Trying to train for this century by myself is a real challenge. Work has complicated things a lot, too. We are so busy that it’s hard to even get out for a run twice a week after work. Then, when the weekend comes around, the last thing I want to do is put big miles on my bike.
Got my Tierra Bella jersey yesterday, so I am committed to doing this thing. Gotta do my 80-miler next weekend, then taper. It’s going to be rough.
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February has come and gone and I only rode twice: once on a short-but-steep ride up to Mt. Hamilton and yesterday, a cold, wet, windy ride to check out the only other part of Tierra Bella I had yet to experience.
My friend Steve got an idea stuck in his head that he wanted to ride all three of the major peaks in the Bay Area: Mt. Diablo, Mt. Tam and Mt. Hamilton. I missed the Mt. Diablo ride and Mt. Tam had to be rescheduled due to rain. But Mt. Hamilton is close enough to my house that I thought about riding there, so I couldn’t miss that one.
It wasn’t my fastest time up to the top, but still a decent effort.
Having slacked off last weekend in favor of a 9-mile run with Paulie, I got back on the bike Saturday and headed for Gilroy. I wanted to check out Coyote Lake and the climb up to the Gilroy Hot Springs. The Tierra Bella route climbs this road and circles southward again to Hwy. 152 — a busy, two-lane road that links Hwy 101 and I-5 — so I knew I didn’t want to ride that part by myself. But I figured that doing the climb would be good enough. Also, I needed a long day in the saddle, not too much climbing. So, going up to Coyote Lake and turning around would give me a little over 70 miles with only about 2000′ of elevation gain.
The weather forecast called for a 50% chance of rain, so I wore my new rain jacket. I was concerned about overheating, so I didn’t wear leg warmers. Little did I know that that would be the least of my worries!
The ride down to Gilroy and up to Coyote Lake was fine. Sunny at times, but mostly overcast and still. When I got to the turnaround point, the clouds started getting a little more ominous.
On the descent, the skies got a little darker and the air, a little colder. The wind had started up, but I figured that was par for the course in this area. I pedaled onward feeling pretty good about my 14 MPH average pace. I started getting sprinkled on, but aside from that, my ride was uneventful up to the base of Anderson Lake.
I took a break there and that’s when I heard thunder. I also saw some lightning in the distance. I did remember to bring long-fingered gloves, so I put those on, but other than that, I was dressed for 55-65 degree weather. I had my summer skull cap on, which isn’t insulated, and just regular bike shorts. I didn’t even have my toe warmers!
Because of the lightning, and the fact that there were a few stretches along the bike path that are totally exposed, I considered packing it in and figuring out some other way to get home. I didn’t want to get struck by lightning! But I decided that the lightning was only in the hills, so I pressed on.
Within a mile or two of that bathroom break, the rain started coming down. Hard at times, but steady for at least an hour. I was miserable and seriously concerned about hypothermia. There was one point where I needed to slow down for a sharp, downhill turn and I almost crashed because I couldn’t feel my hands and my glove got stuck in the brake lever.
About halfway between Anderson Lake park and home, I took another break at a park near the trail. That almost turned out to be a mistake because I needed to work really hard to keep my body temperature up and in the five minutes or so that it took to pee, eat some GU and refill my water bottle, I started shivering. I had also been dealing with minor cramping since the start of the climb, and that also limited how hard I could push myself.
Sensing the trouble ahead, I hopped back on the bike, pushed through the intermittent cramp in my left leg and made it home in record time. I normally stick to the 15-MPH speed limit on the trail, but I was all by myself in the rain and did not have time to mess around with speed limits.
Thankfull, I made it home safely. I immediately shed every stitch of clothing and hopped in the shower, taking care to warm up slowly. Still, I have some lingering numbness in my left thumb and index finger. It’s getting better, but I hope it goes away completely. It would be hard to play guitar that way!
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The big climb on the Tierra Bella route goes from Morgan Hill up to Henry Coe State Park. I’d never been up that road, so I thought I’d check it out.
Wow, it was tough! The climbing starts at 340′ and peaks at 2675′. Here are the stats:
I took the direct route down Monterey Hwy, which is not really part of the century route, but I wanted to make sure I had enough gas in the tank to do ~60 miles with more than 3400′ of climbing. It gave me a taste of what I’d be facing in April: headwinds.
I was really cooking down Monterey, hitting speeds of 17-18MPH. It was getting warm, too. Then I looked ahead and saw fog in Morgan Hill. I thought, “wow, that looks cool (in the figurative sense).” Then I hit Live Oak and it was as if someone turned on a big fan! Cool (in the literal sense), steady 5-10MPH headwinds knocked my speed back to 13MPH and made me glad I wore a long-sleeve base layer.
