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2015 San Luis Obispo (SLO) half marathon race report

2015 San Luis Obispo (SLO) half marathon race report

Sometime late in 2014, I applied to be a social media ambassador for the San Luis Obispo (SLO) marathon + half marathon weekend, scheduled for late April ’15. Still being new to CA, these social media opps are a really easy way for me to meet other CA-based runners, and generally speaking, I will gladly race for free if given the chance. My intention and initial registration indicated that I would be running the full — my 26th marathon! — but after I learned that I was pregnant and would be 6 months/24 weeks come race day, I really wasn’t all that interested in running 26.2. I filed this under just because I *can* do something, doesn’t mean that I *should* do something … and at the risk of sounding like a complete ass, I wasn’t interested in running more than a 3:30 full. In addition, as the pregnancy has progressed, I didn’t know that I’d even be able to run at all by my 6th month — pregnancy kinda does whatever it wants, folks — so I just kinda figured I’d “train” to be aerobically capable of running 13.1 and if I felt well in the days and weeks preceding the race, I’d pregnant-yog 13.1; if my body were giving me um hell no signals, I wouldn’t run anything and would just defer to ’16 but still partake in the weekend’s non-running festivities. Fortunately, my pregnancy has been smooth, and “training” was fine, so I felt pretty confident that I’d be able to run 13.1 come race morning, barring catastrophe.

The nice thing about being a social media ambassador for a race, aside from the obvious perks like comped registration, is that once you can convince some friends to partake in the festivities, things become a lot more fun, and the race is practically a backdrop. Chicago galpal Erica, whose work is based out of the Bay Area, decided she’d be all in for a weekend at SLO and not only brought along her super sweet Chicago-based friend, Meryl, but also housed the three of us, plus my SJ-based friends Paulette (another TSFM & SLO ambassador) and her husband Kevin at E’s mother-in-law’s vacation home on the beach of Cayucos, CA, about 20 minutes or so from SLO. Twitter/Strava and SF-based buddy Travis and his girlfriend, Jen, were also in on the weekend fun, and together with Travis, Erica, and another TSFM friend, Tricia, we were the mega cool Team Rainbows and Unicorns.

southbound
southbound view from our Cayucos digs
northbound
northbound

Saturday – race expo, ambassador meet-up, and really good food

SLO’s +/- 200 miles from SJ, and late on Friday, as I was getting ready to leave, I learned that I’d be on my own for the weekend because both A and C opted to stay behind. To say I was pretty surprised is a bit of an understatement, especially since most of the time, I can’t go to the bathroom without a little three year-old following me in, just to check on things and keep me company because she “likes to spend time with [me].” (aw)

Anyway, after a late drive on Friday and eventually falling asleep to the sounds of the ocean — which was as lovely as you can imagine — Erica and I drove over to the expo at the iconic and kinda wild Madonna Inn on Saturday morning to meet-up with Travis and Jen for an ~5 mile shakeout around the Madonna property and on a bike path nearby. From what we could see, SLO was gorgeously situated in the central valley, buttressed by perfectly golden (though drought-laden) hills. We’d become even more familiar with those hills nestled in the valley on race day …

Saturday shakeout (PC: Erica)
Saturday shakeout (PC: Erica)

After the shake-out, I had a quick ambassador meet-and-greet and enjoyed reconnecting with some Bay Area-based runners, many of whom I knew from TSFM. Yay, social media! Yay!

with Charles (SF), Laura (Oakland), and Paulette (SJ), all Bay Area-based SLO and/or TSFM ambassadors
with Charles (SF), Laura (Oakland), and Paulette (SJ), all Bay Area-based SLO and/or TSFM ambassadors

 

part of the SLO ambassador group. My pregnant midsection looks like it's knockin Charles in the noggin :P
part of the SLO ambassador group. My pregnant midsection looks like it’s knockin Charles in the noggin .

