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Archive for the ‘Race’ Category

Virtual Brea 8K 2021 Race Recap

Posted in Race, Race reports, Racing, Running, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 28, 2021| 2 Comments »

The 8K is an unusual but delightful race distance. At 4.97 miles, it has some key advantages: (1) It’s long enough that you feel like you get your money’s worth. (2) For those of us who hit our stride at 2 miles in, it makes more sense than a 5K/3.1 miles. (3) It can be raced at a comfortably hard pace (if there is such a thing), rather than a punishingly speedy 5K pace. (4) The 8K/4.97 mile distance is not particularly punishing either, compared to the 10K/6.2 miles or of course the half or full marathon.

The Brea 8K Classic benefits the students and programs of Brea Olinda High School. The 2020 race last February was the last in-person race I did before the pandemic shut down races! That was my 5th Brea 8K, and people who know me know that that is a huge compliment to the race — I rarely run a particular race/course more than once. It’s a great local race for a great cause, and so when the 2021 race went virtual, I wanted to support the organizers and the high school. At least, I did when I signed up, haha! When the day actually dawned to run my virtual race on the last day possible, February 28, I wasn’t too keen. I’m still recovering — in mind and body — from the virtual marathon on February 6. I have been enjoying the post-marathon recovery by changing up my workouts a lot, ranging from taking an impromptu barre class taught by my 16-year-old ballerina, to riding mountain bikes with my 12-year-old in Chino Hills State Park. That means I haven’t done a heck of a lot of running.

I leisurely sipped two cups of coffee, and lingered over my peanut butter toast. I loaded the dishwasher and got it going. I talked my husband’s ear off. And then I finally got out the door to run 8K. The virtual race used a new-to-me app called RaceJoy to let participants time and run their virtual race anywhere. The setup on my iPhone was easy and I had no problem hitting “start” on the tracking as I crossed the virtual starting line in my neighborhood. I could even listen to my audiobook on my phone at the same time my phone tracked my race. The app chimed in with my mile splits and told me my average split pace and predicted finish time (a nice touch). I should have also worn my Garmin so I could see my current distance and not just mile splits, but it was probably a good thing for me to run by feel and not think about my current pace or distance. I ran down to the local track and finished the race there. The high winds today helped me at my back in one direction and challenged me as I rounded the track into the wind.

I’m pleased with that time (43:15, 8:42 average pace) for a virtual race I didn’t train for specifically. And while I won’t get the race medal or t-shirt until next month, I got the best post-race reward as I walked off the track. Another runner called out to me, “Do you compete?” I nodded and smiled and pointed to my phone. “Yes! I was doing a virtual race today!” And he said, “You looked great! You inspired me!” That has to be one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me. I hope he knows how pleased I was to hear that, and how much he brightened my day.

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Miles for Meals Marathon Fundraising

Posted in Inspiration, Marathon, Miles Log, Race, Race goals, Running, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 4, 2021| 1 Comment »

Miles for Meals virtual marathon route on the Santa Ana River Trail

Just two more days until I run 26.2 miles down the Santa Ana River Trail to raise money for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County! Thank you to all who have donated to the fundraiser so far. Donations are still desperately needed though with less than 1/4 of the goal reached at $602 of $2,620. If you have the means, please consider donating here. Remember, every $1 donated provides at least three meals for those facing food insecurity during the pandemic.

Training has been going very well. It’s been four long months of five workouts per week — a speed workout, a tempo run, a long run, and some combination of biking and rowing on two other days. Here’s a peek at the last month of training leading up to Saturday’s virtual marathon:

Marathon training log from January/February

I had to shift some workouts around — even moving my 20-mile long run to a Friday instead of Saturday — but I managed to get them all done. I feel ready, although I have the usual butterflies in my stomach now that the big day is so close. I definitely am at the “what have I gotten myself into” stage! For today’s taper run, the last run in the training plan, I ran three miles at 6.6 mph pace. It’s a little crazy that on Saturday I will run 26.2 miles (8.73 times longer than today’s workout, to be exact) at that approximate pace. I am reminding myself to trust the training and remember that the magic (okay, fine, science) behind tapering will help carry me through the additional miles in the marathon.

I don’t have a particular time goal in mind, although I do want to stay around a 4-hour marathon time. We’ll just have to see how I feel and how much time it takes me to stop and refill/mix my own Gatorade bottles along the way. My husband Mike will help for the first leg, and meet me with two of my girls at the end (I’ll have to FaceTime my college daughter from the finish!) but I’ll be on my own the rest of the time.

I plan to listen to podcasts and audiobooks to entertain me. But the main thing that is going to power me through is the thought that donors generously gave money to the food bank, and I want to honor their generosity. One last plea to please donate to the Second Harvest virtual food drive here!

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Fontana Days Run Half Marathon Virtual Race

Posted in Family life, Half marathon, Health, Race, Race goals, Race reports, Racing, Running, tagged , , , , , , on June 15, 2020| 2 Comments »

When the Fontana Days Run Half Marathon got canceled due to the pandemic, I chose the virtual run option as a way to stay motivated and keep up the exercise. I feel a million times better physically and mentally when I am on a training plan and working out about six days per week (three days of running, two of biking, and one strength training only, plus an extra strength workout on one of the biking days). I switched a lot of my training to indoors on the treadmill and spin bike and I started using the free trial of the Peloton app to do guided strength workouts in my bedroom with hand weights.

