Races, Data…

I ran another short race this past Sunday. A very short 5 miler in the town where I live. I love traveling for races, but it was actually nice to have zero stress about anything related to logistics…nice to run something local for fun and the money all went to one of the local high school’s track programs.

It was an interesting choice for me in that I really didn’t like the course. It is almost entirely run on a narrow path around a marsh and then a park. The marsh part of the path is fine, with packed dirt, but the park part is all on loose gravel. This might just be my LEAST favorite type of surface to run on…I just don’t feel like I get an traction with each step. It’s a peaceful, beautiful path…and nice to walk, but for me, the running on it is just not idea.

However, I sucked it up and signed up…for fun and to test my “speed.”

It was a nice, cool morning. Good enough for shorts and my long sleeve Under Armour technical shirt. I was also pretty happy to be sportin my new ON-RUNNING kicks! These are super cool shoes, my 2nd pair by the company. I will write more on them later. A good gathering of the local peeps and at 8:30am, off we went on our Sunday Test.

I thought I would do no better than 45 minutes, actually. 9:00 pace. I was excited and ready to see what was possible. I had no water, no music. nothing. felt so free. Except for the fact that I really needed some water and the 1st place to get it was not until 3 mile mark. I am just one of those people who need water at least 1x/mile, especially if I am pushing it, which I was. We went though parking lots, over to the marsh and then onto the loose rock path. 1st mile was 8:27 but it didn’t feel that fast so I wasn’t too worried about the pace, but i also didn’t want to have a severe drop off come mile 4. Mile 2 was a bit slower, about 8:45 pace. I would have liked to have had my heart rate info, but something is not working with it. I even bought a new battery and it still is not synching with my Suunto watch…so no HR info for now. Anyways, by now I was really looking for the water stops and it wasn’t until another mile. I grabbed some and walked a few steps. Mile 3 was about 9:15. Got more water around mile 4 so that slowed me a bit too, 9:12. I guess this last mile I just took off because the data show mile 5 at 8:10 pace. Wow. Didn’t really know that til looking at my watch stats. Pretty cool. I can tell you I was not smiling as I ran that last mile, especially the last 1/2 mile. I was pushing hard and even as I crossed the finish line, no smiles. Painful.

THEN, the smiles came! WOOT WOOT! Very happy with this result and even came in 4th place in my age group.

 

So, I think it’s important to give some data on the race stats to give some perspective to the result. Of course, I’m happy. but i also realize the TOTAL number of runners at a race like this is NOT HUGE.  Then again, 4th is 4th. 🙂

Here’s the breakdown:

Age Group: F 40-44.  40 runners.  4th place

All Females: 259 total / me  27th place

All Runners: 394 total / me  101st place

I also want to share the stat breakdown from the Portland 15k race I did a month ago.

Age Group: F 40-44  681 runners. 163rd place

All Females: 4518 total; me  1126th

All Runners: 8826 total; me  3507th

 

Before I started running marathons in 2000, I was faster at the shorter distances. Of course, I was also younger. 🙂

Regardless, I know I have more gears I can tap into to get faster. So….what’s next???

Turkey Trotting

I’ve run or raced on Thanksgiving many times. In fact, I can’t recall when the last time it was I didn’t run/race on the holiday. While living in Atlanta, I raced the Atlanta Half Marathon on turkey day many times and other times, I just went for a quiet run on my own. THIS year was a bit different. Now that I live in Petaluma, I found out there was a race on Thanksgiving…a local “turkey trot”. Only, this was not a “formal” race with paid registration and t-shirts, etc…This was simply a run organized by a wonderful local woman and this was year #6. To give you an idea of the “feel” of the event, here is some of the description from the website:

The basic idea is simple – a group fun run. No registration, no fee, no volunteer support, no T-shirts. Just running or walking with community and feeling darn good about the calorie burn before the big feast.

In lieu of a registration fee, we were to bring food items for the local food bank.

