RAD 10K Race Report

This year has been an interesting year.  When the year started I had some really high hopes and plans.  2011 was an amazing year for me racing wise.  I had two pretty successful 70.3 triathlons, I qualified for Boston, I won my age group in a marathon, and I completed my first Ultra. 2012 has been tough to say the least. Personally there has been a lot of change but race wise it has been very disappointing.  In January I started having IT band issues and then the first weekend in February I crashed my bike during training for the St. George Ironman.  Those two issues had me showing up on May 5th to do my first Ironman not in the best shape of my life.  I finished, but just barely.

This may sound like a lot of back story for a 10K race report but it is important to me. I feel like a failure this year which may sound absurd to you but it is how I honestly feel.  This 10K was the first running race I had trained specifically for.  I have never trained for a 10K but this one was significant because it is my entry back into running.  I want to be a good runner.  I want to be a (relatively) fast runner.  This race was my first entry back into structured running training and I am committed to get faster.  I used the FIRST training program and followed as best I can. I will admit I wasn’t great about following my plan like some people I know.  But I did all I could.  Anyway, enough excuses, how did it go….

I was lucky enough to get Quadrathon to pace me for the race and help me achieve my goal of a sub 50:00 10K. We parked near the finish and then ran a little over a mile to the start to find that the 10 miler that started before the 10K hadn’t started yet.  There was a potty emergency so they started the race late.  Which meant the 10K started late as well.  The course was very rolly but mostly downhill.  We tried to keep the pace consistent and the first three miles went by without incidence. The next three got a little bit tougher.  I did my best to just keep the pace up the hills and floor it down the hills.  The last 0.20 was  the hardest.  I ran as fast as I could (6:51 pace which is good for me!).  I really thought I might earn a pukey award!

When all was said and done I ran a 49:21, got 5/60 for my AG, and 8/268 for the women.  Not too shabby!  The best part of the day (besides having the best pacer money apple pie can buy) was meeting Lisa. She also got into the Boston Marathon and lives not too far from me so I am super excited for a long run partner!

From here I start training for the 13.1 Los Angeles half marathon January 13th and hopefully all will go well and I might get the PR I am looking for in Boston.  Regardless I am excited to focus on my running for the next couple months.  I really miss it.

2012 Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier Race Report

I was challenged by Leo, a friend on the Dailymile, to participate in the Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier 2 mile open water swim.  Since I don’t have anything major on my training plan right now it seem like a fun thing to do that I have never done before.  I have never raced more than 1500m in the ocean before and even though the swim in Ironman St. George was pretty intense, there is still something daunting about swimming 2 miles in the ocean.  So I gladly signed up and squeezed in one ocean swim prior to the event.

I had gone down the day before to pick up my stuff to make the morning a little bit easier.  So once we got to the beach it was pretty much just suit up and wait.  I put on my wetsuit (you can do it without…I don’t think so!) and got in the water to start acclimatizing to the water.  Temp was perfect and the conditions seemed great!

I lined up to start with Sheila, another Dailymile friend.  We started a little to the left since the first turn was to be on our right; I didn’t want to get swum over if we were too close to the buoy.  The course essentially is you start at Hermosa Pier and swim north to the Manhattan Pier.  It was a wave start with easily over 500 people in it.  It was one of the biggest starts I have ever done because we started on the beach which is much more difficult than an open water start with that many people.  After getting past the first buoy and hanging a right past the pier we were on our way.  It was very crowded but people were pretty courteous and not overly aggressive.  There was a lot of heads up swimming at first just because if you put your face in the water you had a really good chance of getting kicked in the face.

Once we were in clearer water and swimming North parallel to the coast it was just put your head down and swim. (Click here for the Garmin data)  I am a pretty straight swimmer so one of the biggest issues I had was those swimmers (you know those ones!) that weren’t.  I was swum upon a couple times by people that couldn’t keep their line super well.  Twice I had to stop swimming and get away from a couple that just really were too close (I am talking about you large man who bear-hugged me mid swim!).