Race day on Saturday June 6, 2020, quickly approached at the end of 14 weeks of training. It surprised me how real this “virtual” race felt. I had major race jitters the day before the race and the morning of, just like any other race. I had worked hard on the training and I wanted to push myself on the race course. I went to bed early at 9:30 p.m. the night before, and woke up with my alarm at 3:45 a.m. to have a banana, whole wheat peanut butter toast, and coffee. I packed a bottle of UCAN to drink on the hour-long drive. My husband and two of my kids got up at 4:45 to take me to the race start in Fontana. They were so awesome to support me that way. I couldn’t have done it without them and their presence at the start, water drop at the half way mark, and pick up at the finish, all made the day extra special.

The race normally starts on Lytle Creek Road near Applewhite Campground. We arrived around 6:20 a.m. and one of my kids hopped out of the car into the sprinkling rain to take a photo of me.

Fontana race before

I walked around the entrance to the campground to “warm up” — I put that in quotes because it was in the low 50s and windy and rainy, as you can see from this photo they took of me from inside the car:

Fontana race warm up

After a short jog, I decided it was better to simply get going and warm up on the course. Race day adrenaline felt exactly the same — I couldn’t help going out too fast, even without anyone else around me! I consciously worked to slow my pace to my goal pace of 7:43 or so. The course is downhill and those first miles felt easy. It sprinkled lightly for the first three miles or so, and my race bib disintegrated in the wind and rain. I stuffed it in my fanny pack and kept going. Here is a video clip of me somewhere around mile three or four I think? It’s not riveting stuff but I think it’s fun to demonstrate what the weather was like, what it felt like to be out on the course alone, and how great my cheering section was (“Let’s go Mama!”):

The rain had stopped by then but the wind kept blustering until I left the San Bernardino National Forest around the 6-6.5 mile point and started approaching the town on Sierra Avenue. Then it was perfect racing weather (low 50s to 60s and overcast). I ate a Trader Joe’s organic fruit strip, my new favorite race fuel. My family met me just after that so I passed them my water bottle and trash and got a new water bottle. It was getting harder to keep up the pace at that point. I worried about dealing with traffic in town. In the hills there were many cars on the road but they were very respectful of me and most pulled into the center of the road to give me room. In town, I would have to cross major roadways including freeway on ramps. At the first one, I held up my hand to ask cars to stop, and they did! I was so grateful. I didn’t want to have to stop my Garmin and deal with the ethics of that. I mean, it’s a virtual race, and we’re on our honor, and it doesn’t really matter, but it mattered to me. Luckily I never did have to stop my Garmin. I hit one red light and turned left for a short out-and-back until the light changed. And I waited three seconds (my Garmin tells my “moving time”) at another light. Other than that I kept right on trucking until I hit 13.1 on my watch. My pace had slowed to the low 8s by the last miles and I ended up averaging 7:50 pace for a finish time of 1:42:43.

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I love to geek out on the numbers after a race. I find that cadence and stride information particularly interesting.

My family met me in downtown Fontana with an open single-serving size of Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice cream.

post race cookie dough ice cream Fontana

How did they know that was the perfect post-race food?! It truly was. I was sweaty but happy, and relieved and proud.

Post race face Fontana

I had finished in a time 45 seconds slower than my half marathon PR from six years ago at the old (no longer in existence) REVEL Canyon City Half Marathon. I am happy with the result. (Fun fact: my unofficial half marathon PR is somewhere around 1:37:09 when I ran the first half of the REVEL Canyon City Marathon at 7:25 average pace — no wonder I hit the wall at that race! That’s a super downhill course but there’s no way anyone should hit their half marathon PR in the first half of a marathon. Oops. I’ll take it though!)

It took me a week to write up this recap because — full disclosure and too much information — I woke up the day after the race with a kidney infection. Ladies, change out of your sweaty running clothes immediately after a race! And hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Nothing like going to urgent care in a coronavirus pandemic (actually, it was eerily deserted). Later in the week I broke out in a rash from the antibiotic (not hives, not an allergic reaction, just my body’s way of saying, “You idiot, stop poisoning me with bacteria and extra-strength antibiotics”).

On a happier note, I have settled on my next challenge! Anyone, anywhere in the US, want to join me in the virtual Run Across California (my referral link)? You get to count all running, walking, biking, swimming and paddling miles toward the 1,000 miles from San Diego to the Oregon border (or there are 150, 260 and 345 mile options) from now through December 31, 2020. The event is put on by a long-time, reputable SoCal race organizer so you know you’ll get your t-shirt and medal if you complete the race, and it is fun to log your miles each day and see your progress on the map. I ran 6 miles on the treadmill plus walked 0.5 miles for a warm-up and cool-down, so I am a whole 0.7% of the way done, haha!

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REVEL Big Bear Marathon 2019 Recap and Review

Posted in Marathon, Race, Race reports, Racing, Running, tagged , , , , , , , on January 7, 2020| 7 Comments »

It’s been nearly two months since I ran the REVEL Big Bear Marathon on November 9, 2019! Usually after I race I can hardly wait to summarize it and capture the memories in a blog post. This time though, I felt a need to savor the experience and keep it to myself for a while. The race felt surreal the second I finished it.

