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Posts tagged ‘running’

Jan 26

This is going to be harder than I thought

I’ve run all of six miles since I got cleared to officially run. Six miles. And the first two were slow-as-molasses miles. I’m talking 12-minute mile zone. That’s usually my warm-up pace for the first half mile.

Yesterday, it was a nice comfort zone that took me two miles to break out of.

Let me explain.

Today, I was supposed to pumping out a record-fast 10K at the 2013 version of this race:

coyotehills

Instead, I’m trying to find my balance again running, literally.

A week ago, after looking at my half marathon plans for Feb. 17 I realized most of my workouts were going to be treadmill activities. Not because I’m so in love with my treadmill I don’t want to leave the house. It’s because I’m still having some balance issues from the gallbladder removal surgery.

My surgeon said the issues will go away within a month. And while I could just say “oh well, no running for a month,” I can’t do that if I am really adamant about running Rock ‘n’ Roll Pasadena.

To be fair, anyone can walk/run a half without a ton of training. I want to do better than I did last year.

Basically if I get deep into a run, I start to feel as if my head is spinning. Then I wobble a little bit. Then my balance goes right out the window. It sounds really dangerous, yes. You’re thinking: “WHY THE HELL ARE YOU RUNNING?”

I sound naive, but it’s not as bad now as it was on Monday when I ran four miles. I’m hoping if I hit the treadmill today it would be as bad as it was yesterday. It will wear off, I was assured. So when I hopped on the treadmill for my six-mile run yesterday, I spent 24 minutes over two miles making sure I didn’t lose my balance.

I also ran later in the day.

Being without the dread of my full-time job means I can be creative again (not even kidding). It also means I can take on freelance assignments. I’m lucky enough to have a friend I greatly admire, who is sending some awesome coding/web building assignments my way. So I woke up at 7 a.m. Friday, put on my running clothes and then proceeding to alter alter CSS for five hours before deciding it was time to run. (My husband probably shouldn’t know that.) The good news is, the website I’m working on is starting to look like the mocks up. And I ran with only one short dizzy spell.

I WANT to be ready for Pasadena. I WANT to do better than last year. But right now I’m having some serious doubts in my capabilities to run a half. That gives me serious doubts in running the April 7 marathon too. (I hate even writing that because I’ve already paid for it, we already know we are going and I know I WANT to do that race too.)

Maybe this is still the post-operative fog talking. After a similar surgery in 2010, I only took a week off work. I ended up taking nearly six weeks off running. I don’t want to do that again. That was also a planned surgery. The gallbladder removal was an emergency. I can’t imagine what I’d be feeling, the back and forth thoughts and all, if it had happened closer to the Oakland Half Marathon, closer to the San Luis Obispo Marathon. I’d be devastated.

Right now? I’m mildly disappointed. I don’t think I’ve ever written a letter as sad for me as the one I did to the Brazen race director two weeks ago. I really just wanted to be there today. And not sitting at home wondering what might have been if my gallbladder had decided not to, for lack of better visual, explode on me.

Jan 5

If I didn’t have bad luck …

I wouldn’t have any. Or so the saying goes.

The first hours of 2013 were great. No problems. I just hung out on my couch. I decided not to go for a run because my left IT band was still bothering me. My left big toenail (the one that is becoming increasingly black), also started hurting a little bit more.

Then, at about 4 p.m. my abdomen started hurting.

It wasn’t just as little pain, it was a horrible stabbing pain. I tried heat. I tried an ice pack. I took a bath. I took some pain relievers. I did everything. But 8 p.m. I was so sick and disoriented that I could barely stand up. Every time I moved it hurt.

I kept thinking it would get better. It didn’t.

Finally, fearing that my appendix was exploding or some other extreme malady was occurring, my husband high-tailed me to the hospital.

badluck2

I think the fact that I threw up, pretty significantly, in triage got me in quicker than I imagined I would. I was keeling over in pain. I could barely get into the hospital gown. But they loaded me up with Dilaudid, a pain reliever that’s not morphine (I’m allergic to morphine), and I suddenly felt so much better.

I had an x-ray done. They found nothing.

No explanation. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. It’s not that I wanted my appendix to be exploding. Not at all. That would have set my running back months (I had a surgery in July 2010 and couldn’t run for four weeks, longest four weeks of my life). But I wanted something to be happening so I could have a diagnosis and get work on making it better.

