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Archive for May, 2014

Doing the Boston Qualifying Math

Posted in Marathon, Race goals, Racing, Running, tagged , , , , , on May 27, 2014| 10 Comments »

Irrational thought number one: If I talk about my goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon someday, that will jinx it. Such hubris will be punished by the running gods.

Cliché-filled thought number two: That’s ridiculous! Own your goal! You’ve got to believe it to achieve it!

So, here’s an honest look at what I’m thinking right now. I’m 42 years old and currently need a 3:45 to qualify for Boston.

Previous marathon times:

4:02:39 at the Santa Barbara International Marathon (race recap) in 2012

3:57:29 at the Mountains2Beach Marathon (race recap) in 2013

3:52:42 at the Long Beach International City Bank Marathon (race recap) in 2013

That means I need to cut 7 minutes and 42 seconds off my time to qualify for Boston. That might not sound like a lot over the course of 26.2 miles, but it’s the difference between running at a pace of 8:52 per mile (about 6.8 miles per hour) and 8:35 per mile (about 7 miles per hour) for those 26.2 miles. Take into account that it’s hard to run the tangents perfectly for 26.2 miles, and I really need to hit more like an 8:31 pace (7.04 miles per hour) for 26.4 miles.

How do I plan to do that? Well, I’ve been mixing up my training with more hill training, strength workouts, and speed intervals. Then I tested my legs by training and tapering specifically for a half marathon. I came in at 1:48:02, and promptly plugged that time into the McMillan Running Calculator, which predicts that if I can run a half marathon at 1:48:02, I can train to run a full marathon at 3:47:22 (so close to 3:45)! Adjust for the fact that the half marathon had 764 feet of gain over 13.1 miles, while the full marathon course only has 300 feet of gain over 26.2 miles, and I’m optimistic! But then adjust again for the fact that it’s likely to be hotter for the Santa Rosa Marathon in August than it was for the half in Santa Ynez in May, and adjust again for the fact that it’s a challenge for me to fuel properly for 26.2 miles, and I’m completely humbled and intimidated by the prospect of running another full marathon.

All of those calculations and speculations led me to examine the Boston Qualifying standards again, and something stood out to me. The Boston Qualifying rules state that for the age group qualifying standards:

The qualifying times . . . are based upon each athlete’s age on the date of the Boston Marathon in which they are participating.

Did you get that and what it means? It means that in order for me to bump up to the 3:55 qualifying standard from the current 3:45, I can run a qualifying marathon time for the 2017 Boston Marathon in the fall of 2015 when I am age 44 (because qualifying times for the 2017 marathon must be run on or after mid-September 2015). Right?

So, to put it another way, I realized that if I don’t qualify for Boston 2015 at Santa Rosa in August or for Boston 2016 at Surf City in February with a 3:45, I could go for a Boston 2017 time at a fall race in 2015 when I’m 44 but will be age 45 at the time of Boston 2017, which pushes my necessary qualifying time to 3:55. So that means if I can hang on to or better my current PR of 3:52 for another year, I might just make it! Of course, the rules and standards for qualifying could change between now and then, but it seems encouraging to me.

Am I looking at this correctly? Have you qualified for Boston and/or are you currently targeting a BQ at an upcoming race?

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A Comedy of Pre-Race Errors

Posted in Family life, Half marathon, Race reports, Racing, Running, tagged , , , , on May 14, 2014| 9 Comments »

You wouldn’t know it from my happy recap of the Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon, but the race weekend started out as a comedy of errors. I keep thinking that the older I get, the more capable I will become. Instead, the older I get, the busier my life gets, and therefore the less capable I become! Evidence to follow….

My husband had gone out of town to celebrate his brother’s 40th birthday (as one does), and he planned to return at noon on Friday before the race on Saturday. He had already done a fair bit of work to get the travel trailer ready for us to camp for the weekend just outside the race location in Santa Ynez, but we still needed to pack, load up all the food, and attach the trailer to the car before we picked up the kids early from school and headed out of town. For any number of poorly controlled reasons, we left an hour later than planned, which meant that we hit rush hour traffic through Los Angeles at 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon. A drive that should have taken us 2.5 hours actually took 4.5 hours, and it became clear that I was not going to make packet pick-up for the race at Hotel Corque in Solvang by 7 p.m.

