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!