This morning was a good indication that I absolutely have made the right decision to not do a 1/2 in October and instead wait until May to do the Divas Half Marathon in San Francisco. Almost everyone who knows me knows that I have been plagued over the last year with health issues. For the most part I have been able to deal with it and continue my activities but never feeling 100% just starts to take it's toll mentally. As I was sent off to see another specialist I was the lucky winner of getting Fifth Disease. The kids had it first, each about 10 days apart and it showed up for me with the worst possible timing just as I was going to see my urologist for the first time. Thankfully I figured out what I had and was able to separate those symptoms from the other ones. After much poking and prodding and tears of pain we think I have Intersitital Cystits, whee, another fun thing to have! I'm trying some meds and we;re hopeful this will help and I can get back to be a normal person again. In all honesty the IC is pretty bothersome and sometimes painful but it's really the Fifth Disease that really took me out.
So, it's been two weeks since I have run, and my goal had been to give it a shot today. I headed to my favorite 2 mile portion of the trail and thought I would give it a try. I really wasn't feeling it and could tell I wasn't hydrated enough to even attempt 2 miles. So I though, I'll walk the first mile out and run the second mile back in which is slightly downhill and my favorite part. Yeah, not so much. The first indication was my fingers started to swell immediately, now whether this is from the Fifth Disease still in my body or the lack of proper hydration who knows, it was probably a combination of both. I attempted to run for a short period of time only to find that my knees really hurt (this was the first joint that experienced major pain with the fifth disease). Okay, so we're just walking today.
It's obviously going to be baby steps to start running again as I test my body to see what it's capable of. I am super glad I have so much time to train for my next 1/2 and just get healthy!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Unexpected Surprise
I had been expecting an Age Group Award for Scott n the mail from Run to the Lake, what I wasn't expecting was my own award as well!
It turns out there was a special First Responders Category. Yes, I know, technically I'm not a first responder but they sent coupon codes to Scott's office for the race so I got listed in the first responder category. I was 4th out of 6 in the category and Scott was 1st out of 6. There was only one other woman in the category besides myself so I'm guessing that's why I ended up with a win. So technically I was 1st out 2 in the female category... I'll take that!
I think this last medal will fill up my rack, I may need another!
I think this last medal will fill up my rack, I may need another!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Run to the Lake - 5k
Run to the Lake benefits Eden Medical Center's Trauma Center. They extended discounts to Law Enforcement and First Responders and they had a kids race, so it seemed like a no-brainer for us to sign up for it. Thankfully, the weather today was much cooler than last week's run. I should start by saying that they advertise this run as Flat and Fast.... um, it's uphill (okay not a huge hill) on the way out, I think it was about 122 feet of ascent on the way out but then mostly downhill or flat on the way back. Luckily for me, I knew this already so I was prepared for it.
I did actually have a plan going into the race (that's a new one!) that I tried my best to execute but didn't turn out exactly the way I had hoped for many reasons. Remember last week when I mentioned I had a nervous stomach, more so than usual... I now know that I can blames this on my family. There are always some nerves on race day, but most of the time I get up while the rest of the family is sleeping and sneak out before they wake up, so I'm just responsible for myself. Imagine this morning, my husband wakes up sore as hell from wrenching on his truck for weeks to try and get it running again, one child who doesn't want to get up and another who is actually eager to get dressed. I felt like leaving them all at home and just going myself. Thanks to our unmotivated runners and Mom having to do everything to get everyone and everything out the door we left 15 minutes later than our goal time. When we finally arrived we have to assemble the double stroller since we have to take it apart to get it into my car. They are already asking people to line up to do warm-up and Scott takes off to use the bathroom leaving me at the car with the kids. Gee, thanks for asking if I have to go! I loudly pronounce that I will just hold it for the entire run to make my point. As we head down the hill, there is hardly a line since everyone is already at the start line and I tell him I'll see him later... like maybe at the end of the race. Anyway, by the time I get down to the start line we are in the back of the line. I look around clearly get the idea that a lot of these people are clearly walking, awesome. When the horn goes off there is absolutely no movement where we are at... none. I give Scott a look and sort of feel sorry for him as I start pushing my way through people who are barely moving so I can cross the start line... good luck with that double stroller I think. Once I finally got a point where I had some breathing room it appeared that I was now at the back of the running pack and I wondered how long it would take Scott to pass me, we were at the .25 mile mark when he finally made his past me. So far, so good, my plan was to maintain a nice easy pace on the way out and take advantage of the downhill on the way back and hopefully maintain a 10 minute mile. Ha, not sure what I was thinking. Mile 1 was actually pretty decent at a 10:48 pace but Mile 2 basically shot my plan to hell with an 11:18 pace. At some point I tired of the slow and slight uphill section. After the water station we got a little downhill portion before the turn-around so I knew I had a little more uphill to navigate before I would have more downhill for the return. I remember thinking at one point that I wasn't even listening to my music, it wasn't inspiring me, this sucked, and why I had I been so worried about changing out some of the tunes last night. I was unfocused and just didn't care, I was getting a side cramp and took several short walk breaks, but it just seemed like it would all be over faster if I ran instead of walking. At the end a lot of people passed me, people I had passed on the out section were passing me coming in. The downhill was nice but than we would reach a flat section and it just seemed like so much work to keep moving forward. It was super nice to see Scott and the girls at the finish line cheering me on, instead of booking it in I ran over to get high-fives and then I sprinted to the finish line.