So…Sharon did the run last year and coerced me into joining her this year. 🙂 There was a 4 mile and 6 mile option. We both had said we would just do the 4 miler. The run started at a park about 1/2 mile from my house and it was fun to arrive early and see everyone milling about and bringing food, etc. We ran into another friend, who upon hearing I was running the 4 miler said, “can i challenge you to do the 6?” What? OK. I’m in. I have not been running too much and certainly not been running any hills so i figured it would be a good challenge. Pretty soon we were on our way. The first 2 miles are basically a gradual, steep, and steeper uphill into the heart of Helen Putnam Park. The next 2 were on narrow hard packed dirt trails in and around the park. A few times, we came to open areas that looked like this:

Tough place to run, huh?!! GORGEOUS! I have run in this park before but had not been here since last Jan/Feb when I was training for a trail race in Muir Woods. It was good to be back and be off the pavement. At the onset, I was relaxed and felt really low key  — but then once I started running and especially when I made my way into the park, my competitive juices took over. I kept noticing these 2 women in front of me and I just could not seem to catch them. Ever have that feeling??? I was passing some people, but still could not catch them. The 2 miles we did in the park were all up and down hills and on the downhills, I just tried to fly down them and I did! I LOVE that feeling of being in the open so free and when my stride opens up. AHHHHH! As I was coming onto the start of the final 2 mile portion of the race, the race organizer, snapped this photo of me:

Once I crested over this area, it was basically 2 miles all downhill to the finish. The 2 women were still in my sights and I started to push hard and harder and I guess they did too! My legs were burning and aching, my breathing was heavy and my arms were flailing about and yet…i still could not catch them. I probably got to within 200-300 feet and I just let it go. We were less than 1/4 mile to the finish but I just had nothing left. AND WHAT A GREAT FEELING THAT WAS!!! I found the 2 speedy women afterwards and congratulated them on a great run and we chatted for a bit. Soon afterwards, I greeted Sharon and I know we both felt great and accomplished. Awesome way to the start of what was a wonderful Holiday. Me at the end:

NEW TOPIC:

So, did you see it? Did you catch it? Of course, I am talking about the 3rd win of the season for the Underdog, Cleveland Browns!! They battled against their interstate rival, Pittsburgh Steelers last Sunday in Cleveland, on the banks of Lake Erie. Let me assure you, this is an intense sports rivalry and there is no love loss between the teams and fans. Pittsburgh was in the unfortunate position of having to start their 3rd string QB, since #1 and #2 were unavailable. Boo hoo. No sympathy here.

The Steelers played awful. They had 8 turnovers. Pretty much no team will win when they turn the ball over that much. Most of the turnovers were fumbles by the running backs, which I was surprised about, but hey, I will take it. Thank you. The Browns did what they should have done; they took advantage of these opportunities and played good enough to win 20-14, at home in front of their home crowd who cheer them on RELENTLESSLY! I’m telling you there is NO FAN BASE like that of the BROWNS! I followed the game online and was so happy they won, in case you couldn’t tell!

Next up, they have a fantastic opportunity to secure their 4th win of the season against the truly awful Oakland Raiders. Since the Raiders are here locally, I watch some of the games on tv…and they are not easy to watch. They are one of the worst teams in the league….and I say this knowing my Browns are NOT that much better, but I believe Cleveland is a better team. And should win. Mark it down. I said it. Browns will win. Hope I’m not the turkey…

Here’s a pic of one of the best players on the team, if not The Best, Running Back Trent Richardson. He’s having an awesome season. Go BROWNS!!

(Water for the) Water for the World Race

Heavy rains woke me a few times during the night and pre dawn hours. Thunder and lightening too. Woke at 6:15 am for the scheduled 5k http://www.waterfortheworld.com/ and was wondering what I should do…will the race take place in such weather? Crazy storms expected all day. I know well enough that races take place rain or shine, but in thunder and lightening? Hmmm…

After grabbing a little coffee and banana, i noticed the rain had let up and I decided to make a go for it. If the race was cancelled, fine. If not, great. I would be there and ready to go. It was held in an office park north of metro atlanta…i.e… suburbia. I wanted to do the race because of the cause….water! A ridiculous percentage of water in developing countries is not even SAFE FOR HUMAN CONTACT. All the proceeds from the race went to a church ministry who do work in Africa to help with water issues, treatment, etc.. I know a little about the massive contamination and pollution problems of water in different areas, so if my dollars can help even just a little, i am on board! I also just wanted to run a little community race.

