I often have these visions of how I want my blog to look, and I have all these posts planned out in my mind, things that I often chat about with other running friends, yet ultimately, when I have an opportunity to write, I do something else instead … and so begins nearly every blog post I write, with some sort of half-assed non-apology to my few readers for my relative absence.
An absence of my virtual scribbles doesn’t indicate that things are awry or that I’m not running; in fact, as is the case now, it’s really quite the opposite. It’s simply a matter of how I’m choosing to spend the very little children-free time I have available.
I’m here; I’m just … not. Or something.
I’ll do a quick catch-up, a la bullet points, in the interest of brevity:
I had about a twelve-week-ishturnaround between Pony Express on 5/1 and the SF Marathon on 7/31. I took a good two weeks post-PEM for super easy or no running, not so much out of physical stress as much as I did for the mental side. Being in the land of the Mouse for some of that time surely made the decision to not run much pretty effortless, too. I used to be able to effortlessly jump from marathon cycle to cycle, finishing one race and then hopping right into the next cycle for the next race. Maybe it’s part of the aging process (getting wiser?!) or, as is probably more realistic, the current wonderful state of life with two young kids, but I find that I need at least a little downtime to recharge my proverbial batteries before getting back into the marathon grind. Physically, I always feel ready; my mind is the one that’s all jump back, johnny! that convinces me to take more downtime. It’s less about waving the white flag in “weakness” and more about acknowledging that if I want to continue to do this stuff for the long-term, I’ve got to respect the mental side of marathon training as much as I do the physical.
also good for mentally recharging? running monument peak.
My family and I have been spending most of the summer in the midwest to visit our families. During our travels, I registered for both a 5k and an 8k. By my standards, the 5k was pretty shitty – let’s talk about how unacclimated I am to a) racing 5ks and b) racing in humidity, ha – and I ultimately DNSed the 8k (something I’ve only ever done twice before) because I felt exhausted and didn’t think that the stress of trying to race an 8k would do me any favors 27 days pre-marathon. I thought I’d try to sneak in a few more 5ks, but I never found any that would be convenient and minimally disruptive to my family, so I just forewent it. I was initially going to write a RR about the 5k, but honestly, it’s been about a month now, and I don’t even remember very much of it anymore except that after a 3 mile warmup, I was soaked from head-to-toe in sweat; I had GI nonsense during my WU that (fortunately) abated during the race; and naturally, I had a slow burn-and-fade during the race. I think I posted a low 21 – slow for me – but I left pissed more at myself for the novice pacing than for the time. Practice, practice, practice…
drones are cool. (PC: tim speer photography)
Concurrent with the awesome family time I’ve been able to have, I’ve purposely let running take something of a backseat. I so appreciate being with family, and of course, their willingness to hang with the kids when/so I can run, but realistically, I’d much rather just be with my family (whom I never get to see, due to that whole California-being-on-the-edge-of-the-western-world-thing) than running by myself for a few hours. I’ve run when I can and when it has been both convenient and minimally disruptive, and while it was initially challenging to shake the guilt-ridden ohmygodhowamIgoingtorunTSFMifIdon’tcompleteaLReveryweekendorpostXnumberofmileseachweek sentiments, I’m better with it now. It wasn’t that long ago that I’d feel completely derailed by not being able to check-off all my runs week after week. Now – and especially given our travel and my sacrosanct family time – it’s ok. Expected, even. I’ll be fine.
buuuuuuuut this 20 miler in Akron was arguably one of the best runs I’ve had while traveling. when in doubt, woods it out. as much as I love roads — and I really do — going off the beaten path for a while is really just so good for the soul. I’m convinced of it.
I’m running the SF Marathon, one of my favs, in just a few weeks now, on July 31. It’ll be my third time running the marathon, and another year being an ambassador for the race, and I’m looking forward to it. It’s always a good experience and a fun weekend. On paper, my training has been fine – I can say that both mentally and physically, I’m going into it feeling better than I did going into PEM, but not nearly as good as I felt going into Modesto – and I think I am most liberated by my relative lack of expectations and goals. TSFM is a tough race any day of the week, even if you’re especially trained for it, but it’s also a beautiful course and a lot of fun. I love the climbing (about 1,500′ by my Garmin in ’14, if I’m remembering correctly); the diversity of the course doesn’t get old; and hell, going from sultry midwest temps back to the coolness of SF in July will be a welcome treat. If I had to guess, right now I think I’ll be looking forward to the race as a wonderful and scenic long-long-run opportunity. I should hold a contest to guess my finish time because really, I got nothing. We’ll just see how it all comes together. I don’t think it’ll be my fastest SF, but I also don’t think it’ll be my slowest, either.
