Zombie Runner Bay Trail 5 Mile

Yesterday, I headed out for the Zombie Runner Bay Trail 5 Mile.

It was the largest race they'd ever hosted with about 700 participants between the marathon, the half marathon, and the 5 miler.  Nice local race, although expensive -- $50 for day-of registration for the 5 miler if you opted out of the t-shirt.  If I'd been more on the ball, it could have been $40 for advance registration, but work and life have been much too crazy for me to even see the race registration ball, much less be on it.

My goal was simple -- string together some faster miles to prep for next week's 5K.  I'd run some mile repeats in the 8:30/mile range earlier in the week and had been amazingly sore the next day, so I was interested to see what pace I could sustain and how painful it would be to do so.

At the start, it was quite cold for these parts, in the high 30s -- you could see everyone's breath.  I started in running shorts, knee-high compression socks, a long sleeve technical shirt, and my running jacket.  I never took my running jacket off -- I just wore it to the finish line and on my cool down.  It didn't really warm up too much by 9 AM.  At the finish, my hands were steaming, which was something I'd never seen before.  (I am *not* one of those runners whose hands get cold on runs.)

The majority of the race was an out and back on portions of the trail I regularly run, around the golf course and the airport.  They did add a section I'd never realized was part of the trail system -- a sort of back route to the duck pond, so that was a nice discovery.

I started with a mile at 8:43, thinking I could probably sustain 8:45s for the full distance.  It looked like the course was actually 4.8 from the aid station information, so I was hopeful that I could really push it for such a reasonably short distance and then I could do a nice slow 2+ mile cool down.

Ummm.  No.  8:43; 8:48; 9:03; 9:04; 8:51 (mile pace for the last 0.7 on my garmin).  While the first two felt good and relaxed, like I was holding a little something back, that third and fourth mile were a struggle, and the last bit was at almost full effort.  Certainly, the gravel and trail sections slowed me down a bit compared to the pavement (first and last mile+), but I wasn't too impressed with myself, regardless.  After mile 2, I don't think I passed a single person whereas somewhere in the range of 10 people passed me despite me trying to prevent it each time.

I did Bikram last night, and while I didn't wake up sore, I do wonder if perhaps stretching, holding poses that require muscle tension, and sweating an insane amount for 90 minutes in a 106F room isn't the best thing to do the night before trying to push on speed. On the other hand, perhaps it was just what the doctor ordered and prevented me from pushing too hard and injuring myself.  Hard to say. 

Overall, it was 4.7 miles at an average pace of 8:54.  Then another 2.35 to cooldown at a leisurely jog.  A great run, for sure.  Beautiful day, hard effort, and a nice friendly group of people.  But it definitely showed me that I have some work cut out for me to get my speed back.

The good news is that this morning, I am nowhere near as sore as I was the day after the mile repeats.  So that's a bit of progress of sorts. Today, I've got a nice easy 3.25 on the calendar with E and that'll be the end of the running week.

An enjoyable week of 25.6 miles, all at average paces in the 9s or 8s.  Nothing too long.  Nothing too fast.  But focused on recovering some of the spring that the marathon always seems to suck out of me. 

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Facebook Vacation

I've confirmed that today's Facebook's privacy changes allow strangers to see everything in your timeline if they search for you by name.

I was annoyed but putting up with the reality that people could tag me in photos or posts without my consent and it was up to me to delete the tags.  Essentially, this meant I had extra work -- I had to regularly login and confirm that everything where I was tagged was something I wanted everyone to know about me.  If I didn't regularly login, someone could tag me and it could stay up, visible on my timeline for my entire network until I finally got around to taking it down.

But, before today, I was one of the (apparently very few) users who hid their entire Timeline from search. As of today, that feature is now gone.  So, I had to go through my entire timeline and "hide" the things I did not want viewable by strangers in connection with my name.  Mind you, I'd already done this by "hiding" my entire timeline.  Again, like publication of tags of my facebook profile without my consent, the publication of the timeline to anyone who searched for me by name caused me extra work.

I'm guessing the day is soon coming when facebook will cater solely to people who do not share my privacy concerns.  At that point, even if I'm willing to do all the work, the features I want just may not be available.

So, I'm taking the rest of the year as a facebook holiday to evaluate my options for (a) how much I actually miss facebook; and (b) if I miss it enough, how to address this issue in 2013.

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Cram It All In

For the post-marathon recovery week, I did very little, physically.  Lots of rest, approximately 7 miles of walking, a Bikram session (much harder than expected as the first *real* workout I attempted the Wed after a Sunday marathon), a 30 minute session of cardio at the gym including a 1.25 miles on the TM, and I capped it off with a glorious weekend of walking around San Francisco and a 3 mile Sunday AM run on the Embarcadero with my husband.

