Half Marathon Diaries

When I first started running, back in 2008, I was training for my first half marathon, the Disneyland Half Marathon. I hated running, but had given myself a goal of completing a full marathon before turning 25, so I strapped on a new pair of sneakers and got to it. I trained hard for that first half marathon, running 5-6 times per week, but without any real training methodology. My training methodology was go out and run.. no speed drills, no hill repeats, no tempo runs. Sadly enough.. even after a few years of training and racing, I still haven’t learned to really incorporate good training into my schedule. And as you’ve heard me say again and again.. I’m pretty lazy when it comes to training and motivation, and my races lately have been greatly below where I would like to be. The first half marathon was my best, and it’s only been downhill from there. Here’s a list of my half marathon times up to 2012 (NOTE: I completed a few half-iron distance triathlons, which include half marathons for the run, and full marathons during this time, but I’m not including those times here).

Disneyland Half Marathon (31 August 2008) – 2:17:13
Long Beach ICB Half Marathon (8 October 2008) – 2:19:56
Surf City Half Marathon (1 February 2009) – 2:24:56
San Francisco Half Marathon (26 July 2009) – 2:31:06
OC Half Marathon (6 May 2012) – 2:52:18

To start off 2013, I ran the Inaugural New Year’s Half Marathon in Los Angeles over the weekend. This was a night run to kick-off the new year, and of course I had very little training leading up to it. Oddly enough, I completed it in better time than I had my previous half marathon (even if only by five minutes… ), and it was a more difficult course (with more hills than expected). I was happy with my finishing time, considering that the last run I did was a over two months ago and was only a little over 2 miles.. but hopefully this will motivate me to do better. If this is what I can do without any training.. what can I do if I actually focus my training?

Inaugural New Year’s Half Marathon (5 January 2013) – 2:46:58

Check out my makeshift duffle made from the post-race mylar blanket! Styling!

The course was not my favorite… rolling hills throughout the entire course, which was unexpected. I heard someone at about Mile 7 say, “It’s all downhill from here”… but he was wrong. We did get to run around and through Dodger stadium, which was pretty nice, and we got a nice tour of Downtown LA at night, so at least the course wasn’t boring.

Welcome to Dodger Stadium (parking lot)!

Pretty nice.. even if the entire bottom of the stadium and dugouts are all gutted..

Race Report: Fit to be Square 5K

Yes.. I’m still alive. Work has been crazy busy lately, and I have a lot of things to blog about, but not much time to actually get around to writing the posts and selecting/formatting pictures. I’ll try to get back on track with the posts because I’ve… let’s start off with the last time I ran…

I haven’t really been following my planned 2011 race schedule. Mostly because I’m just not prepared.. the second reason is because my shins have been KILLING me. I went to see an orthopedist, who told me that I DO NOT have a stress fracture (YIPPEE!!!), but I do need to lay off the running for a while until the shin splints go away. So, I haven’t ran (at all) since the Fountain Valley Fit to be Square 5K on February 19. I had signed up for this race on a whim… Minh told me about it only a few days before, and I thought it’d be a good way to support my local community.

Me and Minh before th race (Picture from the OC Register)

I went into the race having not ran for about a week because of the shin splints.. But I told myself that I’d give it my all since it was only a 5k. The goal was to finish in under 25 minutes. I didn’t have high hopes about placing since there were A LOT of high schoolers out there racing (to raise money for their school teams) and those kids are ALWAYS faster than me.

... and they're OFF!!!

I started off at a pretty good pace, and kept it up for most of the race. I had to stop once to walk for a little bit, but overall I felt pretty good. I ended up finishing in just under 25 minutes which was AWESOME!! (Although… the race course was just shy of a full 5k, but not by much).

Pushing myself for a strong finish...

To my surprise.. I ended up in SECOND PLACE in my age group – Females 19 – 39. Pretty awesome for not being prepared, right?

Second Place!! whoop whoop!!

The OC Register did a little online photo album of the race that you can check out here: 5K runners ‘Fit to be Square’ in Fountain Valley.

There were 5 bajillion snails around because of the rain the night before...

Race Report: Xterra Trail Run – Crystal Cove

As much as I’m not very good at it, I do in fact love running. Trail running, to be more specific.

Sunday marked the 3rd race in the Xterra SoCal Trail Run Series. This one was held at Crystal Cove (YAY! for local races) and at the not too early time of 8AM. It’s still a little bit of a drive from home, so we got up around 6:15AM (or so) to make sure we had plenty of time to grab breakfast, find parking, and get checked-in. Met up with Elise and Skyler, who were also running the 17k.

Race started a little after 8AM, and I made sure to stay at the front. Even though I’m a slower runner and should probably start in the middle somewhere, I like to start near the front because it’s a more accurate race time for events that don’t have timing chips (like most trail races).

I'm not ahead of Elise for very long.. that girl is A LOT faster than me..

The course was a little different from what I was expecting, but I had run most of it before during my training runs. I did feel extremely out of shape, more so during the race than I did during the previous weekend. It was a bit of a bummer not being strong, but I did my best. Tried to run/jog when I could (especially up the hills), but my quads and glutes just felt like jello. Ended up walking quite a bit more than I was expecting to, but finished strong on a long downhill.

Overall winner.. James Walsh

Female winner and 3rd overall.. Michelle Barton.. missed the female course record by less than a minute..

Smiling on a nice long downhill to the finish..

I’ve decided that this is an AWESOME course for hill-training, since there are so many rolling hills that you don’t have to keep doing just one, you can still do a loop. Plus, Crystal Cove has some nice single track for running along the Fenceline at the top (not part of the race course, but I wish it was).