Speaking of things coming together … stuff is still being finalized, but if it all works out and I’m still needed (wanted?), I might be pacing at a popular California marathon in August. …wink.
This is pretty fun; someone is actually paying me to write about running (for a change!). It’s funny how the internet works sometimes. I should really make some explicit messages on my blog that state that I’m not interested in posting advertisements or promoting products in whom I don’t believe (looking at you, compression anything), or putting people’s pre-written and glowing product reviews on my blog, or writing for free (!) for some website about bodybuilding (true story) – all things that have come my way since I started casually writing here a while ago. Nowadays, in that aforementioned sparse child-free spare time that I have, I’ve been doing some freelance writing (and ghostwriting) about running. You might come across my byline sometime … or you might read my stuff that’s attributed to someone else. It’s kinda neat. Even though I’ve written and published stuff before, seeing my name in a byline – or knowing that stuff I wrote has been published on running outlets – doesn’t get old.
Maybe I’ll pull something else together here before TSFM on 7/31, but if not, you’ll probably have my SF recap to look forward to next in a few weeks. On pins and needles I surely leave you. Here’s another gratuitous woods pic, this one from the land of Lincoln from earlier this summer.
In many of my posts throughout 2014, I kinda jokingly-kinda seriously wrote that I signed up for a lot of Bay Area races in 2014 as a coping mechanism to moving from Chicago, but it wasn’t until I looked at stuff as I was preparing this post that I realized that, holy shit, I ran and raced and paced and trained a lot last year — to the tune of about 2,567.26 miles, a new yearly personal distance record for me by about a few hundred miles, if memory serves. That’s more mileage than what it’d take to drive from our home here in SJ to my folks’ place in northeast Ohio! Crazy stuff.
What matters more though is that the miles were healthy, injury-free, (super important) and very fun (also important) and that 2014 was a solid year for my training and for my long-term goals. While I didn’t realize that sub-3:20 marathon, I’m actually quite pleased with how the year played out and how my races went (for the most part); that sub-3:20 would have been vegan icing, but really, I’m floored. I’m smart enough to realize that if I only run to net PRs that I’ll be disappointed about 99% of the time, so fuck that. Running’s about more than PRs; it’s about discovering new places, testing ourselves, meeting new people (lots of that for me in ’14)… you know what I’m saying. At the end of the day, whatever numbers my Garmin watchface is throwing at me only matters this much.
Anyway, in 2014 I notched a couple new distances (12k, 50k, trail half) and naturally, everything I ran here was on brand new courses/in brand new-to-me locales, so it made the 2k+ mileage from the year pretty fun and exciting. Unlike my Chicago-based running, I did most of my training here by myself because not many people are into meeting up at 4am for a morning jaunt before work (note: where are you, SJ-based predawn runners?!).
I present to you my year of running, in 2014, a la statistical and photographic highlights. Cheers!
the month-by-month breakdown
http://instagram.com/p/iNYel3QwGx/?modal=true
First run in CA, on 12/21, just a few hours after my daughter and I had flown in from Chicago. I generally don’t take pictures of my feet (because… why?), but I also generally don’t run in shorts in 50-degree weather in December, either. Helluva way to welcome me in, CA.
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A year’s worth of racing… 17 (!) in all, with 2 DNSes
January: no races, just lots of training mileage for the Oakland Marathon
The pic below is from one of my first runs in CA, and I was obviously stoked to be reunited with my E-twin for the first time since we trained together for Boston & Chicago ’10. She was one of the only people I knew who lived in the Bay Area before we moved out here. This was from the run in the Marin Co. Headlands where we met up with other folks who were also TSFM ambassadors. It was awesome.
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February:SF Kaiser Permanente Half with Erin, Foxy, Chicago Meredith, and Austin and friends. You know what’s fun? Running a half in the cold and windy rain. You know what’s not fun? Getting horrible diarrhea around mile 10 of the aforementioned half marathon and having to shit outside a locked bathroom. bleh (at least I had the lovely view of the ocean…)
just a few strides away from finishing the thing ( cred: Meredith)
March: Race to the Row/408k. I kinda love 8ks because they’re such a weird distance–not as killer as 5ks, but not as calculated as 10ks–and doing this as a race ambassador and the day after a 20-miler (and in the throes of a 70+ mi week) set me up for low expectations for how I’d perform. To be sure, it was my slowest 8k in many years, but it was awesome! Seeing so many Wolfpack teammates before, during, and after the race was also wonderful. And! The 408k was my first race actually in SJ proper.
