Surf City 10K - now that was fun!

After two years of a static 10K PR, I finally have a new number on record, and while I hate to focus on numbers, numbers, numbers, it feels pretty good to shave over a minute off my old time.  Woo-hoo!  There is also this worry in brain that, at age 41, I will soon lose the ability to set new PRs.  I'm sure the day will come, but it's really nice to know that it is not today!

After my failed attempt at a final triathlon in October, I decided that I should at least end the year's "racing" season with a good 10K.  I first ran the Surf City (aka Huntington Beach) run 3 years ago, as I was coming back to running and when it was a 5 mile run.  Then, two years a go, I managed to hit a new 10K PR.  Not a shocker there since it is a flat and fast course, but I still remember that my overall time totally surprised me.  So, I'd been fairly content to let it sit as my PR until this year when I had a few decent 10K runs but never felt that I really went "all out".  So, that was kind of my goal for this race.

With that in mind, I was actually more nervous than I would be on a typical race day, so when we drove south this early morning and hit fog, I started to freak out just a little.  Fortunately, we arrived with a decent cushion for me - 30 minutes to pick up the packet and take care of other business.  It was a perfect morning to run, temps in the 60's and cloudy but not rainy.  When I picked up my packet, I was much relieved that I had selected a unisex t-shirt because the women's specific was HOT PINK.   I do not wear hot pink.  I realize that the pink ribbon shows support for cancer victims and understand that, but pink is not my thing, and hot pink is definitely not my thing.  I would have given it away immediately.  Instead, I have a really obnoxious yellow shirt - think gatorade yellow on steroids.

Anyway, the race?  Well, I hoped to make one more pit stop before the race, but as 7:30 approached, I nixed that idea and lined up, placing myself quite near the front.  While it's a super fast course, it's not huge and doesn't seem to appeal to tons of super crazy competitive types, so the start is pretty calm and people seem to stand back from the timing mat.  Right around 7:30, they announced "On your mark, get set, go!" and we took off.  I thought that I had started my Garmin but then about half a mile into the race I saw that it was still on 00:00.  Nice.  So, I ended up starting the Garmin at mile 1 so that I would at least know my splits for the next 5 miles.  The race was fairly uneventful - flat, flat, flat and it felt fast.  I held really consistent splits, pretty much at 7:30 the entire way, although according to the Garmin I had a few faster splits.  But it also said that I ran longer than 6.2 (or 5.2, since that was my marker) - so who knows.  I am, however, always amazed at how people must not do hill training - there was one teeny hill and then an incline during the second half of the race, and people definitely slowed down quite a bit.  Why go out fast and not hold your pace?  I will never understand that, but then again, I'm the queen of starting slow and finishing faster.  Whatever works for you, I guess?  I did have enough in the tank to push it at the end - at mile 4.5, I passed one woman, but told myself to not be too greedy and go too hard too soon, although I knew that she wouldn't catch me (based on her breathing, which was way too heavy, she wasn't speeding up).  I thought that I crossed the finish line right around at 47:00 but was looking at the 10 mile start.  So, the official time gave me sub 47 which was my goal going into the race - nice!  Not sure if I gave it absolutely everything I could, but it was great to feel that I'd accomplished something before 9:00 am on a Sunday morning!

Not an awesome race for photos, but that's okay - I like that I appear to be flying in the first one!  Although my shoulders/arms - what am I doing there?  Michael took that photo as he was wrangling the dogs from eating vomit that was on the sidewalk.  Amazing that he got a photo at all.

Oh, and the other weird thing about the race - I swear I smelled pot (the MJ) when I was around mile 4.  If it were Venice Beach, I would expect that, but I was somewhat surprised.  Maybe it was just wishful thinking/smelling?  As for the medal - it's a wooden surf board which is kind of fun and sort of fits in with the pot smell!

The icing on the cake, sort of, is that I ended up 2nd in my age group - which makes me laugh because it was the same as last time, even though I've moved up an age group.  I briefly wanted to stay for the awards ceremony, since I've never received anything at a race, but my impatience got the best of me and we left before they started giving away medals and other prizes.  I figured that I already had my medal and my PR, so what more did I really need?

DNS - Ojai Half

This weekend feels a bit bittersweet - classes ended on Thursday, although it is a false ending, in the sense that there are many other moments that mark the official "end" of the year.  I hoped to head to the lovely town of Ojai, where we have never been in our years of living in Southern CA, and run the Mountains-to-Beach half-marathon this morning.  Since I'm writing this post at 8:00 am, you can be assured that I did not run a 30 minute half-marathon or complete any other superhuman feat.  I did cook up some great pancakes, but that's about it this morning.

After Wildflower, I took it really easy for one week and then returned to physical activity, but I did not feel very confident that a half-marathon would do much for my left calf.  It was a mild strain, but I was nervous about a race with considerable elevation loss in which I would absolutely want to push it.  Nor did I want to spend part of much of the race walking.  I realize that some people don't mind the walk/run method, and I've spent plenty of time walking up steep hills in a race, but for this race, such a technique did not appeal at all.

The good news about not focusing on the Ojai half after Wildflower is that I have spent a decent amount of time in the pool (not great, but decent) and I'm back on the bike!  Most of my riding this month has been in the form of traveling to and from school a few times.  Not a lot, mind you, but it felt great to bike to work, seeing the bike as a form of transportation rather than recreation or fitness.  Eventually, I would like to transform my old road bike into a commuting bike - not a major transformation, but at least get the right pedals!

