Santa Cruz Turkey Trot Double

Well, I had been mulling it over for a while, and some time late last night I decided to go over to Santa Cruz this morning and run the Turkey Trot. The 5K started at 8:20, and the 10K started at 9, so a double was a possibility.
As some of you may have noticed in the Mileage Mongers database, I've been lazy about running for several weeks, so I didn't expect much, but I didn't do badly in the 5K.
The course is as scenic as it can be, along a cliff overlooking the Pacific coast. I pressed the start button on my watch, and glanced to make sure it wasn't still showing zeroes, but when I got close to the first mile, I looked and saw that it was stopped at 11 hundredths of a second. I guess I hit it twice.
The split called at 1 mile was 6:35, and at the turnaround/halfway mark it was 10:20. I finished in 21:35, which was good enough for second place in my age division and an etched glass commemorative coffee mug.
I decided to run the 10K as a fairly hard training run, but I didn't get an official time. I was ticking off 7:30 miles like clockwork.
With no pressure, it was somehow easy to settle into a good pace. I ran it in 46:37.
A pretty good unplanned day at the races. I hope everyone else has as much fun as me this weekend.

Silicon Valley Marathon 2002

First, I rediscovered a fact which always seems to surprise me. I am not superhuman.

I had dreams of 3:20 dancing in my head for twenty miles this morning. I began to fall off my pace at mile 19. I just struggled in from mile 21 on.

3:44, or thereabouts. Thinking that the results would be on the web, I didn't bother to try to crowd in and see them after I finished. No splits. I can't find my race watch.

Second, this was a fantastic marathon. From everything I saw, it was as well-organized as always. As always, a skimpy expo and not a lot to choose from in the food after the race. But a beautiful course this year.

That's it. Can't write any more now.

The Relay 2002

The Red Hot Runners finished 66th out of 278 teams overall. We had wanted to compete as a mixed team, but ended up with too few women runners. We only had four women, and 8 men.
We finished in 27 hours, 2 minutes, and 19 seconds.
I ran legs 10, 22, and 34.
Leg 10 is the toughest one in the race, 8.9 miles, with a 1400 foot climb in two miles after the first mile. But there is a fantastic view of the Napa Valley after you crest that ridge and start down the other side. You can't do great time coming down because it's steep and rocky and you have to watch your footing. I was able to keep running all the way to the top, and I finished it in about 76 minutes. That was starting around 4 to 5 in the afternoon. I passed four other runners, but was passed by four myself, three of them in a pack as the course levelled out for the last two miles.
My next leg was 2 am that night, more or less level, on Skyline Blvd. I covered the 4.2 miles in about 32 minutes. Not great, but I was really feeling beat from the first leg. The really discouraging thing for me was that the only other runners I saw during the run were two who passed me.
My last leg was another tough one, a total of 6.2 miles, starting with a long, slight downhill, then finishing in the last almost two miles with a very steep uphill into a sandstone quarry. It was the hardest 49 minute 10K I've ever run. I think it was my best effort of the weekend, because I paced myself right to be able to run the hill well, and I caught and passed another team with about a hundred yards to go. No one passed me.
This is a pretty short race report considering all I've been through this weekend, but I just don't have time to work on it. But now a lot of you guys know what this is like. We had a great time.
I'm really happy with how I ran, although I'm very sore now, and I'm sure I won't get the best possible time in SVM next Sunday.
I'm not injured in any way, and the soreness is just muscles.

Primo's Run Half Marathon

I decided to run this half marathon instead of the Big Basin Redwoods for a couple of reasons, but mainly because I thought it would be easier.
Other reasons are that this is one of the biggest running events in the Bay Area, with a 5K and 10K also offered, and I've never run it before.
There were about 700 half marathoners, and about two thousand each in the 5K and 10K.
Beautiful weather in the hills east of the SF Bay. I wore a tee-shirt, but had my gloves on the whole race. Gently rolling hills.
I couldn't find my racing/track watch, so I don't have my splits.
There was a major screw up in course direction. The lead group went off course. Some time before the main pack went off, the course was corrected. Some between that point and the leaders got directed back onto the course by a shortcut. The leaders got back onto the course by a longer route.
So some people went about a quarter of a mile long, some went about a quarter of a mile short, and some ran the right course. It looks to me like I had the short course.
This happened between mile 2 and mile 4. I didn't see the 3 mile mark, an indication I was probably off the course, The split called at 2 miles was 14:40, then at 4 miles it was 28:30. I don't think I sped up at all in those two miles.
So I ran about a half marathon, probably a quarter of a mile less, in about 1:37:15.
I'm happy with that time. Even over the full course I would have been under 1:40. Considering the rolling hills and the fact that I ran 20 miles LSD 3 days before, I think I could beat 3:20 in the Silicon Valley Marathon, if I wasn't running the Relay next week. I don't know if I should count this as a new PR.
I'm going on the road to look for work, so I may not be in touch much over the next few days. I'm looking forward to reading all of the marathon race reports, though.