Glad to be done, I was actually pretty pleased with my time, despite my miserable experience on the course I think there is a trend occurring, I am getting faster, this race was pretty close to my Finish Chelsea's Run time which is my best time in 2 years. I have been disappointed to watch my 5k times getting slower and slower so, it's been really nice to see me increase my speed in these last couple of races.
I guess something went amiss with timing, I'm not entirely sure but they didn't hand out Age Group awards because of it, which is cool because it looks like Scott came in 3rd in his age group! They are actually mailing out awards because of whatever timing issue there was. He came in at 24 minutes, a 7:45 mile.
As long as their current reports are correct I finished at 33:39 and came in 18/55 in my AG.
I did actually have a plan going into the race (that's a new one!) that I tried my best to execute but didn't turn out exactly the way I had hoped for many reasons. Remember last week when I mentioned I had a nervous stomach, more so than usual... I now know that I can blames this on my family. There are always some nerves on race day, but most of the time I get up while the rest of the family is sleeping and sneak out before they wake up, so I'm just responsible for myself. Imagine this morning, my husband wakes up sore as hell from wrenching on his truck for weeks to try and get it running again, one child who doesn't want to get up and another who is actually eager to get dressed. I felt like leaving them all at home and just going myself. Thanks to our unmotivated runners and Mom having to do everything to get everyone and everything out the door we left 15 minutes later than our goal time. When we finally arrived we have to assemble the double stroller since we have to take it apart to get it into my car. They are already asking people to line up to do warm-up and Scott takes off to use the bathroom leaving me at the car with the kids. Gee, thanks for asking if I have to go! I loudly pronounce that I will just hold it for the entire run to make my point. As we head down the hill, there is hardly a line since everyone is already at the start line and I tell him I'll see him later... like maybe at the end of the race. Anyway, by the time I get down to the start line we are in the back of the line. I look around clearly get the idea that a lot of these people are clearly walking, awesome. When the horn goes off there is absolutely no movement where we are at... none. I give Scott a look and sort of feel sorry for him as I start pushing my way through people who are barely moving so I can cross the start line... good luck with that double stroller I think. Once I finally got a point where I had some breathing room it appeared that I was now at the back of the running pack and I wondered how long it would take Scott to pass me, we were at the .25 mile mark when he finally made his past me. So far, so good, my plan was to maintain a nice easy pace on the way out and take advantage of the downhill on the way back and hopefully maintain a 10 minute mile. Ha, not sure what I was thinking. Mile 1 was actually pretty decent at a 10:48 pace but Mile 2 basically shot my plan to hell with an 11:18 pace. At some point I tired of the slow and slight uphill section. After the water station we got a little downhill portion before the turn-around so I knew I had a little more uphill to navigate before I would have more downhill for the return. I remember thinking at one point that I wasn't even listening to my music, it wasn't inspiring me, this sucked, and why I had I been so worried about changing out some of the tunes last night. I was unfocused and just didn't care, I was getting a side cramp and took several short walk breaks, but it just seemed like it would all be over faster if I ran instead of walking. At the end a lot of people passed me, people I had passed on the out section were passing me coming in. The downhill was nice but than we would reach a flat section and it just seemed like so much work to keep moving forward. It was super nice to see Scott and the girls at the finish line cheering me on, instead of booking it in I ran over to get high-fives and then I sprinted to the finish line.
