Race Recap, San Jose Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon

Hillary W. and I drove down yesterday, checked in to our wonderful, super-close-to-the-start hotel, and walked to the Expo. Very fun, bought some stuff, got some free stuff, met some Marathon Bar people. Once Chris got there, he and I went to the expo so he could pick up his gear, then we all left to Heidi T.'s sister's house a short drive away for a home-cooked pre-race dinner. Better than a restaurant for sure, and great company too!

I woke about 6:20, had some crappy coffee and ate, and headed out the door to meet Chris to make our way to the start. Our hotel was perfect as we only had to walk about 3 blocks to get to the corral aisle. We waited for Heidi to arrive to say hello and wish her luck, then continued to our assigned corral.

Coming into this race, I prepared well, trained hard, and made sure I was sufficiently rested in the days leading up to today's race. My feet have been feeling good, minimal blister issues, and I really felt good, not even any nerves this morning. More excitement than anything. I was starting to feel that sub-1:40 goal was attainable today.

After the National Anthem, we got started. The waved start didn't really work out, because everyone pressed forward once the gun went off, so Chris and I just made do and went with the crowd. It was probably a blessing because it slowed us down so we couldn't go out too fast. Chris and I settled into a nice pace that felt comfortable and the first couple miles clicked by quickly (7:33, 7:31). Chris told me he was going to back off a bit, and wished me luck.

The next 3 miles ticked by quick also, and I was feeling good. I wrote 3 splits on my forearm so I could check at miles 3, 7 and 11 to make sure I was staying on time. I decided I'd consume my Pineapple Roctane GU sometime around mile 6 or 6.5. I was still feeling good, noticed some tenderness in the ball of my right foot, but nothing too bad at this point.

Mile 7 was where I started to slow down. That pain in the right foot was getting more painful. Chriscaught me, tried to encourage me by telling me to block it out. I was able to run alongside him for an additional mile (through 8) but at that point, the pain was more than at the ball, I could feel it in the area where the big toe meets the foot in the fleshy area. I haven't had a blister there before, but it was getting more painful with each right foot step. Chris pulled away. I kept trying to get back to him, keeping him within 50 feet for about a half mile, but then it became too much.

At this point, my bubble was deflating. I was realizing with a 7:55 mile 9 that my sub-1:40 was slipping away. I kept trying to push through, but I kept getting slower and slower. Miles 10-13 were rough. At this point it was just damage control, and DON'T WALK like others were doing.

Coming into the final stretch, I knew what I had to do. I had to kick, and kick hard in order to just be done with this race. I turned it on and closed the final tenth of a mile from 6:09 to the end maxed out at 4:35 pace.

I'm super happy for Chris. He ran a great race and had a huge PR. I'm super happy for Heidi, who ran her first half and beat her goal time by over a minute. I'm also happy for Jessica W. who also had a HUGE PR, and we got to meet after the race. I'm appreciative of my wife for her encouraging and empathetic words after the race and during our LOOOOONG drive home.

I am pleased that I PR'd. My last half was 2 years ago (US Half 11/1/09 1:53:54). So I officially PR'd by 8 min 23 sec. I say officially because I ran a training half 3 weeks ago and ran 1:46:28, unofficially, LOL.

Race splits texted to Hillary's phone during the race:
3.1 - 23:32
6.2 - 47:13
10 - 1:17:26 (Faster than my 10 mile race in March)

First 9 - 1:08:39 (7:37, on target for goal)
Last 4.26 - 36:52 (8:39, blowing goal of the radar)

Overall finisher 1045/9831
Age group 177/777
865/4415 males

Oh, and I'm going to get my money back guarantee from my purchase of the Wright Socks. They're guaranteed to not allow blisters. Guaranteed!

Lately...

Wow. I got caught up in other things and really neglected my blog...

First Day of School!