Instead, they told me to visit a gastrointestinal doctor.

Let’s me real: I’ve seen a lot of doctors lately. The thought of another one just bums me out.

So I started this year bummed out, doped up on pain relievers in an emergency room bed. After two months on leave, I didn’t have the heart to call in sick to work the next day. I was tired, and the pain still resonated, but I made it through.

On Thursday, I headed out to my car to go to work and noticed a strange scratch on the door.

badluck4

It didn’t look right. I opened the door and found something much, much worse inside.

badluck1

You’ve got to be kidding me?

No. Way.

Someone tried to break into my car. The only place I’d been? Work.

My car is in the garage when I’m at home. I sent my husband an email when I got to work.

“I think someone tried to break into the Jeep,” it said. He had me send photos. When he received them, he was livid.

I mentioned it to the security guard at work. He told me that someone else’s car was broken into earlier in the week, but no one was in the lot last night, etc.

My husband was firm: The only place it could have happened was in the lot at work.

The damage is fairly significant, especially on a new car.

badluck3

I filed a police report. We’re turning it into insurance. My typically mild-mannered husband was cursing and upset when I got home and showed him. I told him I impressed by the Jeep’s durability. The bad guys didn’t get in. Nothing was stolen. And it’s not like they can steal the car anyway, since a proximity chip is needed to start it.

Then on Friday, after all of this happens during the week, the cracks in the facade start to show a little in my anxiety. It turned into a bad day.

One bad day after another.

But … my IT band isn’t in as much pain as it was a couple days ago. I’ve been stretching it every night and rolling it out with my Grid roller. I’ve also been using my TriggerPoint ball to massage the ends of my IT band.

I ran six miles yesterday. I ran five miles today.

I’m hoping to run eight to 10 tomorrow morning.

The running is going well. I’m hopeful that I’ll be ready to tackle that trail 1oK on Jan. 26. (And start upping the ante for the half marathon in February.) So I guess there is good luck too in all this.

Since I keep having issues with that particular IT band, I’m considering investing in one of those physical therapy-style rubber straps to use to get some more mobility in that leg. I’m already rolling it out everyday. I’m stretching it out as much as possible. But the problem keeps coming back.

I suppose it’s better than having constant knee issues, but still. We’ll see if I can figure out a plan of attack on the IT band from hell.

Jan 1

Ringing in the new year

I love getting surprises in the mail, even when I know they are coming.

It’s always cool to come home to something awesome. On Monday, I came home to an answer package from T-Rex Runner. I’ve been reading her blog for a couple months now and I love, love, love it. When I saw she had shirts made, I knew that I had to get one.

Except I don’t have a PayPal account. So I had my husband order one for me.

I was so excited to open the package.

trex3

I have to admit, I had a moment when I opened it. The awesome T-Rex on the back, wearing running shoes and with pretty eyelashes, was exactly how I imagined it would be. Under the image is the URL to the blog.

I’ve purchased shirts before from my favorite bloggers. Why? I think it supports what we do, even if only a little. It’s easy to get a website on WordPress and just use that to blog.

It takes more, though, when you actually buy the space, design the blog, maintain the site, etc. It’s a lot of work to blog, even if it doesn’t seem like it on our end. (A side note, yes, I’ve been blogging about non-running things lately. As much as I want to say “it’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to, I know that’s now what people come here for. I won’t promise it won’t happen again, but I start my training plan for my next half marathon this week.)

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That’s the front of the shirt. I was so excited to get it that I put it on and ran four miles on the treadmill.

T-Rex Runner even sent along a nice card thanking my husband and I for the supporting. It was adorable.

trex2

That four miles was significant, though, for two reasons.

The first is that it got me to 100 miles for the month of December, which only hours before when I had a terrible headache at work I thought wouldn’t happen. I had planned to hit the treadmill in the morning, but was just too tired.

I need two miles to get to 100.

I needed four to get to 1,250 miles for the year.

I’m not sure why I wanted a “nice round number” to cap off 2012, but I did. So I ran, watching the beginning of Downton Abbey (not sure I’ll pick that show up).

My IT band on the left side is still in pain, though. I have to take it slow under my legs warm up.