In retrospect, I should’ve taken Coyote Creek Trail because I really needed a bathroom by the time I got to Morgan Hill and couldn’t find one. I searched around the downtown area, scanning the farmer’s market and some of the area I remembered from visiting the Mushroom Mardi Gras earlier in the year. No luck. I thought about riding farther away from the hill because I knew the park where they staged the Morgan Hill Marathon would have restrooms, but loathed the idea of adding miles before I’d begun the ascent. I checked my iPhone and saw a park on the route, right next to the school where my friend teaches. I hoped they would have a restroom, but, nope. So I decided to just start climbing and when my bladder said it was time to go, I’d just have to figure something out.
Fortunately, less than two miles from that park, I saw a porta-potty on the side of the road. It was just sitting there, unlocked, next to a fence. I couldn’t figure out why it was there, but I wasn’t questioning my good luck at that point. That was the sign I needed that this was going to be a good ride! (Later, I saw that there was construction going on at one of the nearby houses. I can only assume that it was for the construction workers.)
The ride wraps around Anderson County Lake, then the real climbing starts. It had varied degrees of steepness, but near the very top, there is a short section that felt like it was greater than 20% incline, but RideWithGPS tells me it was only 12.9%. Still, it kind of sucked. More suckage: the parking lot was BELOW the top of the climb!
It felt good to get to the parking lot, though. The visitors center had a water fountain and restrooms, so I took advantage of both. Then, I climbed up and over the top again and began the descent. There was a little bit of climbing left, but it wasn’t bad.
The headwinds on the way back were no fun, though. But, if that’s what I need to train for, I just have to suck it up and do it. I have lots of time to train for it, though. I need to do more hills!
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It’s been months since I did any serious hills, so today’s buddy ride was a pleasant surprise.
Clarice picked the route and it included my favorite serious hill: Old LaHonda. We started at McKenzie Park and rode directly to OLH. Despite not having climbed anything over 250′ since doing Metcalf Road last MARCH, I did pretty well. According to Strava, I was less than a minute off my personal best up that road. I think losing 20 lb. really helped in that respect.
Then, we went down West Old LaHonda and I was able to take this panorama:
After a quick trip down to Hwy 84, up that road and down the other side to Portola –> Mountain Home and a rest stop at Roberts Market, Mark decided that he wasn’t fully recovered from his cold and wanted to head back to the cars. So, I joined him. Still got in a decent ride, though. My legs will definitely be feeling the hills tomorrow!
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Well, the recovery period after the last marathon is over. Time to get ready for the next challenge: the 2015 Tierra Bella Century.
I needed to make up some miles if I was to complete my virtual journey from San Jose to Cabo San Lucas, so I took advantage of my Christmas Break and hopped on my bike. I rode about 150 miles, and ran about 5.5 for good measure, and ended up hitting 1505.1 miles on 12/29/14!
Now I’m signed up for Tierra Bella and am looking forward to doing this challenge on my own. I mean, I hope to ride it with a couple of friends, but without the benefit of pace lining and having a team manager pick up all my stuff before the ride. It should be really tough: 7600′ of climbing is a lot! But hopefully, I can keep up the motivation throughout the training season and finish with a respectable time. Gotta keep running, too, so I can keep the weight down and my cardio fitness up.
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Seven weeks ago, I was singing Chicago’s praises. The Chicago Marathon is a world-class event that left me on such a high, I started planning to enter the lottery for the 2015 NYC Marathon.
The California International Marathon (CIM), which starts in Folsom and ends in our state’s capitol, is known for being fast and unpredictable. Fast, because it’s a net-downhill. There are rolling hills, but there’s about 400′ of climbing and 800′ of descending. That leads to a very high percentage of runners who “Boston Qualify,” which means they run such a fast time that they qualify to run perhaps the most prestigious marathon in the US, if not the world. Its nickname is “the fastest course in the West.” And unpredictable, because it’s in December in California’s Central Valley, so the weather can be cold, wet, or even a little on the warm side (relatively speaking, 70 degrees is warm for December).
It’s not known for having much else, but I managed to have a great time, despite initially being burned out on running.
The Prelude
I’ve been training since March for the Chicago Marathon and thought it wouldn’t be so bad to just keep up the training for another few weeks.
I was wrong. The longest training runs are the hardest, obviously, and this plan meant I was going to be doing them from the end of August until the end of November. That was kind of a grind.
Before Chicago, I was very excited to do that marathon. By the time I was doing my 20-miler before CIM, I was mentally worn out. I was not looking forward to doing this. If it weren’t for my TNT friends who recruited me to do this with them, I probably would have bailed. But I’m glad I didn’t. I ended up having a great run, finished with a big improvement in my marathon time, and had a great weekend!
