So, you've seen me gushing the past few weeks or so about my daughter, who elected to spend her Spring Break with me (her brother opted for Spring Break at his grandmother's - she has these wonderful things called cable, buying him anything he wants, the beach (with warmer water than I have here), and lax bedtime rules. I, OTOH, pretty much have none of that stuff and its pretty tough to compete with an 11 year old, especially on the cable and lax rules. But I think he had a fine time, and, besides, he gets to spend *all* of July here, and July is not that far off...
Meredith and I ran her first 5K together on 4/23 called The Resurrection Run. Its run by a local church that donates the proceeds to an orphanage somewhere in Africa. Meredith has been showing interest for quite some time in running - she seems pretty good at it, has some stamina, and sometimes it appears that she is floating above the grass rather than running to me. Anyway, when I suggested that we see if there was a race available to run while she was here, it was fortunate that this easy flat course in the River Park neighborhood here was available, and given that this race wasn't run by one of the larger local race organizations, I hoped that the field would be small, relaxed, and not too competitive - and I was pretty much on target.
I urged her to start training a little over six weeks before the race. Her stepfather is a decent sprint triathlete who has won his AG in a small race before, and he has a treadmill at his house in CT... being a parent with two boys himself and crappy weather about six months of the year, if he's going to get a run in, its going to have to be indoors. So I suggested to her that she try to work up to jogging - easy and slow - up to three miles on the treadmill 3x a week. Now, I have no idea if she actually got up to that total - she says she did - but figured the race would be proof of how much work she had put in.
As prep for the race, she got here, and I took her to Fleet Feet on J Street and got her a new pair of Nikes (there's really not that many choices in decent kids' running shoes - Nikes are fairly unstructured; most kids don't need any real support for their feet, they just need protection), and then hit REI for a 1/4 zip Patagonia long sleeve wicking shirt that was on sale. It was cool the week she was here and I figured it might be chilly the morning of the race (and I was right). I had asked her Mom to pack a hoodie (they have several) but for some reason that didn't happen, so, we got the 1/4 zip and she looked pretty snazzy in it. I found a pair of running shorts at the outlet mall in Folsom (although, DOH, Target right up the street from where I live carries a lot of young girl size workout clothes), and she was set.
I was probably more pent up about the race than she was; I let her sleep as late as I could race morning. Got some Cheerios in her, and we drove the 10 minutes over to River Park, and hung out in the car, mostly, until the race started, as it was chilly.
I had us in the back. There was no reason for her to get trampled; she's not a big kid, pretty much on the petite size for 9, although she's starting a preteen spurt now - she looks all elbows, knees and legs to me right now and she's skinny. My race plan was pretty simple - I'd let her set her own pace and run her own race. I had no idea how fast she would run, or whether she would run the entire race, but I had the Garmin on to keep track of pace and time.
She took off - like kids are wont to do - and ran without stopping until about .30 of the first mile. She wanted to run a 9:30/mi pace. I kept trying to tell her to slow down, because I figured if I could get her to jog around 11:30 she might be able to run most, if not all, of the 3.1 miles, but she preferred to "run fast". So, she'd run until she was breathless, then stop and walk, and start over again. Technically, she *was* following the Galloway method and that's how she ran the race.
What was very cool is she was so determined the entire way. I did not once have to urge her to start running again. She kept picking up and going for about a .10 a mile at a time. Now, we did have a race walker behind us that started to catch us near the end, and I did push her to run the final .10 or so without stopping, trailing her with my iPhone and taking video of the finish. Her time (which was interrupted by retying her shoelaces several times) was 43:06. Not bad, but her attitude was so good. I did ask her when we finished if she wanted to do another race and she said "Not right now." LOL
I didn't know whether we should have hung around for the awards, or not... there were so many kids I wasn't sure we had won anything (well, not we, but SHE as my time was the same as hers and I kind of doubted that a 43:06 in a 5K was going to get me anything), and she was hungry, so we took off, went home, I jumped in the shower and we went out and had breakfast.
