Climbs and Crossings

For the inaugural running of this race, it was pretty nicely put together. The weather was perfect and the aid stations were plentiful. The course itself was about as scenic and interesting as it could be for Stockton. If anyone was counting on seeing palm trees based on the race logo, we passed them in front of the pawn shop on Pacific Avenue. My goal going in was sub 2, a pretty long way from the 2:12 I ran in Modesto, but I've been training with a group through Fleet Feet and felt prepared enough to do it. All I wanted was to see the number 1 in front of my time. excitement I had a plan: Take it easy. Go out at about 9:30, relaxed, ease into it, then kick it in and run negative splits the second half. At take off I was so excited, happy, energized by the hometown crowd, all I was doing was telling myself to slow down and back off. I found the pace and settled into the rhythm. Mile 1 passed by, 9:06. NOT THE PLAN! I panicked. I could hear myself describing th...

Waking up in San Francisco this morning proved to be the best way to tackle my 12 mile scheduled training run. The weather was clear, sunny, warm, zero wind, and zero fog. A perfect San Francisco day. I took off in the general direction of the bridge from near Fisherman's Wharf. After a few hills, and working my way to higher ground, this was my first glimpse of the bridge...the teeny tiny red thing out there. It was at this point, lots of other runners started appearing, seemingly headed somewhere, so I followed. The land opened up, I was closer to the water, and apparently on the right path. A paved path ran right along a narrow beach where TONS of people were out with their dogs, running, romping, frolicking in the sand and the water. Staying on this path, the bridge was getting larger and larger in front of me. I ended up directly underneath the bridge, in a parking lot at Fort Point, at a dead end. I stopped in the middle of the parking lot to survey the scene, wondering ...

I was perfectly content with 5ks until I ran a longer race for the first time. After cruising through a 12k in San Francisco, I was eager to try out a Half Marathon, so I registered for Modesto. The race would start at 9pm, which sounded pretty fun. The race was three months away. Excellent! I'll be so prepared..... I was in no way prepared for this race. I never had a training plan. I didn't put in the effort I should have. As race day got closer, I got more and more mad at myself.and even considered backing out. For two seconds. At the start I knew I could get through the next 13 miles with my head, but my legs had no idea what was in store for them. I said a silent apology to them, a prayer to the universe and the running gods, and we were off. The first 5 or 6 miles were through neighborhoods and quiet streets. This was only the second annual running of the race, and along with it being 9pm on a Saturday night, I didn't expect much in the way of spectators. But ...