The Day Before
One good thing about CIM is it’s close to home. I left at 12:30pm and arrived at 3:30pm, with a pit stop in Walnut Creek to get some last-minute supplies and lunch. Walnut Creek traffic was kind of annoying, but I got to the marathon expo to pick up my race bib and everything went smoothly. Along they way, I bumped into Leslie and Christy A., whom I hadn’t seen in a while. Leslie wasn’t up to running the full marathon and Christy’s running partner had to withdraw at the last minute, so we made tentative plans to look for each other on the course. That would come in handy later.
I also bumped into Ching, who was training specifically for this event and was very excited. She told me about a runner’s buffet at our hotel, which sounded like a good way to get together with everyone before the race. It didn’t work out, but I met up with Paulie and her aunt Margie and we hung out most of the weekend, including eating dinner at the buffet.
After dinner, I was actually feeling tired. I watched a little TV and decided to go to sleep. This had never happened to me the night before any event. I got about four hours of good sleep!
All set for the race!
The Day Of
I woke up slightly before my alarm went off, but not enough to even think about trying to fall asleep again. So I turned on the TV and studied the course. It looked like there were two significant uphills: one around Mile 7 and another around Mile 11. Of course, after running 18+ miles, anything feels like a significant hill.
When the time came to find the bus, it was SUPER foggy outside. I had a room on the third floor, so I just went down the stairs. This put me on the street on the opposite side of the hotel parking garage entrance, so I didn’t really know where I was. I wandered around to the front, got my bearings, then went toward the bus stop area. Through the fog, I saw a couple of school buses waiting, so I went in that direction. There were only two of them, which I thought was odd. So I asked one of the drivers if this was the bus going to the starting line. He said, “Yes, but this one’s for the elites. The one you want is on the other side of the convention center.” Well, at least I now know where to go when I finally become an elite runner 🙂
After a few text messages, I found Paulie and Margie. We got in line and the bus area was a surprisingly orderly mob. Runners are truly nice people!
Once we got on the bus, I sat next to a nice woman from Arkansas who had just taken up running in her mid-50’s. She asked me what my goal time was and I said, “I just want to finish.” When I asked her, she said, “I’d really like to break 4:30.”
It’s a good thing I don’t have much of an ego, or it’d have been crushed.
When we got to the starting line, everyone dashed off the bus to go to the porta-potties. My new friend and I stayed behind. We both figured it was better to stay warm in the bus than to stand around outside any longer than we had to. But by the time we got out, it was 15 minutes to the start and the porta-potty line still looked like this:
I guess I wasn’t the only one who was properly hydrated at the start of the race.
Like I said before, I wasn’t really enthusiastic about this event, so I lingered until it was my turn, did my thing, then headed to the starting line. The gun went off while I was still inside and I was putting my jacket in my backpack while walking toward the starting line.
Here we go!
I started out a little fast, which always worries me. But I was running by feel, not by my watch, and the gentle downhill grade really does help! I walked a few short uphills because I told myself I was still warming up — and running too fast when I wasn’t on an uphill — so that kept my heart rate somewhat reasonable. On the bad side, I skipped a few walk breaks.
By the time I hit the 10km mark, I’d settled into a nice groove. I knew from my Chicago Marathon experience that I needed to increase my salt intake; Coach Meghan wasn’t going to be here to rescue me at Mile 21 this time! So I popped more salt capsules and switched to Salted Caramel-flavored GU, which has less potassium than my usual Chocolate Outrage flavor, but a lot more salt. I also drank the Nuun sports drink, which I love, at every water stop. I think this helped me as much as the net downhill effect. I never got close to cramping up and felt really good all the way until Mile 25 or so.
Feelin’ good!
During this race, I saw two things I wish I’d taken pictures of.
The first happened somewhere in the first quarter of the marathon. I thought I saw a guy holding two dogs on leashes cheering us on. One was a small dog and the other looked like a pretty big, hairy mutt. But when I got closer, it was actually a long-haired goat. On a leash. As I ran by the guy, I said, “Okay, that’s a first for me at a marathon.”
The second was at the porta-potty stop just shy of the halfway point. There was a short line (unlike my first, four-minute stop at Mile 5.5), so I decided to stop. After a minute, an attractive woman emerged from one of them and went to the side of the porta-potties to finish, uh, finishing up. She had her pink tights still around her thighs and was wearing kinda hot, lacy, black thong underwear. She muttered something about it being disgusting “in there,” and she finished adjusting her clothing and took off running again. The few of us waiting in line kind of looked at each other in shock and laughed it off.