During my run, I got a text canceling our plans for New Year’s Eve. My husband and I decided to go get take-and-bake pizza anyway, as we had planned to do with friends, and stay home with wine, beer and champagne.

I never changed out of my running clothes.

We had pizza and bread sticks. Then we headed into our office to brush the dogs while my husband talked on the phone with a friend who later came over. When Beau, our male dog, was done, he headed back out to the kitchen.

Beau has a tendency to steal food. It’s less tendency, more of a problem.

Case in point:

To be fair, we set him up on that one. But he takes food off the counters, literally. We have to hide stuff from him. “No!” doesn’t even cut it with him. He is always hungry. My husband calls him “hungry monster.”

When I came back into the kitchen, Beau was staring up at me eating 10 slices of pizza. Only two were left, still on the take-and-bake plate. He devoured more than half the pizza.

Well. I wanted to start my new year on a good diet anyway…so I guess him eating the pizza was not that big of a deal.

Plus, this is the face I get:

trex4

I should put him on Dog Shaming.

We spent the rest of the night hanging out with friends at home waiting for midnight. It was a nice, low key celebration.

Today we’re staying at home, hanging out and watching Netflix. I may hop on the treadmill later and knock out a run after we eat dinner. (Starting of the year right is a theme, yes?)

I did something I’d been putting off for awhile today: I signed up for the San Luis Obispo Marathon that’s happening in less than 100 days. I’m hoping to try and achieve what I was for California International Marathon, without the rain hopefully.

So 2013 is starting off on a good note. After the last couple months of 2012, I’m glad of it.

Dec 30

The new plan

dinner

I’ve decided I need a new plan. A new approach to training. And a new approach to eating, all bundled together.

In the past couple weeks, I’ve started running longer again only to have sharp pains running through my left knee. I figured it was overuse from the marathon. I figured it would get better.

So I backed off my knee. I set my treadmill on the highest padding level. I didn’t increase speed, but kept increasing incline instead.

The knee still seemed to be stiff. I rolled my leg out and it still didn’t get better.

I was really starting to think I did something really wrong to it.

Then, today, I went to get my monthly massage. My therapist is a miracle worker. She’s really good at spending time in the areas where I need it most, which means she focuses on my legs quite a bit. Today, she worked my right leg without any problems. She applied pressure in just the right areas. While it hurt, it wasn’t too bad.

Then she got to my left leg. I told her about the knee pain.

And she found the spot, immediately. When I realized what it was, I should have known.

My IT band, which has given me problem after problem in the past year, had flared up again. I didn’t notice that was it specifically because I hadn’t been running as long or hard as I had been previously.

When she got to the beginning and end of the bad, though, there was a considerable amount of pain. I felt as if I had been punched. My therapist applies the right amount of pressure too. It was just so tender that I wasn’t expecting it to hurt so bad.

But there it was. My IT band is inflamed again.

So I’m making some new plans. I have a 10K in late January. I ran eight on the treadmill yesterday and felt OK, but I know I’ll need to be stronger than I am now.

In January, I’m going to focus on:

– Giving my IT band the recovery time it needs

– Eating better by religiously following Weight Watchers

– Running faster as I focus on weight loss

Why the big focus on weight loss? I’m starting to feel as if the reason my IT band is acting up is because I’m carrying too much weight around on my body. Three years ago, I started Weight Watchers on New Year’s Day and by April had lost about 30 pounds. I’m not nearly as big as I was then, but I’m hoping to get back down to 155.

I’m also hoping that the better eating will help some gastrointestinal problems I’ve been having lately which have made running difficult in many ways.

I usually don’t make New Year’s resolutions because my resolutions involve just continuing to run and be healthy. This year, I’m actually spending some time trying to make healthy even more healthy.

I’m starting with my IT band. And limiting the amount of food you see above (though, it was good and it was also work related, so I had to do it, kind of).

Now I’m going to go spend some time rolling out my IT band a little bit more. It’s really, really aching right now. I think that’s good, because it means I now know where the problem is. But it also hurts, which sucks, because now I’m having issues walking up my stairs. I hope this is the beginning of recovery … and not another setback.

I’ll be blogging my training plans for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in the next few days. I have some definite ideas to make the experience more pleasurable than last time, so I can forget about that 2:48 finish last year.