Erica, Paulette, Kevin, and Meryl and I were in and out of the expo fairly quickly, stopped by The Natural Cafe for lunch (which, by the way, it’s awesome and vegan-friendly; the tempeh tacos were delish), went back to the property in Cayucos to get cleaned up, and then met Travis and Jen back in SLO at Sidecar for our senior-special 5pm dinner (and similar to TNC, Sidecar was great; the vegan hash was superb, and everything you read on Yelp about their brussel sprouts is true … even coming from someone who generally doesn’t enjoy them). Soon enough, all of us sans Travis and Jen were back in Cayucos and in bed by 9pm for a cough 3:30 cough wake-up.

Sunday – Race day!

When I’m not pregnant, life dictates that I routinely run predawn and am out the door sometime in the 4 o’clock hour, necessitating a 3:xx wake-up. It doesn’t matter how many times you do that, though; a 3:xx wake-up is super fucking early! Erica, Paulette, Kevin and I figured that we would catch the final shuttle bus that left Cal Poly (in SLO) around 4:45 — which would still put us at the start line shortly after 5am, even though none of us 13.1 runners would begin our race until 6:45 — and our plan went over swimmingly. What I’m still smacking my head about is the fact that it didn’t occur to any of us to look at a map and see what the distance was like between the shuttle bus loading area and the starting line drop-off area; had we done that, we would have learned that it was only 1.5 miles away — something that we could have easily jogged (or walked) as a warm-up — and given ourselves probably an hour (plus!) more of sleep. Ah well, live and learn. Getting over to the starting line as early as we did meant that we had lots of time to hang with other runners/ambassadors, chat up other Bay Area-based pacers (many from the RA group here!), get in a proper warm-up, and see off Travis, who’d be starting the full at 6am. Fortunately, the time passed by relatively quickly, and soon enough, it was our turn to go.

ready.
ready.
26.2 start at 6am
26.2 start at 6am

If you’ve been following along here for the duration of my pregnancy, I’m surely sounding like a broken record by now when I talk about what it has been like to run (and race and train) while pregnant. My resounding echo has been that I find it all rather refreshing — to basically let go of PR attempts and the training grind that I’m so accustomed to — and just run (and race and train) for nothing but my love of the sport and my appreciation to be able to do so while growing a fetus. That said, when I figured that I’d be able to pregnant-race SLO, my only legit goal was to enjoy the experience and the change in scenery. If everything felt great, I’d prefer *not* to PW (personal worse, a new verb) my 13.1 on the course, but if I had to, I’d have absolutely no problem putting aside my ego for my/my fetus’s health (duh). I figured my fitness pointed to a 1:55 +/- finish, but again, if anything felt off or shitty during the race, I would gladly accept that PW or DNF like a champ if need be. It is slightly weird to go into a race with this mentality — well shucks, I’ll just go as slowly as possible or drop out if I feel like shit, and I’ll still be a winner! — but whatever. Long term view and perspective on running (and health, and pregnancy, and pretty much anything meaningful) > short term, any day of the week, in my book.

Those beautiful, drought-laden hills I mentioned earlier, as well as their sisters some long-ass residential hills, constituted a lot/most of the HM course. My Garmin indicated almost 700′ in elevation, and I think the full runners had something over 1,200′. For a road race, for 13.1 or for 26.2, that’s no joke! The first three miles of the HM were through SLO’s super-cute, college town-y downtown, before we began the peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys, rinse and repeat cycle on the back country roads that abutted those beautiful Central Valley hills. I knew that the course would be hilly, but hello nurse was it ever.

c/o my garmin
c/o my garmin

On the (multiple, long-ass) hills, I focused more on even effort than on even pacing because this seemed to be the most sensible thing to do. I didn’t even bother to peer at my watch on the ascents because I knew no good would come from it — because Garmin doesn’t measure ‘effort’ — so I planned to just work with gravity on the ascents and descents. I had an interesting encounter running up a very long ascent in mile 4, wherein I was near, and eventually behind, a man I named The Grunter who was grunting so hard (and heartily, and frequently) that runners several paces ahead of us actually turned their heads to look at him, probably to ensure that he wasn’t going into cardiac arrest or something. He said something nonsensical, to which I could only reply hey man, what goes up has gotta come down, just go by effort on these and tried to get outta dodge from him. I’m kinda curious about his race strategy; maybe the grunting was like some sort of I am a strong man! mantra or something that he needed to vocalize …

