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Time: 2:29:32.170
Pace (Min/Mi): 11:24
Overall Rank: 384
Female Rank: 214
Female 55-59 Rank: 3
That was one tough race! The course itself was relatively flat, but there was some wicked wind blowing and the sun beat relentlessly towards the last three miles. Plus, there was that awful hill at mile 13. Ugh! I'm still sore.
So, I didn't get my 11 minute miles as I hoped. This was actually only my third best time. I was on target, finishing mile 10 at 1:50, when I crashed, figuratively speaking. I tried to rally by telling myself I only had a 5k left, but it was no use. I ate another gel and waited for it to work its magic. It got me to the finish line is about all I can say.
But notice that age group rank--I came in third and got a medal for my effort! I'm so used to the big races, that I didn't dream I would ever place, but my running friend, S., convinced me to check. There were four women in my AG, so I actually came in over two minutes faster than the last runner. This has never happened to me before!
You will recall that I had two goals for this race, and although I didn't finish in the time I wanted, I did reach my other goal. That's right, I went through the entire race without having to stop for a portapotty! I didn't want to lose valuable time like I did at Big Sur. The last portapotty at mile 12 didn't even have a line, but I knew I could wait till the end of the race. Good thing, too, or I wouldn't have gotten that medal.
I dedicated this race to my cousin, Gwen, who has been in the hospital for 36 consecutive days. She has Stage 4 ovarian cancer, which was discovered in January when she went in for what was supposed to be a routine procedure. Gwen is fairly young, and has a toddler, so I don't know how this could have gone undetected. I'll take this opportunity to remind you ladies to put your feet in the stirrups once a year and get that exam.
I haven't spoken to my cousin, but I keep updated on her through the Caring Bridge page that her husband maintains. She sounds like a determined young woman with a positive attitude. And we runners know how far a good attitude will take us. I have to tell you, I'm getting a little tired of all the cancer around me. Acquaintances, friends, and now family members have all battled with the Big C. Let's get a freakin' cure already!
Glycogen depletion doesn't seem like much when you think about someone lying in a hospital bed for over a month. During the race, I never felt sorry for myself, never questioned why I run races; I just kept moving forward. Actually, I was enjoying the race for the first 8 miles. We started on a dirt trail through tall green grass, which I thought was beautiful. And we passed a horse farm that had lots of mares and their babies with long, gangly legs. They were so cute!
I was listening to my iPod the whole time, something I don't normally do, and was singing to Mary Chapin Carpenter's "I Feel Lucky." I ran hard and walked through the water stops, although I wore a water belt which held my Ultima drink. The early miles were under 11 minutes, which is too fast but I thought that would give me a cushion for later in the race. That's probably why I folded at the end. But as I headed toward the finish, I managed to sprint past the girl in front of me. Heh heh.
Post race nutrition included an egg and cheese burrito, which I scarfed down. Then SD and I headed to the spa, where we sat in an outdoor mineral bath and admired the view. Darrell ran the half, too, although he was already back at his hotel when I called him. He was here with his wife and another couple, so we got together at a local winery and had barrels of fun.
Here are my mile splits. I had cleverly set my watch to go off every 11 minutes, so that I would easily know if I was on target. However, I forgot to turn off the 1 minute interval, so there went that plan. Sigh. Apparently I'm not only metrically challenged, I'm just challenged. The Garmin shows that I ran farther than 13.1, which is why my overall pace is faster than the official time. Such is life. You'll probably have to click on the image to read it.
This was good practice for the Seattle marathon, which is (ack!) only 12 weeks away. It's clear I need to fit in some tempo runs as well as long runs. I was planning to do three 20 mile runs, but now I have scheduling conflicts. It's really hard to fit in marathon training around the rest of your life. But I'd better do something, cuz I won't get a medal if I hit the wall at mile 10!
Today I attended the San Luis Obispo County Track and Field Meet, for high school boys and girls. I had never been to a track meet before, but had two good reasons for going; one was to see Bunny's son, Jack, run the one mile event. Jack is a freshman and he shows strong promise.
The other reason I went was to see senior Jordan Hasay run. Bunny gave me a heads up that Jordan would be running and I wanted to see her run before she leaves for Oregon. Hasay, if you don't know, is a distance phenomenon among high school girls. She ran in the Olympic trials in Eugene and the crowd was chanting, "Come to Oregon". She came on the track and looks just like on TV--long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail that reaches her waist. She didn't PR today, but she was so far ahead of the other girls that it was just a contest to see who would come in second. Kind of like Tiger Woods.
But back to Jack. Bunny had a movie camera but was nervous for her son so SD videotaped the race for her. She said she'd send me a copy, but I don't have it yet. I'll post it when I get it. I brought my camera bag, but when I opened it up at the meet, the camera was missing. Someone had neglected to replace it when he last used the camera, so I don't have any pictures to post either.
Bunny was nervous because Jack was planning to PR in the one mile today. He ran past us at 400 meters and was 3 seconds over what he needed. Then at 800 meters he picked up his pace but was still 3 seconds behind. I don't remember what happened on the third lap; I was just screaming for him. Then finally on the home stretch he gave it all he had and the pain was showing on his face. He did it--4:59, a PR and he reached his goal of sub-5 minutes! It was as exciting as the Olympics for me.
We watched a few other races, then Jordan Hasay's, and afterward went to find Jack. While we were heading there, we saw Jordan being interviewed. I wanted to get her autograph, but was too shy so I asked SD if he would. NFW; he wouldn't do it. So I asked Bunny and she got two autographs, one for her youngest son. Then we went and congratulated Jack. He ran in his new racing flats, but Bunny told him if he did sub-5 she would buy him cleats. Not that he seems to need them, but the other kids run in them. Jack had accompanied Bunny and me on a few Sunday morning training runs and he told his mom he doesn't know how she can stand to run so slow!