Nov 28

Forecast calling for a very wet California International Marathon

So the weather for this weekend looks awesome for staying inside and lighting a nice fire.

But I’ll be out running 26.2 miles from Folsom to Sacramento instead. On Sunday, the forecast for Sacramento even calls for a “potential for flooding rains.”

Earlier today, the forecast called for 70% chance of rain. Now it’s higher.

Yikes.

I’ve only run parts of half marathons in the rain and cold. This looks like it will be a full deluge for the five hours or so it will take me to finish this thing.

Maybe if it’s pouring down rain I’ll run faster? One can only hope.

But this means I’ll pull out the contacts, which I rarely wear. But it’s better than having my glasses covered with rain drops everywhere. I’ll wear a visor (because a hat will just get wet anyway, so I might as well just wear the visor).

I’m still trying to figure out what shirt to wear, if only because I think it will also be cold. So I want to be warm. But if I get soaking wet and then it clears up, I also want to dry out quick. I also don’t want to lug around a soaking wet long-sleeve shirt forever.

I’m planning on taking a garbage bag to the start. I’ll also take Aquaphor to make sure I don’t chafe. I can’t imagine what chafing would feel like after that long in the rain.

So while I’m not looking forward to running in pouring rain, at least I have a plan.

That said, I’m still crossing my fingers to hope the storms pass and dump all four inches of the rain we’re expecting (apparently it would be a record for rainfall) before Sunday.

It started raining today, so I think we have some hope.

There was a bit of a clearing today during the lunch hour before an afternoon appointment I had to go to. So I headed to a sweet shop in the small town I live in. I picked up some homemade rocky road (nothing like killing a diet during taper week, oops).

Our town put up the Christmas tree in our town square area this week. But the photo is more to show the clouds than the tree. It’s a pretty impressive cloud showing.

I’m not going to let rain ruin my marathon. But I’d love to have a little less wet, a little more sun come Sunday.

Sep 8

Sometimes I disappear

I hate to say it, but this is the time of year when I tend to disappear. From family gatherings. From social outings. From blogging. I just get too busy. That’s not a bad thing (because I’m busy making money).

Unfortunately I also seem to disappear from running too.

Not this year, though. This week already I’ve logged 25 miles with a long run scheduled for Sunday morning. I’m hoping to have 35+ by the end of Sunday morning. I’m hoping to gradually step up my mileage as I really start to prepare for California International Marathon on Dec. 2.

Because it’s that time.

My students published the first issue of the campus newspaper for the semester on Friday. At my full-time job, I’ve been busy with the high school football season taking off. That means I’ve been logging some serious time sitting in front of the little monster above. (For those who don’t know him, that’s Domo He’s one of many monster-types at my desk.)

I’ve been logging serious mileage lately in general, both slow and fast. And, outside from a down period a couple weeks ago, I’ve been feeling really good about my running. So much so that I’m really excited about a 5-mile race I’ve decided to do next week all about women empowerment. It’s actually one of the races I had to forgo last year because of a nasty Achilles strain that put me on crutches.

I was feeling great about running until I started hitting the road/treadmill this week. That’s when I noticed a slight twinge in my calf. I also noticed that my shoes were looking a little more beat than I remembered.

That’s when I knew. It was time to buckle down for a new pair again.

After only 300+ miles. I honestly thought the LunarEclipse +2’s would last a little longer, but I’m the same runner with the same weight, so this shouldn’t really surprise me too much.

These are the “Breathe” edition of the LunarEclipse’s. Kind of pretty looking in person. I’m going to do another outdoor run in my old shoes (the long run Sunday) and then start moving through the process of retiring those. Sigh. I really loved the hot pink. But these are my first “pretty” running shoes in general, and the new ones are pretty nice too.

So about that disappearing? I literally have to make time to blog now with school and video shoots more than twice a week. I’m busy. But I’m also working on balancing everything better this year. That’s why I pushed myself to run days in a row. It’s why I stopped everything and started blogging today.

It’s why you’re reading this, basically.

But it also means I’m working 70+ hour weeks when my students are in production for their newspaper. So I’m also a bit whipped out by Friday, especially after a 4 p.m. to 12 a.m. shift, which in reality tends to be a 2 p.m. to 12 a.m. shift. I’m trying to get over the fatigue, though, put my mind in an active area and just run.