The Friends
I never did see Paulie or Margie on the course, but I did see a lot of other people. I ran with Ching and Lauren at some points in the middle of the race. I saw Stacy B at the halfway point. She was doing a relay with Denise H and called out my name as she saw me approaching.
At one of the rest stops after the halfway point, I saw Team in Training Sacramento signs. I thought, “Hmm, Barbara from the Solvang ’14 team lives out here. I wonder if she’s here?” Sure enough, I saw her the next instant! She drove out from Elk Grove every other weekend to train with us because her local team wasn’t doing Solvang. Here’s the best photo I have of her (and it’s not very good).
Barbara from the Solvang Century, who worked an aid station at CIM. Thanks, Barbara!
Chris W from the South Bay marathon team was also out there with them, supporting the runners. He ran a quarter-mile or so with me, keeping me company and making sure I had what I needed.
Also around that point, I saw Christy and Leslie on the course. Leslie wasn’t running the whole thing, but she paid for her bib, so she jumped in around the halfway mark and ran with her daughter. I caught up with them for good around Mile 23. We ran/walked together because Christy wasn’t having a good day (she’s usually much faster than I am, so it must’ve really gone badly for her). Anyway, the three of us blabbed away until the finish. If you’re not in the “bite me” zone, it helps to have someone to talk to to get your mind off the pain you’re in. And I was in a pretty good mood because I knew at that point that I was going to get a PR by a pretty wide margin as long as I finished the race. So we ran and walked at my pace until the end.
Feelin’ cocky!
Right at Mile 25, my feet started really hurting. My new shoes were great up until that point, but I wanted to just walk the rest of the way because I knew I had a PR in hand. Thankfully, Christy talked me into running the last half mile until I crossed the finish line.
Finally, I can stop running for awhile!
I am really happy with my time: 5 hours, 17 minutes, 24 seconds! That beats my Chicago time by 17 minutes! Now I can take a break from running and go back to cycling.
BLING!
Me and Christy after the finish line.
The Night After
I have some friends who live in Sacramento, so after the race, I had dinner with Tony, Lisa and her husband Mike, plus Paulie and Margie. It was great having old friends and new friends together at once, and seeing everyone getting along. We ate at an Irish pub, where I discovered Balvenie has a 17-year-old version of one of my favorite scotches: Double Wood 17. Much alcohol was consumed. Many stories were told. And much fun was had!
That’s it for now. Next up: Training for the 2015 Tierra Bella Century in Gilroy, CA!
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Now this could only happen to a guy like me
And only happen in a town like this
So may I say to each of you most gratefully
As I throw each one of you a kiss
This is my kind of town, Chicago is
My kind of town, Chicago is
My kind of people too
People who smile at you
I’ve never been to Chicago before, but this one visit has me hooked! Sure, it’s home to the second marathon I’ve ever run and my current PR, but even before those historic (to me) events, I felt a weird sort of bond with the place. Coming from earthquake country, I’m just not used to seeing so many tall buildings. And it sits on a huge lake that rivals any ocean in scope — at least scope that humans can perceive. I’d like to come back for a real visit someday. But now, it’s time to recap the race weekend.
Day Zero (Thursday, October 9th):
I took today off because I knew there would be things I needed to do that I wasn’t able to do while I was cranking work out so I could leave. That gave me plenty of time to go over my mental checklists, get things ready for Laura to care for the cats while I was gone and pack my things.
Everything went smoothly. Naturally, this made me nervous.
Day One (Friday, October 10th):
I left the house a little late, but since I planned to leave a little early, it worked out. Hit the ATM on the way to the airport and got there with a little time to spare. My first stop was Las Vegas. Well, McCarran International Airport.
All flights into the Midwest were being delayed due to a recent fire at an air traffic control building that covers the whole region, so my flight from LAS to MDW was supposed to be delayed by 1 hour. My original layover was supposed to be 50 minutes, so I thought this would give me plenty of time to wander around and find something to eat. Air traffic control had other ideas.
Just after I sat down to eat my turkey sausage and egg wrap and drink my coffee, I noticed people lining up at the gate. Apparently, Las Vegas doesn’t make enough money off of visitors to afford a decent PA system because I never heard the announcement that my flight had begun boarding! So I stuffed half of the egg wrap in my food hole and dashed off. This is where early bird check-in started to pay off. I already had an A-group pass, so even though I was a little late, I still got a good seat with the tail end of the A group.
I landed and got on the L train’s Orange Line to The Loop. I was excited about riding the train until I overheard one passenger talking to another about someone robbing an entire train car a few weeks ago.
Welcome to Chicago. Here’s your three-day supply of paranoia.