The summer is coming to an end. I mean, the kids are back in school, so yes, their summer has ended, but the temperatures here have lingered in the HOT range. This is the first school year that all of our children are in school, meaning that we have about 5 hours every day to do whatever. Whether that's having a lazy day at home, doing housework/yard work, working out, volunteering in the kids' classes...whatever we want.

To wrap up my summer race series, I had up and down results. There were a couple of trail races, which I wasn't thrilled about and my performance was down. I had such a good feeling from the first race, to just trying to get the same time or not far from it. I ended up finishing 5th in my AG and 6th overall. The last race, on the same course as the first, I was able to fight through painful feet and finish 19 seconds slower than the first, but still under 7 minutes per mile. Disappointing, but now I know I'll be better for the winter series on the same course.

Final Mens Point Standings

Once the Sunset Through the Trees series was over, it was time to ramp up training for my half marathon. I actually ran a half marathon distance training run two days before the last series race. Then I teamed up with 2 buddies to run another one the next weekend. Both training runs were consecutive unofficial half marathon PRs (1:48:56, then 1:46:28; fastest race was 1:53:54).

The week after the second half training run we raced in the 36th Whiskeytown Relays, a 20 mile relay race around Whiskeytown Lake outside of Redding. Our team consisted of 3 guys (myself, Chris, and Scott) and 1 Gal (Heidi). It's a challenging race in which 3 of the 4 legs have substantial hills to overcome. I ran leg 1 and had to climb a hill measuring about 350 feet in elevation gain and covering just over 1 mile. Once I crested the hill it was all downhill or flat, and I cruised to a 6:29 pace for the last mile handing off to Scott in 13th place. I ran the leg in 29:16 or 7:22 pace. We finished 13th overall out of 119 teams and a team time of 2:31:51 or 7:36 pace. Not too bad!

I'm getting excited about this weekend. I'm running the San Jose Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon. It's a flat course, so I know I can take about a minute off of my last training half's time. I'm shooting for a sub-1:40. It's attainable, as long as I run smart. My training has gotten me this far, now I need to execute. I'll blog my results...I promise.

It's also nice because it doubles as a date weekend for my love and I to get away from our busy-ness lately with work and school. That catches you up on some of what's been going on. Look for more regular posts soon.

Sunset Through The Trees Series, Race 1, Lake Redding Park

Today marked the first race of our small town 2011 summer race series, Sunset Through The Trees. It's a series of events covering 7 weeks and 9 events, each ranging from 4-5.3 miles with 2 special time trial points races of 1 mile and 2 miles respectively.

They are really fun, and generally the same people show up every week, so it leads to a healthy competition (See 2011 Frosty Fun Run Series, Me vs. Chris). The first and last races are on the same course, so if you improve, you're able to see tangible results from the beginning of the series to the end.
For this series, I get to represent Team MARATHON Bar, and it's my second race doing so. Heidi T. also participated tonight, so it was cool having another teammate to represent the goodness of MARATHON Bars.

Today, I made sure to stay cool and stay hydrated. The hourly temperature forecast looked to be between 93 and 95 depending when you looked at it. I knew it would be HOT, I've done these summer evening races before. I drank 9 24oz bottles of water today in preparation for tonight's activities. About an hour before race time, as Hillary W. and I drove to take our son to his baseball game, I ate a MARATHON Crunchy Honey & Toasted Almond bar.

We dropped off Bradley and made our way over to the park where the start was (the ballpark and race are basically in the same area). Hill and I walked over to the registration table, signed in and collected our race bibs. We walked back to the car and used the facilities. I met up with Heidi and we got a couple pictures in our attire (posted later). I went for a quick warm up, ended up being about .4 mi, which was plenty on a warm night.