Today that meant five miles. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

But if my blogging is lacking into the next month or so, it’s because life gets crazy busy this time of year. I’ll only worry about it if I start slacking on my training.

Aug 28

Where the sidewalk ends

Not even kidding about that title.

The community I run in is not yet finished. It has around 10,000 people. There’s one, small convenience store. There are a couple schools, but the school district only recently put up a building for its administrative office. A new high school is being built.

And there are a lot of roads to nowhere. There’s even a bridge to nowhere.

But my favorite part about Mountain House, not to be confused with Mountain View further into the San Francisco Bay Area, are all the sidewalks that just seem to end. That’s apparently what happens when construction isn’t yet done.

I always feel as if the conversation between construction workers goes a little something like this:

Worker 1: “Well, we’re almost out of concrete.”

Worker 2: “Ahhhh, we don’t need anymore. We’ll just end the sidewalk.”

Worker 1: “But what if someone walks off????”

Worker 2: “No worries, we’ll just put up a barricade. No danger in that.”

It’s not as if people can’t walk around the orange and white barricades. The bridge to nowhere I mentioned early (in reality, it will take the community over a main road once the area is completely built out), has a fence in front of it so no one will dare go up or on it. In reality, the bridge makes a great place to train with hill repeats. So people go around the fence. It’s not that hard. Let’s face it, people often ignore warning signs anyway.

It’s kind of humorous though when you get to one of these barricades. What exactly is it protecting me from? My run turning into a trail run? My feet hitting a hole? (That’s actually a serious concern, but I watch out.)

Funny thing, near one of the newer buildings, sometimes we actually run to where the sidewalk ends and turnaround.

Why do we not keep going? There’s no sidewalk. But there’s no barricade either.

 

Aug 26

Close calls

See that color?

It’s pretty bright. And this is looking down, with a little shadow on it. It’s actually VERY bright in person.

I’ve posted this photo before, in June, when I purchased the Lululemon Run: Swiftly tank in the “ray” color. When I bought the shirt, I was concerned it was maybe “too bright.” My husband assured me that at least no one would miss me when I ran. I figured that would be a safe bet. Drivers and other runners alike would be able to see me just fine.

I thought.

This weekend, my running buddy Jennie and I ventured out on an early morning run. Not super early. The sun was just rising in the west, but it was plenty bright in Mountain House.

The community I run in is about 10-minutes west of where I live. For Jennie, it’s only about five minutes. There are few stoplights, but a lot of stop signs. There are many cross walks.

We always use the cross walks when we run. We never run against traffic, or even in traffic.

And by the time we were on the back end of the development, the sun was shinning pretty good.

We made our way into miles five and six and down toward the only market in the small town. As we made our way to the crosswalk, I noticed a red Jeep flying out of the far parking lot. We were already starting into the crosswalk, with the right of way, when the Jeep barely stopped, sped through a stop sign and started into our path.

The Jeep was raised. Still, as he came toward us, I yelled out “Hey!” The driver, a man, acted as if WE got in HIS way. He slowed his car at an angle and then just kept going, screeching his tires as he went away.

I’m pretty sure Jennie yelled something at him. I know I yelled something to the effect of “JERK!” and we kept running.

When we stopped at the store to pick up our regular mid-run Gatorade, we talked about how people are always in a rush. How very few care about others. How if he hit us, he likely would have killed us. I was more in his path. Jennie kept apologizing for not noticing the Jeep until it was too late.

The issue here?

We did everything right.

We both were wearing bright colored shirts. We stopped running and looked both ways. We were cautious in our regard to the environment.

We were running smart.

And it still wasn’t enough.

My waving and yelling at the driver was the only thing that got him to even notice us.

Later on at a dinner for my husband’s birthday, my sister told me that I shouldn’t run outside. It’s dangerous. I could get hurt. I know that. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I opt to run in Mountain House instead of where I live in Tracy. In Tracy, even early in the morning, cars tend to roll through stop signs and stoplights.

I had several close calls in my own town. In one, I actually had a guy nearly hit in right in the hip. I slammed down both my hands on the hood of the car. I looked the man straight in the eyes and said “I have the right of way!” Then I kept running.

