San Francisco Marathon

Signed up for my forth race of the year. The 2011 San Francisco Marathon on July 31, 2011. Actually signed up for the race a month ago but finally got around to firming up travel plans now that we have a much better feel for the little ones awake/sleeping/feeding schedule.

As for why I signed up for this race specifically, I knew I was heading back home to visit family and friends at some point this summer. Figured planning travel around some type of race would be fun. At the end of the day, I thought it would be cool to run a marathon in a city I've called home for such a long time.

It's funny looking at the race course map. I can pretty much visualize every step of the course even though I've never run the race. Tell you what, this race course would be a tough one to PR. Miles 5 thru 19 will offer some healthy climbs. The plus side is the sea level elevation and easy ride in after mile 19 (assuming hobos don't attack you along The Haight and in The Mission).

As for personal goals, I'm going into this race without tapering and hoping not much time is needed to recover. My July and August is quickly filling up with lots of fun times being spent in the high country and I have no intent of this little race impacting those plans. So the camera will be in tote and eyes open for a bar willing to aid a thirsty runner.

It's an early start (5am) on a day I'm pretty sure will be socked in with heaps of fog (a summer time norm in The City). Now I can only hope my daughter forgoes her nap so she can see daddy cross the finish line.

2011 Golden Gate Dirty Thirty

After four attempts at an ultra distance, I finally put together a race I can say I'm extremely happy with. By no means the fastest time out there, but I couldn't be more excited about the way the race unfolded for me.

Simply put the Dirty Thirty is a must do. Awesome course, great volunteers and just a well put together trail race.

Going into the race I had no idea what to expect. Would a goal of averaging 5 miles an hour for the duration be possible? Probably not with just under 8'000 feet of up and down. How about running steady for 4 hours and hanging on for dear life over the next 3 hours with the hope of finishing under 7 hours? Yeah, that sounded much more reasonable.

Aid Station #1 - 5.4 Miles, 54 minutes 48 seconds:
I started out slow and just stuck with the surrounding group. There were chunks of walking on the runnable hills and I was fine with that. Beautiful sunrise on some great single track. More importantly, not much effort made to get to Aid #1.

Aid Station #2 - 6.8 Miles, 1 Hour 25 minutes 25 seconds:
A mile out of Aid #1, all I could think about was taking a dump. Do I go in the woods? Do I hope to cross a camp site with some facilities? Luckily I came across a camp site. Unlikely there was a line. A line of 6 cub scout aged Korean kids. And no, I didn't feel bad for cutting them to get in the can. About a mile later I ran off course following someone. Lost time between the two events was easily 8 to 10 minutes. Oh well.

A bigger deal to me was how bad I felt. The flats and downhill just felt laboured and slow and I was getting smoked by others. Oddly though the uphill grind was something that didn't bother me one bit and allowed me to keep those cruising by me close. Mentally I was great but the thought of struggling thru another race started creeping into my head. Getting into Aid #2 felt like it took forever and for a moment wondered if breaking 7 hours would even be possible.

(Probably feeling my worst of the day heading to Aid #2. Thanks to MR2 for the pic)

Aid Station #3 - 16.9 Miles In, 1 Hour 9 minutes 33 seconds:
A steep climb greets you as you leave Aid #2. Then some downhill, rollers and another technical climb. It was during this second climb that things just felt different.

Nothing hurt, nothing felt laboured. 15 or so miles in and I was feeling great for the first time. Couldn't be possible. Was staying on top of fuel and hydration paying off? Or was it all the training I've put in year to date?

(Approaching Aid #3 excited about more miles in front of me. Great Pics by WA)

Aid Station #4 - 23.3 Miles In, 1 Hour 20 Minutes 32 Seconds:
Leaving Aid #3 starts out with a hot climb for a few miles and I was extremely pumped about this. There were easily a dozen plus folks who I had been running off and on with for the past 10 miles and I wanted to drop each one of them. I ran pretty much all the climb and pushing the pace even harder as I passed someone. I wouldn't see anyone one of those folks again.

I was feeling great and wondering if I could push it more, or should I just keep the new found stronger pace and not risk blowing up. About mile 20 I caught up to some gal who's conversation and positive energy I was really enjoying (gal in the red shorts who appears in Woody's pic portfolio). So without thinking about it, I stuck with her and had an extremely pleasant running partner for 3 to 4 miles as we passed another half a dozen folks.