As SD and I were leaving the parking lot, we saw Jordan running on her own. Cooling down, I guess. SD commented that's why she's so much better than the others, because she works so hard. We left SLO and headed to Paso Robles so I could pick up my race packet. I'm running the Wine Country Half-marathon tomorrow! I've done a couple of training runs on part of the course, so I have a pretty good idea what to expect. I haven't done any speed training, but I have two goals for tomorrow--run 11 minute miles and not stop for the portapotty. Darrell is running tomorrow and hopefully we can hook up for a photo. I met him at the Big Sur marathon last year.
At the expo, I bought a new running jacket! I figured it was time to retire my blue Northwest Club Run jacket. It served me well for many years, and I've run many races in it. This new one is a bright lime green Moving Comfort, lightweight and with lots of pockets and I got it at an end-of-season price. SD shouldn't have any trouble finding me in a crowd.
Today's run was a 16 miler, same as I did last week. Last week I was supposed to do 15, but took a wrong turn which added a mile. So today I was saying 16, but thinking maybe 17.
Not! Although the course was relatively flat, we had a couple of killer hills and it was all I could do to run 16. Bunny and M.A. ran with me, although mostly they ran ahead of me. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I wore my green shirt from the 2007 Human Race in St. Paul, which is held around March 17. That's one of the things I miss about Mpls., there were so many races. SLO county is not very populated, so we don't have the things that cities do, like a Nordstrom's or races. There was the Valentine's 15K that I was going to do, but nobody else was and I didn't feel like doing it alone.
I did sign up for the Wine Country half and today's run was along part of the course. We had to ditch our jackets because it was too warm, and we left them on a fence at mile 2. That's what I love about living here: you can leave your clothes and they'll be there three hours later when you get back. We ran past cows, horses, and vineyards. We stopped at a tasting room at around mile 12 and they filled our water bottles with ice cold water. So nice.
Afterwards, Bunny went to get a chocolate shake and M.A. and I went to get some food. I must have an iron stomach, because I don't have any trouble eating after a run. But M.A. was feeling nauseous and only took a couple of bites. Any ideas on how to prevent nausea during a run?
I composed a haiku while on the run for the holiday, even though there's nothing Irish about a Japanese haiku.
On St. Patrick's Day
Everybody celebrates.
Kiss me, I'm Irish!
In keeping with St. Patrick's Day tradition, I'll leave you with a few jokes.
Paddy was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place. Looking up to heaven he said, "Lord take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up Irish Whiskey". Miraculously, a parking place appeared. Paddy looked up again and said, "Never mind, I found one."
"Tell me, Patrick, how did you manage to get so very drunk last night?" asked the parish priest.
"Well you see, Father, it was like this. I got into very bad company after winning a bottle of whiskey at a raffle."
"But you were with Mick Mulligan, Sean O'Toole, and Peter Ryan and they don't drink."
"Dat's what I mean, Father..."
Kathleen Murphy was standing vigil over her husband's death bed. As she held his hand, her warm tears ran silently down her face, splashed onto his face, and roused him from his slumber. He looked up and his pale lips began to move slightly. "My darling Kathleen, " he whispered. "Hush, my love," she said. "Go back to sleep. Shhh, don't talk." But he was insistent. "Kathleen," he said in his tired voice, "I have to talk. I have something I must confess to you." "There's nothing to confess," replied the weeping Kathleen. "It's all right. Everything's all right, go to sleep now." "No, no. I must die in peace, Kathleen. I slept with your sister, your best friend, and your mother." Kathleen mustered a pained smile and stroked his hand. "Hush now Patrick, don't torment yourself. I know all about it," she said. "Why do you think I poisoned you?"
Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody! Erin go bragh!
I made the cut! I submitted a story in Steve Stenzel's Tales of a Virgin Athlete contest and I'm in the top 10. There were 34 submissions, so that's a big deal to me. I was actually nervous about it and was hesitant to open Steve's email naming the finalists.
I read all the submissions and they're great! Some are funny, some are poignant, many are inspiring. Steve had ten people judge the entries to whittle it down to a manageable number. That must have been tough to do. There were a few entries that I thought should have made the cut (but who am I to quibble with the judges.) He'll put the final stories up on his blog tomorrow and open the voting up to you. I think it will be a blind vote, meaning no names associated with the stories, so that it won't be based on personalities.
In the interest of fairness, I won't tell you which is my entry until the judging is over. Not that the eight people who read this blog can tilt the results in my favor. But if you get a chance, go to his blog and vote. Voting for the top three starts Sunday, March 15; I don't know when the contest closes. Wish me luck!
As of Wednesday, I had run 28 miles for the week. I skipped my run yesterday, because a friend was visiting and she was leaving sometime in the morning. I normally run in the morning and even though I promised myself that I would run later, I didn't. I did manage to catch up on some Brothers and Sisters episodes, though.
So instead of cross-training today, I ran on the treadmill. I decided to do Yasso 800s, running 800 meters for 5 minutes at 10 min miles, with a 5 minute recovery. They were ridiculously easy even with the incline set to 1.5 and the 5 minute recovery was longer than necessary. But I got up to 8 repeats before I had to stop, since SD was waiting for me. Only two more and I'll have my 5 hour marathon. Yippee! My arm was starting to hurt from patting my own back over how great a shape I was in, when I realized that .25 miles was 400 meters, not 800. No wonder it was so easy!
I did get in 5 miles, at least, which brought my total for the week up to 33 miles. Tomorrow starts a new week.
I'd consider submitting that little anecdote to Steve Stenzel's Tales of a Virgin Athlete contest, but it's supposed to be for something you did as a novice, not as a supposedly experienced runner.
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