I love running with my husband.  I was so happy to enjoy the weather, the views, the people watching and the experience of breathing hard and moving well together.  Such a privilege.  I very much hope he is willing to continue to do this with me, because it is awesome.

Around these minimal workouts, I stuffed everything and anything that would fit in the holiday season last week.

Tons of work from clients frantic to get things done before the holidays?  Check.

End of year billing and accounts receivable hurdles? Check.

Mandarin night dinner of Peking Duck with the Mandarin Ladies?  Check.

The usual mixture of professional lunches and coffees for networking, potential new clients, and maintaining relations with people in my field?  Oh, at least 3 of those.

Good friend going into labor causing obsessive phone status eval?  Check.

But wait, there's more.

The friend had a very happy and healthy baby girl.  Go baby RB!

Saturday AM, we tried to fit in a NAR high power rocket certification for both me and E. Unfortunately, the fog ceiling disagreed, so despite our rockets being ready to go, the weather won out (as it often does with respect to rockets).

After that, we checked into our hotel and hit up 3 holiday parties in SF in less than 24 hours where we reconnected with old friends and made new ones.  Plus, in addition to the run along the Embarcadero, we also fit in a a brunch with friends we hadn't seen in a long time to catch up at the delicious Gracias Madre (Vegan mexican food? I know. I was suspicious too.  But it was amazing!).

All told, I think I had the most social interactions I've had in 48 hours since a very long time (probably sometime last holiday social blitz).  If I was good at names, I could tell you the names of the 10-15 new people this weekend (but I'm not, so that's a bummer...).

In short, this introvert is exhausted.  But proud.  It was a very productive week.

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CIM 2012: The Good

The race was so FUN!  Much to my surprise, running in the storm with thousands of other folks was a blast.  I don't think I've heard that much laughter on a race course, ever.

Definitely, for me, part of the fun was the abandonment of a time goal. After the long bathroom break, I just kind of relaxed and enjoyed the whole experience in a way I've never done on a road marathon.  I never hit the, "oh man, this is really difficult, I don't know if I can keep doing this" phase.

While triumph over the internal mental struggle and maintaining race pace as long as possible is one of the best sources of the sense of accomplishment you get from a marathon, it's also quite uncomfortable.  I was never actually uncomfortable (other than the chafing) on this marathon.  I never got too hot. Never too cold.  Never struggled with keeping my pace.  My breathing was never labored.  It was actually kind of *easy* -- which is not a word I associate with the marathon.

Several new things were quite good for me about this race:

1.  I used duct tape to create a handle on a water bottle with a sport top.  I filled it with gatorade and I brought my own Gus in my Gas Cap.  This meant that I was able to avoid the crowds at the aid stations until my electrolyte bottle was empty.  The bottle lasted me all the way past the half marathon.  Once it was empty, I threw it in the trash at the next aid station and then quickly walked through the later lesser-crowded aid stations when I needed water or electrolyte drinks for the remainder of the race.  This was brilliant and I will definitely be doing this in future marathons.  

2.  A tank top with gloves with fingers cut out was just perfect to keep me from getting too cold when the rain and the wind picked up.

3.   My Brooks Adrenaline GTS 12 handled the water amazingly well.  I don't think I'll go out of my way to avoid puddles in the future.  They dry out surprisingly fast if you keep running after wading through standing water.

4.  I took my MP3 player on the course for the first time ever.  I let myself turn it on at mile 16.  It was a definite pick me up.  I'll be bringing music on future races as well, although I need to figure out how to get it out of my pockets and into my ears in a faster fashion.

And, I finished a marathon, running the whole time (at a nice easy pace) -- anytime you can do that, it's Good.  I feel healthy, strong, and very alive -- all of which are good things.

Splits:

Notable miles:

Mile 3 -- Ditched the 4:25 pace group because they seemed to be going too fast. Stopped for 40 seconds to take off my running pants and saw Jen.  We ran together to close the gap on the group ahead and use them as wind blockers before we parted.

Mile 4 -- 4:36 portapotty break.  When I was done with this stop, all desire to race was gone.  I was just going to run easy and have fun.

Mile 9 -- Finally completely ripped off the heavy duty trashbag.  This took much longer than I'd expected and slowed me down quite a bit.  Just another reason the dollar store poncho is the way to go next time.

Mile 16 -- Music reward.  Pulling out my MP3 player, detangling it, and getting it in my ears also took longer than I'd expected.  The music was worth it, so I'm going to need to figure out how to get faster at this trick. 

End of Mile 25 -- 46 second break at the light rail tracks.  The lights were flashing.  The arms came down.  No trains to be seen.  Eventually a cop just waived us through.  I was very glad I wasn't racing for a time goal when this happened.  I just slowed to a walk and waited at the red and white arms, confused.  But I wasn't the least bit angry, which I would have been if I was racing.