Now, please note that I am no race newbie. I’ve done about 21 other races. You would think that I know the importance of planning ahead and getting to packet pick-up on time. I take races super-seriously (too seriously?) and I recognize that picking up the bib and timing chip is top priority before a race. I’ve even done other races in Malibu and Santa Barbara where LA traffic was an issue for packet pick-up and I vowed to remember that. Still, I found myself stuck in LA in stop-and-go traffic, wondering if I could beg the race organizers to hand over my bib on race day morning.

Thank goodness for a couple of non-runner friends who were traveling down from San Francisco to join us for camping for the weekend. I texted them a copy of my driver’s license and they agreed to stop in Solvang for me. They picked up my bib, timing chip and t-shirt, then strolled around town in search of a brownie (if only I’d been there to treat them to that brownie, or better yet, a bottle of Santa Barbara Wine Country wine!) We ended up meeting at the Cachuma Lake Recreation Area campground around 8 p.m., with me gratefully snatching the race bag and frantically pinning on my bib for the next morning’s race.

But that’s not where the comedy of pre-race errors ends. I quickly realized that in my rush to pack before the race, I had forgotten, of all things, a running t-shirt and shorts. Yes, I am totally embarrassed to admit that. Who does that?! But see, I have an excuse (explanation?) On that Friday before the race, I’d run a shake-out mile. Just a single mile on the treadmill to loosen up my tight calves and assure myself I was ready for the race. I did that mile on my treadmill in my master bedroom. When I run on the treadmill in my master bedroom, I run in underwear and a sports bra, nothing else (sorry for that visual. Or, I suppose, you’re welcome). I mean, come on, who wants to do more laundry than necessary? So when I went to pack for the trip, I packed my running bra, undies, socks, shoes, and Garmin. What else do you need to run, really? Okay, fine, A RUNNING SHIRT AND SHORTS!

Thank goodness my husband came to the rescue. He had some running shorts in his tennis bag. I paired that with the running shirt from the race (major faux pas to wear the shirt from the race before you’ve run it, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do), and I was good to go.

This is quite possibly the least flattering running photo of me ever. Please keep in mind that it was 6:30 a.m. in 50-degree weather and I was wearing my husband's running shorts, which make my waist look about three sizes bigger. I shouldn't care but I do.

This is quite possibly the least flattering running photo of me ever. Please keep in mind that it was 6:30 a.m. in 50-degree weather and I was wearing my husband’s running shorts, which make my waist look about three sizes bigger. I shouldn’t care but I do.

The shorts turned out to be quite comfortable and I liked that I could use the pockets to hold the gel that I took around mile six (I had planned to wear my skimpy compression shorts and store the gel in my running bra).

I’m not sure what the moral of this story is. All I know is that I’m grateful for my friends and my husband who supported me through the pre-race debacles (and my other friend who cooked up a delicious post-race omelet when I got back to the campground).

Have you ever missed packet pick-up or forgotten something for the race? This is my first time. I did talk to another friend yesterday who missed the OC Half Marathon race start by 40 minutes (mistaking the last race transportation bus time for the start time), but he was able to start the race 40 minutes late and have his chip time record his actual time!

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Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon Race Recap and Review 2014

Posted in Half marathon, Race, Race reports, Racing, Running, tagged , , , , , , , on May 12, 2014| 25 Comments »

In the days before the Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon, race jitters got the best of me and I fretted over the course elevation profile and whether or not I could hope for a PR (1:53 or less) or better yet, break 1:50.

The course elevation as recorded by my Garmin. While it might not be perfectly accurate, I'd say it's about right!

The course elevation as recorded by my Garmin. While it might not be perfectly accurate, I’d say it’s about right!

You can see why the elevation gain of 764 feet intimidated me in spite of the net elevation loss. I’d chosen the race because the timing was perfect for me — it fit in my full marathon training for Santa Rosa — and the location is convenient and beautiful. But as I discovered, I don’t really run races for “fun” — I run for the joy of racing hard and doing my best, all while enjoying the privilege of getting to run someplace new on a closed course.

It turns out I needn’t have worried about the difficulty of the course. The race ended up being everything I hoped for and more. The course is absolutely gorgeous — so much so that I asked my family and friends to tour it with me by car after the race because I wanted to see it again and I wanted to show them all. I have never run on a more beautiful course (for the record, this is my 22nd race or so, but only my third half marathon). It starts in the nice little town of Santa Ynez and quickly heads out into the wine country, past vineyards and horse stables and farms, up Corkscrew Hill and down Ballard Canyon to the finish line in charming downtown Solvang.