Going into the race I had the usual A, B and C goals. C was to arrive at the starting line healthy and finish uninjured. Check! B was to beat my 4:28 time from the Death Valley Marathon, which I unknowingly ran while deficient in vitamin D, B12 and iron. Yeah, I definitely did not want a repeat of that. I had the all-clear from my doctor, and check! I managed to break 4:28. My A goal was to break 4 hours. That’s never easy (for most of us anyway) and it gets harder the older I get (I’m 48 now). But check! I did it! And the best part is I even met an A+ goal — I finally negative split a marathon, on my 9th try! Three things helped me run the second half of the race faster than the first: (1) I went out slow at the start and resisted the urge to “bank” time while I had fresh legs. This time I was invested in saving my energy for the final miles, and I didn’t get carried away in the excitement of the race. A lot of people passed me in the first half of the race, and I just stuck to my plan, thinking I would pass them back in the second half (which did not turn out to be true, by the way – Big Bear is a “fast” downhill course and a lot of runners choose to run hard to go for a BQ or PR — so when people passed me I rarely saw them again! Good for them! But I’m glad I stuck to my plan of going out slower than my goal race pace). (2) I wrote out a pace band for myself using the negative split pace band feature for Big Bear from FindMyMarathon. And (3) REVEL Big Bear is a course that is set up perfectly for a negative split. I highly recommend this race. It’s well-organized, it’s a pretty course (until the last few miles) and it’s got a great course profile with some gentle rolling hills in the first half followed by an advantageous elevation decline from mile 9 on. And it’s not so downhill that it kills your quads or calves (if you’ve put in some downhill training and/or done strength training). This course replaced the old REVEL Canyon City (which I liked but it killed my calves) and I like this one better.

I had paid extra to pick up my bib on race day so I didn’t have to drive out to the expo. On race morning my husband got up early and drove me to the bus pickup. I wrote this note on the bus, which is a good thing because I don’t remember it:

2:25 up

2:30 out of bed

2:50 on road

3:40 arrive

3:50 porta potty

4 packet pick-up

4:12 on bus

It was about an hour drive to the staging area on the 38 highway south of Big Bear so I arrived about 45 minutes before the 6 a.m. start. It was cold at that elevation but not uncomfortable. Ideal really – somewhere in the 40s at the start (warming up to the low 80s by the time I finished). There were plenty of porta potties and not a long wait. I went through the line once, bagged my warm throw-away clothes, and got in place between the 3:50 and 4 hour flags. I kept my gloves and hand warmers (genius if I do say so myself). I ended up ditching them around mile 8 (mistake – I should have kept them until the half-marathon point – it was still cold at times until then!)

I had tried out UCAN for fueling during training and used it for the race. I took a scoop before the race and carried another small bottle with me for the first 6 miles or so. It worked great until about mile 11 when I felt the need for a quick boost – whether that was physical and/or mental I don’t know, but I ate a Trader Joe’s fruit strip – 80 calories, easy to carry in the pocket of my running pants, easy to open on the run, and delicious to consume.  I drank Powerade at the aid stops. I also took a Clif Shot Energy gel with a small amount of caffeine at mile 18 (hoping not to hit the wall at mile 20, and I didn’t). I ate two more fruit strips as needed toward the end of the race. It all worked out great! Those last 6.2 miles were really hard (both due to racing hard and due to the mild heat) but I stayed strong and focused and kept doing the mental math to stay on pace to come in under 4 hours. On the long straight-away at the end I saw my husband and two youngest girls. The girls ran along the side of the course as I ran down the finish chute. I was so focused on finishing strong that I forgot all about smiling for a finish line photo! So here is a photo from earlier in the race, when I was still smiling!

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It was a good thing the girls met me right away at the finish and I could lean on them for support. Crazy how you can go from running faster than 6.5 miles an hour to barely being able to walk. As we all know, the mind is a powerful thing. My mind convinced my body to run across that finishing mat and the second I crossed it, my mind said, “Okay, my work here is done.” And that’s when everything felt surreal.

Mike joined me and the girls and they helped me pick up my results: 3:57:52, for an average pace of 9:04. It wasn’t an overall PR but it was a PR for me in the 45-49 age group, and I am so pleased to have negative split the race. When I try to think of a word to sum up the race for me, the word that comes to mind is “validating.” That finishing time and negative split validated that I had trained hard and raced smart. This wasn’t an easy year for me to stick with a marathon training plan (the college application process for my oldest, and getting her settled in for her first semester, and having her living away from home — all of those put an emotional strain on me that made me extra proud that I didn’t get side-tracked from training). So, after the race I just reveled (ha ha, pun intended) in my personal, positive experience at REVEL Big Bear.

Now the big question in my mind is, do I go for marathon number 10? Marathons are hard (duh) and I don’t take the training or racing lightly. We’ll see!

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Yosemite Half Marathon 2018 Recap and Review

Posted in Bike trails, Biking, Family life, Half marathon, Hotel and Campground Reviews, Kids, Race, Race reports, Racing, Running, tagged , , , , , , , on May 17, 2018| 4 Comments »

Did you ever sign up for a race months in advance, and then those months flew by and you wondered what you were thinking when you signed up for that race? That happened to me when I signed up for the Yosemite Half Marathon.

Yosemite Half Marathon 2018 logo

Had I known months ago that May was going to be so busy for me, I wouldn’t have signed up. And yet, I’m so glad I did, because I loved the race and I loved spending Mother’s Day weekend with my husband and three daughters in Yosemite National Park!

On Friday afternoon we drove seven hours up to the historic Big Trees Lodge (formerly the Wawona Hotel) inside the park. We used our fourth grade “Every Kid in a Park” national park pass to get into the park for free, saving $30, hooray!

Wawona Hotel Big Trees Lodge porch view

After sitting out on the 2nd floor porch and admiring the night sky, we got to bed by 10:30 p.m. and got a whole 4.5 hours of sleep before our race day alarm went off at 2:50 a.m.! I was running the race with my husband Mike and oldest daughter, 16-year-old Shannon. We needed to leave by 3:20 a.m. to make the 35-minute drive to the shuttle bus parking lot at Sierra Star in Oakhurst by 4 a.m. There wasn’t a coffee maker in our hotel room but thankfully the Big Trees Lodge staff agreed to have the night manager make us some coffee at 3 a.m.! He insisted that we take a whole thermos and a cup of cream! I was so appreciative. We ate muffins and bananas in the car on the drive.