Since I have some degree of “street smarts,” I knew better than to walk around downtown Chicago with my face stuck in a smartphone and a suitcase in tow. I had a rough idea of where I was going, but 2D maps have no way to convey how easy it is to get lost in Chicago’s 3D street layout. I ended up walking over the river until I found a spot where I felt safe to pull out my phone and find my way to the team hotel. Luckily, my crude sense of direction had only led me astray by about a quarter of a mile. I could see the hotel from where I stood.
After I got settled into my room, the emails began flying around about who was there and what people were doing for dinner. Since I hadn’t budgeted time for sightseeing, my only goal, outside of setting a new PR in the marathon, was to eat some genuine Chicago deep-dish pizza. So I connected with some teammates who were on the same dinner schedule and we walked to Giordano’s.
The place was packed; the hostess said the wait was about an hour, but we could order our pizza at that time and it would be ready soon after we were seated. Since we didn’t have anything better to do, we hung around the crowded waiting area and chatted until our name was called.
It was worth it.
Afterward, I met a few other teammates for a nightcap at the hotel bar. It was a great way to start a great weekend.
Day Two (Saturday, October 11th):
SueMac and I had to pick up our race packets, so we dashed off the the expo shuttle bus with our dedicated team manager Lorri. Once we got there, Lorri just stayed on the bus waiting for it to go back to the drop off area. She just wanted to make sure we made it to the expo. That’s dedication!
Everything was so well organized, it was amazing. When I walked up to this Packet Pick-Up sign, the woman on the right scanned the QR code on my phone (which was integrated with Apple’s Passbook app!) and told me which line had my stuff. In the ten seconds it took me to get to that line (which only had one person in it), my stuff was already waiting for me. Pretty impressive. Wish I could say the same for the rest of the expo, but I guess there’s only so much running stuff you can cram into an expo hall before it all starts to look the same. I bought a Nike Chicago Marathon long-sleeve t-shirt because the official race tech tee was pretty boring.
There’s nothing on the back, either. Yawn.
Nike had a cool display that helped you visualize the course and the names of the neighborhoods we’d be running through. I thought it looked kind of like an assault rifle with a deformed suppressor, which is kind of appropriate for Chicago, the murder capital of the US, in a morbid way.
There was also a graffiti wall, so I left a shout out to two of our honorees: Team Sylvia and Team Marie.
To see my dedication, click on the picture and a larger version will open in a new window.
Before we left the expo, Sue wanted to meet Bart Yasso at the Runner’s World magazine booth. I’m not too star-struck, but I do like to thank people when their advice has helped me. I’ve been a big fan of Runner’s World writer Jenny “Coach Jenny” Hadfield since I started running, so when she was also at the booth, I shook her hand and told her how much I appreciated her column. I told Bart how much his “Yasso 800s” workout tortured me and he laughed. As we were making awkward chitchat, he mentioned how nice the weather was going to be (after the race day forecasts had predicted up to a 50% chance of rain earlier in the week). He said, “that should make it fun.” I looked at him and said, “You mean it’ll make it less painful!” He really got a kick out of that 🙂
Then some of us had lunch at a nice chop house across the river from the hotel. On the way, I took a boring picture of buildings and worked on my selfie technique.
After lunch, I got my race gear together. I also worked on my selfie technique a little more.
For the past few events, I’ve worn three good luck charms to help me push through the hard times.
My “Team Marie” button was given to me by my cycle team bro John Garza during our Tour de Cure ride to benefit the American Diabetes Association. His daughter Marie lost her battle to blood cancer before doctors even had a chance to accurately diagnose it. He is a constant source of inspiration and earned the nickname “Iron John” when he completed a 140.3-mile “long course” triathlon with Team in Training.
My “Team Sylvia” button was a fundraiser for Sylvia Casillas, 2X leukemia survivor who is currently recovering from a stem cell transplant. She is one of the strongest women I know (true fact: I say that about all cancer survivors).
The third is a patch created by members of the Hawk List in memory of Steve “Da Gadfaddah” Lenac. Jersey Steve was one of the toughest, nicest guys you could ever hope to not-quite-meet-on-the-internet. He was kind of like a father figure for the Hawk List: quick with soothing supporting words or a blunt New Jersey-ism, whichever the situation called for. He survived cancer, but succumbed to heart disease while leading a motorcycle tour through the fall foliage in New England (IIRC). He literally died doing the two things he loved: helping people and riding motorcycles. The small “YFG” stands for “you fuckin’ guys!” which I am told is a term of endearment for Jersey folks. And I choose to believe that 😉
Dressing your chair is a time-honored TNT tradition. You basically lay out your clothing as if you were wearing it, starting with what you’d wear on your head and ending with your shoes. It helps you visualize anything that might be missing…before it’s too late. Here’s mine.