The weather was gorgeous too — in the low 50s and sunny. The forecast predicted winds of 21 miles per hour (!!) but it turns out those winds only kicked up later in the afternoon.

So what about those hills? Yes, the general grade was noticeably uphill for the first seven miles, with a few rolling hills along with way, capped with the challenging 0.6 miles up Corkscrew Hill. But surprisingly, I did not find it as difficult as I thought it might be to maintain my goal pace on that first half of the course. I knew what to anticipate, and if you have prepared with some hill training before the race, the hills are totally manageable and dare I say, rewarding to conquer. The real reward, though, comes when you get to fly down the canyon for the next four miles! I haven’t had so much fun racing in a long time. The canyon is spectacular, with hills covered in yellows and greens and dotted with a few buffalo!

I’ll take a minute (pun intended) talking about pace, which is probably only interesting to me and anyone else who plans to run this course in the future. I wore a pace band (tip: print it, cut it out, and use clear packing tape to cover the front and back and then — this is the key — around the edges to seal the sides from sweat). I targeted a pace of 8:19 or better in the hopes of hitting 1:49 overall.

The first mile ended up at 8:21 and I quickly realized I’d started a little too far back in the pack. While it’s always better to start slow and build some speed, I dodged more people at the start than I’d like (especially in the first sharp turn right after the start). After that I settled into my own race and found myself pretty comfortable at a good pace: 8:10, 8:02, 8:17, 8:12, 8:34 — an average of 8:16 for the first six miles.

This was my first race in which I relied solely on the course aid stations for water and electrolytes. Aid stations were positioned about every 2 miles and that was perfect for me. I’d grab 2 cups of water or Accelerade and walk a few steps while drinking, then pick up the pace again. I took the one gel I’d carried with me at mile six.

Corkscrew Hill proved challenging but I simply pictured myself on one of the hills I’d bested in training and soon it was over with an average pace of 9:06 for mile 7. Then the fun began. You can tell by my pace alone that I loved the decline for the next four miles: 7:47, 7:31, 7:55, 7:54.

When the course evened out again around mile 11, any slight incline felt like a hill higher and harder than Corkscrew Hill, but then again, any and every race starts to get tough at that point — that’s nothing new or unusual. There are two inclines that I recall, but I pushed hard to maintain my best pace with 8:42 for mile 12 and 7:54 for mile 13. At mile 12.5 I really felt like slowing or outright stopping but I wasn’t about to give up then! Frantic calculations in my head told me that if I could hit a certain pace I would come in under 1:50, or a slightly faster pace under 1:49. I pushed it so hard, and when I came around the final corner in Solvang and I could see the finish line arch, I sprinted in at a 7:20 pace for a final time of 1:48:02! That’s a 5-minute PR over my second half marathon, and a 3-minute PR over my unofficial half marathon split at the Mountains2Beach full marathon! Two people came up to me separately after the race (one man and one woman) and said I had done a good job on pacing and that they had tried to keep up with me. That made me so happy because I have told other people that exact same thing on more than one occasion at other races and it was just such a compliment to have someone congratulate me on my race that way.

I later learned that 1:48:02 put me in 22nd place in my age group (F40-44) of 303 finishers, so the top 7.26%. Even better when you look at all the female finishers (1,777), I came in 103rd to put me in the top 5.8%!

The finish line expo was great with plenty of food, water, electrolyte drinks, and bags of veggie and egg chips, and small bowls of Amy’s brand chili (which I carried around until I recovered sufficiently to tolerate eating it, and then it was the most delicious post-race food ever)! I caught a race transportation bus back to the parking lot at Santa Ynez Valley High School and was back with my family by 10:15.

I highly recommend this race. It’s expensive for a half marathon (I paid $126 with the online service fee) but it’s a great race with a limited field of runners (just over 2,500 finishers?) in a spectacular setting. As I said, the challenge of the course elevation is more than balanced out by the thrill of running down Ballard Canyon at a faster-than-usual pace past stunning views. It would be really fun to get a team of friends together to run the race and celebrate at the wine tasting festival at the finish line ($20 for a wine glass to taste wines from 15 local wineries). I didn’t partake in any wine (not even at the on-course wine stop around mile 6!) because I just wanted to get back to my family, but I could see how it would be a fun way to celebrate your finish with friends and adult relatives.