We arrived at Sierra Star by 4 a.m. but faced a line of cars waiting to park in the field. It took 15 minutes or so for us to get parked. I was happy to see a row of porta potties set up in the field, along with very nice buses equipped with toilets. We got on a bus by 4:20 a.m. for the ride to the starting line. Unfortunately, our bus driver got lost, we took a 25-minute detour out of our way, and the ride ended up taking 1 hour 20 minutes total. I didn’t mind waiting on a warm bus (and Mike and Shannon both slept), but we got to the starting area around 5:40 a.m. and still had to pick up our bibs and drop our gear before the 6 a.m. start! (Can you hear my famous last words on Friday night, “Oh, we don’t need to go to the expo at Bass Lake Recreation Area; we’ll have an hour at the starting line to pick up our bibs”?) I waited in line to pick up our bibs while Mike hit the porta potties, then he grabbed a gear bag for drop-off at the starting line and we rushed over there with literally 45 seconds to spare. The race was chip timed so it would have been absolutely fine to miss the 6 a.m. start for the first heat (unless you were competing to be a top finisher and wanted an overall award based on your gun time — that wasn’t us!), but we were eager to go.

Race day weather could not have been better with clear sunny skies and temperatures in the low 40s at the start and warming up as the time progressed and the course descended in elevation to the finish at Bass Lake Recreation Area. I think the temperature must have been in the high 60s when we finished just after 8 a.m. I wore long pants and a long-sleeved shirt and wish I would have worn some gloves but my husband and daughter were perfectly fine in shorts and a short-sleeved t-shirt (go figure).

The course runs outside the national park itself but has its own spectacular scenery. I loved running through the woods on the dirt fire road for the first five miles of the course. It’s not an “easy” course by any means — the road was rutted and rocky in places but I thought that made it interesting and fun and the miles clicked by faster than any other race I’ve done. The mountain dogwoods were in full bloom and were so beautiful scattered among the pine trees. The only problem (and it wasn’t really a problem) was that my Garmin lost reception for about 0.4 miles among the trees so it wasn’t recording my mileage or split times accurately, saying we were running a slower pace than we actually were. Then we hit a downhill section from miles 6-10 on a paved road. My daughter and I both loved that section best. We cranked out mile splits in the low 8s and it felt easy. Then we hit the flat and rolling section from miles 10-13.1 and it got tough, as any half marathon gets tough at that point. The race director had warned us that we would hear the finish line across Bass Lake when we still had a ways to go, so we were prepared for that. I loved running in to the finish at the lake. Shannon and I crossed the finish line together at 2:04:50 and 2:04:51, earning her 2nd place in her 15-19 age group out of 9 runners! Unfortunately, in the rush at the starting line to get my bib, use the porta potties, and drop my gear bag, I had pinned on my husband’s bib instead of mine! So as I crossed the finish line, a very confused announcer read out, “And here are Shannon White and, um, Michael White, from La Habra!” Yeah. Oops. Thank goodness I had not run fast enough to qualify for an age group award and the correction of my time did not mess up the awards for the first five to finish in the 45-49 age group. Mike finished a few minutes later after a couple of porta potty stops along the course.

At the finish we received a huge, really nice medal with an image of Yosemite on it, along with a cold protein shake (choice of three flavors) and a box of post-run and hiking snacks.

Yosemite Half Marathon 2018 finishers medals

Me, Mike and Shannon in line for the shuttle bus back to the parking area. You can see Bass Lake behind us. Mike has on the technical shirt given out at the race. And yes, Shannon is wearing my Kappa Kappa Gamma sweatshirt from 1989!

If you wanted to make the weekend even more challenging you could participate in one or more of the official race “club hikes” and earn an extra medallion for taking those hikes and sending in photos. Instead, we rented bikes and road around the park with our younger children.

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Mike and my younger daughters even braved the 45-degree water in the river.

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We also drove up to Glacier Point, stopping at this lookout for my 13-year-old ballerina to pose in an arabesque.

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It was sunny and gorgeous in the valley but cold with even a few snow flurries at Glacier Point! The cool thing is that Mike and I cross-country skied to Glacier Point in 1998 before we had any children. It felt surreal to re-visit that spot 20 years later with our three daughters.

I usually do not do the same race twice, but I’d do the Yosemite Half again for sure. If you want to do it, sign up early enough to decide if you want to reserve a spot to camp at the finish line at Bass Lake, and then train on some trails and downhill runs to get ready for the course. Decide if you’re going to run it for fun or run it to race, and adjust your expectations accordingly.

Have you visited Yosemite? Have you run this or any other Vacation Races half marathons?

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I Survived the Death Valley Marathon

Posted in Marathon, Race, Race reports, Running, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 24, 2017| 19 Comments »

On a cool and beautiful Saturday morning in February, 87 hearty souls raced through the desert to complete the 2017 Death Valley Marathon. The course runs through spectacular Death Valley National Park along the same road traveled by the infamous Badwater 135 ultra marathon.

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View of the starting line on Highway 190.

Instead of the national anthem, the race director led us all in a more appropriate and moving rendition of America the Beautiful.

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Marathoners and their friends gathered for the 8 a.m. start. You can play “Where’s Angela” and find me in the purple top toward the front of the group.