I finally got a chance to use my fancy schmancy Garmin 910XT and had set it up to buzz me ever 100 yds.  I didn’t feel it buzz until about 10 minutes into the swim which doesn’t mean it wasn’t but just that I didn’t feel it.  Once I felt it, I used it as a good reminder that even if it didn’t feel like it, I was making forward progress. Later I would find out that my watch had me very short and I am not sure why.  I am just glad, in retrospect, that I didn’t look at it during the race because I would have been very disappointed.

At some point in the race I could finally see the pier ahead.  I tried not to look for it too often because it really takes time to make forward progress I the ocean so if you look too frequently you don’t feel like you are moving anywhere.  Instead I really used the paddle boarders who were lining the course to sight off of.  The provided an excellent way to stay on course and if you look at my Garmin data you will see my path was pretty straight.  Only problem with this method is that not ALL paddle boarders were lifeguards, some of them were paddling for friends, which made them a moving target. But they all kept me on course so that was great.

It wasn’t until the last 400 yards or so that I started to get tired.  I really struggled to not let people pass me during the last bit but I did finish strong and felt I had given it all I could.  I got out of the water and found my Sherpa and we waited to see how I faired against Leo and Sheila.  A couple minutes later Sheila came out and a few more minutes later so did Leo.

Overall I was THRILLED with this swim.  My goal had been to go under 1 hour but after the event I was very happy with my 1:02:14.  I was so spent by the end that I feel that I did all I could have.  Any harder earlier in the race and I would have pooped out even earlier.  And even though my splits are wrong per 100 yards, they are pretty consistent, which is what I strive to do in any race.

The day was a success, and in a year that hasn’t been as successful as I would have liked, I am very proud of my effort.  I don’t think I am interested in doing too many more swims like this again.  It is kind of boring to be honest.  I might be up for a 3 mile swim at some point just to do something longer than the Ironman distance.  But other than that, long OWS just isn’t for me.

Vineman 70.3 2012 Race Report

I had a big goal when I signed up for this race WAY back in November. I wanted to take off 25 min and go sub 5:10 to get a spot at the 70.3 championship in Vegas.   I put up a pretty decent time when I did Vineman in 2011 and I thought there was nowhere to go but up.  Boy was I wrong.  This year has been very humbling.

So here is how it all went…

I got up to the race location in Sonoma California by Thursday evening so that Friday I could pre-ride the course with  fellow Triathlete, Stuart, who was attempting his first 70.3 on his way to a full 140.6 in Arizona this fall.

Ride Recon

We set out Friday morning and drove the whole course as well as rode the two major hills (which aren’t all that major).  After a lunch break we scoped out the swim as well.  The river was warmer than last year but had the makings of a great swim!  Saturday was spent going to the expo for goodies and the race briefing, dropping off shoes in T2 (it is a point to point), prepping the last of the race gear to make the morning easier, and then trying to get a little rest!  My wave was 4^th so I would be starting just before 7:00 AM (last year I was 3^rd from last!).

Marked and ready… sort of.

Woke up at 4:30 AM, took care of the necessary business, and walked to T1 by 5:45 AM.  I didn’t have much time to waste so I got set up, met some other people I knew from the interwebs, and then got ready to race.  I am hoping I scored some good race karma because there was a girl in transition who forgot goggles.  I gave her my extra pair and she was VERY appreciative (even though she beat me out of the swim!).  The mood was really nice and I met some super nice ladies while we got ready to swim.

I lined up at the front of the swim because I am a strong swimmer so it only makes sense.  This was the only part of the race I thought I had a shot at doing well in so I really wanted to nail the swim.  Gun went off and so did I.  Only problem I had was a slightly leaky goggle but I refused to stop for it.  I just put my head down and swam. 32:46 later I was out of the water getting ready to hit the bike.  I had no idea of my time but when I found out later what I swam I was very pleased.  Last year I swam 31:35 so considering all that has happened and how under-trained I was going into this race I was VERY pleased with my swim.

I saw Stuart leaving transition before me so I knew that was the last I would most likely see of him for the day unless we crossed paths on the run (I can’t keep up with him on the bike).  I kind of dawdled in T1 and then got out of there.  The ride is beautiful; rollers with two little hills that are more annoying than anything.  I spent a lot of time aero and I had not rode my bike much before this race so I really started to tire around mile 30.  It really was just due to lack of training more than anything.  It was apparent, very early, that I would not be bettering my time on the bike from the year before which was a little disappointing.  3:22:48 and I was done.