Last 100 ft -- a woman I'd been running ahead of for the last few miles decided to try to edge me out in the finish chute.  Really?  I mean, come on, the race for the podium was over a while ago!  For some reason, this move on her part seriously annoyed me and since I hadn't run hard, I had plenty of pep in my step to drop her.  This is how I closed out the marathon at a pace faster than any of the intervals I ran in the whole training cycle.     

Oh, and my goal to run an even race for the first time in my life?  I'd forgotten about that one when I decided to relax and have fun.  But, somehow, thanks to the portapotty stop, I accidentally almost nailed it.  Check out my chip splits:

Mile   5.9	1:02:51		0:10:39
Mile 13.1	2:19:18		0:10:38
Mile    20	3:33:15		0:10:40
Mile 26.2	4:39:29		0:10:40

Marathon #8, Done.  Totally different than what I'd expected, but very fun.

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CIM 2012: The Bad

So first, let me preface this by saying that the race, overall, was super fun, and great, and the GOOD post is yet to come.  I'm glad I did it.  It was *not* bad.

But, there were many bad things.  Many of which were my fault.

The weather was not my fault.  But it was pretty bad and definitely at the root of many of the other bad things.

My attire choices were bad.  First, I didn't go buy a cheap poncho to deal with the weather.  I bought gloves with cut off fingers, which is hilarious, because while they were the greatest thing ever, and I was super happy to have them 'til some random house in the fabulous 40s, apparently, I didn't need to attend to this detail at all.  At the expo. the race gave us gloves when we picked up our gear (I got two pairs!!).  So I covered the issue they covered, but what I didn't do is buy a cheap poncho.  Instead, I spent about 3 hours regretting this during the race.  Everywhere I looked, there were people in nice, light, easy to move water repellant ponchos.  With hoods!  Those Jerks With Their Awesome Rain Gear!  But not me!  I opted for the *heavy* duty trash bag.  Key word?  "Heavy."

The first 3 miles, this seemed like a brilliant choice.  When a tail-wind came, I'd spread my wings and fly!  Cross-winds and head-winds, on the other-hand? Not fun in my heavy-duty sail, but at least I was relatively dry.  I wasn't yet tired, so it hadn't occurred to me that the folks in the cellophane looking things were equally dry, but much less strained by their gear.

Oh, did I mention that I didn't have time to take off my throw-away sweat-pants before the start?  After the 4:25 pace group took mile 2 at sub 9:30, I decided to stop and remove them.  Garmin says this took about 40 seconds because I had to remove them over my shoes.  They had tight ankle elastic.  Yet another bad attire choice.

Anyways, back to the heavy duty trash bag dress of awesomeness.  As time went on, the bottom of my "dress" kept clipping my calves, and eventually, I tore both the front and back into strips I could knot to make it shorter and more tight fitting.  These knots limited my running stride and collected water that I had to carry.  In short, the heavy duty trashbag is sub-optimal.  Go for the super-cheap dollar store light poncho.  Note, due to the weather, the protection was important enough that even in its sub-optimal state, that I kept it on 'til mile 8 or so.

The Chafing was also bad.  Part of this ties back to the bad attire issue.  Unbeknownst to me, I should have worn shorts.  I didn't.  The pain started about 1/3-race and continued to the end and through the rest of the day, as open sores in a long car ride trying to heal against the dry clothing you change into post-race will result in a particularly non-fun exit from the car after a couple of hours of inactivity.  Today, I am covered in bright red scabs.  Super sexy!

The in-race porta-potty situation was bad, too.  The pre-race porta-potty situation at CIM is legendary: they pride themselves in their abundance.  I, unfortunately, did not take the time to wake early enough to eat and have my coffee and show up in enough time use the abundance.  Instead, I slept in as much as possible after a night of non-optimal race food, had my coffee and bars and hopped out of the drop-off car at the last possible moment to ran to the start whereupon I arrived at the 4:25 pace flag about 1 minute before the gun.  I've never actually started a marathon with a full GI tract post dinner of too much Mexican food and alcohol followed by breakfast and coffee with no useful GI bathroom break.  I think I'd like to never repeat this experience.

The AM late arrival displays a common theme.  My commitment was bad.  I realized mid-week that I wasn't coming close to my already-revised time goal due to weather, and I kind of just started to phone it in race-wise.  I committed to social obligations and didn't pay attention to food or attire (hence the majority of this post).  The night before the race I hung out with 2 couples we hadn't seen in a long time and in doing so, I had 1.5 glasses of wine, a beer, lots of water and tamales and tacos instead of my usual pre-race no alcohol noodle soup routine.  My original plan had been to show up with my own soup at our hosts.  Right.  That plan was derailed without much dissent from me, and there you go.  I ate and drank what was served.