But, back to the Did-Not-Start designation.  I don't have too many of those, mainly because I try to be fairly prudent with race registrations, and if the circumstances were different, it would be a much more bitter pill to swallow, for instance, if I wanted this to be my "it" race.  Instead, I have questioned why I even signed up for the race.  "It seemed like a good idea at the time" does not quite justify the fee, but it actually sounds better than "I really wanted a new PR", which is probably closer to the truth.  I've been running well this spring and thought that I could boast a faster time, especially on this course.  Perhaps the main regret is that it would have been a fun way to see Ojai, and Michael and I planned to take the dogs up to Ventura on Saturday and enjoy a weekend with them!

There will be other opportunities to do that, and to eventually get that 13.1 PR.  Maybe!

November!

Am I the only person who is pretty damn excited that it's November?  Is it terrible that one of the reasons that I'm so looking forward to the month is due to a long weekend (Veteran's Day weekend - we have an in-service that is pretty creative this year) and, of course, Thanksgiving.  While we love traveling and visiting family and friends and all that this entails, we have zero plans for Thanksgiving weekend, and I cannot say how appealing that is to me.  Lame?  Maybe, but also indicative of my need for a total break.

November 1st, yesterday, came and went with two notable items for me.  First of all, I finished 18 student recommendations, a record for me.  Shew!  Most of the recommendations were quite good, some were even excellent, but a few were probably weaker than they would have been if I had been able to take a day or two more with them.  I know that I nailed some of them, but I do wish that I'd had a day or two more for the final 3-4 letters.

The second item of note is that I signed up for this event:

So excited about Vineman!  It's crazy that I signed up for a race that is in mid-July.  Even crazier that it sold out yesterday - the first day that registration opened.  After many conversations about 2013 with myself and with Michael ("I want to do an Ironman, I can't do an Ironman, it would be great to do an Ironman next year, this is a ridiculous idea for about a thousand reasons but I can think of a one or two great reasons...."), I - we - decided that such a goal was not a viable option.   So, I've set my sights on two long-course races.  I'm waiting to sign up for the other one, but my impatience got the best of me for Vineman.  Turns out, that was a good thing!  

As for the "why" - well, a lot of it has to do with timing.  At the moment, I plan to head south to Nicaragua again in August and while I loved my experience at the Boulder 70.3, I don't want that race to cut into the Nicaragua trip.  I will, however, still have time once summer break starts to both ramp up my training AND taper before the race in mid-July.  Also, Vineman seems like it will be a great venue. California wine country - why not?!  And the course sounds great.  

I can't wait for July, but in the meantime, I'm focusing on my trail race November 18th.  I pushed myself in October to run longer (and slower).  This definitely isn't marathon training and makes me realize that tackling 26.2 would be rough (and I have no idea how I did it so many years ago) as  I find that setting out on the double digit runs is daunting for me!  I maxed out at a 13.5 mile long run two weeks ago, and I plan on a 15 or so mile run tomorrow.  I'm excited and nervous about it and am trying to remember what a friend said -  think about it as a fast hike. 

So, fast hiking, here I come!

Peer pressure

One would assume that a person who is an adult, at least by most of society's standards, would be comfortable and confident in his/her decision-making capacity and would be immune to the influence of his/her peers.  That if, this person is signing up for a race and believes that the 30K would be fun but way too long and challenging (3,000+ feet of elevation gain), he/she would trust his/her better judgment and would go with the 19K (or 18K or whatever it is).  That this person would not succumb to people telling her "Oh, come on!  It's not that much more elevation that the Mt. Wilson run!  You can do the 30K!".  And she would not go home, after drinking margaritas, and sign up for the 30K.

But that is exactly what went down last weekend.  In my shame I didn't want to report on this until I fully wrapped my head around the fact that I just might get my ass kicked on November 18 at the Santa Monica Mountains Pacific Coast Trail Run (long title!).  I do think that it will be a gorgeous run, and I'm excited and nervous about the challenge of a 30k.  This will be the longest run since my 1996 (yes, I'm old) Philly marathon.  So, the plan for the next few weeks is to run at least three times a week (which isn't much for some people, but I've slacked off since August) and build up my long runs, incorporating plenty of hills and focusing on long, slow distance.

As for the 30K, I actually had been knocking around that idea, so I can't abdicate any responsibility, as much as I'd like to point the finger elsewhere.  In fact, a week before signing up for the race, I hit "reply all" when someone inquired about different people's interest in the Santa Monica run and said that I was in for the 30K.  I did not, however, realize to how many people I replied until several people at school came up and said "The 30K?!?!".  So, the seed had been planted well before a friend reasoned with me about the elevation issue.

As much as I'm nervous about the distance and the elevation and the challenge of a trail run, I also think that it will be great.  This is the only fall race for which I'm gearing up, which is a change from the last two years when I ran lots of different distances (5k, 10k, 20k, even a half-marathon) and focused on speed, to a certain degree.  I'll be happy with a good strong race in a beautiful setting and running a new and more challenging distance, for me.

Training started this past week, and my first long run in a while will be this coming Saturday.  At that point, I can decide if the decision was foolish or not!