Go Team!

Yep, it's official! I've joined Team in Training to help me prepare for my upcoming full and half marathons. As part of that, I will be raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, an organization that fights blood cancers.

I've been thinking about joining Team in Training since last fall when I ran the Nike half marathon. It seemed like literally half the runners in that race were from TNT. Being on the course for over 2 hours :), I ended up spending a lot of time observing them and they seemed pretty cool. First, it seemed like all the spectators on the course were TNT supporters so I was sort of jealous of all the cheering they got - especially when they all quieted down when the non-TNT runners (aka - ME) went by. So I had been joking with friends that the cheering was the main reason I wanted to join - even if I had to sponsor the whole thing on my own! And then a smart person pointed out that all I had to do was write my name on my race shirt and people would cheer for me, too. Oh yeah, I guess that would also work. heehee...

But it was more than the cheering from the sidelines. It was also the cheering amongst the runners. Every now and then you would see someone struggling, and I would always notice those purple-shirted runners checking in with each other. At first, I thought they were from the same training club, but then I noticed they were from different chapters - different states even!

It continued all the way to the finish. After I finished my half, I went and hung out by the finish line and there were so many runners that were really struggling by the end. I would then see some TNT runners approach the finish line and before they crossed, they would go back and help others finish. It was really cool to see.

Plus, it was fun to see their jerseys and see who was inspiring them to run. They inspired me, too! Especially the runners that were battling blood-related cancers or had survived them themselves - if they could do it, so can I, right?

On a related note - back in 2000, I raised over $2000 when I participated in the Avon 3-Day walk for breast cancer in NYC. That was such an amazing experience. Walking 60 miles in one weekend was significant on its own, but it was so much more meaningful knowing I did my little part to contribute to a bigger cause.

I'll be honest, I never thought I could run a marathon. (It wasn't that long ago when I couldn't even run a mile!) I'm not there yet, of course, but I'm slowly getting there. Obviously, this is a big deal for me - and I thought this would also be a great opportunity to support another cause. So I went to a TNT information session and I signed up!

I had my first training session with them on Thursday. Now I know why those TNT runners get all sucked in! Everyone is super friendly and super supportive. (Super, right? hehe) We just did a short trail run in LG, but it was cool because everyone cheered everytime someone came back from the run. Another cool thing was that some of our "honorees" were there at the workout. The "honorees" are our special friends directly affected by blood cancers - some are currently in active treatment, while others are in remission, though they still undergo regular maintenance treatment or testing. They're amazing though - some of them actually trained with us that day! I'm telling you, it's really inspiring!

I'm still new to the whole thing - but I know this is going to be a really rewarding experience. I'm pretty excited. Plus I have awesome mentors within TNT, they brought our group home-made chocolate chip cookies after our Thursday workout. ;)

I'll continue to make updates on my progress with TNT. Let me know if you would ever like to join in on a workout. I usually can only make the Thursday evening ones in LG. And if you'd like to sponsor me and donate to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, please click here.

Week 11 Wrap Up

Oooh... a "treat" for all of you - pics from Wharf to Wharf and the SF half!

Wharf to Wharf

San Francisco Half Marathon

Yeah, the pics are small. But that's all that MarathonFoto would show and it's not like I'm going to buy any of these!

Anyway, I did 23 miles for Week 11. On to recovery week! I got some great advice from KB and JL (actually, make that JL-UK, heehee!) so I've been taking it easy this week so far. I was really sore after the race so I just rested Monday and Tuesday. I felt a lot better today, so I did a quick, easy workout on the elliptical at the gym and I *finally* made it to yoga class.

Tomorrow, I'll start running again but hopefully, it'll be an easy one. I just joined a new training group (more info on that will be coming soon) so I'm not too sure what's in store.

Update: Too cute - I just found out my mom ordered two of these pics. Gotta love Moms! :)

Holy crap - a new half marathon PR for me!

Yes, it's true - I have now achieved a new personal record for a half marathon. On a whim, I decided to run the second half of the San Francisco Marathon yesterday. My official chip time was 2:08:13 which averages to a 9:47 min/mi pace which I am so happy with! My other two times from last fall were 2:13:35 (Nike Half) and 2:08:34 (US Half). You might wonder why I would be so thrilled with an improvement of roughly twenty seconds, especially when combined with the fact that the other two races were a lot more hilly. Well, here's why...

First, I was not planning to do this race, or any other endurance race before the big marathon. I was scheduled to run 12 miles this weekend per my training plan which I normally would have run with the Nike Club up in SF Saturday morning. But unfortunately, I had a work-related thing to take care of that day so I had to do the run on Sunday morning instead. I could do it on my own (not!), otherwise, I would have to head up to Danville, where Nike organizes their Sunday morning training runs. But then while having dinner with JL (no longer JM) on Thursday, she helped me realize that there was another option for getting my long run in - through the SF marathon!