I made my way through T2 but in no real hurry.  I knew this wasn’t going to be a big day so I just wanted to have fun and enjoy it.  Once I got to the run I knew it was going to take me some time to get through the 13.1 miles.  Because of that I stopped around mile 3 to pee and pretty much just ran from aid station  to aid station and walked thru them.  I took some extended walk breaks during miles 6-10 but then managed to run the last three miles in.  I did see Stuart once on the run which was nice.  The course kind of looped a little so it wasn’t guaranteed that I would see him.  2:34:56 later I was crossing the finish line, nowhere near close to my 1:51:10 from the year before.

Overall I did 6:42:05 compared to 5:32:25 from the year before.  I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed with my time.  But I am taking two positives away from the race.  One, I still had a great swim which really makes me happy.  And two, I ran pain free!! I miss running so much so to have a pain free run was very reassuring that I am on the path to running recovery!

It was AWESOME to see Stuart accomplish his first really big triathlon and I have NO doubts that he will hear his named called in the chute in Arizona in November.  I feel very lucky to be a part of that journey with him.

So what is next you might ask?  My next A race will be the Boston marathon in April of 2013.  I would really like to PR there and run under 3:30.  So my focus is going to shift back to running for the next 9 months.  I have a 10K in October, a half marathon in December then it is all about Boston!

Expo goodie for me!

Ironman St. George 2012 Race Report

Wow, where to start…  The race report is going to be brief because I don’t want to get into every little detail about the race but give you the highlights of the day.  If you have any specific questions, leave me a comment and I will gladly fill you in!

The last weather report we got for race day predicted a perfect day for the event.  Low to mid 80s and a slight wind.  That was not the case at all.  The swim started off fine.  I was worried about the mass start because I have never done that before.  I didn’t have too much trouble finding open water to swim in and didn’t get whacked around too bad.  We all has no idea what was coming our way.  The race was essentially a big rectangle with three 90 degree left turns.  When we made it to the first turn we were greeted with waves that were (IMHO) 2-4 feet high and coming at us from our left.  All I could think of was we had another left hand turn to make that would put us straight into the waves.  Once that happened all hell broke loose.  The kayaks couldn’t stay up, the buoys were pulled out of wack, and there were people everywhere.  I realized immediately that fighting through the waves was just going to wear me out so I relaxed and worked with them to just get the swim done.  I had to look up often because everybody was so spread out and the buoys were no where near straight.  Amazingly I made it out of the water in 1:33:03; rumor has it that over 200 others missed the cut off or were pulled from the water.

I got into the transition tent where the AMAZING volunteers got me situated to get on my bike.  I ran out, found my bike, made a few last minute adjustments and I was on my way.  As soon as we got out of the reservoir I realized the wind was blowing everywhere.  The bike loop consists of three parts; the ride back to town, then two loops that are fairly hilly.  If it hadn’t been for the wind the ride would have been fine; but the wind was so bad that the ride felt like 80 miles uphill!  I made it though the first loop and was re-energized by the descent back to start the second loop but as soon as I started the second loop I realized the wind hadn’t stopped.  At mile 70 I started to worry about making the cutoffs for the bike.  I hadn’t paid close attention to what they were because I hadn’t expected to ride so slowly (Average less that 13 mph for the whole ride!).  The first cut off I was in danger of missing was at mile 93ish after the really big hill affectionately know as “the Wall”.  I made it through that one with about 2 minutes to spare.  The next cut off was getting out of T2 by 5:30.  At this point I wanted to get pulled off my bike.  I couldn’t imagine how I was going to run after the day I had so far and I wanted to be pulled rather than quit.  I rode the last 10 miles in tears.  Amazingly I made it in and out with 90 seconds to spare!