The TNT Inspiration Dinner was inspirational, as always, and featured the hilarious John “the Penguin” Bingham, as always (for the big running events). That guy really knows how to work a crowd and his attitude toward running really melds with the TNT philosophy that it’s not where you finish that matters, but that you participate, have fun and make a difference.
After a short team meeting to go over the schedule for race day, we went to bed. I thought I’d get a decent amount of sleep, but I only got about 2 hours, then woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep until right before my alarm went off. But it’s cool. Like I tell my participants: don’t worry about it because you won’t fall asleep on the bike or while you’re running.
Day Three, Race Day (Sunday, October 12th):
We gathered in the hotel lobby between 5:30 and 6:00am with the intention of walking over as a team and flooding the streets of Chicago with purple TNT race jerseys. This was one of those ideas that sounds a lot better than it works because most people realized that that was WAY too early to start lining up for an 8:00am start and those of use who did walk over together were bundled up in jackets and trash bag ponchos lovingly made by Coach Tim.
But we had a super-pleasant surprise waiting for us. Coach Meghan flew out — on her own dime — and would try to get on the race course without a bib to support us. I was too asleep to really appreciate what that meant for all of us (and she was a little underwhelmed by my underwhelming response to seeing her) but she would later save my ass race at around Mile 22.
So this is what Chicago looks like at the crack of dawn. Exciting, no?
Gradually, the sun came up and we got a little warmer. Then the gun went off and the elites were on the course. 58 minutes later — when they had reached the 11-mile mark — I crossed the starting line.
The Race:
I was really struck by how beautiful Chicago was. The architecture is great and the various neighborhoods we ran through each have a distinct personality. Okay, some of them aren’t exactly postcard-perfect, but that just gave you a frame of reference. More important, the people EVERYWHERE were fantastic, always cheering and looking like they were having a great time supporting us.
Unfortunately, I was very focused on having a good race, so I didn’t stop to take any pictures along the way. The lone exception was a selfie by the porta-potties, which is kind of a (no pun intended) running joke with my friend Paulie. She always takes selfies during her runs and, invariably, there will be at least one porta-potty in the background somewhere. So, here’s my tribute to Paulie, taken at the Mile 19 aid station. (Oversharing Alert: the only reason I stopped was because I actually had to use one of those.)
The race itself was close to perfect: flat, cool and not too windy. I was going to try for a negative split (running the second half of the race faster than the first) AND get a PR (personal record). So, my strategy was to alternate running a 12:00min/mile pace for five minutes and walking a 17:00min/mile pace for one minute. The trouble was the tall buildings blocked the GPS satellite signals and I couldn’t tell how fast I was running. After the first few miles, I knew I was going too fast and tried to slow down, but by then it was too late. So I created new plan: just keep that regular pace going as long as I could, then adjust the ratio of run:walk until I found a ratio that worked until I crossed the finish line. It kind of worked. I ended up running the second half only 10 5 minutes slower than the first half, which is exactly what I did during my first marathon. (Edited for math, at which I suck.)
Speaking of Mile 19, that short break to pee and take a picture gave my body a taste of what it was like to stop running. It liked it. A lot. It liked it so much that I found that I wasn’t quite the same afterward. Even though I was taking a regular dose of electrolyte capsules every hour and drinking Gatorade at almost every aid station, my left leg started cramping. Everything hurt a little more. And every step was a little heavier than before.
I think I hit the wall at Mile 21. Fortunately, that’s when I saw Meghan.
We ran together and I was telling her that I was fine, just cramping a little. Then I felt one really come on and I had to stop and stretch it out. She asked me if I wanted any salt and I told her, “no, I’m taking Endurolytes.” Then she asked me again if I wanted any.
We endurance athletes kind of have a rule of thumb that says if someone says “no” to assistance three times, you have to listen to them because if you keep bugging them, they’re going to rip your head off and/or you’re going to plant a bad thought in their heads. But the reverse is also true that if someone offers you assistance three times, maybe you should consider taking it because at some point late in every event, you lose your objectivity and all you can focus on is finishing.
So I said, “okay, maybe I’ll have some.” She gave me a couple of packets of table salt — probably less than 1/4 teaspoon each — and I poured one in my mouth.
It tasted good.
Normally, a bunch of pure salt all by itself tastes gross. But my first cycle team head coach used to carry around a small container of salt on rides. He said that he’d dip his finger in it every few rest stops and if it tasted good, that meant his body needed salt and he’d take another little bit. But if it tasted bad, he’d just put the container away until the next stop.
