Saturday, November 22, 2008

Super Six

This year, Anita, Andy and myself completed all six of the Rock n Roll events sponsered by Competition (formerly elite racing). They consisted of:  Arizona Rock n Roll marathon,  Nashville Rock n Roll marathon, San Diego Rock n Roll marathon, Virginia Beach Rock n Roll half marathon, San Jose Rock n Roll half marathon and San Antonio Rock n Roll marathon.  
Prior to the start of the San Antonio marathon, we received an email that stated their was a "special gift" for us at the Rock n Roll booth at the expo.  Well imagine my surprise when we received the blue cape with the Super Six logo.  What were these people thinking?  Why not give us a nice dry fit shirt with the logo that people actually might wear?
Of course, the participation survey only allows you 100 words to make your comments and I was only half way done complaining when I hit 100 words....

Up next, my San Antonio race report.

Run Fun......

Monday, November 3, 2008

What was I thinking?

On Saturday, October 25th and 26th, I planned to run the San Francisco One Day.  It is a run hosted by Pacific Coast Trail Runs.  I have done many of their events.  Wendell and Sarah are the owners and put together trail events from Malibu to Oregon.  They are very low key events and are lots of fun.  
This run consisted of running in loops.  A 1.067 mile loop around Crissy fields.  I know, a one mile loop, how borrring........  But as you can see, the day turned out beautifully.  The weather was nice, even a little on the warm side.  There were many people running and we set off at 9 am.  My goal was to run slow and consistant.  I had my watch set for 10 and 1.  During my 1 minute walk I would drink.  The start/finish was also the aid station.  For the first 20 loops, I was consistantly hitting the start/finish area on my walk break, which was very convenient.  I tried to eat lots of food. 

Here I am taking a break.  This photo was taken by Rick Gaston.  He lives in SF and came to help.  He stayed for the entire 24 hours!
After 20 loops, I walked a loop.  It was close to 2 p.m. and very warm.  
Around 3:30 - 4, Roos and Connor showed up and I ended up walking several loops with them.  Connor was having a great time, he even did a few laps with Aaron, Wendall and Sarah's son.




This photo, taken by Leanne was around 5p.  I was getting tired and my legs were like tree trunks.  Since WS was cancelled and I took a recovery break, I haven't done any really long events - pacing Scott was the longest I've run.  I don't know what made me think I could go from 33 miles to a 24 hour run.  I began to seriously consider my planning.  What was I thinking??











Leanne also took this photo.  I continued to go loop after loop but I really wasn't having any fun.  I had walked several loops.  I walked some with Connor, a few with Roos, one with Craig, one with Leanne, one with Heather and after 12 hours 14 minutes, I decided to call it a day.  I completed 56.7 miles, which I am very happy with.  A great training run.  Many Shadowchasers were out in force and had a wonderful day.  Vance did over 109 miles, Linda did 100.3, for second place female and Charles ran 100.3 - his very first 100 mile run.  



It was nice to go back to the hotel.  I took an ice bath and soaked my tired legs.  
















The next morning, we decided to walk across the Golden Gate bridge.  Of course, the weather was cold and foggy!  We could hardly see the bridge.  It felt great to walk and loosen up the legs.  Surprisingly, I felt good enough to run on Tuesday.  Overall, I had a great time, even thought I was overly ambitious and undertrained!  






Run fun.... 

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Perspective

My daughter in law, Sarah sent me a post from her friend Emily who also ran the Nike women's marathon.  This was Emily's first marathon and her post was her recap of the event.  The post started out talking about the marathon and her friend running the last 6 miles with her and then she starts talking about a book she read called the, Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintanence.  She goes on to compare the book to running.  After I read the post I thought about it off and on for the day and realized, we all are unique and each person's perspective of running is so different.  We all run for different reasons and what we see, smell, hear, and feel when we run, is also unique.  This is Emily's comparison.  Read and enjoy:

"i would argue that actually runners are those who really take in the pace of life.  who run long; who experience the elements; who know the roads; and who really feel the terrain of the ground on which they run, and without any buffers making their experience more “comfortable”.   in fact, safety and comfort do not seem to be part of the language of running.  

i suppose i speak of this in contrast to the car, with all of its shock absorbers and air conditioning that mask any element that may seem to intrude on the comfort of the rider.  

and i suppose what i have learned is that there are those that value such a ride, and…that i am not one of them."

Run fun....