At the start, I moved forward to the front figuring I'd be better than most of the field, and not wanting to have to expend and bunch of energy maneuvering around people. The starter said 'Go!' and we were off. I didn't want to get out too fast, but didn't want to fall back either, so I got into a pace that felt relaxed enough, but still pushing. I checked the Garmy around half mile in and saw 6:18/mi, but I didn't feel that fast. I know at this point in my training, I couldn't maintain that pace, so I kept it in the back of mind to bring it back to reality a bit. The first mile is nice and easy, relatively flat, so I clocked a 6:35.

I have a hard time with this course. It has some annoying hills on the back side of mile 2 through 3. The hills aren't anything super challenging or anything, but they're there, and they roll, and every time I get there, I'm just...annoyed. This time, I just kept telling myself, to pick it up on the small downhills and tough it out on the ups. I clocked a 6:57 for mile 2, and 6:55 for mile 3.

Mile 4 is mostly flat, but I could tell I was tiring. I knew I was under 7:00 through 3, so I just tried to maintain. I got through mile 4 with a 7:01, so still under 7 pace overall.

The last .27 to .3 I knew I needed to kick, so I put in all I had left. I closed out the last quarter mile-plus at 6:28 pace. I was "done" at the end. Pouring sweat, out of breath, light-headed. Totally worth it.

Some things I liked about this race:
1. A PR! (Previous fastest time 2/26/11 was 30:25 7:)
2. I didn't get passed by anyone after .5-.75 miles in and a couple of those that did pass were young kids (i.e. teenagers) running the 2 mile race.
3. I PASSED a lot of people during the race, including people who have previously beaten me.
4. I gutted out this annoying course on a hot day.
5. I got to have some one-on-one time with Hillary W.
6. I got to run a race with teammate Heidi T.

I'm looking forward to having Chris and Pauline join some of these runs in the next few weeks.

Now I'm enjoying some Thrifty Chocolate Malted Crunch ice cream and a Kona Brewing Co. Longboard Island Lager (Tim C.) for a post-race treat.

Pre-Race with Heidi T.

Mountain Runners 4th of July 5 Mile Run *PR*

For the weekend, my family went to Weaverville, CA to celebrate with my wife's family. A good-sized gathering with a couple families from long distances. I worked Saturday, but drove up after work. We spent the day together yesterday swimming, participating in "Kid's Day" (various events including a watermelon eating contest with a parent version at the end), and eating an American BBQ dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs. I drove home last night in order for me to be able to then drive north to Mt. Shasta this morning.

I got home about 9:45 last night, and got started getting my gear all ready. Shoes, socks, Team MARATHON® shorts, singlet and jacket, Garmin charging, iPod Nano, headphones and my MARATHON® Bars. I set my alarm for 5:45 in order to get up, get dressed, get coffee and get GOING! I grabbed my coffee to go and started for Mt. Shasta. I opted to not eat breakfast at home and eat a MARATHON® energy bar for "breakfast". Plus, I didn't want to eat at home since I had an hour drive to get there an hour before race time.

The drive was beautiful, perfect temperature for a drive in the Jeep with no top. I arrived in Mt. Shasta with no complications on the drive and walked the half mile to the registration area to pick up my bib and race T-shirt. I used the facilities and then walked back to the Jeep to finish getting ready. Once at the Jeep, I realized I had left my headphones at home...no need to panic, still 25 minutes till race time and I parked in a RiteAid parking lot. I went in and bought a new pair and was back in business. I started my warmup which consisted of some jogging and strides. By the time I was ready to move to the start, the large crowd had formed against the start line, so I just kind of squeezed in right at the front. I knew I'd get passed by a bunch of people, but it was better for me than having to get back in the pack and fight through a crowd.

The Star Spangled Banner was sung, Opera-style, and the starter gave some closing instructions. I started my tunes, and the gun went off. I kept telling myself to take it easy, slow down, don't get sucked into the pack. I felt comfortable, my breathing was relaxed. About .5 mile, I looked at my Garmin, and the pace showed 6:10. Yikes! TOO FAST! So the next half mile I spent trying to slow down to a reasonable pace so I didn't throw my whole race off. My goal coming in was 7:30/mi which would be a 34sec/mi PR for this race. Plus, with my AT issues a couple months ago, I haven't really done much speed training, just trying to build up my mileage base again. I finished the first mile at 6:46, still way too fast, but OK I guess.