Aid Station #5 - 28.5 Miles In, No split but I had a cum time of 5 Hours 58 Minutes at mile 29.9:
As I approached Aid #4, one guy I had literally just passed blew straight thru the aid station. I spent a few minutes loading up/chatting and once I started running again I noticed the guy had built an easy quarter mile lead on me. Not sure why but stepping up the pace even more felt like the right thing to do. Within a minute of the uphill I was caught up to him and at that point I pressed hard uphill for the next 5 minutes. Didn't see him again till the descent off Windy Peak and by then I had a mile plus lead on him. Now that felt satisfying.

The climb up to Windy was long and steep at times. I mixed in a good amount of running and powering hiking up to the high point. During the out and back section, I counted how many folks were heading down. Counted 7 and had that number as the amount of folks I wanted to pass till the finish. Once on the downhill and all the way to the finish, I easily ran my fastest and hardest of the day. Just cruising like I was on some type of tempo run. Passing 5 of the 7 folks just mentioned. I felt great here running everything hard except that last steep bitch leading to mile 29.9.

34th Place with a time of 6 Hours 10 Minutes and 9 Seconds:
Don't know my splits but pretty sure I ran a much faster second half of the race by a good 40 minutes or so. Threw down like 10 gels, 3 salt caps, a good 20 to 30 ounces of water between aid stations and a cup of soda at each of the last 3 aid stations. Never once did I feel a bonk or have a low point during the race.

Outside of the lethargic type of running early on, the only real issues I dealt with most of the race was whether I could have pushed it harder once I started feeling good. Good issues to have.

(Approaching the finish. Note the ladies on the right loving my style. Pic from WA.)

Afterwards:
I felt great upon finishing. Felt like I could have ran for a lot longer. Grabbed some food and enjoyed meeting/hanging out with of so many fine folks. Kieran and Brandon whom I rode up with. BFish, GZ, JT (thanks for the beer, for farting in my face and lying to me about breaking 6 hours), WA, MR2, NPedatella, NClark and like always, so many others whos name I didn't catch.

Sunday woke up a bit fatigued but no signs of muscle tightness or soreness. I went out for an easy 7 mile run around the hood and felt great. Pleasently shocked in all honesty. Really excited about summer time and using this postive race experience as a building block as Steamboat approaches.

May 2011 Summary

Runs - 23
Workouts - 2
Injured - 0

The Bad:

Outside of not getting in as many miles as I'd ideally like, I can't complain about a damn thing over the course of the past month.

The Good:

Running - It wasn't so much about the quantity of runs this month but rather my mind set surrounding these runs. I started out the month mentally done. As the days went by, the work hours became not nearly as crazy, the grandmothers no longer baby sitting and the wife being done with school, my mental state of mind came back to a place I liked for it to be. A mind set of feeling refreshed and excited about what the day was about to bring. I was as mentally strong during the last few weeks of the month as I had been before life got crazy in April.

Gym - Also very excited about getting back to the gym. Those two times I made it to the gym don't sound like much but the hour long sessions left the muscles surrounding the fracture tight for days. Mix in some good yard work on the weekends and my left forearm was left sore most days of the month. It's going to be a slow recovery to get back into gym shape but a challenge I'm looking forward to taking on.

Family - Taking a family (myself, wife and baby) road trip over Memorial day weekend. The first of what I anticipate to be many roadies. Now the trip wasn't anything long (8 total hours of the day), nor was it far away (under 400 miles round trip), much less to an exciting place,



but I so enjoy these types of trips and it was pure joy to share them with the family.

Looking Forward:

Well tomorrow morning is the Golden Gate Dirty Thirty. No way am I in any position to push it hard for that long of a distance. Regardless I'm going to make it an honest effort and see if a sub 7 hour time is possible.

As for the rest of the month, a combo of work hopefully being calm and the wife no longer having to work during the summer break should make for a very productive running month. Something I seriously need as Steamboat approaches in 3 plus months.

Run to Work Day

With work a lot less hectic lately, today was a perfect day to run to work and back home. Stats are:

Home to Work - 1 Hour 43 Minutes, 13.1 Miles, 7:55 Pace
Work to Home - 1 Hour 44 Minutes, 13.7 Miles, 7:37 Pace
Total Commute - 3 Hours 27 Minutes, 26.8 Miles, 7:46 Pace

Morning started out really early. 5:00am specifically. Started out very slow, very easy and very tired. Honestly couldn't recall the first hour of the run. Thankfully a quick stop to visit the can at a DTC gas station woke me up and got me moving a lot quicker the last few miles in. The morning session went by so easily and left me looking forward to the return trip.