Glad to be done, I was actually pretty pleased with my time, despite my miserable experience on the course I think there is a trend occurring, I am getting faster, this race was pretty close to my Finish Chelsea's Run time which is my best time in 2 years. I have been disappointed to watch my 5k times getting slower and slower so, it's been really nice to see me increase my speed in these last couple of races.
I guess something went amiss with timing, I'm not entirely sure but they didn't hand out Age Group awards because of it, which is cool because it looks like Scott came in 3rd in his age group! They are actually mailing out awards because of whatever timing issue there was. He came in at 24 minutes, a 7:45 mile.
 |
| Trying to get some love from the family! |
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| Coming into the finish |
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| Kylie loving every minute of it |
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| Sydney taking it very seriously |
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Moraga 4th of July Run
Holy crap! I came in 4th in my AG! I remember telling Scott how the age group division for this race is 19-39 and how it kind of sucks to have such a large division. The race benefits the Campolindo High School Track Team, and who knew that there would only be 18 of us in that age division.
I was overly nervous race day morning and had a horribly nervous stomach. I'm normally not this nervous and it was only a two mile run! I think that because of the hot temperatures and because the entire family was running it just caused me to have extra nerves about logistics etc. I know there was no way to get a PR on this course unless I really booked it. Two years ago when I did this race it wasn't chip timed and finish times were not very accurate. I posted a 20:01, although I went back and read my race report and I wrote that I hear them call out 20 minutes as I approached the finish line, so it must have been pretty close. At any rate, I was pretty sure I wouldn't beat that time.
As we lined up all of a sudden the horn went off! What, really??? There was no lead up to it and I clearly was not prepared. This would be my first race with ForeRunner and I had clearly erred in using it. The watch had gone into "Power Save" mode. As I quickly tried to start it I completely forgot that the watch needs time to search for satellites. Argh! Needless to say I didn't get it started until about.06 miles after I crossed the start line. I told myself it was lesson learned and to get over it. I was mostly bummed knowing that there was no timing mat at the start only at the end, so my time would actually be a few seconds faster based on where I was when the gun went off. Oh well!
I felt good on the stretch of road as we headed out, I was maintaining a 9:30 pace, which came as as surprise to me, but I felt okay so I didn't feel the need to slow down. The only issue was that it was HOT, and I mean HOT! As we approached the portion of the course on the trail there is one short uphill section I did my best to charge up it but about halfway through needed to walk, as I got to the top and realized it was back down hill, I started to run again and take advantage of the momentum. I had passed a lot of people on the main stretch of road and as we worked out our pace on the trail I continued to play leap frog with a pair of probably 9 year old girls. Kids are famous for running and than just abruptly walking right in front of you. I side swiped her twice as I tried each time to run around her. I love to see kids running but I wish that people would educate their kids on race etiquette. Scott had a similar issue when a young girl veered in front of him and slowed to a walk, since he was pushing the double stroller he basically ran into the back of her and she fell to the ground. He felt horrible, stopped to help her up and she seemed okay but she was crying. After the race a couple who knew her said she was fine but that the same thing happened to her last year. Parents really need to educate their kids about how to safe out there, especially if you aren't running with your child. So there was a lot of that basically going on. Some parts of the trail are shaded but some aren't and it was just hot. Since it was only a two mile course there was no aid station but given the hot weather, an aid station would have been really nice. I found myself having to take short walk breaks in the last mile to just bring my heart rate down and because I was having some stomach pain in that last mile. The last quarter mile was in full sun and HOT! Did I mention it was HOT! As I crossed the finish line I grabbed my warm bottle of water and walked back to the car. Later I would see that my heart rate was 186 as I crossed the finish line, and boy I sure felt it as I walked it off. It's probably the first time that I ever felt like I might puke. This is why I don't like running in the heat!
I headed back to the car to get the camera and my coconut water so that I could get back to the end of the course to watch Scott come in. Can I just say bringing my coconut water was the best decision of the day. It was cold and just what my body needed, I really felt so much better after drinking it. I was trying to estimate where we were time ways and when I thought Scott would be coming in. He for sure came in earlier than I had expected.. Scott hasn't run that far since his days at the Academy 10years ago and he certainly wasn't pushing a 6 year old and 3 year old when he did it. I had sent him off with a Gu and told him to take it around the 30 minute mark and advised him to pace himself and run slower than he normally does a 5k. You can imagine my surprise when he crossed the finish line at 43:42 with an 8:44 pace. Seriously, such a show off!
