Turkey Weekend Race Reports

I like to race. More specifically, I like to sign up for events. They keep me motivated and entertained. Sometimes I race them, and sometimes I go out for fun. The Hellaween race was strictly for fun, so I'm not race reporting here. Turkey Weekend was another story.

First, Nitro Turkey on Thanksgiving morning. I signed up for the 5K (instead of the 10K) to run with Matt, but then Matt decided not to train. This means he would have to run-walk the 5K in deference to his testy IT band. I used this as an excuse to abandon him (are turkey trots supposed to be family events?) and go after my 5K PR. (I also had a friend at the event, but she was in the 10K.) I haven't run many 5Ks, and my fastest 5K time is actually during a half marathon this past March. I was pretty sure I wouldn't have to try too hard to beat it; however, short races are not my thing. I don't really like being that uncomfortable, even if it is only for something less than 30 minutes. In longer races you just kind of settle in and keep plowing foward, but in a short race, you kind of have to kill it.

The race was a bit hilly, about 200 feet of elevation gain, and I found it challenging. I think I had eaten or drunk too much before the race, because I could feel things bouncing around in my stomach most of the race, which is not too pleasant. Nevertheless, I plowed onward and finished in 25:45, or an 8'18" pace. Not as fast as I felt I should be able to do (based on pace prediction at least), but it was good enough for first place in my division. Turns out most good runners do the 10K instead, making that field much more tough to crack. So here's a tip for winning awards - sign up for short distances in local races. The race itself was very well run, nicely scenic, and had a smorgasbord of pumpkin pie and other delightful treats afterward, including hot chocolate with marshmallows. One could easily eat about 10 times as many calories as the 300 burned during a 5K.

I had also signed up for a race on Saturday of that same weekend, the Quarry Turkey 10K. Why, you might ask? I guess I was sucked in by the promise of a Double Turkey Mega Medal. Also we had no plans for the weekend, so why not race? Matt didn't plan to run this one, but luckily he came to spectate, because the parking lines were ludicrous! I had to abandon him in the car and walk to the start, and I still was only ready with about 10 minutes to spare. They ended up pushing all the races back 15 minutes, and Matt actually made it to the start. Here we are:

One might think that trying to PR two races in one weekend is not the brightest idea ever, but I thought it was fabulous. I had never actually run a 10K race before (shocking, I know), so anything I did would be a PR. I could just enjoy the scenery.

Nope. I went for it. I knew from my pace prediction charts that I should be able to run at about an 8'11" pace, so I tried to keep that up. It felt quite difficult. I kept looking down and seeing that I was running over 8'30" and internally chastising myself for not being able to run faster than half marathon pace in a 10K. So I kept pushing it. I spent the whole race being appalled at how tired I felt. Here I am, near the end, looking in pretty bad shape:

But then, I crossed the finish line, and low and behold, I finished in under 50 minutes: 49:42 to be exact, or an 8 minute mile. My Nike Plus was off by about 0.3 miles, which at this short a distance is enough to put the pace off by 24 seconds per mile, apparently. So my Nike Plus basically tricked me into running a super fast time for me. I wasn't struggling running at half marathon pace; I was struggling because I was running an 8 minute mile! My pace declined throughout the race, so I actually ran it very poorly. It worked out in the end, but I always need to remember to just go with my gut instead of trying to meet a pace. If I had started the race running by how I felt instead of by trying to hit 8'11" on my Nike Plus, I might have been able to get an even better time in the end. However, I should thank Nike Plus for tricking me. I think about calibrating it so my paces and mileage would be more exact, but it seemed to work out. Even if it doesn't tell me I set a 10K record because it thinks I only ran 5.9 miles. Anyhow, obviously I look super spent and relieved to be done at the end:

My rewards for the weekend. I finished 4th in my division for the Quarry Turkey 10K, just 20 seconds out of an age group medal. However, it was another great event despite the parking fiasco, and I will definitely consider Brazen Racing for future events as well.

Du the Bears Race Report

I had a fabulous experience at my first and only duathlon back in April. It was quite fun, and I did pretty well. It turns out that being okay and two sports is an advantage in the duathlon. I think other non-competitive types tend to have one event better than the other.

Since that duathlon, I'd been looking for more to enter, but it turns out there aren't very many, and most of them are on Saturdays, which interfered with my TNT trainings. As a result, I signed up for one shortly after the end of cycle season, along with two of my cycle teammates.  It was a beautiful morning at the reservoir just over the hills; I had never even been there!

It was a very small field, which was great. No stress getting all set up for the event. As we started, my friend asked me if we were going for it, and I said yes, not just for fun this time. (We apparently don't make decisions very far in advance.)