Now the toughest part of today's runs aren't the runs itself but the down time between runs. During my 9 hour work day, I struggled with being sleepy and muscles getting tight. Lots of liquid, a smart diet and random walks around the office helped as the work day came to an end at 4pm.

Lucky for me, showers and winds were held in check and blue skies greeted me as I started my journey back home. While not delicious singletrack, I'll take a detour thru the Cherry Creek State Park over pavement any day.



Once within the heart of the DTC, I hit damn near every light while crossing an intersection. A good 7 to 8 minutes ticked by on my watch as I stood and waited patiently for a green light go. After crossing I-25, it was non-stop running all the way home. These shoes, while awful looking, held up great all day. So damn comfortable.



Not sure how beneficial this run is for the upcoming Dirty Thirty. Regardless I was on my feet running for a good amount of time. More important, my fuel and hydration intake were on point. At the end of my run, I had more energy then at any other time of the day. The last handful of miles were easily my fastest of the day. All good signs as the summer months come knocking.

Collegiate Peaks 25 - A mental kick in the...

Before I get into any details surrounding the race, I've got to hand to all those who help make this race happen. From my perspective, the event ran flawlessly and the volunteers out there were awesome.

What this race lacks in single track, huge climbs and alpine terrain easily makes up for with stunning views of a snow capped Mt Princeton and a constant up and down course. I've run more difficult courses, but this course has variety of terrain that is thrown at you for most of the day. Just a fun course to run on and I had blast out there.

Within 15 minutes of arriving to the start line, I got the pleasure of catching up with WA and from there I bumped into, was introduced to or chatted with so many fine people. That list includes, Todd G, Brian F, Darcy A, Leila D, GZ, JT, MH, and numerous others whose names I have unfortunately forgotten but made the day that much more enjoyable.

As for the race, well let's just say mentally I wasn't all that into it.

I love keeping my life simple. However you mix 4 weeks of in-laws living with us, 12 to 16 hour work shifts for weeks at a time and it's impact on family time and training and well....I'm pretty much left mentally deflated come race day.

Departed Denver Friday afternoon with my mom tagging along for the road trip. While she's visited me a few times over the years, she's never been to the mountains and I thought this would be a nice distraction for her as she's spent the past week locked up in the house baby sitting. Arrived to Buena in time to pick up race pack and check into the Thunder Lodge. Not the nicest place in town but with a kitchenette and a respectable nightly fee, it really couldn't be beat.

Saturday morning I was awake early and ran to the start line from the lodge. It was only a mile plus away and wasn't about to make my mom walk that distance. Even at 5:30am, the temps in the Arkansas Valley were comfortable. My pace was a shuffle at 9:30 minute pace and right off the bat I could tell two things: 1) My body felt great and 2) I had no interest in racing. So I quickly got my mind set that today would be a nice slow long run in which I enjoyed every facet of race day without actually racing.

The first few miles of the race were chilly but them sun rays wasted no time warming you up once they broke thru. The first 15 miles of the race just cruised by. Conversation with many and the accompanying views were simply fantastic. The pace very comfortable. Hydration and fueling were extremely solid.

Then the #3 aid station at Mile 15 came along. I was chugging my water bottle and didn't bother to stop for a refill. I remember running thru not really caring even though I knew the last big climb of the day was in front of me.

I got to the base of the last climb with no water and at that point I simply didn't have the drive to push myself like I normally do during races. I walked, maybe half?, of the hill for no real reason. I ran portions of the climb but then I would stop just for the hell of it. I had the energy to run but just didn't care too. Remember getting to Aid #4 around mile 19, grabbing a handful of chips and a few gulps of water and ran off. My bottle still empty.

I proceeded to walk small bits of the downhill and bigger portions of the flat. Got to Aid #5 and jogged right thru it. Still no water refill.

Couldn't tell you a damn thing about the last few miles other then all dozen or so 50 mile folks looking fantastic on the return trip. A few years ago, I bumped into one 50 miler before finishing. At the bridge just before the finish and that was AK.

Finish line came and went at something like 4 hours 4 minutes and the effects of not drinking water over the past hour plus had hit me hard and put me in a nice state of dehydration. Rest of the body felt fine. Figured that would be the case with all that walking and comfortable paced running.

