First run with the West Coast Road Runners this morning. It’s a big diverse group in terms of ages, paces, goals. In almost no time I found someone to run next week’s 10-miler with, & a big group who will be running the HM in late December. It was weird to have to drive to the run location, but totally worth it - a gorgeous run down the coast.
I also met the woman who just broke the Guinness World Record for finishing a half marathon running backwards. http://fox5sandiego.com/2015/10/30/local-runner-sets-record-by-running-backwards/
She has something called runner’s dystonia & can no longer run the normal way. I was inspired - I know I would give up in her situation, but running is too important to her.
That’s cool, Gertrude- both that you found this group and connected with people AND that you met the backwards woman! I would fall immediately.
Glad my 10 mile race is over. I entered with Nashville Striders volunteer coupons, so I didn’t pay anything. It’s only $30, though. For that we got hoodies (really nice- blue), pizza afterwards (not that I wanted it at 9:30am) and a beautiful course. The course is really hard, though and is uphill for at least the first half and we had some wind. I haven’t had wind in forever. I got slower every mile and was a little discouraged, because some of those miles didn’t seem uphill (until I looked at the elevation map afterwards). From 5 on I really got fast (downhill), as did everyone else. My daughter had a PR by 5 minutes (she has only run one other 10 miler) and won her age group because someone bumped up to overall awards. I won my age group, and, more importantly, beat my 2012 time by 2 minutes! I don’t beat many times these days, so that was nice. It just really felt hard and I was dreading it. Our awards are nice, thin, ear bands with the race logo on them. I like it a lot. It’s a fairly small race and we know a lot of the people, so post-race is very fun and congenial and the awards happen pretty quickly so it isn’t a major production. The course is pretty and sort of country but does have the hills. I had to walk two short stretches on some of the steeper hills.
Finished in 1:37:38 or something like that and we all got 10.1 on our Garmins, so that’s a 9:40 pace. I’ll take it.
I did it! The weather was perfect today - it was 40 degrees at the start of the race and 52 at the end, my favorite temperature to run in and it was just a light breeze. Beautiful sunny fall day. I finished in 3:55:55 and H finished in 3:47:30. I feel bad that my time is a Boston Qualifier, but his is not even though he was much faster and we are in the same age group. They just give the ladies so much more time. Anyway, I made some rookie mistakes and had a lot of problems with calf cramps from mile 18 on, but overall I’m really happy with how it went. Thanks for all your support!
That’s fantastic, C3Baker! Congratulations on a great race.
Yay and congratulations to MoWC and D for their 10 miles!
Nice 6 Sabaray. BB–your pushups are an inspiration Backwards half marathon–hard to imagine. I’m not sure my brain could adapt to doing that.
I ran six miles this morning and did a little upper body weight work including some pushups ala Michael’s advice–on the bar with my thumb over the top. It certainly was easier on my wrists doing them on the angle. Harvested some basil so H and I could have a ww pasta and fresh tomato sauce for lunch today.
Congrats, C3Baker - you certainly trained hard and it paid off!
That had to be a great feeling! That’s a great pace.
My pullover arrived and I love it - I think it might be a little large but will have room to layer if needed. I think a size down would be too tight in the shoulders.
Speaking of Michael, where is our resident training guru?
Congratulations, C3Baker. That’s a terrific performance! Are you going to try to go to Boston? How much under the time are you? I can’t keep track of the standards. You did great. Congrats to your husband, too.
It was interesting to see the range of attire at our race. It was 54, very cloudy and it wasn’t going to warm up. There were a couple of women in sports bras and shorts, which in November here seems strange. Oh- and the wind. Others were dressed for 30 degrees. I wore longer capris, a Nuu-Muu and a long sleeved shrug. I had a very short stretch where I could have gone without the shrug, but it didn’t bother me. Daughter was fine in a skirt and short sleeved tech shirt. My 75 year old friend ran 1:21 and set his 94th state age record.
Congratulations to MOWC and C3Baker! You both had great outcomes, lots to feel accomplished about.
Did a structured 60 minute ride today. 12x 3 minute intervals in 3 segments of 4 intervals each. Progressions of 90, 95, 100 and 105% FTP with 1 minute off between each interval. Another 4 weeks and I’ll be done with this phase. That will end the foundational work and then the real torturefest will begin ;).
Wow, feeling super lazy today after reading what you all have been up to! Miles and miles of pavement via feet, bike, etc!!! YOU GUYS ROCK!!!
So cool that you got connected with a running group Gertrude - will you run with them on a regular basis??
Congrats on your completion in a fabulous time C3Baker! Give your body a little rest now - between the miles on the road and the miles in the air your body must be exhausted!!
MOWC, I love how - even after oodles of races - you still get excited over the loot and camaraderie.
I intended to run at a local park yesterday, but time got the best of me. I’ll get out there today.
abasket- Honestly, as running has “boomed” and the races have become such huge “happenings”, I think I get even more excited about a smaller race where I know so many people and can hang out. This race had only a couple walkers (and they were “insiders” who started early) because the cutoff was 2 hours, which is fairly rapid for a 10 mile race these days. I am all in favor of the walkers participating and am glad the larger events provide that opportunity, but this race was sort of a throw-back to my early running days where the top runner in town (he just ran 2:17 at Chicago) was there doing it as a training run) and apologies were made that the mile markers did not make it out onto the course so “run near someone with a Garmin”. It just felt right to me (except for the hard effort on the course…).
I’ve always been really into the swag, too. Love the hoodies and I have it on right now. My daughter is really excited about winning the age group. 30-34 is tough, and no matter how much she improves, she is still generally well out of the money in a larger race.
abasket - yes, I will do my long weekend runs with them and a weekly track workout. This is a group that has a presence at every race in town, all wearing the club shirt, so I love the idea of just being able to always have a group to hang out with before & after a race. Also, some are into destination races - there’s a group doing the Big Sur HM this weekend & another group heading to the Las Vegas R&R next weekend. That’s something I’d really like to get into in my empty nest / early retirement years - traveling around the US / Canada to run in interesting places.