I'm not sure how many strollers were on the 5 mile course, but he was the first one pushing a stroller in!
Many lessons learned, I was 54 seconds shy of placing in my age group. Had I not been flustered at the start, had I not taken those walk breaks, I possibly could have placed. I'm not sure I left much out on the course considering how I felt at the end, but I have to remember to give it everything I have, every time.
Official Time 21:34, 4/18 AG, 168/290 overall.
I was overly nervous race day morning and had a horribly nervous stomach. I'm normally not this nervous and it was only a two mile run! I think that because of the hot temperatures and because the entire family was running it just caused me to have extra nerves about logistics etc. I know there was no way to get a PR on this course unless I really booked it. Two years ago when I did this race it wasn't chip timed and finish times were not very accurate. I posted a 20:01, although I went back and read my race report and I wrote that I hear them call out 20 minutes as I approached the finish line, so it must have been pretty close. At any rate, I was pretty sure I wouldn't beat that time.
As we lined up all of a sudden the horn went off! What, really??? There was no lead up to it and I clearly was not prepared. This would be my first race with ForeRunner and I had clearly erred in using it. The watch had gone into "Power Save" mode. As I quickly tried to start it I completely forgot that the watch needs time to search for satellites. Argh! Needless to say I didn't get it started until about.06 miles after I crossed the start line. I told myself it was lesson learned and to get over it. I was mostly bummed knowing that there was no timing mat at the start only at the end, so my time would actually be a few seconds faster based on where I was when the gun went off. Oh well!
I felt good on the stretch of road as we headed out, I was maintaining a 9:30 pace, which came as as surprise to me, but I felt okay so I didn't feel the need to slow down. The only issue was that it was HOT, and I mean HOT! As we approached the portion of the course on the trail there is one short uphill section I did my best to charge up it but about halfway through needed to walk, as I got to the top and realized it was back down hill, I started to run again and take advantage of the momentum. I had passed a lot of people on the main stretch of road and as we worked out our pace on the trail I continued to play leap frog with a pair of probably 9 year old girls. Kids are famous for running and than just abruptly walking right in front of you. I side swiped her twice as I tried each time to run around her. I love to see kids running but I wish that people would educate their kids on race etiquette. Scott had a similar issue when a young girl veered in front of him and slowed to a walk, since he was pushing the double stroller he basically ran into the back of her and she fell to the ground. He felt horrible, stopped to help her up and she seemed okay but she was crying. After the race a couple who knew her said she was fine but that the same thing happened to her last year. Parents really need to educate their kids about how to safe out there, especially if you aren't running with your child. So there was a lot of that basically going on. Some parts of the trail are shaded but some aren't and it was just hot. Since it was only a two mile course there was no aid station but given the hot weather, an aid station would have been really nice. I found myself having to take short walk breaks in the last mile to just bring my heart rate down and because I was having some stomach pain in that last mile. The last quarter mile was in full sun and HOT! Did I mention it was HOT! As I crossed the finish line I grabbed my warm bottle of water and walked back to the car. Later I would see that my heart rate was 186 as I crossed the finish line, and boy I sure felt it as I walked it off. It's probably the first time that I ever felt like I might puke. This is why I don't like running in the heat!
I headed back to the car to get the camera and my coconut water so that I could get back to the end of the course to watch Scott come in. Can I just say bringing my coconut water was the best decision of the day. It was cold and just what my body needed, I really felt so much better after drinking it. I was trying to estimate where we were time ways and when I thought Scott would be coming in. He for sure came in earlier than I had expected.. Scott hasn't run that far since his days at the Academy 10years ago and he certainly wasn't pushing a 6 year old and 3 year old when he did it. I had sent him off with a Gu and told him to take it around the 30 minute mark and advised him to pace himself and run slower than he normally does a 5k. You can imagine my surprise when he crossed the finish line at 43:42 with an 8:44 pace. Seriously, such a show off!
Many lessons learned, I was 54 seconds shy of placing in my age group. Had I not been flustered at the start, had I not taken those walk breaks, I possibly could have placed. I'm not sure I left much out on the course considering how I felt at the end, but I have to remember to give it everything I have, every time.