Fast forward to this week; I checked the race website - it was all manually timed so the results were not up right away - and to my great surprise, Meredith placed 2nd! in the Female < 12 Age Group. Which meant she got an award. I emailed the race director, and voila! she was kind enough to drop the medal off at my house yesterday. I posted the image on FB; and its actually a very nice custom medal for the race. Meredith is all jacked about getting the medal, which I put in the mail last night, as a girl in her class that she's not particularly fond of brought a 2nd place swim meet trophy to class to brag about. Somehow, I kind of doubt that girl swam 3.11 miles...
And we are now registered for the Davis Moo-nlight 5K on July 16th (its an evening race, starts at 7:00) in Davis, CA. I told her that her goal was to slow down in her training and learn to pace herself, and see if we can't shave a few minutes off of the run time in July.
Oh, one of the cool things about this race - there's a guy that shows up at some of the races in town with a horse and an American flag. He was at Shamrock'n' at Mile 11. He was about 2+ miles into this race; I saw him, said "Hey dude... I saw you at Shamrock'n', right?" Very nice guy, doesn't look like he's run a block in years (he's got to be well into his 60s), but he's there with the flag, the horse, and a big smile and encouragement for all the runners.
*******
So, I ran in the Parkway Half Marathon on Saturday, and shaved 2 1/2+ minutes off of my Shamrock'n' half marathon time in March - roughly six weeks between races. I didn't get a lot of high quality training in either - Meredith's visit pretty much shot holes through running that week, and the next week was Parkway, so I figured that 10 days of barely running really wasn't going to mess up my time.
Actually, it was in reality closer to 4 minutes, as I thought I wouldn't have to pee a 2nd time but here I am, at the start line, and I kind of have to go and there's no time to go... now, the Parkway has lots of woods and dirt mountain bike trails alongside it, but, its also peak season for poison oak, so, I just sort of held it until Mile 5, where the route passed under the Howe Avenue bridge where there were porta potties. I had to wait a little bit, ducked in, dumped the water I'd drank with a banana for breakfast, and resumed.
Garmin time was 2:16:19; chip time was 2:17:31. I'm still tons slower than I was in 2007, when I set my PR at the first Parkway Half of 1:58:12, but, hey, nothing like an IT band issue, a 2+ year layoff, and gaining 10 or so pounds to slow you down, and then, to have plantar fasciitis in both feet for the first time in your life starting late summer 2010 when the IT band finally calmed down enough that serious training could commence. (Also, props to Tian Wu Acupuncture - acupuncture works sportsfans - get poked today).
I really did not start rebuilding my run base until December, and I figure, all in all, that I've only had maybe 2 1/2 months of quality run training since January 1 of this year. And I'm 4 years older, with 50 glaring at me in November. So to get a four minute improvement without a weight loss or a lot of training regimen between 3/13 and 4/30 - and I'd done a hard 10K on 4/10 so I have no idea, really how "recovered" my legs were between races.
One thing about Parkway that I wish they would grab from other halfs - at least Shamrock'n' - is for them to put some pace groups in. I plan on sticking like glue to one of the pace groups at CIM (California International Marathon) in December, as the pace group leader was extremely helpful in helping me meet my 2:20 goal at Shamrock'n'. At this race, I was responsible for my own pace, which meant glancing at the Garmin - a lot - rather than just following a far more experienced runner/athlete that knows what they're doing (well, I sort of know what I'm doing - enough to be dangerous, that is). OTOH, the bike trail is so narrow, pace groups might be kind of a disaster - at least until the pack sorts itself out a couple of miles in. They limit the entries to about 4,000, I think, so the pack can move and people can actually crank out a decent time.
A change from 2007 is that they now have parking areas and shuttle buses to William Pond Park, where the race starts. The Parkway actually features two races - a half marathon walk and run. The walk goes east on the Parkway out of William Pond; the half marathon goes west - down past the Sac State pedestrian bridge, with the turnaround just past the golf course near Sac State. They also have a 5K for the less ambitious (I did it last year) that starts after the half marathon clears out. I parked actually fairly close to the entrance to William Pond Park.