As soon as I started running I was thanking my lucky stars that I hadn’t quit!  I felt great!  My legs were a little tired and my skin was hurting from the sun burn I had been getting all day but overall I knew I could finish the marathon and was going to be an Ironman by the end of the day.  I could have cared less about my time.  I just wanted to finish.  I met a guy, Chris, around mile 8 and we totally hit it off.  He was the perfect running partner for the race.  We chatted for the whole run (almost 5 hours together) and had a blast! I realized at this point that even though triathlon is an individual sport, when you get to the last group of runners together in an Ironman it becomes one big team; everybody was helping everybody to keep going.  We did our best to walk the ups and run the downs (something I learned from trail running).  The run is three loops which was cool because you had a great chance to see all your friends that were running; and if you were a spectator you could catch your family and friends very easily.  We did pretty well for the first two laps but we walked most of the last one.  We were both starting to fall apart a little by 10:30 (we had been moving since 7:00 AM).  As we got closer to the finish you could hear the crowd going crazy; Mike Riley was doing an awesome job MC’ing the finishers.  In just a few minutes he would be calling my name!!!  Chris and I wanted to finish together so we ran down the chute and enjoyed the glory.  Apparently the male pro winner, Ben Hoffman, put my medal on me; I had no idea at the time!

Overall the day was incredibly hard. I knew going into it that there would be a time during the race that I would want to quit and that was going to be part of the race.  It was how I would deal with that moment that would determine the out come of the day.  I am so glad my body wouldn’t let me quit and neither would anyone else out there.  The support on the course was beyond anything I have ever experienced before both from the volunteers and my friends.  The words “thank you” are not enough to express how thankful I am for the support I got on race day and leading up to the race.

I forgot to mention my times for the race and I think I will post later with more information but just so you know, I was the last finisher in my age group and I finished 1010 out of 1026 finishers…I have never been so happy to be last!

Here is the link to the bike data from my Garmin.  My battery died during the run.

I am an Ironman

I did it. Sorry to make it such a nail biter for those tracking it online. I will post more soon. Right now my skin hurts and I need a shower!

Desert Triathlon International Distance Race Report

First tri of the year and it didn’t go as well as last year…but I made it through.  Leading up to this race a few things didn’t go my way.  First my IT band started acting up and then I crashed during the Tour de Palm Springs Century so I really wasn’t sure what I would be capable of for this race.  I am not trying to have a pity party for myself but things have been a little bit tougher than usual lately…so on to the race.

I was a little worried about the swim because my ribs have been sore ever since the crash so I really wasn’t sure how the swim would go.  The water was a lot colder than I expected and that made it even harder to swim.  Once the race started I really took my time and tried hard not to pull too hard.  Once I hit a rhythm and made it around the first buoy things felt pretty manageable. I got myself out of the water and was happy to see the majority of the bikes still in transition.  After struggling to get out of my wet suit I was on my way to the bike.

The course is very flat and I had ridden it the day before so I knew I just had to go out and hammer it as best I could.  This was my first race on my tri/tt bike and I was very happy to just get aero and do my best.  Overall, the ride came and went without incident.  Only real problem is that once again I got passed a bunch right at the end!  I hate that!

I rolled into transition and got out pretty quickly.  I really like just grabbing all my stuff and running out of transition.  There is plenty of time to sort it out on the run.  First two miles went pretty well and then the IT band reminded me that it hasn’t been very happy lately.  I tightened the IT band strap and tried to run again.  I was able to run the rest of the run but no where near as fast as last year.

Here are the details from the race:

Swim 23:02

T1 3:31

Bike 1:18:02

T2 1:36

Run 53:57

Total 2:40:08

I am happy to make it through the race considering everything that has been going on lately.  Highlight of the day was meeting some of my Dailymile friends for the first time.  And overall, the race was really well run from the expo to the food after the race.  It is becoming one of my favorite races to do.

Tour de Palm Springs Century Race Report

I signed up for my first Century about a month ago.  I was going to do a century on Saturday then a half marathon on Sunday as a solid training weekend for Ironman St. George.  Well it didn’t go down exactly that way but there was still a lot of good that came from it.

I drove out to Palm Springs for the Tour de Palm Springs Century on Friday night in crazy heavy traffic (living in Los Angeles is a blessing and a curse).  I had already decided not to run on Sunday because I was having some IT band issues and I knew it would not be a fun or productive half marathon.  But I was still very much looking forward to completing my first 100 miles on my bike.  I was planning to ride with my friend Leo D. who I know from Dailymile.