Official Time 21:34, 4/18 AG, 168/290 overall.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Gadgets
Lets face it, gadgets make exercise more fun! I've only used the new ForeRunner once on the road and that was on Sunday, a few things I learned. I don't like the scroll feature, I need to reset to lock it at the screen that shows 4 custom fields. The super awesome thing is getting to see elevation! It's really cool to finally see the descent and ascent of my street, I think this will come in really handy as I need to embrace hills this year if I decide to sign up for another 1/2 Marathon.
I can't figure out how to capture images on Garmin Connect to post over here but here is the summary of the run. The super cool thing about the dynamics of my street and now having the ForeRunner is to see that I ran a nice pace of 9:20 downhill and a slow pace of 13:17 back up the hill with run/walk intervals. This information is handy to me as I try to conquer actually running the entire mile back up my street.
I can't figure out how to capture images on Garmin Connect to post over here but here is the summary of the run. The super cool thing about the dynamics of my street and now having the ForeRunner is to see that I ran a nice pace of 9:20 downhill and a slow pace of 13:17 back up the hill with run/walk intervals. This information is handy to me as I try to conquer actually running the entire mile back up my street.
Summary
Overall
| Time: | 00:22:39 |
| Distance: | 2.00 mi |
| Elevation Gain: | 164 ft |
| Calories: | 195 C |
Timing
| Time: | 00:22:39 |
| Moving Time: | 00:21:51 |
| Elapsed Time: | 00:22:39 |
| Avg Pace: | 11:18 min/mi |
| Avg Moving Pace: | 10:54 min/mi |
| Best Pace: | 08:18 min/mi |
Speed
Pace
Elevation
| Elevation Gain: | 164 ft |
| Elevation Loss: | 187 ft |
| Min Elevation: | 528 ft |
| Max Elevation: | 718 ft |
Heart Rate
| Avg HR: | 167 bpm | |||||||
| Max HR: | 180 bpm |
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
ForeRunner 610
I did it, I bit the bullet and bought the new ForeRunner 610. It's currently on it's way from Kansas and will be here on Friday! Thanks to my mother-in-law for some Birthday money and many thanks to a friend whose husband works for Garmin and was able to score me a discount on the 610 (which is out of stock in lots of places) it all seemed very meant to be.
I'll be sure to tell you all about it once I get it and figure out how to use it.
I guess this means I better find something to train for. I have been considering the Healdsburg 1/2 on October 29th or the Walnut Creek 1/2 on December 10th. Both have hills, so I'm just going to have to get over that fear of hills thing. On the plus side for Healdsburg, it's the wine country and you get to wine taste with your souvenir glass post race, but I'm thinking that wine followed by 13.1 miles may not not actually seem all that exciting. The other down side is that last year they said it was 90 degrees! Heat and hills are my biggest concern with this race. The super bonus of Walnut Creek is that it is so close to home, no hotel needed which makes it all the more affordable and I can train on parts of the course. The other bonus is the date, running in December assures me no heat on race day and there shouldn't be too many miserable training days in the heat. Yes, I know, it will be cold and possibly raining, but remember I melt in the heat and I would rather run in the rain than in anything over 80 degrees. The other super scary part about Walnut Creek is running up Ygnacio Valley Road past Lime Ridge. I've driven this many times, in fact I will Sunday night for a concert. I can't imagine running up this, scary big, in fact calling it a "hill" is not serving it justice. The bright side is that the return trip will be mostly downhill with one small ascent as we cone back into the downtown area. Yes, I know, downhill can be just as hard on your legs, but these legs actually do quite well with downhill.
So that's what I'm pondering. My husband said "you really want to torture yourself again?" Well, yes, I guess I do... I think. So, I have time to weigh out my options and decide what I want to do. Decisions, decisions.
I'll be sure to tell you all about it once I get it and figure out how to use it.
I guess this means I better find something to train for. I have been considering the Healdsburg 1/2 on October 29th or the Walnut Creek 1/2 on December 10th. Both have hills, so I'm just going to have to get over that fear of hills thing. On the plus side for Healdsburg, it's the wine country and you get to wine taste with your souvenir glass post race, but I'm thinking that wine followed by 13.1 miles may not not actually seem all that exciting. The other down side is that last year they said it was 90 degrees! Heat and hills are my biggest concern with this race. The super bonus of Walnut Creek is that it is so close to home, no hotel needed which makes it all the more affordable and I can train on parts of the course. The other bonus is the date, running in December assures me no heat on race day and there shouldn't be too many miserable training days in the heat. Yes, I know, it will be cold and possibly raining, but remember I melt in the heat and I would rather run in the rain than in anything over 80 degrees. The other super scary part about Walnut Creek is running up Ygnacio Valley Road past Lime Ridge. I've driven this many times, in fact I will Sunday night for a concert. I can't imagine running up this, scary big, in fact calling it a "hill" is not serving it justice. The bright side is that the return trip will be mostly downhill with one small ascent as we cone back into the downtown area. Yes, I know, downhill can be just as hard on your legs, but these legs actually do quite well with downhill.