http://instagram.com/p/lDG8E6wwMK/?modal=true
Of course, the big event in March was my first goal race of the year, the Oakland Marathon. I had trained like hell for it in hopes that I’d break 3:20, even knowing that the course was pretty tough, and while it ultimately didn’t happen, I had a total fuckin’ blast during the race, had a fun time that weekend with Chicago-based friends old and new, and placed as the third woman OA. If all that wasn’t enough, I also was part of the winning team (RunningAddicts) for the marathon competition. It was incredible, and that race has a special place in my heart. 🙂
http://instagram.com/p/l6Rf0SQwBO/?modal=true
cred: Linh/RA
April: A team of San Francisco Marathon ambassadors and I ran the Ragnar 200-mile SoCal relay in early April, thanks to the flurry of businesses who had sponsored us (TSFM, Zensah, Gametiime, Nuun, Fitsok, and Skechers). Relays are typically draining as hell but, predictably, a lot of fun, and spending a good 24 hours in a van with other runners is just a party… especially when you inadvertently abandon your team captain in the middle of the night somewhere. (Sorry, Chris). That little oopsie aside, Ragnar SoCal was a great experience!
pretending like I drink beer. ha. [cred: a nice stranger]
team 1:45, brought home in 1:44:28. 🙂 (cred: Linh/RA)with Meg post-SC half, one of the many races this girl PR’ed in 2014. (that’s the look of a PR smile if I’ve ever seen one!) [cred: Meg’s friend]
I also made a last-minute decision to run a local 10k in late April, and I fared decently and kinda unofficially PRed, but the course measured really short (annoying). At any rate, it was enough for an AG and podium finish. 10ks are killer little beasts, but I kinda like ’em. I think this was the weekend before Boston, and since I knew so many people running it in 2014, I felt like I had to get in on the racing action.
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May: Another opportunity to pace a 1:45 HM group at Brazen’s Western Pacific races. This time would be my first go at pacing by myself, and it was way more nerve-wracking than when I had done it with Adam in Santa Cruz a month earlier. Dealing with mile markers that didn’t line up with my Garmin, along with my horrible inability to do mental math on the run, while entertaining very nervous runners… yeah, slightly stressful, but ultimately still super fun.
leading my group to salvation… or a 1:44:30 HM
Also in May was the ever-popular Bay to Breakers, the world’s oldest footrace, allegedly. I signed up for the craziness that is B2B without any real expectations because, well, it’s Bay to Breakers. Well, I take that back; my goal was to “not run like a moron.” I had never before run a 12k (automatic PR?), and I didn’t really know what the course would be like in SF, nor did I know how to pace the thing, but the weekend with Erin, Foxy, and Ryan was a blast, and running the race in my old Girl Scout vest from elementary/middle school was clutch. The race, by the way, is goofy as hell but really… do it once. It’s kinda an experience.
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Aaaaaaand finally, in late May I headed up to the fine state of OR to “run”dezvous with my people Austin, Kelly, Traci, and friends for another go at a sub-3:20 marathon, this time in Newport. It was an incredible weekend, and Austin and I both managed to fare well in our AGs and OA–with a shiny new PR for him!–even though I managed to dehydrate myself mid-run and foolishly kick much, much too early. All good stuff though–a lovely weekend with friends and a pretty good marathon to boot: my idea of a good time.
his and herswhole lotta love in this picture … friends, marathon weekend, Oregon, and a grocery store!
June: June gave me the opportunity to head up to Napa Valley for the first time to run the ZOOMA Napa Valley half marathon as a social media ambassador. Being a social media ambassador for this inaugural race allowed me to meet a bunch of super cool women, and I was impressed with how smoothly the race went. I raced like absolute shit, but hey, the race was pretty as all get-out. Napa in June is just hot hot hot. I pulled another AG and high OA finish here but was too frustrated and irritated with myself to be happy about it. I’ve since filed this race under “don’t run like a jackass” and “come back to fly on this course because it’s really effing fast.”
Napa-ing, home of a beautiful and potentially fast course, but one that wasn’t mine for the taking [cred: Siming/RA]
July: Just a few weeks after ZOOMA Napa Valley, I had a comped entry to run in Los Gatos at the Jungle Run half marathon, so I figured it’d be a decent tune-up race in advance of The San Francisco Marathon. Los Gatos is a pretty area, and the course isn’t very flat, so again, I figured that it’d give me an idea of what was in store for me at TSFM. Things were going well until, surprise surprise, around mile 7, my stomach decided that then and there would be just fucking perfect to have rip-roaring diarrhea mid-race (remember the Kaiser half in February? Yea, deja vu). That was horrible, but somehow I still squeaked in with a decent time (high 1:37), though I had been on pace for something faster prior to the gastrointestinal debacle. bleh. At any rate, seeing lots of Wolfpack and RA on course was great, and I secured another AG finish. The JR was a harder course than ZOOMA NV, but I was faster at JR (even with the shit stop), so it was also kinda redemptive.