Running is dangerous, yes. So as runners we take precautions. We wear bright clothes. We add reflective bands to our wrists and ankles. We wear lights in the dark. We generally make ourselves as visible as possible. But, at times, doing everything right doesn’t mean you are safe and protected.

I’m realizing that after a couple close calls, including this most recent one, I need to remind myself of that every time I run.

Aug 1

A half-marathon victory

I’m not going to lie: Sunday was one of the best days I’ve had in a very long time.

It may sound like hyperbole, but it’s the truth. From waking up feeling good, to deep relaxation on the 50-minute ride to San Francisco, to being smart enough to stop at a super secret public bathroom so I wouldn’t have to wait forever at the start line, to the pretty lanterns above my corral — the 1st Half Marathon of the San Francisco Marathon was a race of redemption for me.

I am thankful that after months of self doubt and second guessing, I feel as if I’m finally coming out of my running slump.

I ran strong and I felt absolutely unstoppable at the end, even with the major hills that slowed me a little.

My morning started off with a 5:30 a.m. view of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. My husband dropped me off near the start line in downtown and I walked over with a huge group of people, including a man wearing jeans. I keep hoping he wasn’t actually going to run in them, but I know sometimes people do.

Based on a 2:25-2:30 finish, I was in corral six. There were two more corrals behind me, which meant that, no matter what, I’d have time to run the course if I needed the full three hours. I honestly wondered whether I would a couple months ago. I kept telling myself that, with the hills, I’d be closer to my Nike time last year of somewhere around 2:53.

I signed up for the corral during a particularly optimistic moment apparently.

It was dark at the Embarcadero.

I thought it was kind of funny my shoe laces, despite the sun not yet rising, were still bright as ever. I immediately went to my corral, despite having more than 30 minutes to wait. I was told race officials actually close these corrals. The bathroom lines were LONG everywhere. I’m convinced there were not enough bathrooms at all. Every stop had a line of 10-20 people.

The sun was coming up a little in this self photo with the bridge behind me. I was feeling good. I don’t know why, but I was feeling as if I could run on and on. I didn’t know if I could, though.

The time ticked on in corral six as Bart Yasso, the chief running officer at Runner’s World magazine, bantered with the emcee. It honestly wasn’t that long between the 5:32 a.m. initial start and my 6:12 wave start. And the San Francisco Marathon officials were prompt in their starting times. No kidding. We literally went off at 6:12 a.m. That’s probably the first time that’s happened at a race.

We weren’t actually lined up at the actual start line all that long. But here it is. There weren’t a ton of people in my corral either, or at least with all the space it didn’t seem that way.

With a quick countdown, we were off.

Mile 1: 10:13 — It didn’t feel as if I was running in the 10s here. I was just trying to move along the waterfront without tripping over someone. Good thing about this race is that there are so many fewer people that walk than Nike. That’s great because the Embarcadero has changing surfaces, including some cobblestone.

Mile 2: 10:18 — My heart rate was great, feeling good. Started thinking about the second mile in races in general. It tends to be pretty tough for me sometimes.

Mile 3: 11:47 — The first hill. Not huge, but the moment I started moving up, I had a sharp pain in my left glute. I wasn’t sure what it was, but thought, maybe, it could really derail the race for me. I went a little more conservative. I did a Gu at the first water stop.

Mile 4: 10:47 — Downhill through Fort Mason where the sprinklers had been on just before. I kept hoping I wouldn’t slip. I didn’t, but it seemed like an unnecessary hazard.

Mile 5: 11:27 — And we’re climbing again. Up a huge hill. By this point, I was feeling really good. Five miles in under an hour? I was amazed with myself a little. Go me! (Super fast people are probably laughing when they read this, but a lot of my problem is thinking I can’t run fast. I’m trying to get over that.)

Mile 6: 13:34 — OH. MY. GOD. HILL. I remembered it from Nike. I took little baby steps for the most part, then started moving up in more of a walk. This was the ascent to the Golden Gate Bridge too. Once I got near the bridge I started stepping it up, not believing I was almost halfway done. And still feeling good.

Mile 7: 11:45 — I remembered, as I entered this mile, that I needed to do another Gu. I didn’t get to until the Marin County turnaround.