So that's what I'm pondering. My husband said "you really want to torture yourself again?" Well, yes, I guess I do... I think. So, I have time to weigh out my options and decide what I want to do. Decisions, decisions.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
See Jane Run with a glass of Champagne
I didn't have too many expectations for today's event knowing that the Expo had been a little bit of a mess. I was prepared for full rain, which resulted in a lot of pre-packing last night.
Since I had my shirt already, I figured I might as well wear it. Since it was supposedly going to rain, I also had my long sleeved hooded jacket and a clean sweatshirt in the car if I needed to change for the drive home. We had planned to arrive early as they were going to shut parking lots and streets down at 7:30am for the 1/2 Marathon start at 8:00am. So we arrived at 7am and had plenty of time to hang out prior to the start of the race.
Crystal and I were pleased that we had picked up all of our stuff yesterday including timing chip. Alice had to pick up her stuff this morning, but were arrived early enough that there really was not a line. Later on the line for the chip was enormous. While they did packet pick up all week long at their various store locations, yesterday at the Expo was the only day that you could actually pick-up your chip. It seemed like they could have used more volunteers for that line. It seemed like we would stood around forever, but the weather was surprisingly pleasant. There was no wind and not a drop of rain, and it was actually kind of warm. We all decided that jackets and sleeves were not a necessity. So we decided to gear check. I was a little bummed because I hadn't brought my i-phone holder, I was planning on keeping it in my jacket pocket since I was sure it was going to rain. I'm okay running without music but I did want to GPS the course, but in the end not overheating won out against the GPS.
I was excited about this race because it was at Crown Memorial Beach, which is where I scheduled the American Lung Association's 5k for the fall. Even though I am no longer working there and not in charge of the event, it was nice to see how another organization had the course set up, etc. When we lined up Mary Sue and I picked a spot not upfront but not int he back either. I was excited because it looked like we were starting on time, but than quickly realized we were doing wave starts. Which sucks when you are ready to go but knowing the course and how narrow the path would be for the return trip and knowing how many walkers there would be, I knew it was a good decision. I'm not sure which wave we were but I think maybe the 4th, we started somewhere around 10-12 minutes after the first wave.
Along the course it was evident what a good idea the wave start was, I passed a lot of people, I mean a lot of people. Which is always nice for the ego. While I had to do some speeding up and slowing down to pass walkers who were clearly in earlier waves than I had been, for the most part is wasn't too bad ( I won't mention the ladies who were walking 5 abreast). Other than than the passing I managed a pretty nice pace that felt comfortable and was pleased to be in short sleeves and still amazed that there was no wind. We all know that I love running or walking this path, and today was no exception. Since I didn't have GPS to determine where I was mile wise, I used my calorie counter and my knowledge of the area to figure out when I needed to step it up. I was getting tired but I heard someone say we had .30 to go, so I picked up a little and tried to focus on nice long strides. When I saw the mile 13 sign, I stepped it up more, I passed a few more people and as I was rounding the corner to a shoot, I got passed! Damn, I hadn't her coming up on me and honestly I didn't have any steam to push it more and try to catch her. I finished strong and am pleased with the nice run I had.
I have to say the run itself was much more well run than the Expo was. The post race area was really nice, lots of food and lots of vendors giving out some great SWAG! My only criticism would be that I hate races that don't have water at the finish line. MetroMint was giving out water but I had to ask someone where the water was and than make my way over to their tent. Their tent was the closest to the finish line, but we had to cut through the food line to get there. Would have been so much nicer if the MetroMint folks had just been at the finish line handing out water, especially since they had another booth in the vendor area.Other than that, it went very well and as someone who has managed events like this, they did a great job on sponsors and booths with give-a-ways. There was so much and it was all quality stuff and in addition the layout was really great. They had them set up in a huge semi-circle so that you could make your way down and no one booth seemed really crowded or too hard to get to.
