively “No, tie your shoe! I’ll get you back”.

I’m glad he did, because it would have been an idiotic move to continue with it untied. I stop, tie my shoe and then it’s the pacer and me for a bit.  He’s indicating that I should get behind him to draft since it’s breezy but I’m such a dork and can’t figure out where I should place myself to draft.  It was fine though, the breeze felt good.  He gets me up another of those stupid hills (rollers-schmollers, these were low but long hills) and I’m breathing too hard, so I tell him to “Go ahead, I don’t care if I get a 1:37, seriously, just go” because I really didn’t care – but in a good way, not a self-defeating way.  He tried to change my mind, but I wasn’t having any so he went on.

The Course
There’s an ocean there.  I think I noticed it a couple times.

The Rest of My Splits
After I separated from the pace group, I spent the rest of the race working on effort level only.  I had my elapsed time on my Garmin screen but refused to look at it until I crossed the finish line, paying attention to Average Lap Pace every so often.

7:24
7:16
7:36
7:28
7:24
7:30
7:33
7:32
7:13
1:11 Garmin says for .18

Final time 1:35:57.  I was very surprised and super happy with the result.  It’s only a minute off my last Half which was a much easier course and one I was very familiar with so I consider this an improvement, even though it was slower.  Plus, I wonder what kind of race I’d had if I hadn’t burned off so much energy those first few miles – might not have made a whit of difference, but then again, it might have.

Photos and Form
Unlike stingy Philly, where they have 1 or 2 photographers and it’s always at the end when you look like shit, Cali races are chock full of photogs.  Unfortunately, due to my god-awful facial expressions and excess waving leg skin which only shows on race photos and disgusts me, there was only one photo I was cool with (the first one above).  However, on a very good note, I am not overstriding and the finish line video looks fine too (as far as form) so I’m pleased about this.

This just in, my friend Barb’s hubby Pete (both of whom were also staying at Chez Louis/Jackie) is a great photographer and took these.  I Love Them!  Of course, there goes my overstriding observation, but at least it’s intermittent.

Medical Drama
Not mine, for once!   I posted this in the California forum of RWOL, but it’s worth reposting here:

Immediately after the race as we were walking back to the car, Jackie and Louis spotted a writhing runner laying on the sidewalk, moaning in great pain.  Without missing a beat, Jackie ran up, took the patient’s leg and started stretching and applying pressure while talking soothingly and distracting her with questions about the race, etc.  Louis got her head elevated and went for the other leg.  Together, they worked on her for about an hour.

Me, being the callous East Coaster, got really bored and secretly irritated because all I wanted to do was get to the FE.  I eventually wandered over to the car to walk Skye so I could get compliments on my beautiful dog but not before surreptitiously taking photos with my crap phone for proof of the gory scene.  Happy ending was the patient survived and joined us at the FE.

The FE
For those not in the know, an FE is a “Forum Encounter” where you meet your internet forum friends in real life.  Jackie, again the angel, arranged brunch for all the Cali forumites.  It was a big one, some hadn’t even raced but came down just for the gathering.  I’d already met a handful of people previously at the Boston Marathon FE which was pretty cool.  I also got to meet fellow blogger Kristin, a blog reader of mine Deb and of course, the infamous Coach A muse/Adam and his better half.

The FE Crew minus a few that had left by the time this was taken. You can click this to make it bigger and to see my Popeye arm veins better (don't know what that's about)

The A Muses: Stacie and Coach Adam

Fellow blogger Kristin. Don't ask me why I changed from my race clothes into other clothes that look exactly like my race clothes. It's what I brought.

And that ends today’s epic from the West Coast.  I will be dreaming of the people I met and the fun I had long after tonight’s predicted 8-12″ of snow has melted.  Running: the adventure never ends.