We met in the hotel lobby and coasted downhill to the start.  The first 10-12 miles were crazy.  I have never ridden through such intense wind.  It was crazy to look forward and see the cyclists in front of you all riding at a 20 degree angle to avoid falling over.  I really wanted to take some pictures of the windmills (it was really cool) but it wasn’t safe to take your hand off the handle bars.  Once we got to a safe-ish spot we stopped and took a few pictures.

Once we got out of the wind the ride really picked up and was awesome.  We were just clicking off the miles and chit-chatting up a storm (Leo has been officially named my Century buddy).  Hit the first rest station and loaded up on some snacks and water and got back on the road.  We had an awesome stretch of some of the smoothest downhill I have ever ridden.  We just kept plugging away at the miles making or way from rest station to res station.  It was a great time!  I was actually kind of surprised how nice everyone was.  I kind expected a few more attitudes out there but it was such a great group of riders (around 11,000 I heard).

And here is where it gets exciting (not in a good way)…We are only a couple of miles from the finish and we have joined up with the riders from the other distances.  There are so many riders that were are taking up the width of a whole car lane and are pretty close to each other.  Everybody is excited to be almost done with the day and get off the bike and get some food and beer.  We are riding along when another cyclist  tries to ride in front of me and misjudges  and hit my front tire from the left.  BAM! I am down, hard on my left side.  I was going a long at just over 15 mph when it happened.  Apparently someone behind me ran over my bike tire and was thrown about 10-15 feet from me as well.  The other bikers were awesome!  They kind of made a protective circle around me till I could get it together and get out of the road.  I hit my elbow really hard and thought I had broken it for a moment.  There also was a giant dent in my shin; something I am not used to seeing everyday.

Once I got to the curb and realized that nothing was obviously broken I started trying to figure out what to do next.  Thank goodness Leo was there.  He was so helpful; he even offered to take pictures of me!  I was sending a  flurry of messages to my loved ones letting them know what happened and trying to figure out what to do next.  The police showed up and were very helpful getting the SAG car to us.  The guy who hit me did come back and I got his number.  I am not sure what the protocol is but I am hoping he will help me repair my bike but we will see (my first text has yet to be returned).

The SAG car took us all the way back to the hotel and gave me a bunch of first aide stuff (Andy, the SAG driver was awesome!!!).  Leo let me use his shower and he got me some food.  His wonderful family let me hang out with him until my parents could come help me drive home.  I had hit my head so hard that I cracked my helmet so a 3 hour drive on my own didn’t seem like the best idea.  I got home, took some Tylenol and went to sleep.  This morning I got up and went into urgent care just to make sure I hadn’t cracked any ribs and to get some pain meds that wouldn’t interfere with my scheduled surgery this week.

So even though it sounds like that day was a disaster, it was far from that.  I gained a lot of confidence on the ride.  I did 100 miles and really didn’t have any problems (except for the pesky crash at the end).  I fueled and drank well all day and feel pretty darn good today (minus the road rash and almost broken ribs).  I have enough time to recover from this.  It isn’t going to mess up my training plan that much.  As sick as it sounds, this was the best time to crash.  I just hope fixing the bike isn’t going to be too much!

Click here for all the Garmin deets.

Quick break to take a photo

Smiling at 50 miles in!

Smiling after my crash. And WTH is up with my helmet?

Loading up my bike onto the SAG car

13.1 Los Angeles Race Report

I was fortunate enough to be given an entry into the 2012 13.1 Los Angeles race and an entry to raffle from my blog.  I had heard good things about the race so I was excited to run this race.  Now, keep in mind I am in the middle of Ironman training and just coming off working on my form so I haven’t been doing much speed work.  I had no intentions of going for a PR.  I just wanted to go out and run a comfortable half marathon and enjoy the camaraderie of a race.  And that is exactly what I did!

Getting to the start was a little crazy since they had to funnel about 2800 people into a rather tight location but who wants to sit around waiting for a race to start anyway?  15 minutes before start time is just fine!  The race starts in Venice and you run right down the beach path where all the vendors set up shop.  We start early enough that there aren’t any tourists there so we had the boardwalk to ourselves.  Then you start winding through a bunch of places I am totally unfamiliar with but some of the names I heard were Marina del Ray and Playa del Ray.  My favorite part was running on Dockweiler Beach where I saw dolphins surfing in the waves!