I registered online by Friday morning. The first half was already sold out. It's a much more scenic run, but also hilly AND would start anywhere between 5:30-6:10AM *yikes* !!! So I had no problems with running the second half which started at Golden Gate Park around 8:30AM and finished by the ball park.



But here's the thing - I felt sort of prepared and trained for this race since I had been doing 8-10 mi runs leading up to this, but on the other hand, I didn't feel properly prepared at all. For the other halfs, I had already done 12 and 13 mi runs before the race with the proper tapering down of mileage in the weeks before. Not so with this one... because I hadn't planned to do the half, I already had run a combined 10 miles that week, not to mention the wacky weekend before where I did a combined 22 miles of walking and running just on Saturday and Sunday alone!

Anyway, cut to Sunday morning. It was an early one! Even though my start was after 8AM, the shuttle busses from the finish to the 2nd half start in the park left between 6:30-7AM so as a result, I had to be up a little before 5AM. I’m glad I got on that first 6:30AM shuttle though, because the lines for the bathrooms weren’t too bad when we finally arrived at the park. The lines would quickly get ridiculously long all the way until the race started.

I tried to do a quick warm up jog but my legs weren’t feeling too great and not only that, I started getting a slight cramp in my right side! Egads, not a good sign, but I just ignored it. At least, we had perfect running weather! Cool, a little overcast, and even a little misty in the morning.

The race had pace leaders (well, technically, they were Clif Bar pace leaders) that held signs with balloons listed with their intended finishing time. And those pace leaders held those signs and balloons for the entire race – even the full marathoners! Anyway, I found Mr. 2:10 which meant he would finish the 2nd half in 2 hours and 10 minutes. That was right around my finishing time for my previous two halfs so I stuck around him near the start and followed him to set my pace.

I was doing OK for awhile, but after the first aid station, I quickly fell behind. After the second stop, I had completely lost sight of those balloons all together. I was a little disappointed knowing that I wouldn’t be getting a great time but I kept chugging along. Occasionally, I would glance at my heart rate monitor to check my “status” but I just sort of paid attention to how my body felt to determine how hard to push myself. I actually never checked my time at all during the race and I really liked how the mile markers didn’t have clocks, as well.

Anyway, the first half of the course was through the Golden Gate Park – it got a little more interesting once we exited into the Haight area. There were more spectators then and the streets had all these random signs with SF trivia and inspirational comments. Some were random though - does anyone care that the two towers of the Golden Gate Bridge contain a combined 23 ladders? Now here’s the weird part... once we were outside of the park, there were a few areas where the course had alternative routes to allow traffic to get through. So at times, the runners would split up into different paths and then meet up again later on. Around mile 8, we had turned a corner to meet up with the other runners and you’ll never believe what was around the corner – Mr. 2:10! I had lost him miles ago and here he was! I’m thinking he started out the race at a faster pace because early on he wasn’t too far behind the 2:00 pace leader considering that he was supposed to cross the finish line 10 minutes later. I didn’t feel like I had run any faster in the middle of the race. Anyway, I ended up passing him – not intentionally, I was just keeping my pace since I was pretty comfortable with it. The rest of the race went by pretty quickly, despite the lack of any good scenery. Normally, I start feeling beaten down by mile 12 but the AT&T Park was at mile 12 so that was kind of fun since there were a lot of fans there getting ready to see an SF Giants game that afternoon.

I only started sprinting to the finish once I could actually see the finish line – as I got closer, I saw the clock read 2:12-something. I was a little bummed until I realized I was part of the second wave start. After I crossed, my watch read that I finished in 2:08-something – YAY!!!

The medal and the food stuff afterward were OK. The nice thing was that I was able to catch up with JL and ML afterward (their friend had run the full marathon) before their big departure from SF. It was also nice and sunny by that point as well – perfect timing!

After chugging lots of fluids, eating, stretching and whatnot, I finally headed back down home where I continued to drink, eat, and stretch. I iced my legs too. Afterward, I took a well-deserved nap but then woke up with a horrible headache. I felt nauseated, too. Was this because I was dehydrated? I thought I was OK on that front but maybe not.

Anyway, I’m glad I did it! Way more fun than running around some trail in Danville. :)

Week 12 Wrap Up

If you're a perceptive, dedicated reader, you may have noticed that I've jumped from Week 4 to Week 12. OK, I'm also certain no one caught that, but just in case, I thought I should mention that I realized I should start naming these in descending order to match my training plan.