Did you race this weekend? What’s your next race coming up? My next big race is the Santa Rosa Marathon at the end of August.

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I Think I Can

Posted in Half marathon, Race goals, Racing, Running, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on May 6, 2014| 11 Comments »

It’s the Tuesday before my next big race on Saturday, a half marathon. I’m doing my typical pre-race freak out. By “freak out” I mean there’s no hand-wringing, no crying, no tantrums, just a mild case of pre-race jitters that has me asking — yet again — “What have I gotten myself into?”

After a year of focusing on the full marathon, I thought it was a good idea to pick a race that I could run for “fun.” For the location, for the scenery, for the sheer joy of running someplace new on a closed course. So I chose a race put on by “Destination Races,” the Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon. It runs through the vineyards of Santa Barbara county from Santa Ynez to Solvang. Sounds perfect, right? Well, yes. I think it will live up to its claim of being a gorgeous destination race. There’s just one little problem: me. I thought I could sign up for a race for “fun” and not care about my finishing time. I thought I could be happy soaking up the views and not care whether I clocked a PR. I told myself that even if I did care about my finishing time, I could look at it as a race where I cared less about the finishing time itself and more about where that time put me in relation to the rest of the field of 40-to-44-year-old-women-who-chose-a-race-that-has-a-wine-stop-on-the-course.

Yet again, however, running and racing have taught me some things about myself:

  • I’m competitive, not so much against other people, but against myself. I do want to get a PR, and I do want to better myself in comparison to the field (not because I care about beating other runners, but because I revel in improving my overall performance).
  • I enjoy training more than I enjoy racing. One might wonder why I sign up for races then, but the fact is that I like having a goal race on the calendar. I like having a training plan that builds up to a race. I like crossing off each workout on the plan.
  • I take each race a little too seriously. I don’t race that often, so when I do race, I care a lot about how that race goes. I use each finish time to gauge how the training is going and whether or not I am improving over time. (I think these things are true about many runners, it just took me a little while to realize all this about myself).

So why the heck did I sign up for a race with an elevation profile like this:

elevation profile Santa Barbara Wine Country

Of course not every race is going to be pancake-flat and “fast.” And the hills are what make for some of the best views along this course. It’s just that if I care so much about my time, I probably shouldn’t have chosen a race with total climbing of 764 feet! I have no clue how to pace myself when the first seven miles are basically uphill and the last six miles are basically downhill. I could run by how I feel, rather than by the pace on my Garmin, but if there’s anything else I’ve learned about myself it’s that I would run a lot slower if I just ran by how I feel! I am a very poor judge of pace, going out too fast at the start and running too slow thereafter. I can run “naked” for the occasional training run but I want and need my Garmin for a race.

(Just for the record, don’t think that I have ignored the course elevation profile until now. I have been hill training specifically in preparation for this course. I live in the “Heights” for goodness sake — I have run a hill or two in my day. And I have been quite dedicated to the training plan. If you look at the calendar last month, I worked out on every day but one. Some of those days were 15-25 minutes of strength training only, and were “rest days” from running or biking, but I did some form of physical activity every single day).

I’ve been running and racing for three years now. During that time, I have only run two official half marathons, my first ever big race, the 2012 OC Half in 1:55:10 (smashing my goal of a sub-2 half), and a training run/race for a full marathon, the 2013 Spring Blast Half Marathon in 1:53:34. I ran the first half of the 2013 Mountains2Beach full marathon in an unofficial time of 1:51:01. I believe I am capable of a time in the 1:4x range, given the right course and given the proper training and taper before the race. And I need that 1:4x as a confidence booster to prove to myself that I am capable of training for running a Boston Qualifying time in the full marathon. To BQ with a 3:44:59 in the full, the McMillan Running Calculator says I would need to hit a 1:46:54 in a half.

Maybe the gorgeous views of the Santa Barbara wine country will help me fly up and down the hills to a PR, maybe not. What I need to do now is re-focus on my original goals for the race. I thought I could enjoy a race for the scenery. I think I can! I thought I could set aside the goal of a PR to focus on doing my best in comparison to the field. I think I can!

Do you ever run a race just for fun? Just this past weekend I ran the iCureMelanoma 5K with my 9-year-old, and I have to say it was a lot of fun to run with her and not worry about my own race time. But unless I’m running with my kids, I run for the “fun” of pushing myself to a personal best.

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