One interesting observation of this route was I have never experienced so many different smells in a race.  There was pot in Venice, beach at Dockweiler, jet fuel as we ran under the take off pattern for LAX, and the worst one sewage as we ran by a treatment facility, TWICE!  The route was great, the scenery beautiful, but that sewage was something I have never experienced before!

View on the return, pretty awesome!

Now because I got to the start a little later that expected I actually had to make a pit stop during the race (something I don’t usually have to do). Every aid station had a couple of potties but I waited until I found one with no line.  All the aid stations were also stocked well with blue Powerade (but from a red berry, what is that all about?) which I really liked the flavor of and water of course.  They even had a ton of Cliff shots gels at one station.

So for my run…I was pretty consistent and essentially held an 8:30 pace and finished with a time around 1:53.  The finish line area was great; lots of space to spread out and stuff to look at and eat.  But because it was a gray kind of day I starting getting cold pretty quickly. So I hopped on the waiting shuttle and went back to the start.  Overall it was an awesome low stress kind of race.  I had a lot of expectations tied to my last couple races so it was awesome to run stress free and just enjoy the half marathon.  If my training schedule permits next year (and I think it should), I will be doing this event again for sure!

Santa Monica Mountains PCTR 50K Trail Run Race Report

Getting ready to start the day!

If you had told me 9 months ago that I would be an Ultra Runner one day I would have said you were crazy.  This was never something I was interested in.  Heck, I had never enjoyed running the trails until April of this year.  At that point the thought of doing an ultra was planted in my head.  I had a lot of races between then and the race day of November 20, 2011, so I could only get as much time on the trails as I could sneak in during my various training plans.  I figured my marathon training would help prepare me for the distance and I would do all I could to prepare for the terrain.

So the day was finally here to tackle a 50K.  I woke up extremely excited to do the race.  I knew the weather was gonna make things tough; rain was predicted for pretty much the whole day.  I wore my new #DoEpicShit shirt, a running rain jacket, my CW-X tights, and my Salomon XR Crossmax shoes and started off on my adventure.

This race is essentially 5 ups and downs, so I will give you a run down hill by hill.  The first hill is a counter clockwise loop kind of like a lolly-pop.  The views are breath taking and the terrain is very technical.  It is single track and some fire road with varying surfaces.  It can be kind of tricky (I actually fell on this the first time I ran it and almost broke my ribs).  Luckily my legs were fresh and I was excited.  This loop went by pretty smoothly but it did rain the whole time.  I had lots of nice conversation with the fellow runners (something I am not used to from triathlon), and the first loop was done!

I ran thru the first aide station and started on the second climb which takes you up and over a hill/mountain (whatever you call them) into a totally separate canyon.  The up was pretty much all single track.  I was still feeling good and ran most of this leg.  The conditions were getting worse and there was a lot of mud and puddles.  The down was mostly fire road which allows for easier passing (and being passed) but it made for some CRAZY mud! I tried to get out my camera to take a picture but I fell flat on my tush! It was a slippery mucky mess! Once I got myself up (thanks to the help of a nearby runner) I finished the descent and ran on to the aide station.  I needed to refuel big time! The spread was awesome! Payday bars, pumpkin pie, beef jerky and coke was what I ate!  It all hit the spot!  After the snack and some Advil I was on my way.

Luckily the rain was still coming down so all the mud on me started to wash away.  The next climb was a killer.  My back was tightening up and my hip/glute was not happy.  This was the my lowest point in the whole race. The climb just felt like it went on forEVAH and I did very little running.  All I tried to do was keep moving forward, purposeful walking I call it. Luckily after every 3 mile climb there was a steady descent to enjoy.  The trail was getting muddier and muddier so some parts of the descent were not runnable for me.  I didn’t feel like falling on my a$$ again!

Got to the bottom and ran by the start/finish but really had no desire to quit.  I knew I could do this but there was no way I was going to make my goal time of 6 hours.  I hit the aide station for a few more snacks and continued on to the first loop again.  I remember saying to myself, “How did I run up this before?”  A voice inside my head answered “That was almost 4 hours ago! That is how!”  Lots of purposeful walking and some very cold and deep puddles and I made it to the top.  There is a really nice pretty flat section at this point.  I was amazed that my body just kept running!  It wasn’t going fast but it was going!  I made it to the descent,  got back to the start/finish, and quickly set off for the final hill.