It was kind of cold Saturday morning, and I was in a real dilemma as to what to wear. I knew I'd freeze my fat little ass off if I just wore a short sleeve wicking shirt - at least until I got going, but I found a solution the day before at REI - a Patagonia Sun hoodie. Its basically a kangaroo pocket pull over hoodie for wearing at the beach to look cool while you're surfing in the Pacific, dude, and freezing your fat little ass off doing so while wondering if you're going to be some Great White's breakfast snack. I pulled that sucker on before I left the house, and while I wasn't warm, at least I had something on my arms, because we had SERIOUS wind.
Like gusting well up into the 30+ mph range. Now, it was sunny, dry, and the air was raining pollen from our rainy winter. I debated whether I should wear contacts in these conditions the night before, and when I got up and saw the pollen coating my car, and the wind - which combined with middle age dry eye is such a lovely condition (I'm getting to the point where wearing contacts other than for vanity - and some sports - having to carry readers to see up close, I'm not sure its worth it anymore. OTOH, I have such damn thick glasses and look like such a geek... pardon my insecurities, but when I was growing up, I got hammered on by women for my glasses. Now, I know it shouldn't matter, nor should it hurt anymore - but it does) to deal with.
I just finally figured screw it - I've got transitions lenses in all of my prescription glasses, I didn't want to carry a bottle of rewetting drops with me, and I thought the last thing I want to deal with on a windy day in a long race is not being able to see because something blew into my contacts. In the end, I think I made an OK decision, as when I got done racing my glasses were also coated with pollen and dust from the crushed granite shoulders of the bike trail.
Because of the wind and it was 50 degrees, no one was really paying attention to the pacing signs at the start telling you where to corral. People were corralling where the sun was shining and warm. I pulled up my hood before the start and stood there like something out of Star Wars. Eventually, we started packing together right about the time the bagpipers came through to start the race, followed by the drums and singers. Yes, I love bagpipes, and it was all very cool. The National Anthem was sung, the air horn went off, and the zombie shuffle out of the starting gate began.
I bought the entire package of race pictures, BTW - great race photogs done this time, and there's some great shots of me in Yoda mode at the beginning - I kept the hoodie up until Mile 2. It just wasn't that warm... I jumped to the left outside shoulder of the trail, as the congestion, while not bad, people were jostling for position. Some poor guy that looked in his late 50s got racked @ Mile 1 - there's some posts to block vehicles from using the trail, as at that point it crosses an access road to a parking lot down by the American River - and this guy ran right into one of the posts and went down HARD. I sure hope he was OK... people were screaming at the paramedics just past Mile 1 to get off their ass and go 50 yards back and help the guy.
I kept glancing at my Garmin, and I was bumping around a 10:00/mi pace. I figured I'd see how long I could hold that; my only goal was to run faster than Shamrock'n'. I did pretty well, actually, in holding roughly that pace - or better - up to the turnaround, then I started to feel it a bit and I did run the last three miles kind of slow, but at that point I *knew* I'd beaten my Shamrock'n' time, I was tired, and wanted to finish - it was just a matter of how much I'd beat the Shamrock'n' time.
There's always people who seem to be in great shape, running the pace I am in these races that are carrying on serious conversations. You know, marathon runners that are simply using the race as a training run. I hate those bastards. But you hear some interesting stuff, including a woman in her late 20s who ran past telling some pretty good dirty jokes to the other women she was running with. Turns out she was in the Navy for a while... I handed over one of mine that she cheerfully agreed (and I warned her beforehand) was pretty tasteless. Funny, but... tasteless.
I passed a *lot* of people in the first 2/3rds of this race. It was only until Mile 9, where I began to run out of gas (and that's when I wish I had a pace group) where I'd get dropped now and then. By the time I got to Mile 10, the number of people walking had gotten pretty noticeable. That's roughly also about where a group of high school saxophonists - probably from the Rio American high school music program - they have a very good jazz band - were standing. When I initially passed them on the way out, I yelled - as I always do - "GIANT STEPS" as I ran past. I could hear one of the kids say "Hey, he just said "Giant Steps" - so they started playing the head from Giant Steps.
