Marathon training (and some racing), week 5

I raced!

Or maybe I should say I participated in a race, since I'm not exactly in half marathon race shape yet!  But there's no better preparation for racing than racing, and I wanted to practice getting nervous the night before, agonizing over what to wear (what if it's hot? what if it's cold?), and talking myself through the low moments that come in every race (even the good ones!) when you start to hurt and you still have a long way to go.  Mission accomplished!

I took it a little easier this week leading into the race on Sunday:

Tuesday - 7 miles on the track with TRIbe

                warm up, drills, stadiums, strides

                4 x 1K with 200m log recovery

                cool down, core, stretch

Thursday - 7 miles on trails (Baylands) plus drills and strides

Saturday - 3 mile pre-race shake out plus strides 

Sunday - race!

Garmin data from the race is here.  This was my first time racing with a Garmin.  It was interesting to see the miles splits from my watch get farther and farther from the mile markers on the course.  I guess I don't run the tangents very well!  I ended up with 13.23 miles of total distance (vs. 13.1 miles on the certified course).  Not TOO much extra work.

Enjoying the sunshine post-race

Re-hydrating, 10am is a drinking hour on Superbowl Sunday!

The race course starts in Golden Gate Park, then does a loop in the Panhandle before running back through the park and down to the waterfront for an out-and-back stretch on the Great Highway and finally an uphill finish back in the park.  I ran a pretty even effort that resulted in some pretty uneven mile splits as the road went uphill and downhill.  I feel bad for mentioning this, because so many blog readers are struggling with nasty winter weather, but we had an absolutely gorgeous day in San Francisco!  It was probably 60 degrees at the start and close to 70 at the finish!  The out-and-back along the ocean on the Great Highway can be windy, and usually it's a brutal headwind on the way back.  On Sunday the breeze was actually refreshing because I was getting hot!  The last mile of the race turns off the Highway and climbs uphill to the finish line.  I was definitely struggling up the final hill, not so much because I was tired cardiovascularly, but because my legs were tired from holding a faster pace for 13 miles.  I have more work to do!

Since I don't have any race pictures yet, I'll leave you with one from my first visit to Golden Gate Park almost 30 years ago!

Tough hair day!