Before the race, I worried that the out-and-back course might be a bit dull, with the same view for miles. I needn’t have worried, as the park is gorgeous and the course winds through the valley with ever-changing views of mountains to the east and west. Also, while the course boasts less than 325 feet of elevation gain, that number is deceptive. It felt to me like we were usually on a slight uphill or downhill grade on rolling hills and rarely running on just flat pavement.

The course roadway is open to park visitors, but I found the vast majority of drivers to be extremely respectful of the runners. We ran on the west shoulder at all times, and while that meant a little jockeying for position at the beginning of the race, the runners soon spread out and by the second half, I often found myself running alone through the desert. Spectators are not allowed on the course, and aid stations are only every three miles. The stations were well-stocked but I thought the Gatorade was a little too watered down (that is foreshadowing, in case you didn’t catch that).

I really enjoyed the first half of the course. The problem for me came around mile 16 when my calves started cramping. I can only speculate that I undertrained for the race or underfueled during the race, or some combination of the two. I had brought my own homemade sports drink that worked fine for me in training but obviously did not do the trick in the race, and the Gatorade on the course didn’t make up for it in the final miles. My splits went from a super-consistent 8:52.6 and 8:52.4 in miles 8-9 and 8:58.8 and 8:58.9 in miles 14-15 to 13:56 for mile 21 and 15:03 for mile 24! At one point I considered whether I wanted to drop out of the race (that might have been the time I heard the raven caw above me and wondered if that was a vulture coming for my carcass when I dropped to the ground. I might have gotten a tad bit dramatic in my suffering). I asked myself if I was going to injure myself by continuing. When the answer was no, I asked myself if I would feel better if I stopped, or better if I finished. I knew for certain that I would feel better if I finished, so I set my mind to it. I decided that I needed to take the focus off my cramping, painful calves, and concentrate on something that didn’t hurt. Somewhere after I really hit the wall in mile 20, I started counting my arm swings. My arms didn’t hurt, and I felt more powerful and in control as I counted each time my right fist punched forward. Long story short, by the time I finished the race, I had counted over 4,200 swings of my right arm. I got into a zen zone by the final miles, and brought my pace back down from 15:03 to 12:38 for mile 25 and 11:37 for mile 26! Mike brought the girls to the finish line, and they gave me a burst of energy as I ran the final 0.33 in a pace of 9:46.

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The most special moment of the race, as the girls ran with me to the finish.

I finished in 4:28:01, a full 51 minutes off my PR of 3:36:58 (recap of the Phoenix Marathon here). I had hoped to come in under 4 hours, but no such luck. My final stats:

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The first place male and female finishers came in at a blazing 2:49:40 and 3:21:08 respectively. Including all of the 87 finishers, the average finish time was 4:39:40.

If I had to do it over, I would train harder (though I thought I had trained well, with 3 20-milers under my belt), and carry Gatorade instead of my homemade sports drink. Or perhaps, knowing what I know now, I would have opted to do the half marathon and had more time to view the rest of the national park, which truly wowed me with how beautiful it is in the winter. [Edited to add: a couple of weeks after this race, I ended up getting some blood work done and I found out that I had iron-deficiency anemia. No wonder my race time was significantly off my best time! I’m happy to report that my running has started to get back to normal after some iron supplements prescribed by my doctor.]

I was very happy to find that the finish line fare included trail mix with nuts, raisins and M&Ms (heaven!) and a pretzel mix too. I picked up my cotton race t-shirt, which I will wear with pride. While I didn’t finish anywhere near the time I hoped, I am unusually proud of myself for finishing this race. The marathon always has something to teach me, even in my 8th one. This time I learned that the mind really can control the body. My mind carried me through 10 miles after my legs started cramping. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a pretty impressive display of sheer determination.

It’s been three weeks since the race and I’m back up to running 10 miles for my long run this weekend. I am still thinking through what I’d like to take on next. Do I choose another marathon after three particularly hard experiences (REVEL Canyon City, Boston and this one)? Or turn to a different challenge? All I know is I like having a big goal, so I’d better start planning.

What was your hardest race and why? Have you been to Death Valley? (If not, you should go — in the winter!)

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The Big Reveal: Marathon #8 Will Be….

Posted in Family life, Marathon, Race, Race goals, Racing, Running, tagged , , , , on September 18, 2016| Leave a Comment »

My seventh marathon was the Boston Marathon in April 2016. I find it pretty funny that five months later — just as people are submitting their applications for Boston 2017 — here I am signing up for my eighth marathon, and it isn’t Boston (I qualified at Revel Canyon City but I won’t be going back to Boston next year — that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me). Instead of a race with 30,000 entrants, I’ll be going for one that has just 350 entrants. Can you guess which one? Here’s a clue in the form of the book that’s on my bedside table:

Ground Afire: The Story of the Death Valley National Monument

Ground Afire: The Story of the Death Valley National Monument

Yes, I’ll be running the Death Valley Marathon on February 4, 2017! I figure it’s the closest I’ll ever get to the Badwater 135. Just like the Badwater ultramarathon, this race runs along Highway 190 through the heart of Death Valley National Park. I’ve wanted to visit the park for a long time now. It’s just 4.5 hours from my home in Southern California but I’ve never made it out there. Now I get to go for a quick weekend trip during one of the nicest times of year to visit the park.

I know this race isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. No spectators are allowed on the course aside from the volunteers. You cannot wear headphones or otherwise listen to music on the course (I never do anyway). It’s not a closed course. You get a cotton t-shirt, not a tech tee. But I hope I don’t have to spell out the appeal of the race. How awesome is it to get the privilege of running in one of the most spectacular landscapes in the world? Add in the bonuses of race day packet pickup, lodging in the park next to the race start, and practically a guarantee of an age group podium finish if I merely complete the race (only two women in the 45-49 age group ran the race last year).