This was a more unusual training week - 4 miles up in SF on Wed, a quick 2 mi treadmill run on Thursday, a 10 mile hill run up in SF again, and finally the exciting 6 mi Wharf to Wharf run yesterday for a weekly total of 22 miles!

I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with my progress so far. I feel pretty good. No sore or tight muscles - yet. Haven't woken up to any crazy amount of pain. No need to take the Glucosamine. I think the rest days, stretching, strength training, and cross training (currently alternating between spinning and stairs) have been working out well. No problems yet - knock on wood!!!

Wharf to Wharf (and back again)

* WARNING * This posted ended up being crazy long - my apologies in advance!

Yesterday, my friends (who I will cleverly name "R", "S", and "T") and I ran Wharf to Wharf, a 6 mi run between the cute beach towns of Santa Cruz and Capitola. It's a pretty popular race with 15,000 runners and sells out every year.

I don't often get the chance to run with my friends so that was a nice thing about this one. Also, there were lots of entertainment along the sidelines with different bands, cheerleaders, etc. The views of the ocean were also nice as well.

Despite all that, I don't plan to run this one again. For one, it was super hot. The race started at 8:30AM and the sun was already out and about, brightly shining down on us for the entire race. I don't really enjoy running in the heat (which is one of the reasons I like doing my long training runs up in SF, where it's a lot cooler) so it wasn't the most comfortable. Thank goodness for some of the local residents along the route who sprayed all the runners with their water hoses. But apparently, the hot weather was not typical and usually the weather is much cooler.

The biggest drawback for me? The crowds! I expected it to be pretty congested for the first mile or so (especially when you start toward the end of the pack like we did) but it was crowded for the entire 6 mile route!!! I spent most of the race strategically planning how to weave around the people in front of me. I think there were only a few moments when I actually had more than three feet of open space in front of me. End result? Finishing times: Official = 1:09, Audrey's watch = 1:04.


Course Map of Wharf to Wharf Race
So that was the race part. But the fun doesn't end there. :) Because you start in Santa Cruz and finish in Capitola, most runners (like us) park at Santa Cruz and then the race provides shuttle busses to take you from Capitola back to the start - but only if you are registered and had a bib. Well, "R" wasn't registered so the plan was that the registered ones would take the bus back, get the car, and then pick up "R" over in Capitola. With the race stuff going on, we assumed they wouldn't be able to pick him up right at the end of the race, so "R" decided to start walking back toward Santa Cruz so that the other guys could pick him up along the way once they had the car. Well, I didn't want "R" to have to walk by himself, so I decided to join him. We wouldn't have to walk too far, right? Maybe a mile or two, maybe? Just wait.

With our plan in place, me and "R" start heading back to Santa Cruz, using the street roads since the race course was still super crowded. "S" and "T" were off to go wait in line for the shuttle bus. So "R" and I are walking for a little bit, maybe half hour or so (keeping in mind, it's still hot out and we just ran 6 miles) and "R" decides to check in with the other team. Did they get on the bus yet? No. They had made a stop at some house party at the beach first. *insert dead silence here* I'm sorry, what??? In their defense, they claim they were only there for 5 minutes which later became 15 minutes which later became "S" claiming that she had to force "T" and a fifth party (who is only unidentified because I don't know him well him enough to blast him on my blog) to leave the party. In any case, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that they weren't partying it up the entire time "R" and I were walking down Capitola Rd in the blazing sun. I sure hope they weren't cooling off with margaritas while "R" and I have to stop at a local gas station to get our own refreshments (him Gatorade, me Propel) and snacks. Anyway, I digress.

I wish I had noted the times on my watch when we first left because I really don't know how long we actually walked. All I know is that everytime we checked in, they still weren't on the frickin' bus! So I'll cut to the chase since this post is already wicked long. Not only did "R" and I get to the car first, we beat them by at least a half hour!!! Apparently, the line for the shuttle busses were ridiculously long - like the kind you see at theme parks. Hey Wharf to Wharf planners - get your act together!!!

So let's see, "R" and I have now run 6 miles and walked another 6 miles. Let's not forget that I had just done a 10 mi run the day before and "R" was severely sleep deprived (I won't say why - but if you really want to know, click here). I won't speak for him, but I was tired and really just wanted to head home, take a shower, and take a nap. But instead, we parked ourselves on a sidewalk corner and continued to wait. "S" had the keys to the car.