Of course, the big race in July was The San Francisco Marathon, which became another target race for me because I had learned that I’d be pacing the 3:35 group at Santa Rosa a few weeks later. TSFM is awesome, and super tough with about 1,000′ of gain, but it’s one of my favorite marathons to date. Being a social media ambassador for the race allowed me to meet lots of people in the months preceding the event, and the weekend was just a blast, as marathon weekends usually are for me. Chicago Meredith was in town, Erin B came in from Chicago to run the full, Erin and Foxy and Foxy’s sister all ran the full (with Foxy’s sister doing it as her 35th marathon before she turned 35), and yea… just awesome. Again, the goal was for a sub-3:20, even with the tough course, and while I whittled away time from what I had posted at Oakland and Newport (and TSFM ended up being my fastest 2014 marathon on probably the toughest course, go figure), I still was just a jiffy shy of a sub-3:20. Whatever. It was awesome… and hey, I was on the winning team (RunningAddicts) for the marathon competition again and pulled a high AG and OA finish. woot!
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August: About four weeks post-TSFM, I paced the 3:35 group at the Santa Rosa Marathon up in Santa Rosa (wine country) with Ko, another RA buddy and sub-3 guy who was actually one of my 3:20 pacers at Oakland in March. SRM is one of the top courses in the country in terms of how many folks in its field BQ each year, and leading a huge BQ group was just remarkable for me. I honestly never thought I’d be a strong enough runner to comfortably pace folks to a 3:35. To say it was surreal is kinda an understatement. Anyway, SRM would be my first full marathon pacing opportunity, and I was stoked beyond belief. Austin also came down from Portland to run the full in an attempt to sub-3 for the first time. Our rundezvous again was a lot of fun–we’re good at that–and he netted another marathon PR and secured his Boston ’15 slot, Ko and I brought home our 3:35 group with time to spare, and I experienced my first California earthquake: seriously, talk about a crazy, crazy, crazy morning. Pacing a full marathon is a lot of work–no surprise there–but man, this shit’s good for the soul.
ready for world domination on marathon morningchasing Ko and bringing up the rear around mile 23barrelling through DeLoach (see what I did there…) around mile 10celebrating awesome performances and hefty PRs with Anil, Chris, and Austin post-race
September: Shortly after SRM, I was going to begin training for CIM, my goal race of the fall/winter, but I learned that life/family would necessitate a DNS this year. Instead, I shifted focus from road marathons to a trail 50k and thought I’d try my hand in the beginning of training at a trail HM+bonus (13.5 miles), Brazen’s Trail Hog race here in SJ at Mount Hamilton. It was fun and super dirty–the drought was horrible, making everything super dry and super dusty–but it was a good way to kick-off 50k training and get an idea of what the hell I was getting myself into.
October: I had two races in October, both half marathons, but neither was an actual race for me as much as they were just training runs for the 50k. Rock n Roll San Jose was part of a 20-miler, and the Nike Women’s Half to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society was part of an ~23 miler and was really more about the fundraising I did for LLS than it was about the actual footrace. RNRSJ was fun–it’s a fast course, and I saw lots of Wolfpack and RA friends–and Nike Women’s was hilly, and foggy, beautiful, and personally meaningful, given my connection to the cause.
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hello, team south bay of team in training!around mile 12 or so. this gives a great glimpse into how foggy it was!
November: No racing for me in November, just more training for the 50k. I posted a DNS for the Silicon Valley TT 10k because of some last-minute travel to Disney. Lots of trail action in November though.
en route to Monument Peak in SJ, CA (11/14)in Alum Rock during a weekend double with Saurabh. We posted most of our CIM/50k long runs together between October-December.
December: And finally, the big one of the year: the Woodside Rambler 50k. The DNS for CIM meant that I’d be left without a target race for the fall/winter, and Woodside made a lot of sense, even though (or because?) it’d be my first 50k and first real trail race. I can’t speak highly enough of the race organization, trail running, or the ultra scene or ultra community, but seriously. It was fuckin’ awesome. Meeting another twitter/strava buddy Kowsik was a nice touch, too. The race made for about 5,000′ of gain in just under 6 hours of running and was absolutely incredible and totally worth every minute, second, and hour of it. And hey, another AG. 🙂 icing, baby.
![pretending like I drink beer. [cred: a nice stranger]](http://www.runningruminations.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/finish-line-beer-ing.jpg)
![with Meg post-SC half, one of the many races this girl PR'ed in 2014. (that's the look of a PR smile if I've ever seen one!) [cred: Meg's friend]](http://www.runningruminations.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/w-Meg-post-SC-half.jpg)