So, let the countdown to marathon #8 begin! 4 months and 17 days until Death Valley Marathon 2017!

Have you ever been to Death Valley National Park? Do you have any recommendations for must-see sights or must-do activities in the park? Have you ever run the Death Valley Marathon? (If so, please tell me all about it!)

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Fontana Days Run Half Marathon 2016 Recap and Review

Posted in Family life, Race, Race goals, Race reports, Racing, Running, tagged , , , , , , , on June 10, 2016| 6 Comments »

Imagine the satisfaction of completing your first half marathon. Then imagine the satisfaction of beating that finishing time and setting a new personal record. Then double all that satisfaction and you just might get to the level of satisfaction I felt as I watched my 14-year-old and my husband complete their first half marathons at the Fontana Days Run last weekend!

About five months ago I encouraged Mike and Shannon to start training for a half marathon. I chose the race, the Fontana Days Run, because it offered a gentle downhill profile, the timing was right with the race taking place on June 4 a week after Shannon graduated from 8th grade, it was inexpensive for a half marathon, it was just a 45-minute drive from our house, and we could pick up our race packets on race morning.

I wrote out a training plan for Mike and Shannon to incorporate into their busy tennis schedule. They play 10-15 hours of tennis per week, so I figured they could get by with three runs per week: two shorter runs of 4-5 miles (one easy, one with some hills or informal speed work) and one long run on the weekend that gradually built to a 13.1 mile training run and tapered to an 11.7-miler and a 6-miler in the two weeks before the race. Everything seemed to go well in training, although I had no idea what pace they should target for the race. Shannon set the pace for the long training runs, and that generally averaged out to about 11 minutes per mile. I knew Mike and Shannon wanted to break 2 hours for their finish time, and that would require a pace of about 9 minutes per mile. Could they really run two whole minutes per mile faster in the race than they ran in training? I encouraged them to go out at a comfortable pace and not let their legs fly too fast on the initial downhill (the race has a drop of 2,125 feet from start to finish).

Unfortunately, a heat wave hit Southern California in the week leading up to the race. The race day high was 100 degrees in Fontana. The temperature in the mountains at the 7:30 a.m. race start was about 68 degrees F and the temperature at the finish in Fontana at 9:30 a.m. was 82 degrees. That further muddied the waters as to what pace Shannon and Mike could be expected to run. Here’s a chart from Runner Academy that estimates the impact of hot weather on running pace:

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So I expected them to run about 30 seconds per mile slower in the heat than they could have if we’d had ideal race day temperatures.

 

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As you can see in this photo of me it was quite sunny at the start.

Without fanfare or much warning at all, really, the starting gun went off and Mike and Shannon set out at a comfortable pace. I carried my iPhone and used the MapMyRun app to keep track of our pace, but I kept the data pretty much to myself the whole race. The first few miles of the course run down the road through the San Bernardino National Forest and it’s simply gorgeous!

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After the first few miles though we were in full sun and by mile 5, I really started to feel it. There were adequate aid stations but some just had water and not Gatorade. Thank goodness I brought my own sports bottle and could refill it at the aid stations every 3-4 miles. Given the unusual heat that day, the volunteers drove around in a golf cart and handed out wet washcloths which I appreciated. I coached Shannon to run through the aid stations and just grab a cup of water and dump it on her head. Then I handed her my bottle of Gatorade to drink every mile or so. This worked very well.

 

Mike ran just slightly ahead of Shannon and me, and he seemed to have an internal, innate sense of pace. I mean, just look at the consistency of these splits!

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The course is downhill but it’s so gradual that it never feels taxing. The last seven miles are a straight shot into the town of Fontana, which means you don’t have to worry about running the tangents. It’s not the most scenic, but it’s fantastic for a PR attempt or a first-time race.

 

By about mile 10 I knew that Mike and Shannon could come in under 2 hours, and I started encouraging Shannon to keep up the pace and not let off. She had the best attitude the entire race and never complained. We caught up to Mike around mile 12 just as his calves started cramping due to not taking in enough Gatorade. I passed him my bottle and he was able to revive and keep running. Shannon sprinted to the finish to come in at 1:54:21. I was one second behind her with a huge grin on my face! Mike clocked 1:54:49.

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A happy Mike at the finish line (and some random guy’s rear end. My photography skills can use some work). 

I could not have been more proud of Mike and Shannon. They blew away my best hopes for them and did not seem at all affected by the heat. And for the icing on the race cake, Shannon came in first in her age group!

 

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Later in the week, I interviewed Mike and Shannon separately about their experiences. I probably should not have picked the day of their peak soreness (delayed onset muscle soreness peaks about two days after the race). They didn’t have much to say, but what they said warmed my heart.

Me: Are you glad you did the race?

Shannon: Uh-huh.

Mike: Yup.

Me: Did you meet your goals?

Shannon: Yeah.

Mike: Yes.

Me: Would you do another half marathon?

Shannon: Yup.

Mike:  Maybe.

Me: How did I do as your coach?

Shannon: [Thumbs-up.]

Mike: You were A+. It made it easy. It made it so we could not fail. We were going to meet our goals no matter what. I give you 99% credit.

 

Ahhhh! What a relief. They had a great race, came out of it uninjured, and were happy with the results. And for those wondering about whether or not it was a good idea for a 14-year-old girl to run a half marathon, I can say in our experience it was a very positive, safe, healthy experience for her. She had a checkup with her pediatrician this week including blood work done, and everything came back normal. And today, only 6 days after running the half marathon, Shannon won the Girls 14 and under division of the 18th Annual Laguna Niguel Junior Open Tennis Tournament!