Overall it was a great day and I would do this event again. This was the most expensive 5k I've done, but I got a nice technical tee, a finisher's medal and a champagne glass filled with chocolate and champagne! I'll give them time to work on their expo as they proved themselves with the event itself.
On a side note, a shout out to John Muir! I typically wear my John Muir Health hat if I think it's going to rain. While staged at the start line I had two women ask me if I was employee, I explained that I had volunteered and my sister-in-law was an ER Nurse on the Concord campus. They booth work at the Walnut Creek Campus, so it was cool to meet them and I got big thanks and they said how much they love the volunteers.
Unofficial time 34:15
Crystal and I were pleased that we had picked up all of our stuff yesterday including timing chip. Alice had to pick up her stuff this morning, but were arrived early enough that there really was not a line. Later on the line for the chip was enormous. While they did packet pick up all week long at their various store locations, yesterday at the Expo was the only day that you could actually pick-up your chip. It seemed like they could have used more volunteers for that line. It seemed like we would stood around forever, but the weather was surprisingly pleasant. There was no wind and not a drop of rain, and it was actually kind of warm. We all decided that jackets and sleeves were not a necessity. So we decided to gear check. I was a little bummed because I hadn't brought my i-phone holder, I was planning on keeping it in my jacket pocket since I was sure it was going to rain. I'm okay running without music but I did want to GPS the course, but in the end not overheating won out against the GPS.
I was excited about this race because it was at Crown Memorial Beach, which is where I scheduled the American Lung Association's 5k for the fall. Even though I am no longer working there and not in charge of the event, it was nice to see how another organization had the course set up, etc. When we lined up Mary Sue and I picked a spot not upfront but not int he back either. I was excited because it looked like we were starting on time, but than quickly realized we were doing wave starts. Which sucks when you are ready to go but knowing the course and how narrow the path would be for the return trip and knowing how many walkers there would be, I knew it was a good decision. I'm not sure which wave we were but I think maybe the 4th, we started somewhere around 10-12 minutes after the first wave.
Along the course it was evident what a good idea the wave start was, I passed a lot of people, I mean a lot of people. Which is always nice for the ego. While I had to do some speeding up and slowing down to pass walkers who were clearly in earlier waves than I had been, for the most part is wasn't too bad ( I won't mention the ladies who were walking 5 abreast). Other than than the passing I managed a pretty nice pace that felt comfortable and was pleased to be in short sleeves and still amazed that there was no wind. We all know that I love running or walking this path, and today was no exception. Since I didn't have GPS to determine where I was mile wise, I used my calorie counter and my knowledge of the area to figure out when I needed to step it up. I was getting tired but I heard someone say we had .30 to go, so I picked up a little and tried to focus on nice long strides. When I saw the mile 13 sign, I stepped it up more, I passed a few more people and as I was rounding the corner to a shoot, I got passed! Damn, I hadn't her coming up on me and honestly I didn't have any steam to push it more and try to catch her. I finished strong and am pleased with the nice run I had.
I have to say the run itself was much more well run than the Expo was. The post race area was really nice, lots of food and lots of vendors giving out some great SWAG! My only criticism would be that I hate races that don't have water at the finish line. MetroMint was giving out water but I had to ask someone where the water was and than make my way over to their tent. Their tent was the closest to the finish line, but we had to cut through the food line to get there. Would have been so much nicer if the MetroMint folks had just been at the finish line handing out water, especially since they had another booth in the vendor area.Other than that, it went very well and as someone who has managed events like this, they did a great job on sponsors and booths with give-a-ways. There was so much and it was all quality stuff and in addition the layout was really great. They had them set up in a huge semi-circle so that you could make your way down and no one booth seemed really crowded or too hard to get to.
Overall it was a great day and I would do this event again. This was the most expensive 5k I've done, but I got a nice technical tee, a finisher's medal and a champagne glass filled with chocolate and champagne! I'll give them time to work on their expo as they proved themselves with the event itself.
On a side note, a shout out to John Muir! I typically wear my John Muir Health hat if I think it's going to rain. While staged at the start line I had two women ask me if I was employee, I explained that I had volunteered and my sister-in-law was an ER Nurse on the Concord campus. They booth work at the Walnut Creek Campus, so it was cool to meet them and I got big thanks and they said how much they love the volunteers.
Unofficial time 34:15
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| Alice, Crystal and Mere |
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| Mary Sue and Mere representing SmoFit |
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