Once we were on the back country roads, the HM became more or less an out-and-back and turned at mile 7 and change. I enjoyed the OAB because I saw pro runner Ben Bruce — who’d go on to win the half — his wife, pro runner and 5 mos. pregnant Stephanie Rothstein Bruce — who’d also go on to win the half on the women’s side (and with whom I shared a side-5 and a pregnant runners are awesome! catcall) — and then Erica and Kevin. Once I was on the ‘back’ side of the course, I enjoyed looking for other racers I knew and cheering for folks accordingly.

The final 3 miles were different from the first 3, and after a little descent, we eventually got onto a bikepath for a mile or so before having to run on a bridge — Chicago runners, think N Ave bridge, but with 3 or 4 levels …  hard right, hard left, hard right, hard left, hard right, hard left, over the RR tracks, and then down on the other side — which was a bit annoying and disheartening because of the imminent pace breaking (and braking) it necessitated. Once we were off the bridge, though, we just had a little bit of SLO downtown/residential neighborhoods remaining before going up a this-feels-stupidly-steep-but-really-isn’t hill for a few hot seconds on that bikepath outside the Madonna Inn that Erica, Travis, Jen, and I had run on Saturday and a .5 or so descent into the finish line. Downhill finish FTW for sure, though not before I muttered a few hearty motherfuckers at that multi-level bike bridge and at that little incline outside the Madonna.

Throughout the race, I barely looked at my watch, but the few times that I did, I figured that barring catastrophe, I could pull off a 1:55 pretty handily. I felt so great! I let as many people as possible pass me, knowing that I’d try to pass many of them back on the final few miles of the course. Even on the never-ending ascents, I felt way stronger than I anticipated I would, and it was just all so … fun. #SLOfun. 🙂  Eventually, toward the end of the race I was even thinking that I could pull a sub-1:50 if I felt pretty good and depending on what was left on the course (read: how much more climbing we’d be doing) and yes, it happened! 1:49:48 for 13.19, and I finished the thing with a smile on my face, feeling like I’d be good for another hour or so of running, and with everything feeling as okey-dokey as it did when I awoke at 3-freaking-30. Honestly, I know I’m not breaking records here or anything, but to have that much fun and to feel that good and strong over 13.1 hilly road miles at 6 months pregnant, carrying at least 15 more pounds than usual?! I was floored! (splits)

Soon after I finished, everyone connected and raved about the challenging course. Erica and I went over to meet and chat with a very gracious Steph Bruce about her race, her pregnancy, and what it’s like to be a pregnant professional runner. She was so sweet and down-to-earth and surely thought we were crazy but didn’t let on at all.

very sweet lady.
very sweet lady.
slightly awkward. and my, the differences between a 20 week pregnant pro runner and a 24 week pregnant non-pro runner!
slightly awkward picture. note the drastic differences between a 20 week pregnant pro runner and a 24 week pregnant non-pro runner. also: Clifton love!

It was a great morning for everyone: Erica eventually learned that she pulled 2nd in her AG; Paulette had her second fastest HM ever (and broke 2 hours!); Kevin, Charles, Laura, and Tricia all ran strong races (the first post-injury bouts, for some); Travis dominated on the super-tough 26.2; and generally speaking, the post-race mood was cheery. Add the lovely mood to a sunshiney (and windy) morning, with the beauty of the Central Valley, to a backdrop of a well-organized 13.1/26.2 race … no complaints.

the gang! Meryl, Jen, Travis, Erica, Kevin, Charles, Paulette, and me
the gang! Meryl, Jen, Travis, Erica, Kevin, Charles, Paulette, and me