My lack of dietary and early wake-up coffee commitment meant that I needed a porta-potty on-course, pretty much immediately after the start.  I felt great, otherwise, and given the long lines at the first few, I pressed on with the 4:25 pace group, even as they sped up to paces that didn't seem to make any sense (the last mile before I bailed, they were sub 9:30 and I bailed on an uphill portion).  The thing is, I was not alone in my late arrival to the start.  I left my driver with 0.3 miles to go to the turn around and there were a mile of cars behind us.  I ran through the storming rain and wind to the 4:25 pace group and barely made it before the start.  Most of the driven runners were waiting in the non-stormy comfort of their drivers' cars 'til the last minute (like me, but even moreso).  Also, after the start it became clear that at least one large shuttle arrived after the start, so that as we headed out, we were running *against* runners who were running to get to the start and cross the mats.

I repeat: The in-race porta-potty situation was bad.  This was not the race organizers fault (except, perhaps for the late shuttle, but really, what are they going to do, leave the late shuttle folks stranded?).  Due to weather and a desire to limit time getting drenched at the start, many runners (myself included) started without the appropriate pre-race bathroom time.  I skipped the first few porta potty stations because the lines were just too long.  But at mile 3.5, I couldn't wait for another option.  So I stopped.  And as I waited for an open option, I stared at 2 port-o-lets pushed door-down to the ground by the wind, clearly understanding that my situation was not dire -- I was not in them when it happened.  And yet, despite my instantaneous committed gratefulness practice, it continued to rain and the wind continued to blow.   

4 minutes and 36 seconds later, I got back on the course.  Cold.  Stiff. And with a group of folks who race much slower than I am used to.  But I was wearing an extra large trash bag and it was storming and really who knows what is the appropriate speed under these conditions?  Also, it felt pretty comfortable to run at the pace they were running.  Possibly because my trash bag dress was tied to restrict my stride.  But either way, I was enjoying running at roughly my long run training pace and laughing at the hilarity of the weather and the miles to come.  Who was I to complain?  As I said, when it comes to racing this race, My commitment was bad.
 
But it was still a great day.

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CIM 2012: The Ugly

Surely you've heard of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (the finest of *all* Spaghetti Westerns?)

If not, watch it somehow, STAT.  Either way, I reference it here because it's a hilarious time capsule of culture, was one of my father's favorite movies, and, most importantly, because it's a great set of words to summarize an event.

I've decided to take them in reverse order. So, without further adieu:

The Ugly (the back of my right knee, post race):

Chafing --If you do research on running in severe raining conditions, you will find quite a bit of information on chafing.  Apparently, tons of water from the sky for hours makes the friction for your skin against itself and material much, much more likely to cause abrasion.  The reports I read were so scary that I bought a BodyGlide stick for the first time ever and applied it *quite* liberally to any place I'd ever had chafing on any run in the past.  Also, I cheated on my favorite socks and bought drymax socks.

End result?  My feet were pruned and purple, but not a blister to be found. All the normal places where I have had any chafing issues in the past were fine -- BodyGlide is powerful stuff.  I think next time I'm just going to go for a full body application, though.

Because despite running in the exact same tights I wore on my last long run I had tons of unexpected areas of redness and raw skin where the seams must have just swollen in the water, or the material expanded in the water and stuck to the creases of my skin, or who knows what.  Either way, it was gross, and not fun.  The knee above is the least of it, in terms of actual open wounds I'm nursing, but the rest is NSFW.  This pain kicked in around 10 miles or so and continued throughout the remainder of the race.  Like I said, Ugly.

The Bad and The Good are to come.

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CIM Week 0

Well, tomorrow is the big (rainy and windy) day.

18 weeks, and a little of 500 miles, including 267 in the last 8 weeks.  Not a bad final result given that I felt like I was seriously off track just 5 weeks ago. Today, I did my last run in the drizzle: 0.3 easy, 1 mile at target MP (9:32), 4X100 strides and short jogging cool down for a total of 2.1 miles.

Even though I'm heavier than I'd like to be,  I'm healthy and I feel strong.  Today's run, the legs and body felt great and bouncy in that awesome fully tapered way.  It's such a blessing to be able to feel like this -- so alive.

Even so, given the weather, I'm not going out with my target pace group.

If it turns out the weather doesn't affect me too much, after the first few miles with the slower pace group, I'll up the pace to my original target (or something close to it) and just try to maintain it for the rest of the race.

The fact that I'd already decided I wasn't trying to PR this race has made it very easy to deal with the ridiculous weather.  My goal is to relax, have fun, finish, and (ideally) to run an even or a negative split race.  Like SarahOUaL, I just want to run a race I'm proud of.

Also, if my plan to borrow one works, I may run with a GoPro on my head to record the ridiculousness of the weather.

Have a great weekend, Everyone.

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