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Boston Marathon 2016 Race Recap Part III

Posted in Marathon, Race, Race reports, Racing, Running, Uncategorized, tagged on April 22, 2016| 16 Comments »

Continuing from Part I and Part II….

Spirits were high among the runners in wave 3, corral 5 as we trotted across the starting line timing mat at 10:50 a.m. on Monday, April 18, 2016. No one said much as we tried to navigate the pressing crowd of runners, pretty much running in lockstep and not trying to bump into anyone else. However, the spectators were already making plenty of noise to make up for our silence! The entire Boston Marathon was just a fantastic experience, and I mean FAN-tastic! The spectators could not have been more welcoming and encouraging along the entire route. The race course runs through eight cities: Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, and Boston. Each community managed to extend its own unique form of hospitality. As a runner, I could tell that the spectators genuinely wanted the race to run through their town, and they not only welcomed the marathon itself but each and every runner that passed by. The spectators all along the way somehow managed to make each runner feel like a rock star, like we all mattered just as much as the elite athletes! That outpouring of support makes the experience of running the Boston Marathon a good one regardless of the runner’s finishing time.

Speaking of time, while I had said before that I had not planned to run this race for time, that didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to pay attention to my pace. I had run the Phoenix Marathon in a PR time of 3:36:58 with an average pace of 8:16 per mile. Every article I had read on Boston warned not to go out too quickly on the early downhill miles on the course or you would regret it around mile 20. So I planned to stay between 8:45-9:00 per mile for those early miles and I thought I might finish in a total time somewhere around 4 hours.

Miles 1-3 (8:52, 8:42, 8:44)

I certainly didn’t want to waste any energy dodging other runners so I just tucked in the crowd and maintained my pace. That became easier said than done though when I factored in walking through the aid stations. In light of the high temperatures forecast for the race, the organizers had sent out an email advising runners to pay close attention to hydration, and indeed I needed to stop at the first aid station at mile 2 along with nearly every other runner. The volunteers did a great job, but there’s just no managing that volume of runners (27,491 runners total). I couldn’t use my usual technique of speeding up a bit before the aid station to “bank” time to walk through the aid station because other runners blocked the way. It was also hard to get going again, and it was odd to run on the road completely covered in Gatorade and cups. Once the road cleared, my shoes were sticky for about another 100 yards! My advice to runners wanting to race Boston for time? Especially in the early miles, skip the aid stations on the right and go for the less crowded ones on the left. Don’t stop at the first Gatorade table — there are 4 at each station (followed by 4 of water).

Miles 4-6 (8:35, 8:50, 8:43)

In mile 4 in Ashland, don’t be alarmed when the course splits in two to go around some cement traffic islands. Volunteers make it clear you can run on either side. Running the tangents on this course is hard due to the crowds and features (spoiler: my “marathon” ended up being 26.74 miles instead of 26.2).

In rare quiet moments along the course, the runners’ footsteps sounded like the pattering of raindrops. The sheer sea of runners in front of me again reminded me of a zombie apocalypse! I kept waiting for the crowd of runners to thin, but it didn’t let up as much as I expected (I might just be a bit biased given that the other six marathons I have run have each had 1/10th the number of participants as Boston). All I know is I got elbowed by other runners right up to mile 25 and even in the finishing chute! No one was particularly aggressive, there were just a lot of people on the course.

Miles 7-9 (8:45, 8:47, 8:48)

In Framingham, the winds picked up, especially by Lake Cochituate at mile 9. At first I appreciated the cool breeze, but then there were times where I felt the need to draft off runners to protect myself from the wind (for once I was grateful for the crowded pack of runners!)

Miles 10-12 (8:49, 8:54, 8:38)

The course enters Natick and I took in the sight of yet another town common with a beautiful clock tower. There are also digital clocks at every mile marker along the race, which is helpful if you can do the math to figure out how that time compares to when you crossed the starting line.

When I entered the town of Wellesley, I kept an eye out for a Wellesley girl to kiss. As I said, I came to this race for the experience and I wasn’t going to miss out on any of it! You could hear the girls screaming before you could see them! I rounded the bend and saw a girl holding a sign that said, “Kiss me — I’m from Cali!” I knew that was my girl and dodged over to the side, pointed to my cheek and asked for a kiss. She kindly obliged, and I ran on with a smile and renewed energy. Later though I thought maybe I should have stopped for the girl whose sign said “Kiss me or I’ll vote for Trump!”

Miles 13 – 15 (8:43, 8:47, 9:12)

The half marathon point is in Wellesley and I passed the timing mat at 1:55:41. I remember my energy dipping a little at that point. I don’t know if was the relief of passing the halfway point, or if the noise of the Wellesley “scream tunnel” took a little out of me, but I felt a change in my ability to keep pace.

Miles 16-18 (8:43, 10:09, 9:41)

The course enters Newton next and the hills begin in earnest. Frankly the whole course felt like rolling hills and I had a hard time distinguishing one from the other. A lot of people on the course started suffering at this point. Talk about the zombie apocalypse — I’ve never seen so many people walking on a race course! I suspect that a lot of runners trained hard to qualify and ended up injured, or got injured in training for Boston itself, but they didn’t want to miss out on the experience running Boston so they vowed to get to the finish whether they had to walk or crawl to get there. Heck, I even saw a girl in the first mile wearing the kind of boot you need for a stress fracture! And as I passed Newton-Wellesley Hospital somewhere between the 16 and 17 mile points, I watched grimly as someone was wheeled off the course and into the hospital on a stretcher.