That's about when we took off:

Here I am finishing the first run:

Transitioning:

Coming back in on the bike:

And here we are with our age group awards. I actually finished first in my age group, just 30 seconds ahead of my friend.

It was not easy. The run was very hilly, which I was not expecting. I also still struggle with going fast on my bike. I don't really know how to pace myself for that sort of thing, and to some extent, I still see bike riding as a casual event to check out the scenery. Plus, you're not allowed to draft in duathlons, so you can't use people in front of you for too much inspiration.

This was a super fun event. The race director stopped by afterwards to thank us for coming out. I realize I'm not competitive at a non-super-local level, but it's always nice to feel some sense of accomplishment. Plus, I discovered a great new place to run (not that I've been back) and a company (Wolf Pack Events) that puts on great races.

Nike Race Report

1:52:49 PR. 782nd place (out of ~20,000!) and 97/2677 in my division. The end.




Just kidding! I have plenty more to say.

Woke up at 5 am, and Matt was driving me to the race at 6 am. (Thanks Matt!) Arrived at my fairly empty corral around 6:25. Was amazed as always by the sea of humanity at the starting line. Seeing 25,000 people lined up in the streets of San Francisco is an amazing sight. The race started at 7 and I crossed the line only 6 minutes later to my surprise.

The first 2-3 miles, and really kind of the whole race, were a maze of trying to pass other people including walkers. I had started in a corral too slow for me because I estimated my time way back in the beginning of the year,before my last PR in March. I tried to mentally calm myself down and stop getting annoyed with all the slow people that should have started behind me. I ran into a friend in the first mile or so and slowed down to chat with her for awhile. I never saw anyone else I knew the whole race, except Matt cheering at mile 10, a former teammate turned coach at mile 11, and my cycle teammate at the finish. And then of course some more TNTers at the tent at the end.

But back to mile 3. The first small hills come near Ghiradelli Square. There are two of them before the also fairly small Fort Mason hill. Perhaps because I am faster now, I did not hear as many out of towners complaining about the hills as when I ran in 2009, but on the second tiny one, I did hear someone ask how many more of these there are. Well let me tell you, there are two more much more significant hills after Fort Mason, beginning at mile 6. About half way up that hill, I concluded that there was no way I could PR because the hill was slowing me so much. Fog + my lungs + hills = wheezing,which I try to limit as much as possible. Speaking of fog, it was so socked in but kind of warm, that I took off my long sleeves before the end of the first mile and was dripping sweat the entire race. It was disgusting. I even gave Matt my hat at mile 10 because my head was starting to get hot in the humidity pressure kind of way I cannot describe.

Anyhow, after the two big hills, the second of which was not so bad, and after a lovely downhill that dropped my pace, I passed the timer at mile 11 and realized it said 1:42. I was 6 minutes off gun time,which meant I had 20 minutes left to run 2.1 miles and PR. This math confused me for awhile. First I thought I had to maintain an 8 minute mile which I knew I could not do,and then I concluded it was 9 minutes which I could pull off if I tried. I am pretty positive now it was actually 10 minutes which would have been easy, but luckily this confusion led me to push my pace and motivated me toward the finish. My legs were quite ready to be done, my foot hurt, and I was a bit hungry, having only eaten 100 calories during the race. But I plowed through and made a fairly significant PR.

I do enjoy running half marathons for the fun of it, but I especially love a good accomplishment! However my two races this year that resulted in PRs were both completed with very little run-specific training, which might be teaching me a bad lesson. Or maybe I have just figured out how to still run without hurting myself - by severely limiting my mileage and replacing it with other activities. With that said, I hope I can train without injury for my first full marathon in March.

Thanks to Matt for his support of my endeavors, as per usual! And thanks to my teammates who were out there or at the finish!

***

I should also mention how I spent my pre-race day. It involved a trip to wine country with my parents; wine tasting, beer drinking, and hiking up a super steep hill. All things one is supposed to do before a race, right? I did however eat an awful lot of carbs, and despite what some people think, I firmly believe carbs make a difference for me, even if it is placebo!

I also went out Thursday morning for my race-pace run, had a terrible time of it, and called it quits after only 3 miles to avoid freaking myself out. Luckily I totally forgot about that experience and therefore it didn't affect me.

Finally, I kind of wonder how much of my new found ability to PR is due to the fact that I was diagnosed with anemia last fall and now take iron. Nothing like some PEDs, right?

Countdown to Nike

In 2009, I received a piece of direct mail, attended an information meeting, and registered to train for my first ever half-marathon. The rest, as they say, is history.