Finally! "S" and "T" plus unidentified fifth party (now to be named UFP) arrive in Santa Cruz. They wanted to have lunch in downtown Santa Cruz. OK, fine. Plans were made that they would come meet us at the car and we would drive over to downtown. We wait. We check on their status. We find out they were already at the restaurant. Apparently, we misunderstood. Although the bus drop off seemed to be equal distance from the car as well as downtown, they decided to head downtown. I guess that wouldn't be a big deal, except that meant "R" and I were walking the half mile or so to get there now - walking again? Oh joy!!!

To no surprise, my mood greatly improved once I got some food and drinks in my system. After lunch, "S" and "T" were delegated to go retrieve the car and pick us up. They left while we finished our drinks and took care of the bill. After awhile, we got bored and started walking in their direction. We finally stopped and sat at this corner while we waited for them to pick us up. After several minutes passed, UFP wondered aloud, "Where are they?"

"R" and I just busted out laughing.

10 Mile Run in San Francisco

This morning, I ran my first double digit run this year. Coincidentally, this was also the first hill-y run of the year. Oh joy.

It was definitely challenging. Starting at the marina, we went pass Crissy Field and then through the Presidio where we faced lots of different hills. They weren't too bad and I managed to run through all of them. We then went across town to run through Golden Gate Park. This part was nice because 1) it was pretty flat and 2) I got to see several areas of the park that I hadn't seen yet. For example, a rose garden, a waterfall, and a big purple head! That was covered about the first seven miles. Then we took the Arguello, Jackson, Baker Sts. route that we often used during the runs last year. Unfortunately, that meant the second set of hills appeared in mile 8 when I was already pretty beat. So I chose to walk a lot of those and I noticed a lot of the other runners did the same. But by mile 9, it was all downhill (literally) so it was all good. It took me over two hours to finish the course which was OK with all the hills plus the fact that I stopped at every one of the four aid stations. :)

I tried something new today, too. I guess you're supposed to take an ice bath after long runs to help with muscle soreness. So a lot of the Nike runners will dip into the bay after we return from the run since it's right there at the marina. And you know? My legs did feel pretty good afterward! Plus it was a beautiful day in SF this morning so it was kind of fun to be hanging out in the water with a gorgeous view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, too. It was pretty funny seeing all these runners (myself included) holding their shorts up standing around talking in water up to their thighs. Kind of reminded me of a bunch of flamingos.

Another thing I've been doing is leaving my iPod at home when I do these group runs. Although I was running by myself for most of the run, there were always other runners nearby and everyone was really good about checking in with each other and making sure we all knew about any changes in the course route. But it was interesting to run with no music, especially for over two hours. I thought I would be bored, but it was actually kind of nice. Some time to think. :) Although, I couldn't tell you what I had thought about then - hee, hee.

I did meet some other runners that are also training for the marathon that are at my pace as well. That made me feel better since I was worried about being stuck alone during these training runs.

One last note on something I thought was pretty funny. During the run, I saw a guy wearing a Michigan T-shirt, so of course, I had to yell, "Go Blue!". Then about five minutes later, we passed a guy running up Lyon stairs wearing a St. Ignatius Wildcats T-shirt!!! Now, what are the chances of that???

Nike Run at Niketown in Union Square

So I changed things up a little bit this week... I ventured up to SF Wednesday night to join the Nike club for a short run at Niketown in Union Square. Better yet, I got another buddy to join me - thanks Dr. M! He's another one of those speedy gonzales runners, but he was nice enough to go slummin' with me. :P

This was a weird one, though... we had just departed from Niketown when all of a sudden there was a big scuffle next to H&M - two guys had some other guy pinned down to the ground, people were yelling about calling 911 but none of us runners had a cell phone on us... anyway, turns out it was a shoplifter. It was pretty crazy!

I did a shoe trial during the run with their Nike Pegasus sneakers which weren't bad. I had actually already purchased them before but then returned them to exchange them for these Nike Vomero ones which are supposed to arrive tomorrow.

Today's freebie was a brand new pair of Nike dri-fit socks in baby blue. Very exciting! I love collecting these socks. :) You only get them with the shoe trials.

We also got these cool little handout giveaway thingies (sorry for the super generic term). You know those little signs that small businesses will put in their door window when they've stepped out - they have a picture of a clock with movable clock hands so that you can indicate what time you will return? So it was a little card that looked like that and on one side is the clock and reads "Gone Running". And on the back, it says this:

"That's right. I'm out of here. Do not chase me down or text me or try to talk me into going out to lunch. I don't have time to figure out if I have time for a run. I'm just going. The world will not fall apart in my absence. I might miss somebody's birthday cake or a discussion on last night's season finale. Even if I do, who cares. I'm coming back with a state of mind three coffees, two flirtatious emails and a week of vacation can't buy."

Pretty cool, right? In the great words of Mr. Nike - JUST DO IT!