Miles 19-21 (9:25, 9:45, 10:33)

My family and friends were waiting for me at the mile 20 marker. You can see that I picked up the pace a bit in anticipation of seeing them! The kids made these awesome signs for me out of pipe cleaners, beads, and blue glitter.

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I grabbed some Gatorade from the aid station and then braced myself for Heartbreak Hill. The funny thing is that I didn’t even realize that particular hill was THE Heartbreak Hill until I saw a spectator holding a sign! It was just another hill, and I’d done a pretty good job of training on hills in my hilly neighborhood. I never walked (except through aid stations) and kept on trucking. My pace certainly slipped in that mile though.

Miles 22-24 (9:26, 9:31, 10:05)

Honestly in these miles through Brookline and into Boston, I was simply focused on running and keeping my legs moving. The crowd support became more important than ever. Not only their cheers, but their offers of ice, flavored ice pops, orange slices, banana slices (watch out for those peels on the course — I’m not kidding!), jelly beans, pretzels and M&Ms. I could have even had a full can of beer if I’d wanted one, and I was sorely tempted, not so much by the beer but by the idea of grabbing the can and stopping to walk along and enjoy it!

My favorite bit of course support though was when people had set up their hoses to spray the runners. While the temperatures did drop a bit the closer you got to Boston and the ocean, much of the course this year (at least for those in the later waves like me) was uncomfortably warm.

Miles 25-26.74 (9:45, 9:25, 6:39 pace for 0.74 miles)

Two things encouraged me in these final miles — the sight of the Prudential building (Boston! A building in Boston!) and the sight of the Citgo sign. I used to be able to see that sign outside the window of my on-campus apartment at MIT, so that held special significance for me even beyond the fact that it meant the final miles of the race.

I really picked up the pace when my Garmin beeped to say that I had run 26 miles. At that point I knew I had it in me to sprint and I really wanted the race to be over! So funny that I paid for the privilege to run this race, but I was just so ready to be done at that point. I sprinted for nearly 3/4 of a mile. There’s a little hill when you turn up Hereford but you are rewarded by the sight of the finish line when you turn left at the top and look down Boylston Street. Once again I could hear the absolute roar of the spectators and I felt like a rock star! Could they really be cheering that loudly for middle and back of the pack runners? It was amazing and it made my heart swell. I received a lot of support along the way, from my family, from readers of this blog, and from the race volunteers and spectators, and I was extremely grateful. I came in at 4:05:09 with my arms in the air as I finally crossed the Boston Marathon finish line.

It’s a long walk in the finishing chute. I almost didn’t grab a space blanket to keep warm because I was so heated from the race. Thank goodness I did though because by the time I reached the family meeting area and my family arrived to walk me to the T, my lips were blue! I felt really good though — sore but not injured — and just happy to have come full circle on four years of marathon training from my first marathon at Santa Barbara in 2012 to my seventh marathon at Boston in 2016!

I’ve never been particularly excited about race medals, but this one just symbolizes so much.

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Boston Marathon 2016 Race Recap Part II

Posted in Marathon, Race, Race reports, Racing, Running, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Continuing from Part I….

I slept really well and got up at 6:30 a.m. Our host John had so kindly made me some steel cut oats and coffee for my pre-race breakfast, and I packed a banana for the bus ride up to Hopkinton. Christine drove me in to Boston and dropped me right off at Boston Common at 7:45 a.m. so I could board the bus at 8 a.m. I had to laugh because it looked like a zombie apocalypse with all the people walking across the Common toward the buses! There were plenty of porta-potties for use before boarding the school buses. The volunteers were chipper and helpful and I got on a bus right away — no waiting at all!

I chatted on the bus with a very nice woman who was running Boston for a third time. She echoed the advice I kept hearing: don’t go out too fast in the first five downhill miles or you will regret it on the hills of Newton!

I arrived in Hopkinton around 9 a.m. with plenty of time before my wave #3 was scheduled to depart the Athletes’ Village at 10:50 a.m. I hit up the porta-potty line and this time there really was a line — it took 40 minutes of waiting. By that time I pretty much needed to hop back in line to make sure I could go one last time before the race. So I didn’t even sit down once in the village!

I was happy to sip on some of the Gatorade provided for free in the Village. I unsuccessfully tried to eat the Clif Organic Energy Food sample that was included in the race goodie bag. It was nothing I hadn’t eaten before — oatmeal, bananas, maple syrup. I’m sorry for the bad review Clif, but it tasted like warm, mushy baby food and it was so unpalatable I had to throw it away. Luckily though Clif redeemed itself with a booth in the Village where I gratefully grabbed two free samples of White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Bars, something I already knew I liked and could tolerate before my run. You really could find anything you needed in the Village — in a great spirit of camaraderie people were passing around bottles of sunscreen and leaving things that you could use to sit on the grass.

Before I knew it my wave was being called and it was time to walk a few blocks to the starting corrals. It was sunny and quite warm by 10:50 a.m., in the high 60s in Hopkinton. I was glad I’d worn compression shorts and a short-sleeved tee.

I was in corral 5 and on the way I saw someone wearing her race tank top from the 2015 Phoenix Marathon, so we chatted about how we both qualified at that race. After the starting gun went off it took a while to walk to the starting line from corral 5. On the way I got high-fives from five race volunteers and passed up many more! I should have taken that as a sign of what was to come. Click the link to the next post for Part III of my Boston Marathon 2016 Race Recap!

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