I didn’t waste much time at this point to get moving.  I was starting the last 9KM out-and-back and I was at 6 hours (the time I had been hoping to finish in).  I couldn’t do much running up but I just kept moving forward.  That was all I could do.  The clouds had broken over the ocean and the views were amazing.  The pictures from my camera don’t do it justice (mostley because water leaked in my lens!).  At this point it was just about getting it done.  Get up, Get down, and get out of there!  The descent was pretty slick in parts but amazingly I was still pretty comfortable running downhill.

Just a little bit of the mud. Nice toe nail!

I made it to the finish around 7:35!  Not the most exciting of race finishes and honestly I was a little disappointed with my time at that moment.  I grabbed a banana, headed back to may car where I took off all my muddy and wet clothes (which were all of them).  If I flashed you on the side of PCH either sorry or you’re welcome!  Drank a chocolate Honeymilk and made my way home!  I stopped for some soup, nachos, and coffee and then finally washed the rest of the mud off me!

In hindsight, what I did was pretty amazing.  Not many people can say they ran 31 miles with well over 5000 ft of climbing, especially in those conditions.  Not only that, but I never turned my music on, not once.  The fact that I did 7.5 hours continuously and with NO music was a big boost to my confidence for Ironman training.

I had said that I had no desire to do another Ultra anytime soon and honestly there is no time in my schedule to really train for one specifically (but you  know I already am planning on how to crush my time!).

The views were amazing! I ran up from sea level to here!

I had trouble with the self portrait, I didn't want to fall off the cliff!

Water in the lens kind of messed this one up.

Here is some video of the event done by Billy (@larunr)

2011 Santa Clarita Marathon Race Report

4th OA women, 1st in my age group!

In 2006 the Santa Clarita Half Marathon was the first race I ever ran.  After that experience I started to fall in love with running and have been continuously racing marathons, half marathons and triathlons.  So this year I signed up for the full marathon in Santa Clarita as a back up race if I was unable to Boston Qualify in Portland.  Luckily I did BQ in Portland so this race became a training run for an upcoming 50K as well as a practice in race execution and recovery.

Kwicky Blade-Light Runs laced and ready to go! (Marathon # 2 in this pair!)

I got up race morning, had trouble getting any solid food down but I had an Herbalife shake and some coffee so I wasn’t going into it with a totally empty stomach.  The race start was cold and rainy but that has always worked well for me so I was happy to get started.  My plan was to go out easy and try to get faster as the race went on.  Well as usual I went out too fast but my legs felt so good.

Around Mile 7 I met a really nice guy, Iyob, who I ended up running the next 10 miles with.  Iyob really helped get me through the middle miles because we were talking the whole time(about running of course).  When we got to mile 13-14ish and we ran through the aid station I found out I was the 4th women overall so far!  At this point I started to focus on not letting anyone pass me and hopefully catch one of the other women.

But as the run went on I started to hit the wall hard at 18.  My hips and knees were getting angrier and angrier as I ran on.  Another runner who had been following for awhile caught up and tried to help push me along, but I was fading.  I just tried to stay on top of my nutrition and NOT walk no matter what! 22 until the end were terribly painful.  About a half mile  before the finish I saw my first ever running partner and burst into tears, but I kept running.

I finished the race and found all the people I had been friend-ed by on the run.  We had a big group hug and got strangers to take our pictures.  It was the friendliest race I have ever run.  Not only that, it had the cutest and sweetest kids at every aid station.  I hobbled to my car, put on some dry clothes, and hobbled back to see how I did.  I was thrilled to see I had come in 4th women over all and 1st in my age group with a time of 3:46:04! I made the leaderboard;  I had never done that before!!

So back to my original plan for the race, I totally failed at the pacing plan.  I went out too fast and died the last 6 miles.  But I was much more successful with my recovery this time.  I ate well, often, and very soon after the race.  I also went home and soaked my legs in a very cold swimming pool and then wrapped my knees with Arctic Ease wrap.  Instead of curling up in bed I kept moving; this was the best thing I could have done.  It is two days since the marathon and I am barely sore!  Which is a good thing because I have a 50K in less than 2 weeks!

Click here to see all the Garmin Details…