While driving to the location and up until the very start, it had stopped raining. As we crossed the start line, heavy rain came pouring down. I’m not talking about little pebbles; I’m talking BIG BIG DROPS. To me, it was wonderful and refreshing. and Healing. I enjoy running in the rain. Especially if the weather isn’t cold. It’s like I’m kid outside playing.

Since the route was in an office park, it was very quiet (except for many cool teens volunteering and cheering) and lots of trees. The short route began with a slight uphill and then flat. At approx. 3/4 mile, we began a steady semi-steep downhill. The heavy drops fell all around us creating big puddles everywhere. At one point, I looked over at the teenage boy next to me and said, “is this great or what?” He smiled big and said, “yeah”. On the descent, I thought to myself, are they gonna make us run back UP this road…that would not be too nice….

Yep, they did. At about the 1.2 mile mark, we turned around and went up the hill. Once we made it to the top, the remainder of the route was slightly rolling to the finish line. I didn’t wear my watch. I didn’t wear my iPOD. I wanted to be more present. Funny how it went by soooo fast.

I crossed the finish line, happy. Turns out I finished 3rd in my age group (remember, the race was small. LOL) Pretty neat. Got a nice plaque. The neat part about watching the award ceremony was seeing the faces of the kids who won in their age groups. I loved seeing their excitement, pride, and even shyness.

I might have had similar expressions on my face.

A great way to start my Saturday. Thanks to all involved in putting the race together, especially all the volunteers who had to be their early in the crazy rain.

Do what you can to make clean water possible for all. Cheers!

5k Time = 27:12 (not my fastest, but it wasn’t about that today)
Pace: 8:45/mile
Overall = 41st out of 224 total runners.

a cup of reminisce

During the years 1990-1992 (i think) I went to a coffeehouse called Aroma. It was a wonderful new coffeehouse in Santa Rosa, CA….in the downtown historic district. So, that was 18-20 years ago…wow…hard to believe…does not seem like it. Anyways, the coffeehouse opening was a pretty big deal. At that time, there were only a few places to actually get good coffee in town. But, this place, this place was new, different and special. For one, the colors were so inviting; burnt orange, brown, chocolates were the interior colors and a big RED coffee roaster was smack in the middle of the place. The coffee bar area was long and pretty, with a gorgeous Copper Espresso machine. There must have been about 20 wooden tables for customers — all perfectly sized for enjoying a seat/table alone or for intimate conversation with a friend/loved one..There were windows…one large for looking out into the square.. I loved sitting inside, especially on rainy days, and just looking out the windows…watching the raindrops fall on pavement, hear the cars swoosh by and check out the travelers come and go from the Hotel La Rose across the street. There was something simple and romantic about it…just sitting there.

The coffeehouse was opened by two women who had definitely done their coffee homework and were smart & savvy business women. It was the first time i was introduced to organic coffee & fair-trade coffee, not to mention beans from all over the world; Sumatra, Kona, Ethiopia, etc…They were educators as well as business women.

I truly was one of their first customers. 2 friends and I had discovered the place and ended up going daily, sometimes 2x a day! The owners knew us, the staff knew us. It was the beginning of a long and fun relationship. I would arrive right at 7am when they opened so i could just soak in the beautiful emptiness and quiet. In the mornings, they had wonderful music playing…Gregorian Chants or Enya or Nina Simone…but it was always a gentle tune to awaken the soul and greet the day. I will never forget those many mornings of arriving, getting my coffee mug, choosing which blend I wanted and going to sit at the small table in the corner by the little window. I would actually walk up a small ramp (for wheelchair accessibility) and pass the row or coffee bean containers…so pretty. There were a few items for breakfast i would typically order…a baguette w/ butter & jam or a scone with butter & jam. Those damn scones remain some of the best I have ever had over the years. I miss those….

The coffeeehouse became such an integral part of the community. So much happened there for so many people who came and went….so many friends made, loves found, loves lost, study groups, random conversations with random people, crushes made and dissolved and made again…deep conversations followed by flowing tears, breakups and breakdowns, giddy times and painful goodbyes. There were straight folks, gay folks, bisexual folks, questioning folks, parents, kids, teachers, writers, musicians, students, and even an occassional “celebrity” (Tom Waits, Tracey Chapman). It grew into a truly super gathering place and for those of us who were around for a few years, we have many memories and many stories to tell.

Thanks, Aroma!