Overall, I really enjoyed my SLO half marathon race experience. The HM course is challenging and hilly, but I think it’s still possible to run well here, provided you train accordingly. The race had nice premiums (a red long-sleeve tech shirt, personalized bibs, unique medals), and the outdoors expo and after-race party were chill and enjoyable. This was only the race’s fourth year, and I think that its popularity will soon expand beyond the regional confines of the Central Valley here in CA. I’m really happy to have been able to run this race during my pregnancy (and to have so much fun in the process!), and I think this half would be worth repeating (not pregnant), should I decide not to tackle the full instead next year.

And yup, even though SLO comped my race registration for the half marathon as part of the social media ambassador program, the views are my own. It’s a good race. Look into it. 

Race recap: Nike Women’s San Francisco 13.1 to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Race recap: Nike Women’s San Francisco 13.1 to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Hello, very long race name and blog post title!

Just over a week ago, I ran the Nike Women’s San Francisco 13.1 in San Francisco as a member of the Greater Bay Area (specifically, the south bay) chapter of Team in Training. Team in Training is the world’s oldest and largest endurance sports organization, and since it serves as the fundraising arm of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, race participants fundraise in the upwards of ~$2k in exchange for being properly trained for their endurance event–in this case, a half marathon.

10653790_774437825928009_1753223548363611512_n

As I’ve written earlier, when I lived in Chicago, it was through my involvement in TNT that I dove head-first into marathoning back in 2007, so when an opportunity to run NWSF as a TNT fundraising participant presented itself to me back in July, I was all over it. I hadn’t fundraised for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society since the Chicago Marathon ’08, and I figured it was high time to do so–and especially since I wanted to do something to memorialize Traci’s mother who had just passed nearly a year ago to the day that I was asked if I’d be interested in doing this race for LLS. Honoring Traci’s mom and my own was the primary and initial reason why I forayed into long distance stuff back in the day, and fundraising with TNT this year for the first time in many years, seemed an appropriate and timely way to focus on the bigger picture, on the reasons that inspired me to begin to lace up my shoes a few years ago and start to do this crazy shit.

Team Ackron, or Team Awesome, with Mrs. Ackron, at the Chicago Marathon.
Moms are good at giving us perspective. Traci with hers + her siblings, post-CM ’08.
they rule. (also, don't mind the lady feeding the penguins).
she rocks.

Thus, this race was pretty meaningful to me, and I knew early on that it’d really just be part of my long run that Sunday, moreso than it would be a true half marathon-effort race. Plus, ahem… more miles for the day = a more comfortable pace during the 13.1.  (I’m totally drinking this 50k kool-aid now when it comes to my LRs and slowing the fuck down on ’em. Time on my feet FTW these days, friends).

Saturday: Team Yahoo! meet-up and Inspiration Dinner

With the race being in SF on a Sunday morning (and with a 6:30 start time), it gave me a perfect reason to get there a touch early and crash at my E-twin’s for the night. Shortly after I arrived, I met-up with the other folks from Team Yahoo! in the lobby of the Hyatt before heading over to the Inspiration Dinner at the Moscone Convention Center. It was also at the Yahoo! meet-up that I was finally able to meet the TNT coaches for the first time all season. I never made it out to any of the team practices because of schedule/family conflicts, but just as I suspected, the coaches were cool. They generally are. 🙂

Not long after our Yahoo! rendezvous, we all ventured over to the MCC for the typical and sacrosanct pre-race pasta dinner. Again, I was in the somewhat weird position of meeting all my teammates for the very first time, since I hadn’t trained with anyone at all for this event, but all good. Generally speaking, runners are fantastic people. The dinner was hilarious, thanks to John ‘the Penguin’ Bingham, and, appropriately inspiring, thanks to the patient honorees and their families who shared their stories, and we learned that:

  • Yahoo! earned top corporate honors by raising over $70k between this event and the NYC triathlon earlier in the summer;
  • this  year’s NWSF had approximately 1,500 TNT runners/walkers;
  • and finally, this year’s NWSF raised $5 million for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This race is  BFD for the LLS, and since the race’s inception a decade ago, it has generated over a billion – with a B – for the organization. Pretty awesome stuff.