Since the first one tasted good, I took another and washed them both down with a healthy swig of water. By Mile 23, I was starting to feel better. Still, I took the third and final packet of salt. It didn’t taste as good as the first two.
By now, I was in the home stretch. Several TNT coaches ran with me to check on me, including Coach Tim. We had a nice chat (from what my run-addled brain can remember). I was in really good spirits even though I knew I wasn’t going to achieve my goal of breaking the 5:30 mark. Furthermore, I was prepared for the finish, thanks to Coach Jenny.
Less than a quarter mile from the finish, the course turns right onto Roosevelt Road and you see “Mount Roosevelt.” This sick joke of an incline can really demoralize you if you’re not ready for it. But because I read her advice, I knew it was only 10′ tall and I told myself, “Hell, I’m a Californian. That’s not a hill to us!” I actually increased my effort running up that bump and that translated to a burst of speed all the way to the finish line!
Paulie actually knew my time before I did and sent me this pic. 5 hours, 34 minutes, 38 seconds! If my math is right, that’s 26 minutes and 6 seconds faster than my 6 hours, 44 second time at the 2013 Nike Women’s Marathon. So, even though I didn’t break 5:30, I was still very happy with that time. Got some nice hardware, too.
Post-Race:
An even crueler joke than Mount Roosevelt was the finish line area. You basically have to walk from one end of Grant Park to the other. That’s about a mile. Then you have to walk about 3/4 of a mile to the hotel. And climb some stairs. But it was worth it!
After soaking in cold water and then taking a lukewarm shower, I headed downstairs to thank and say goodbye to Meghan. She bought her own ticket, flew to Chicago, ran probably close to a marathon herself, and supported us all, then flew home in less than 24 hours. THAT is dedication!
I ate and drank and ate some more and swapped stories with teammates and watched the Giants take a lead in a playoff game (which they ultimately lost, but I didn’t stay awake long enough to see the end), then went to bed. I slept a good eight hours and still got up at 6:30 local time.
Day Four (Monday, October 13th):
I woke up, turned on the TV, saw that the Cardinals had come back to even the series at 1-1, and started to send out feelers to see who was up for breakfast. Since I was leaving around noon, I was on a short fuse. Everyone had their own agendas, which is fine. Sandi’s schedule was the most flexible, so she agreed to have breakfast with me and we limped around town looking for a place to eat. The first one I picked out was swamped, but I found another one nearby that was really nice and had no wait. Thank God for smartphones!
After breakfast, it was time to check out and head to the airport. Thus began a marathon of a different sort.
I asked one of the hotel taxi captains how long it would take to get to the airport by cab. He said 40 minutes if the weather is good, but over an hour if it rains. It was supposed to rain, so I steeled myself for a long, painful walk to the L and up its stairs, and then from the L terminal to the airport concourses. Fortunately, some geniuses invented naproxen sodium (aka, Aleve®). I took some before bed and it worked like magic!
When I arrived at the airport, everything seemed to go smoothly, despite two gate changes. When I got to the final gate, I got a page from the gate agent. I’ve never heard my name called in an airport before, so I knew something was wrong.
Apparently, my connection from Las Vegas to San Jose was canceled, but they were able to put me and everyone else making that connecting flight on a flight leaving around the same time, but going to Burbank first, then to San Jose. The agent said it would only add about an hour, so what the heck? But before I left, I saw that THAT flight had been delayed by 90 minutes. Great.
After a nice flight from Chicago, I was feeling a lot better. I took another Aleve before leaving the hotel and it worked great. I had barely any discomfort after the flight. Good thing, too, because I was about to go from running a marathon to sprinting about a half a mile!
My plane landed and docked at the end of the B concourse. I checked the info board and the connecting flight was delayed AGAIN and wasn’t supposed to leave until 9:30!
So I hustled over to the gate where my next flight was supposed to be at 9:30pm — at the end of the C concourse! — and tried to get on another flight. Turns out the only two flights left would’ve put me in San Jose at 9:30 at the earliest. And they had no fewer than six people on the waiting list.
But the gate agent there was super helpful. She asked if San Francisco was close enough. I thought it was, so I took a chance and got on that standby list. She said it wasn’t full yet, and no one else seemed to be checking in.
There was only one catch: it was the plane I had just left back in the B concourse and it was leaving in 19 minutes. She asked me if that was okay and I said, “hey, I just ran a marathon yesterday. I can make it.”
So I walked as fast as I could without bowling people over and just barely made the plane. If all went well, I should get home about 90 minutes after I was originally scheduled. And I’d only be out the cost of a BART, Caltrain, and taxi ride.