Pet Friends 5K

Penny and I ran the Pet Friends 5K on Saturday. It's a fun little race, probably about 50 runners. I thought the course was short, but the race director, who has done lots of other races, said it "could be twenty or thirty yards" short.
Penny was very excited from the moment that we pulled into Spring Grove School. I think she may have actually rememberred last year's race. She started out almost dragging me down the first straightaway. There were a couple of other dogs with us at that point, but when we turned the first corner, after about a quarter mile, we had a little bit of a lead over the whole field.
We were passed just before the one mile point, we which we hit in 6:39, by a medium/small dog running a very even pace. Penny and I just aren't the types to run that way, however effective that might be. Penny has even less self-restraint than I do.
Penny put too much into the first mile. Through the second mile, we traded the lead aomngst the big dog division with a blue tick. That's a breed something like a big springer spaniel. A beautiful dog, who could easily outrun her master.
There were water bowls just before the two mile point. Penny gladly slowed and stood by the bowls, but acted like she didn't know she should take a drink. After a few seconds, I said, "Let's go." and we took off again, hitting the two mile point in 7:35, 14:14.
We were not going to catch the blue tick, and a schnauzer came up from behind. Penny actually waited for this dog to catch up before she would start racing again. Then she would slow and walk for a while, then want to run again. Somewhere in the last few hundred yards, whe decided she wanted to catch up, but she couldn't do it before the end of the race.
We hit the three mile mark in 7 minutes flat, 21:14, and the finish at 21:46.
So we took third in our division. Penny and all of the dogs had a great time. We had taken first last year, but three minutes slower over the same course. There was some tough competition.

Trailblazer 10K

Shoot.
After I wrote this, I realized it was longer than the race reports from RTB. Oh well, read if you want.
My wife says I have a compulsive personality. I certainly have a family history of compulsive behavior. Many things I spend my time on have a compulsive nature to them, including running and participating in online groups.
A couple of months ago, July 13, I ran a 43:41 10K and got it into my head that I ought to be able to run a sub-43 10K, going under my age, 43. I made an attempt on September 13th, but missed it. So the next week, I tried again, then again the week after.
So I wasn't planning to race this weekend, but I knew there was a race in Mountain View on Sunday. Yesterday I woke up at 6:21. I looked at the clock and the gears in my head started to slowly turn.
If I got dressed quickly, grabbed a light breakfast on the way, and didn't hit any unexpected traffic, I could be registered by, oh... 7:45 maybe. The race would start at 8:30.
So I was gone.
I was registered by about 8:15, but the start of the race was delayed a few minutes while the course monitors were getting in position.
The course is all on a paved, mostly flat, but undulating pedestrian/bicycle path, partly what is called the Stevens Creek Trail and partly through Shoreline Park.
I had very little chance to warm up. Then, like everyone else at the race, I had time to cool off at the start. Still, I started out feeling good, like I was running comfortably at a good pace. I may have started too fast. I didn't feel like I was slowing down a lot, but a lot of people passed me after about half a mile. One guy in particular, had a very stiff running style. He seemed to be running close to my pace, and I was thinking, "I hope my form looks better than his."
I was very happy with my early splits, but they may have been screwy.
You'll see why I say that.

1-- 06:35 6:35
2-- 13:26 6:51
3-- 20:35 7:09
4-- 27:16 6:41
5-- 36:20 9:04 ???
6.2 43:41 7:21

I'm guessing that the mile 5 marker was actually at one mile to go, but who knows. Something was off.
I know I did lose some concentration between mile 4 and mile 5. A runner ahead had started walking. That's pretty unusual at the pace he had been running. I mean, you see people stop and limp sometimes, and you see people slow way down. But you don't often see someone running better than 7 minute miles just get tired, walk for twenty yards, then start running again, but that's what this guy did. At the same time I was catching him, I was catching the stiff-looking runner I mentioned before.
The three of us ran in a loose pack for a while. This was a little before we should have seen the mile 5 marker. I think every time I pass a mile marker during a race, it gives me a little boost. I know I'm closer to the finish, and I have a better idea of how I'm doing against my goal.
After we finally passed the misplace mile 5, I started to pick it up. I immediately left the other two in that pack as if they weren't moving. I only realised then that they were both dying, trying to hold on. I had lots left, but I had just naturally, lazily, fallen into pace with them.
Another thing which may have affected me was the fact that some time during the race the infusion set from my insulin pump, a little plastic tube that goes under my skin, pulled out. I didn't notice it until I took off my sweaty shirt to put on a dry one after the race.
As I said, I don't know when it happened, but it had an affect on my blood sugar, and could have affected my performance.
Oh, well. Sooner or later I have to stop running 10Ks every weekend, but I still feel compelled to get this out of my system.
Somebody please stop me. :-)

Palo Alto Moonlight Run 10K

Mon Sep 23, 2002
There were three events, the 5K walk, the 5K race, and the 10K. There were more than a thousand runners in the two races, and probably two thousand more people in the 5K walk. So it was a big event.
The Palo Alto Moonlight Run 10K was run over exactly the same course as the Baylands FrontRunners Run for the Community 10K that I did a couple of weeks ago. This is a much larger event, though. And it started at 8:45 PM. And I was sick. And to try to clear my sinuses, I had a huge, spicy barbacoa (like a burrito, but with tons of barbecued beef) for dinner, and while it did help to clear my head, it wasn't completely digested at post time.
I had originally planned to run the 5K at this event, but changed my mind to try to get my elusive 43 minute 10K. So over an uneven surface that I had failed to PR on two weeks before, with a head cold, in a more crowded race, in the dark, I was hoping to have a breakthrough race.
What do you think?
I had a great time, but my time wasn't great.

splits:
1. 06:33 6:33
2. 13:51 7:18
3. 21:02 7:11
(missed markers for miles 4 and 5)
6. 43:00 (7:19 pace)

Finish: 44:36

I think under better conditions I can still break 43. It will have to wait.
I did several "surges" in the last two miles, and kicked strongly at the finish. I had more in the tank after. I just couldn't get into a groove I could hold onto where I was moving fast but comfortably.
I'm still not over this cold today. I'll do a 6 mile run tonight, but
I did nothing but rest yesterday.