This weekend, I'm back for the 2012 reprisal of the Nike Women's (Half) Marathon. This will be my 10th half marathon, and I'm getting excited! This race benefits the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and there will be thousands of TNTers dressed in purple out on the course, and of course milling about the City. Thursday evening I'll head to Union Square to pick up my packet at the Expo and volunteer at the TNT lounge at Macy's. Sunday morning I'll line up in the corrals amidst a sea of purple.

Similar to my very first season, I sprained my ankle part-way through, making 8 miles the farthest I have run this training season. Unlike the first season, I haven't been diligently spending every evening at the gym on a bike or elliptical, but I'm hoping my base fitness will carry me through for a finish time faster than my 2009 Nike time of 2:25:47, but presumably nowhere near my half-marathon PR of 1:56:20.

I've been looking back at my blog for accounts of my first training season and was surprised to note that I said hardly anything about it. I blogged plenty during that time, but for other reasons. It seems that over the years, this blog has turned into my training and race blog, as Team in Training has taken over my life. Perhaps I should strive for more balance. But perhaps I'm right where I should be.

Though I'm not part of the Team for this event, having focused on cycle this season, I just might wear purple so people will cheer me on.

Gran Fondo Ride Report

I've been debating about whether to write this post now or to wait a few days to let everything settle in and my body recover.

Second Gran Fondo complete, this time before the official cutoff, although rumor has it that the RFID reader at the finish broke, which means that I might still have a DNF record this year. Ah well. I felt great through about mile 70, and started to fall apart on the notorious Coleman Valley climb. As soon as we turned onto that road, it felt harder than either of the other times I have climbed in, and the first part isn't even that steep. I apparently made it to the top of that climb in PR time; however, I slowed significantly down at the top. I told my ride group to continue on without me, and I finished about 10 minutes behind them, with one of my teammates from the Moab season who was kind enough to bring me in.

I haven't had a bad ride all season, so it was disappointing to fall apart at the signature event. I'm not sure what happened. I may have bonked. I realized I didn't use one of my packets of sports drink. I had a deli sandwich and a soda at the lunch stop, which is food I never have on a ride. It was hot. I just rode 100 miles last weekend. Who knows. I wish I could pinpoint it so I could avoid it happening again. My quads were killing me and I just felt physically exhausted. It was all I could do to look up every now and then to enjoy the scenery.

While I felt great the first 70 miles, I'm not sure how much fun I was having. The first 20 miles are chock full of people so that it is hard to go as fast as you want. Then there was the fretting at all the rest stops about how much time we were taking (and in fact we ended up with nearly 2 hours of stop time, which is problematic on a timed ride). On all the climbs, there was the difficulty of passing all the slower riders swerving around in the middle of the road and the walkers on the side. There was a long line for water at one of the rest stops. I think I enjoyed this ride a lot more on Labor Day weekend when there weren't 7500 people on the course.

That said, my ride group had an amazing day. I am so proud of all of them! I think they really enjoyed the ride, and that makes it worth it.

I also had fun at the expo watching Levi, McDreamy, Kristin Armstrong (2 time gold medalist), Tom Danielson and others stuff their faces with donuts and ride around on tiny bikes with a support moto behind them. And got some pretty cool swag. And of course had a fabulous weekend with my team, for whom I'm extremely grateful.

Moab in the Fall

Day 1

Wednesday morning I headed to the airport to begin my five-day TNT vacation for the Moab Century Ride. The adventures started almost as soon as we landed in Salt Lake City, when the rental car company gave us a Lincoln Navigator with tinted windows. Shortly thereafter we parked the behemoth in a Kmart parking lot, resulting in a loss of all my liberal cred.

We drove through beautiful canyons and desert, arrived in Moab in the dark, and promptly rolled up to the Moab Brewing Company where the beer was less than stellar. It is, after all, 3-2 beer.

Day 2

The next morning I went for a sunrise run in the neighborhood, and then waited about 3 more hours before my fellow travelers were finally ready to head to Arches for the day. Oh the waiting. We finally arrived in Arches approaching noon and popped into the Visitor's Center to see what the rangers might have to share with us. Somehow we must have spoken with the only ranger in all of the National Park Service who doesn't care for hiking. He suggested we visit the Windows section of the park because you can see a lot of Arches from the car. Really?

Ignoring the ranger's advice, we drove out to the end of the park to hike in the 7+ mile Devil's Garden, where he said we might find "one or two arches." But there were all sorts of arches, each more amazing than the last! We may have all run out of water with 2 miles to go (don't tell Coach!), but we made it back safe and sound and had an amazing time!