(The finish/turn-around area that was so confusing to folks)

I have to say it's very hard for me to be disappointed about the time and effort posted on Saturday. Life has simply been hectic and I've done my best in balancing all things important to me over the past month. I could have easily said the hell with this race and stayed home but to me that would have been the true disappointment.

April 2011 Summary

Sometimes life just gets in the way of running and the latter part of this month was a perfect example of that.

Runs - 25
Workouts - 0
Injured - 0

The Bad: The wife going back to work, the mother-in-law moving in to help out with the little one and myself working back to back 75 plus hour work weeks. When you're working as much as I was over the past few weeks, there ain't much time left to run, sleep well and spend time with family.

Early this month I got the thumbs up to start working out again. At that time, I had been away from pushing weights for 2 months. Well you can make that 3 months now. Some folks get better at running by running more. I become a better runner when I run more and lift weights. Something about the balance between the two just works well for me.

The Good: I did have the first 10 days of the month working for me. Averaging something like 9.7 miles a day during that stretch. I also got in every scheduled long run leading up to Collegiate Peaks. So I got that working for me.

Looking Forward: One of the positives to take out of the brutal stretch at the end of April is that I can consider this span as an extreme taper with the CP25 just around the corner. In all honesty, I can't say I'm overly confident as I enter the race. I've always read "trust your training" and my training for the past few months has been strong and consistent. However I live by the line "what have you done for me lately?" And as far as I'm concerned, I have done squat over the past few weeks to justify a strong showing down in Buena Vista.

I did purchase Relentless Forward Progress last week. Went back and forth regarding the puchase, but for $10 via Amazon, it was easy to justify. Pretty much done with the book. Easy read, interesting topics but not really sharing stuff I didn't already know. But I'll say it's nice to have a reference manual like this in a small book that I can keep stashed with my other running mags next to the can in the bathroom.

Did stumble across this new race in Moab. Sounds very interesting but the timing of it is pretty bad for me as it's weeks after Steamboat. Single loop routes for the 50M and 100M is pretty cool and being out in Moab in early October usually offers up some fantastic weather. Rarely too hot or too cold. Will seriously consider the 50M if I'm able to string together a strong summer training pattern.

Last Week Was A Good Week

I never post anything regarding my weekly training as I feel I rarely do anything noteworthy. However the past week (April 10th thru the 16th) gave me a few reasons to be happy as we roll into the beautiful days of spring here in Colorado.

Wednesday the 13th marked my 4th visit and 4th x-ray over the past two months at the Hand Surgery Associates within Porter Medical Plaza. Visit number 2 ended with possibilities of a pin or two being inserted into my fractured left radial bone. Visit number 4 went much better. Dr. Sachar was extremely happy with the latest evaluation. The fracture was now healed and outside of some lingering swelling that'll be around for another month plus, I was good to go. No more visits needed, no more x-rays needed. It's been two months since my fracture occurred and I'm so happy to close the book on this story.

Training for the week also went just as well. Right now, having no weekly game plan is the best plan I can have. Outside of my long run on Saturday, I try to be as flexible as possible. If I can run, then great. If I can't, then there's a damn good reason why I can't get after it. This past week offered up 7 straight days of running. The stats are:

Miles - 67+
Time - 9 Hours 45 Minutes
Vert - 5,200 Feet

All this highlighted by Saturdays long run on Mt. Falcon. 23 miles in 3 hours 58 minutes. One of my favorite views below showing off peaks such as Bergen, Squaw and of course Evans.



Highlight of the run came after the initial climb and knocking out those 2 one mile long out/back spur trails near the shelter. I bumped into an old friend Julie and her two Aussie dogs. I've known Julie for 5 years now and we spent the next hour plus running together and catching up. Running can be so easy when done among friends.

I knocked out Mt. Falcon v1 in a very comfortable 2 1/2 hours. v1 is all physical. Heading up the east face a second time is all mental. First climb came in around 33/34 minutes. Climb two around 37 minutes. I proceeded on to the western lot of the park and returned pretty much the same way I came up with a slight change thru the upper valley. Felt good the whole day and for a second wondered if I was capable of knocking out a Mt. Falcon v2. And if so how long would it take. Regardless that would be a brutal second loop.

On the way home I stopped off at Morgan Liquors near home. To my delight I saw this in a can which further proved spring is finally here.



Ska's Mexican Logger which was likely canned within the past few weeks. Now I'm an IPA fan till the day I die, but the Mexi Log is damn tasty. Especially after 23 miles on them Mt. Falcon trails.