Climbs and Crossings

The Half Marathon formerly known as the Stockton Half Marathon. Kind of. It's the same course. A month earlier than last year. Organized by different people. And called something different. Confused? Me too.  I hadn't run a Half road race since this one...or this other one in Stockton around this time last year. Since the course was the same, my only goal was to beat my time from last year. I figured with all the trail time I've put in, it should have been a breeze. I'll cut to the chase. It didn't happen. And it didn't happen by about 6 minutes.  At the start. I'm the head in the middle, smiling like a dork.  How many of you have race photos that include orange plastic fencing AND a big rig?  I do enjoy being able to ignore posted signs. Road closed? I don't think so.  The point is not to put Stockton on blast for not being the most scenic place to run. Or complain and theorize about why  it wasn't my day or even to dwell on and feel dis...

Another nice run downtown put on by Fleet Feet! This was the first year for this Memorial Day run, so the crowd was small, maybe a couple hundred people. The shirts were nice, the goodie bags were cool (popchips, granola, a JUMP ROPE!...) and some of the best, lively, supportive volunteers you could ask for. And can I just mention again, how cool it is to have Stockton Police officers posted up all along the course, because not only are we passing the scenic downtown waterfront, we're also passing the scenic downtown crazies and the tents under the freeway. The usual suspects and I headed down to run the 5k on Monday. A big Delta breeze was blowing in, so I wanted to get warmed up. In the process of warming up, I ran up on Alan Sanchez of Good Day Sacramento which means I was briefly on tv which means I was briefly famous. The proof is here: I actually started at the front of this race. Tony Vice of Fleet Feet was going lead the runners on his bike (cool). I even toed the lin...

This is not so much a race report as it is a congratulations to some people I love for finishing the 5k run. There's these ones: The Posse family of determination and accomplishment! And she completed her very first 5k, beating more than 50% of the women's field.  This run is in conjunction with the Asparagus Festival. A three day celebration of asparagus. I'm way into festivals because I grew up kind of pretty much in charge of my local hometown popcorn festival. And when I say in charge, I mean my mom was in charge. But yeah, I love a good festival! So along with festivals, I'm also way into traditions. So Staci ( My Posse ) and I have a tradition where we have a good time at the festival and have an aspara-mary.  The first photo is here.  BFF 2006 WHOA GIRLS! 2007. Somebody had to work, 2008. Posse back in action 2009. The dark year, 2010.  2011? A few things different, right? : Aspara-Marys replaced with Tomato/Clamato/Beer with an aspar...

I ran this one last year...they did a downtown festival, the race at 5pm, and then a pub crawl. This year we ran at 8:30 am and nothing else going on. Much less festive. I brought my own festive.  The downtown 5k course heads toward the ballpark, makes a u-turn, heads toward the freeway, makes a u-turn, makes a short side loop, and then heads back to the finish.  The scenery includes the arena, the ballpark, the beautiful Stockton waterfront and, down under the freeway, an exclusive urban campground. Thanks, Officers, for posting up all along the course.  And then, for something that has never happened before in the history of the world... I won my age group. Which makes me realize, four more months and I'll be in a new age group, 30-39. WEIRD.

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...