Once the inspiring dinner concluded and the south bay team piled in for a picture, it was back to Erin’s for the night for a very brief snooze before race morning.

hello, team south bay!
hello, team south bay!

Sunday, race day

With Erin’s help (go here, don’t go here, this street is a big hill, this area is sketchy…), I ran to the starting line from her house without climbing any monstrous hills and safely in the dark dark dark pre-dawn morning. It ended up being about 3 miles to the start, and it was actually kinda cool because I ended up covering part of the race course along the way, kinda like a little accidental preview.

Once I got to the race start, I realized I missed the all-TNT group picture by about 5 minutes, so I focused on just figuring out where I needed to go and, of course, where I could use the bathrooms one more time. I’m not quite sure how this happened, but I had gotten assigned to the 9-9:59 minute/mile pace corral, so I knew I wouldn’t be toeing the line right at 6:30, but I figured I should still plan everything as though I were. I dropped my bag at gear check, stood in a very slow-moving line for the porta-potties before saying ‘fuck it’ and deciding that I’d either a) go find an alley or an unsuspecting shrub or b) join the not-oft talked-about group of female runners who piss themselves mid-race. TMI, sorry, not sorry…

Even from my brief jaunt over to the race start, I surmised quite quickly that it was humid–but not hot, just kinda… moist. Standing around in shorts and a LS was pretty comfortable, so I hoped that the sun wouldn’t come out at all during the run. Since moving here, I generally don’t look at the weather because it’s always the same (cough cough perfect cough cough), and race day mornings are about the only times when I realize that I should have… especially if I’m standing around for a while. At any rate, I made my way over to my 9-9:59 minute corral after having a flash of brilliance that I could go use the facilities in the Hyatt, the same place where I was just 12 hours earlier, therefore narrowly avoiding the necessity of pissing myself on the run. Phew. (Ed. note: I generally don’t wince much when it comes to bodily functions and running, but I wasn’t super keen on smelling like piss for more than 20 miles on Sunday morning. I knew you’d understand).

from the race's fb page. this gives you a good idea of how crowded things were on narrow SF streets with 25k runners and walkers. It definitely was pretty, though.
from the race’s fb page. this gives you a good idea of how crowded things were on narrow SF streets with 25k runners and walkers. It definitely was pretty, though.

Sooooooooo anyway, everything worked out–I didn’t have to piss myself, I was able to get to the very front of my corral and get outta dodge quite quickly, and I just had a super fun time at the race and as you can judge from my pictures, just had a fuckin’ blast and cruised cruised cruised with most of my miles ranging between HM-MP, depending on the course topography at the moment. I’m not super familiar with the ‘hoods of SF, but the first few miles took us from the start through downtown (ish?), then through the Panhandle, then through Golden Gate Park, and eventually, up the Lincoln Ave hill and down to the marina. This year’s course was brand new, and it seemed like parts of it were the same as Bay to Breakers or the SF Marathon course, though I’m not entirely sure; things kinda start to look alike, especially in GGP.

green = fast; red = slow parts of the course. giddyup!
green = fast; red = slow parts of the course.
running is fun! yay, running! (free race pics FTW. thanks, gameface media! I think this is somewhere in GGP...)
running is fun! yay, running! (free race pics FTW. thanks, gameface media! I think this is somewhere in GGP…)

While I wouldn’t recommend starting in a corral that’s several minutes slower per mile than what you’d usually run, it actually was kinda fun to try to chase down as many people as possible in those initial miles. Wearing a purple TNT singlet with my name on it was also a blast because people were yelling my name–as I was theirs–and when I’d see the many other TNT coaches on the course, it was a little pick-me-up to have them come over and chat with me on the run. I really had a blast and never really felt uncomfortable, as is the norm in a true HM effort run for me, but for a couple minutes somewhere around mile 6 or 7, my R ITB gave me some solid “what’s up now” scolding–frustrating but okay, but mostly frustrating because it happened on a downhill when I wanted to pick up the pace! Dammit! In fact, after a while, the ascents on the course became more comfortable than the descents. Kinda strange but kinda makes sense.