Photo courtesy of Joseph Torralba

Next up, Delicate Arch, the only hiking trail I think I've been to before at Arches. Neither Matt nor I remember much about this and we only have one picture to show for it. It's amazing how much photos must have to do with memories! Anyway, Delicate Arch was phenomenal! As we walked away I kept stopping every 2 feet to look back at it - I didn't want to leave.

Photo courtesy of Joseph Torralba

Finally we did hit up the Windows section that the ranger had suggested, right as the sun was setting, and it did not disappoint.
 

Photo courtesy of Joseph Torralba

 Day 3

Breakfast, bike pick-up, gorgeous tune-up ride by the Colorado River (cliffs! petroglyphs!), lunch, packet pick-up, inspiration dinner.

Photo courtesy of Laura Marshall

Photo courtesy of Joseph Torralba

Day 4

100 mile bike ride. Highlights: sunrise along the bike path, Canyonlands appearing out of nowhere at Dead Horse Point, finishing! The 32 miles of flat along the Colorado River was beautiful but not my favorite, as I prefer climbing and descending to pedaling nowhere.

Photo courtesy of Joseph Torralba

Photo courtesy of Joseph Torralba

Day 5

Again, my crew dawdled in the morning and we didn't leave Moab until nearly noon. We headed up to Park City to take part in some adventures at Utah Olympic Park: Alpine Slide and ziplining. I think perhaps our favorite part was watching the freestyle ski jumpers launch into the pool. A quick trip to Temple Square, and we were back at the airport to return to the real world, leaving the Navigator behind.

Photo courtesy of Joseph Torralba

Photo courtesy of Andrew Farren/Joseph Torralba

Photo courtesy of Joseph Torralba

Race Season is Here!

Fall may be a strange season for racing, but here in the Bay Area it's beautiful! Having not competed in an event since May, I guess I was feeling like it was time to go for it. So despite twisting my ankle two weeks ago while speed-walking to a Giants game (yeah, I'm that graceful), I have added several cheap races (~$30) to my already rather full Fall racing schedule, which you can see in the sidebar.

First up is the Moab Century coming up this Saturday in Moab. I am super excited! This will be my second century, and I expect it to be "easy," with only 3000 feet of elevation gain. I plan to enjoy the ride through the beautiful Moab countryside including Dead Horse Point and the Colorado River. This will be my "warm-up" ride for the big event the following weekend, Levi's Gran Fondo. You may remember me blogging about last year's experience again and again and again. Following last weekend's 80 mile training ride filled with 2 hours and 30 minutes of stopping for a crash and mechanical problems (which kind of offsets the 6 hour ride time for 7,000 feet of gain), I'm just hoping we've gotten all the crap out of the way before the race this year.

One weekend off, and it's back to running - the Nike Women's Marathon in particular. This was the race that started it all for me back in 2009. I was having a fantastic training season for Nike as well, meeting my goal paces even on hilly courses, but then I went and twisted my ankle. It is recovering well and I ran 3 miles yesterday, so I plan to be in fine form come Nike, but likely not as fast as I had hoped. I really should just walk around always with both my ankles taped up.

The following weekend it's on to my second duathlon ever. I had an amazing time at my first duathlon back in April, and even finished 5th in my division. (And apparently never blogged about it!) For this duathlon the bike course will follow a popular route on the other side of the hills - the three bears, which feature Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Baby Bear, Goldilocks, and what I believe to be at least three other unnamed bears. However, once you climb over the hills to get to the Bears, they just don't seem as big as they used to.

Next up, the inaugural hella-ween 5 Miler, put on by the same peeps as Oakland Running Festival, which I have blogged about a couple of times. This will be a Saturday night evening race through Old Town Oakland and Jack London Square, including a beer stop at our TNT-supporting Linden Street Brewery.

Skip ahead to Thanksgiving weekend, and I will be partaking of the Double Turkey Challenge. Matt and I will be running a 5k on Thanksgiving morning, and I'm adding a 10k that Saturday. Just to get an awesome three-piece medal that says "I heart seconds." This will be our fourth annual Turkey Trot, each one at a different location (although I'm missing a blog for 2011).

Finally, the very next weekend I'll be rounding out the race season with my very first trail half marathon in Kualoa Ranch, Oahu! I'm nervous about the elevation gain (~2900 feet), especially since my ankle twist has set back my hill training. But it's going to be gorgeous, and I still have two months to train. Plus I'll be in Hawaii, so how bad could it be?

So in case you never hear from me this Fall, you'll know why. Hopefully I can stay healthy and uninjured for these events, and I wish health and happiness to you as well! I hope to remember to blog these!