I got to SFO just fine. I hopped on a BART train headed to San Bruno, then transferred to a southbound train to get to the Millbrae terminal. Why? Because apparently, the BART Yellow Line doesn’t go all the way south to Millbrae until after 8pm. WTF? Also, because the directions weren’t clear, I overpaid for my BART ticket, too. (insert heavy sigh) Fortunately, the transfer from BART to Caltrain was easy and I happened to catch a semi-express train that skipped a few stops north of Redwood City.
I got off at the Santa Clara Caltrain station and thought about taking a cab to the SJC Economy Parking Lot, but decided to try Uber. It turned out to be a pretty good experience. My über driver had only been driving for the company for a week, but he was very polite and got me where I needed to go quickly — without driving like a maniac. The public transportation costs were offset by the fact that the Uber ride was free. I’d forgotten that I had a $20 promotional credit from the SF Rock and Roll Half Marathon earlier this year.
So, despite a lot of walking (had a long walk from outside the economy parking lot to where I parked my car, too), and some transportation craziness, it was a great trip and I’m none the worse for wear!
EDIT: Okay, that took a long time to write and I was really tired. That’s my excuse for forgetting to thank my teammates, fellow TNT volunteer staff, Lorri (our team manager), our honorees and our coaches for all they contributed to this amazing season.
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Yesterday was our last long run. It went really well, IMO. I feel pretty good today. Since I’m a data geek, I compared last year’s performance to this year. I haven’t been doing any extra running, and probably have done less extracurricular work, like foam rolling and core workouts. But I’ve changed my diet pretty dramatically, embraced heart rate training and lost about 20 lb. These didn’t show up on my times, which were pretty close, but if you look at the two heart rate charts, I spent a lot more time at a lower heart rate.
2013 TNT Monterey Run Heart Rate data
2014 TNT Monterey Run Heart Rate data
I am hoping this approach keeps me fresher for the end of the Chicago Marathon. It would be really nice to break five and a half hours, but I would be happy with any kind of improvement over my 6:00:44 finish at Nike.
And now, I’m in taper mode. This is my favorite part of the season because it means I’ve already done the hard work and the only thing I can do is screw it up. So, I’m going to avoid doing anything too strenuous and will focus on eating right and getting enough rest. Of course, I got my Chicago Packet Pickup info, so the nerves have kicked in already!
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We’re up to 16 miles now. It’s hard to believe we have only two long runs to go, then two weeks of taper. I’ve got my plane tickets and just need to find someone to feed the cats. Went out today at lunch to shop at REI during their Labor Day sale when it wasn’t too crowded. Picked up a $100 running jacket for $50 and some light gloves. Never can tell what kind of weather Chicago will have in store for us, so I’m ready for anything down to about 45 degrees and dry or 55 degrees and wet. Rain would really suck, though, since I’ve never run in the rain.
We did our 16-mile Natural Bridges run on Saturday. As if a 16-mile run wasn’t enough, I also had tickets to see Dave Matthews Band in Berkeley that evening! So, my day started at 4:30 a.m. and it didn’t end until 1:30 a.m. the next day!
The run went well. Due to a camping trip a few days ago, I kind of skipped my 14-mile run. I did it in two parts before the trip: 10 miles on Thursday evening and 4 miles on Friday morning. But I didn’t run with the team, so I was really happy with my efforts on Saturday. TNT is instituting a maximum time limit to prevent injuries and make life easier for our water stop volunteers. Saturday’s limit was 3:20 and I did the run in 3:19.
Afterward, a few of us went to Emily’s coffee shop for breakfast, then I went home to shower and nap before the show. I ended up lasting until halfway through the second set before I decided to leave to beat the crowd. I was tired and a little stiff, so I really didn’t want to be part of the herd leaving the amphitheater and waiting for the next BART train. All things considered, it was a very successful day!
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We had track practice last night. Our workout is typically a hard one: 800 meter repeats. Basically, the goal is to run two laps, then rest for two minutes, then repeat as many times as time allows. But we’re not supposed to run as fast as we can each time. We’re supposed to try to control our effort so we run approximately the same time for each session. This is a little easier for me because my GPS watch tells me my pace, so I know how fast I should be running. But everyone always goes out too fast and I’m no exception. I started out at an 8:40 min/mile pace, which was a little too fast. We did five sessions and my last time put me at 10:00 min/mile. But it’s fun to see how much you can push your body.
Too bad it was also pretty warm and humid. That definitely hurt my recovery time. In between the first and second sessions, my heart rate would go from 170 down to 135 bpm. By the last session, it only got down to 145. I don’t think I could’ve done another session at a 10:00 min/mile pace in that climate. But you never know what the weather will be like at your event, so I am going to train all summer, no matter how hot it gets, and do the best I can.
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