Overall, I’m satisfied with my results. Finished in 2 hours and 4 minutes, 6th in my age group out of 14. I’m a little bit bummed for Elise and Skyler, who had to “jump” age groups for this race since race age is based on your age at the end of 2011 (lame). But they both still did really well: Elise getting 4th, and Skyler getting 7th.

Didn't feel so great afterwards.. but was happy to have finished!

And with that.. racing is OFFICIALLY OVER for 2010! Now I REALLY REALLY need to get back to training.

Race Review: Xterra SoCal Trail Run #1 – Point Mugu 18k

Sunday marked my first venture into Xterra country with the start of the Xterra Trail Run SoCal Series. Four hundred or so runners headed out to Point Mugu State Park (just on the edge of LA and Ventura counties, between Malibu and Oxnard) for the Point Mugu Trail Run. I had previewed the course in September, so I more or less knew what to expect. Goal time was 2 hours (that’s about a 10:45 min/mile pace) – I knew I would be able to handle the flats and the downhills, but it was the climbs and the singletrack (getting stuck behind people) that really made me worried I’d be on the slow side.

Sunday morning came, and Minh and I got up EARLY (5AM) for the drive up to Malibu. The plan was to leave by 5:30AM for the 2 hour drive. We made it to the race earlier than expected (7:00AM), either due to Minh’s crazy speedracer driving or the lack of traffic, or both. I was asleep most of the time, so I can’t really say. We got a pretty good parking spot, since we were there early. Checked in and hung out in the car for a little while.

The essentials for the race.. number, GU, and Garmin

Marked for the run... I haven't put one of these on in YEARS...

At about 8AM, I decided to go for a warm-up run and hit the potties for the last time before the race. I have been suffering from a mild case of shin splints for the last couple weeks, so I hoped that the compression socks would do the trick.

Off on my warm-up.. see you later..

Practicing "technical" stuff on the warm-up.. this isn't even the half of it..

Course talk from the "devil" (race # 666)... "watch out for the unavoidable poison oak."

Even though I’m not the fastest runner, I always like to start these races near the front. It’s a little disheartening to get passed by 100+ runners early on in the race, but it beats adding a few minutes on my overall time from starting in the back. I tried my best to keep to the side so that people could pass me easily too. I may have expended a little too much energy at the beginning though, because I was feeling it pretty hard on the ascents during the first few miles.

"And they're off!!" Already getting passed by atleast 100 runners...

After the start, Minh headed off the assigned meeting location (somewhere between Mile 5 and 6, where the 11k course meets up with the 18k course). He took some pretty nice pictures of the trail, so you can see how much MORE technical it is compared to our local OC trails. I’ve never run anything like this before, and I’m pretty sure we DON’T have trails this technical in OC. Most of our trails pretty smooth, and even the rocky ones are pretty wide.

It was pretty foggy throughout the whole race..

I got passed quite a bit during the run, but I was still keeping a good pace. I ran when I could, but had to walk a lot of the ascent. I didn’t feel too bad though, because I didn’t really get in anyone’s way. For the most part, I slowed to a walk/hike when the people behind or in front were also slowing, and I always stepped to the side when I could to let people pass. I picked up the pace a little bit on flats and downhills to make up for whatever time I had loss on the climbs.

The first water station wasn’t where it was supposed to be (around 4.5 miles).. but luckily I still had enough water to sustain me until I did hit the water station (a little past mile 5). I also didn’t cover myself in poison oak like they had warned would be inevitable. There was poison oak all over the first half of the course, but I was able to avoid it. Even the one spot that was COVERED in poison oak overgrowth didn’t affect me…. perhaps I’m one of the few lucky ones that’s not sensitive to it? Minh’s not even sure if he saw any poison oak.. but then again.. he doesn’t know what it looks like.

FOG! You could hear the ocean, but you couldn't see it..

Just before Mile 6, and the last long steady uphill of the race, I met up with Minh for the bottle hand-off. He prepared a bottle with Heed and a gel for me. It was nice to get a COLD bottle, since my bottle was starting to become not satisfying. Luckily, the weather was cool and foggy, instead of sunny and hot like the preview run. It stayed nice and foggy the entire morning, so it made for PERFECT running weather.

Ready for my bottle hand off...

18k and 11k course merges for the rest of the race

Once we hit the top of the last climb, I was feeling good. I knew that the rest of the course was just downhill switchbacks, and I decided to just let my momentum carry me to the bottom. My knees were starting to hurt, but my shins were feeling pretty good. What’s great about this downhill is that you can occasionally see the start/finish area, and you can HEAR the announcements going on. It’s really motivating to get to the finish. I passed a few people on the downhill, but mostly I just stuck to my pace and tried to finish strong.

FINISH LINE!!!

The picture being taken by the guy in red can be seen below..

Pretty cool picture... I'm gonna buy it.. but haven't gotten around to it yet..

FINISHED... see you at the next one!

I finished in 2:03:13, which is a lot better than the preview run and about what I had expected for myself. Things to work on if I want to be competitve (and I do)… overall speed, hills, ability to recover after hills (this probably goes for cycling and general running also).

Xterra Trail Run SoCal Series #1 – Point Mugu 18k
2:03:13
6 out of 15 AG F25-29 (190 overall)

After this first race, I’ve decided that trail running is a million times BETTER than road running (marathons specifically). On the road, it’s pretty boring. You don’t see anything interesting and it’s just the same road over and over again, 90° turns, and thousands of people around you the whole time. With trail running, sometimes it’s just you and nature, the terrain changes completely from wide and flat to technical singletrack to switchbacks. The views are INCREDIBLE, whether it be of the ocean or the mountains or a wide open field. Sometimes you see someone ahead or hear someone behind, but for the most part it’s just you and nature. It’s great. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to road running only… Maybe if I think I’ll qualify for Boston. That’s still a goal in the back of my mind somewhere.