Mile 8: 12:01 — I kind of had to go to the bathroom, but couldn’t because there were SO MANY people in line. Seriously. And there were people using the actual bathrooms too. Fail. I know there are a lot of people running, but maybe invest in more portable toilets?

Mile 9: 11:37 — Back across the bridge after a Gu. I did notice the three-percent elevation climb and downhill on the bridge. No horrible, but not great either. I just kept on running. Scary moment near here, though. A car seemed to move into/close to the “buffer” lane. Suddenly all the runners heard tires screech. Everyone around me turned around thinking someone was hit. That wasn’t the case, but it was troubling.

Mile 10: 11:47 — Continuing up that huge hill after the bridge. I looked down and was still coming in under two hours. AWESOME! I remembered my time on the easier second half course last year was 2:35:30. I wondered, could I get that?

Mile 11: 11:09 — A nice downhill here after reaching the top of the hill.

Mile 12: 12:04 — The ending uphills begin. In retrospect, I was supposed to do a Gu at mile ten, but forgot. I think I was on a runner’s high and thought “I can do this!” and didn’t bother. It started slowing me down here.

Mile 13: 11:59 — More uphill, as my body was getting tired (only a little), definitely need to remember that to finish strong I need to do the Gu.

Mile .26: 2:18 — I’m obviously over, which is because I wasn’t running those tangents well on the hills, but I look down and I’m still coming in under my time last year on the EASIER half.

Official time: 2:32:45

I couldn’t believe it. I’d run better on tough course than I’d been able to run in nearly every race before. I came in only seconds after my Oakland Half Marathon time and that course is nowhere near as hilly.

What’s changed? My diet is different. But I’m also doing more incline training when I run on the treadmill. I’m also running smarter and adding speed workouts to my training. It appears to be working.

I grabbed two bottles of water. I was thirsty, even though I carried my handheld. There were only water stops every two miles. A lot happens in two miles, even on a cool San Francisco day.

I was particularly glad to be handed a space blanket. The fog on the bridge left my hair soaked and my clothes damp. I put back on my long sleeve and wrapped myself up after I went and grabbed this special medal:

It’s my “prize” for running the 2nd Half Marathon last year and the 1st Half Marathon this year. I know the pictures aren’t great, mainly because I was trying to take them at night, under a lamp. It’s a huge spinner medal, with images from both runs on either side of the spinner. I wore it proudly around the finish line area.

Speaking of which, the 2nd Half Marathon was happening right around us, along with full marathoners running nearby.

I wasn’t even in pain. I’m thinking my Nikes LunarEclipse +2’s are much more awesome than I thought. My husband and I had planned to hike in the Marin Headlands, back across the Golden Gate Bridge, but instead decided on a trip to the San Francisco Botanical Gardens. We walked around checking out the place for nearly two hours.

Then, hungry, we headed back to the East Bay where we stopped at one of my favorite pizza places in Oakland, Lanesplitter on Telegraph Avenue. During graduate school I lived right down the street from Lanesplitter. I spent many nights eating pizza while working on my master’s project for UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

I think it’s fair to say Lanesplitter got me through graduate school.

You can see why. Amazing salads. Huge slices. After a half marathon? A major win.

I’m still excited, days later, about my run in San Francisco. I’m hoping to take that excitement into the Brazen Racing Summer Breeze Half Marathon this weekend. But I think it might be asking too much for another performance like that.

Right now I’m just happy to know I still have it in me. I can still do it. And that makes for a good day indeed.

Jul 31

Save(d) me, San Francisco

See that face? That’s a happy face.

I had a good run. No, maybe a great run. Was it a PR time? No, but I did better on the tougher 1st Half of the San Francisco Marathon than I did on the more gently rolling 2nd Half last year.

And I ran the Golden Gate Bridge and got soaked by the fog. My hair was heavy and wet as I ventured to Golden Gate Park and the finish. The hills were killer, but I got through them.

My official time: 2:32:45

I felt strong afterward. I even walked for more than an hour, maybe even two, around the San Francisco Botanical Garden with my husband. No pain, no cramping.

I’m stoked. I’m even more stoked to run another one this weekend (but trying to temper my enthusiasm in case I don’t do as well as I did this weekend). Full race recap coming soon.

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