The hill up Lincoln was long but manageable, maybe from miles 9.5 to 10.5ish, if I remember correctly, but fortunately, I saw one of my chapter’s TNT coaches, and she just ran alongside me for a few minutes and just BSed with me and let me know how all the other runners and walkers on the team were doing. After I crested the hill–which, shout-out to the SF chapter of November Project because they were throwin’ it down up top with a crazy dance party for all the runners–it was a long descent down to the marina before a final more flat miles along the water and into the finish line.

running ascents is fun! (Karl the Fog showed up in full force on race morn and totally obscured all the views. Damn you, Karl!)
running ascents is fun! (Karl the Fog showed up in full force on race morn and totally obscured all the views. Damn you, Karl!)
somewhere along the marina, circa miles 10/11, apparently doing mental math (with some counting on my fingers for good measure)
somewhere along the marina, circa miles 10/11, apparently doing mental math (with some counting on my fingers for good measure)
props to Paulette for finding this one in the hw94134's flickr stream. probably around mile 12 or so, post mental-math. this gives a great glimpse into how foggy it was!
props to Paulette for finding this one in the hw94134’s flickr stream. probably around mile 12 or so, post mental-math. this gives a great glimpse into how foggy it was!

Somewhere around mile 10 or 11, the volunteers gave out truffles to the runners–how’s that for a crazy aid station–and shortly after I finished, a very sweet high school volunteer gave me the coveted blue Tiffany & Co. that held my race “medal” (read: a Tiffany necklace). I guess traditionally, suited-up firemen gave participants their Tiffany necklaces, and while they were there–you could go infield and have your pictures taken with them (awkward?)–I opted to instead go get the rest of my premiums (food food food galore, including vegan options *yay!*) and gear so I could get back on the roads again to finish my LR, get back to Erin’s, and get back to SJ so the family and I could leave for our Disneyland vacation. Serious Sunday funday!

tiffany box
all about the presentation. Paulette has a good photo close-up of the actual necklace on her RR here: http://www.justkeeprunningblog.com/2014/10/nike-womens-half-marathon-recap.html

At the end of the day, the HM was a 1:39 effort and completely comfortable and cruise-ish, even with the hills, so I walked away feeling actually really satisfied with how I felt after the race, if that makes any sense. I finished with gas in the tank–exactly how I wanted to feel–and though I’m more focused right now on my 50k fitness than I am on my marathon fitness, the NWSF half actually gave me a bit of confidence for a probably-in-the-kinda-near-future marathon just due to how I felt cruising. I haven’t done a lick of speedwork with the 50k cycle–again, folks, time on my feet is what I’m after these days–but to comfortably run 7:30s or subs, even on some hills, when I haven’t trained for that or those paces, was refreshing and surprising and…well… nice. By the time I concluded the day’s running adventures, I had posted just shy of 23 miles, so it was a good day, and I got a hell of a tour of SF in the process and some nice hills, to boot. 😉

Overall, I really enjoyed this race, considerably more than I thought I would. I don’t often run all-women or women-centered events, but it seems that the few times I do run them, I actually end up enjoying them more than I anticipate I would. I think this race was considerably more special to me just given my connection to LLS and the fundraising I did for the organization since this summer–and for that, THANK YOU for contributing nearly $2,500!–and while my expectations of “racing” were non-existent, I’m really quite happy with the day’s effort.

pace and race

Again: thank you, thank you, thank you for helping me in my fundraising efforts this year for this race, on behalf of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and for all your support. It means the world!