The next 3 miles just went by, nothing remarkable, my splits were very good though (7:16, 7:08, 7:15). I just locked in and took care of business.

Then came mile 5. After a brief (.11) downhill, the rest of the course (save the last 264 feet) is a gradual incline that is downright torturous. All said, it's about 100 feet of elevation gain over .84mi. I struggled with it 3 years ago, and I struggled again today. My pace slowed quite a bit. I knew I had to keep going though and finish strong. Looking at my Garmin results, I actually slowed to a 10:04 pace at a point during mile 5. Right near the top of that incline, I decided I would just finish it now. I started my kick with about 1000 feet to go. I started gaining on a couple guys who had passed me when I slowed. I set my sights on them and went into sprint mode. For that last portion, my pace registered as 4:48/mi. Once I was able to see the results, one of the two guys I passed was in my age group, so had I not kicked like that, I would have been 12th instead of 11th.

Overall, I had fun. Like I said before, my goal was 37:30, or 7:30 pace. I ran this race in 2008, 2 1/2 months after I started running, and finished in 40:23, or 8:04 pace. My time for a 5 mile race in April, when I was training hard before my AT injury, was 36:53 (7:22/mi). Today, I finished in 36:33 (7:19/mi), a PR by 3 minutes, 50 seconds.

Splits: 6:46 - 7:16 - 7:08 - 7:15 - 8:04 (If only I could have evened that out...)

Overall Finish:
91st out of 775
Age group:
11th out of 35

The Effects of EMS

I started in EMS as an EMT in 2001. I'm coming up on 10 years. It really has gone by fast, and even though the clientèle has changed the job some, it's still enjoyable, even with a personal career change still on the horizon.

Working on an Ambulance is a different beast. You can have a shift where you don't do much, or anything at all, to one where you're going constantly and never have a chance to see the station. I'm just now getting into bringing food to work. I haven't done that before short of bringing left overs for a meal. It becomes convenient to hit fast food because you're driving around, and you may not make it back to the station to get food.

Me and my buddy, Bradley, in fall 2006.

So many in EMS are overweight. It's not the easiest job to maintain fitness. 24 hour shifts, night shifts, eating out. It's actually kind of a vicious cycle because you gain weight, and still have to lift the same patients that weigh more than you. When you're not in good shape, it can lead to injury. When I started, I probably weighed 160-170.Once I finished Paramedic school at the end of 2005 and early '06, I was pushing 230, by far my heaviest. I was 145lbs when I graduated High School.

Over the years since high school and the first semester of college, I ran only occasionally. In March of 2008, my brother-in-law Jered started running. It was just what I needed to get started myself. I joined him on April 16 and started doing the Couch to 5k plan that incorporates walking and jogging over a 9 week period building up to being able to run a 5k (3.1mi) race without walking. I set my sights on a 5k only 3 weeks out (May 10) due to scheduling constraints. I got into better shape, but by race day I hadn't yet run the whole distance. I ended up running the 5k with a time of 24:17 or 7:48 per mile.

By the end of 2008 I had run a couple more small races, the 4th of July 5 mile race in Mt. Shasta, a half marathon in San Francisco and the Shasta Regional Medical Center Turkey Trot. Overall I lost about 26 pounds by running and around 40 total including diet changes.

November 2008 before my first half marathon

November 2009 at the finish of my 2nd half marathon

Presently I sit at 184 pounds. I'm working to get to a lean and mean 175, and maintain that weight and build muscle. I've been running since 2008 and plan on continuing as long as I can. I feel so much better when I'm running. It's better for my health, better for my family, better for my career, etc.