As I came back, I looked at them and said "OLEO" (great Sonny Rollins tune. And if you don't know who wrote Giant Steps, well, you're just culturally challenged, OK? :D ). They started playing the head from Oleo (for my non-jazz sportsfans, the "head" refers to the main melody of a jazz composition)... which somehow degenerated into the head from Afro Blue. I figure they were pretty blown out by that point, they'd been out there, standing for 2+ hours.
I've run and biked on the Parkway dozens of times - hell, probably hundreds of times - since moving out here in 2007 (man, I've been here four years now), and I actually did some of the last few miles with my eyes almost closed, between the sun, wind, and just feeling kind of Zen. I mean, I was suffering some - not bad, but enough that I was having to fight fatigue. Although its kind of cool to run with your eyes shut and just to trust your other senses that you don't fall into a blackberry thicket or patch of poison oak.
Came around the last big turn into William Pond Park, and there was a guy on the last uphill telling us a "Mile to go!" (not correct, it was more like 3/4 but I'm not going to quibble when you've got a cheerleader standing in the middle of the trail). He was a big fella wearing a bike jersey, doing high fives, I did one that *stung* :)
There's one sharp little jump into the park and then the last .10 of the 13.1, and I pushed to get some separation so I wouldn't be running into the finish chute with other people (hey, I don't want someone crowding into my finish photo, OK? Its all about looking good, even when you're a shitty runner).
Man, it felt so good to stop. It also felt awesome to get that finisher's medal, and to see the finish clock knowing I'd knocked over 2 minutes off of my half marathon time for the year. I was so hot, so thirsty that I shotgunned the bottled water, and wandered around the grass and bumped into a couple of friends, sitting there in the grass feeling my legs shake. I hung around long enough to see my posted results, then walked back to my car.
Not as triumphant as my 2007 Parkway, where I PR'ed and broke 2 hours for only the first of 2 times in a half marathon (and that was also a statement of freedom as I'd moved out of a state I really didn't like and was ending a marriage where I had been rejected). But I know I'll get under 2:00 again, this is just the start of Comeback 2011 and my 2nd comeback to running after taking off 20 years after college.
Which brings us to the topic of races for the rest of the year. I don't have to start the marathon training cycle until August, so I'm concentrating on building a quality base with a training schedule I can maintain while the children are here in July. Right now, that means a regular weekly 10+ mile run and three shorter runs, with a minimum mileage total of 20 miles per week. I figure I can use 5K races as tempo runs, but in marathon the long runs are more, more important than interval training.
So I've signed up for two 5Ks in June - the Doggy Dash (to benefit the Sacramento SPCA) and the Foot Pursuit 5K, which benefits police chaplains. You know, its really a lot of fun to kick the shit out of big, muscled up guys who are cops and firemen at these races. Yes, they could crush me with their little finger but they can't outrun me. You take your kicks where you can get 'em at my age, because I have to go to bed early. My get up and go has got up and left, you know?
In July, there's the Davis 5K at night my daughter and I will run together.
Now, in late August there's Race for the Arts 5K, but I'm also toying with doing a half marathon in San Francisco that finishes in Giant Stadium. I'm going to be doing long training runs anyway, so why not do a half marathon then, and it gives me an excuse to spend the weekend in San Francisco.
In September, there's the Buffalo Stampede 10 miler sponsored by the local Buffalo Chips running club (yes, they are referring to Buffalo shit - the trophies for the male and female winners are a big lacquered pile of buffalo shit mounted on a wood plaque - I've seen 'em and touched it even).
I will probably sign up for the Urban Cow half marathon on the first Sunday in October. Its a fun race and right here in town. Now, approximately four weeks later and just over a month out from CIM, there's another half marathon, the Lake Natoma Four Bridges half marathon, that gives you some hill training around Lake Natoma in Folsom (and CIM starts near Folsom Lake on the dam road). Then I can always do the 3.5 miler for the Apple Hill Harvest Run two weeks out from CIM so I have a race experience but nothing that's going to blow up my taper before boarding the school buses downtown for the ride up to the dam and 26.2 miles of running with 6,000+ of my closest friends...
Oh, the mirror stuff... I look in the mirror and I see my parents these days. That is scary. I am *not* old. Really I'm not...
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