Mermaid Run SF

photo courtesy of Melissa

While I am a fan of the Mermaid Run in Mountain View, I have never done the San Francisco run because I hate driving to the city, lame I know. But I couldn't resist since my training plan called for a 10k race on Sunday and so many of my friends would be participating as well.

As you know I went to the Cal/Oregon game the night before and was feeling the pain the next morning in my shins from hiking up all the concrete to Memorial Stadium. I taped up my shins and gathered all of my race day gear and headed to the city.

It was a gorgeous day at Crissy Field. While I had no expectations about this race, since it was my first 10k and I was actually kind of dreading it because it was a 2 loop course, which I felt would be mentally challenging to run past the 5k finish and have to do another a 5k. The nice part about doing the 10k is there were way less people doing the 10k, the 5k runners were sent off 15 minutes before our start so it felt way less crowded when he headed out. I must have started in a good spot for my pace because I didn't feel like I had to pass lots of people and I don't feel like a lot of people passed me either. The first half of the run felt pretty good, the nice part about the course was that I got to see everyone at one point or another along the course, which was fun.

I decided to run with my water pack, I've heard stories about people om long runs and getting screwed at the aid stations so I knew I wanted to carry my own beverage. What I wasn't 100% sure about was whether to use a Gu or not. I packed one and filled my bottles with CytoMax to test whether using that or water would be best for the 1/2. When I approached the first aid station they were totally out of cups filled with water. Someone was trying to fill up a cup but I clearly was not going to stop and wait, this is why I was carrying my own. When we looped back around there was an aid station across from the other one, it was jammed and I decided to not stop again not waiting to lose any momentum. As I approached the 5k finish turn-off I decided now would be a good time to go ahead and consume a Gu, which I'm glad I brought after all. At this point I was still feeling pretty decent and was looking forward to working my way closer to the water where it was cooler. There was no fog to speak of and with the full sun it was starting to get hot. As I approached the aid station again, they had closed down the one on the right side. I was really hoping to get water this time around because the Gu had made my hands sticky and the CytoMax sport drink wasn't helping me in my quest to be less sticky. Luckily, the folks from the aid station on the left were standing in the middle of the trail handing out water, sadly, she gave out her last cup to the woman in front of me, foiled once again! As I reached the turn around point at the Presido I was able to really take in the scenery and enjoy the beautiful view. There was no one directly in front or behind of me. And as the waves crashed ashore I could smell  the sea spray and really enjoyed the view of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge, it was really a nice moment. As I headed back to the finish I finally got my cup of water and was bale to clean off my stickiness, the cold water tasted so good since my CytoMax was a warm beverage at this point.

With one mile left to go I started to have some toe nail pain and worried once again about the possibility of losing a toe nail. The last mile hurt, but I had run the first 5 miles and there was no way I was going to walk when I was so close to the finish line. As I ran past the folks sitting on the grass I saw Melissa who cheered me in, which was a great feeling and I finally made the right turn into the finish chute. It felt great as I heard them announce my name as I crossed the finish line of my first 10k! I did  it and I ran the entire distance!

It felt amazing to do something I never thought I would do. At the beginning of the year I briefly thought about training to do a 10k and I looked at a training plan, and thought to myself "there is no way I can workout that much" and discarded the idea, so to complete a 10k as a training run for a 1/2 marathon felt really good. My goal was an 1:10 and my official team was 1:10:19, not bad.

The hard part was after I got home and the immense pain from my toe's, feet, knee's groin and lower back. I'm working on some shoe issues to hopefully resolves these issues. It for sure took away from my high of completing a 10k which makes me sad. The important part is that I did it and it didn't feel too terrible while I was doing it, so I know will do another.

Next up *gulp* Vegas!

Week end totals:

Run: 16.20 miles
Bike: 5 miles