Second 70.3 – Redemption at Vineman

July 25th, 2010 No Comments

Vineman 70.3 logoI don’t have a good track record for writing my race reports on time so I think it’s pretty good that this is going up only a week after the race.

I had very high expectations of myself for this race, especially since my first 70.3 race last March at Oceanside did not go as planned. I wanted to finish this race well under 6 hours and close to the 5:15 mark. Overall, I am very pleased with my results and the execution of my race plan. My official race time was 5:21:53.

Pre-race: I arrived in Windsor on Friday, two days before the race and just after finishing a crazy week of work filled with sleepless nights and super important meetings. I think I had about 8 hours of sleep in about 72 hours. I worried that my lack of sleep would negatively affect my performance. Other than a lack of sleep, my pre-race was worry-free thanks to Jay for driving up my bike and race bag

After a short one-hour flight into San Jose, Maria and I drove up through Friday traffic and barely made it to the Athlete Dinner. It was a really good pasta dinner sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce for the city of Windsor. After dinner, we checked into the “not so comfortable” Comfort Inn in Santa Rosa, met up with Jay to take care of bike stuff, and then hit the sack for some much needed sleep.

Saturday was devoted to a morning one-hour workout bike ride and run with Jay and Mikey. It felt good to move around as I was still feeling lethargic from sitting behind a computer all week long with no sleep. After the morning pre-race workout, Jay and I checked in, looked around the race expo, bought some souvenirs, and dropped off our running gear at T2 located at Windsor High School. By the way, don’t bother with the pre-race course talk. It just made me nervous listening to all the warnings about the dangerous turns on the bike course. That’s not the kind of stuff you want to get lodged in your head before a race. We all ate lunch at Quizno’s, and then took a nap in the hotel. Later that evening Jay and I got our bikes and swim gear ready for the race. I had forgotten to bring an air pump, so I was a little worried about finding a pump before the race.

Swim: The next morning Jay and I left for the swim start/T1 at 4:30 am. The start was located at Johnson’s Beach at the Russian River Resort area. As soon as we arrived, I had to dart behind a building to go to the bathroom. I could wait no longer. Sorry, Guerneville peeps. There were no race refs around, so no penalties for me. I borrowed an air pump from some professional women triathletes, which alleviated my final worry of the morning.

I found my row and selected a spot to set up my transition area. Mentally, I made note of its location, which was five rows up from the porta-potty on the side of the Bike Out path. Wave 12 started at 7:58 am, so I had about three hours to kill. I did that by going to the bathroom about 6 more times. Good thing I brought some toilet paper.

pre-race chat with Maria

Pre-race chat with Maria

At about 7:00 am I saw Maria. You can’t start a race without a good luck kiss! Warming up was pretty much non-existent. I had no running shoes, so I did a couple of jog laps back and forth in my sandals, and then I put on my wetsuit.

I was feeling a little nervous, as usual, about swimming. But as soon as I got into the water, it was amazingly warm 72.5 degrees. And because it was a freshwater river, it felt like swimming in a pool. I started to feel more confident. Finally at 7:50 am Wave 12 got into our starting area. I positioned myself to the right and a little rear. I think I get the best results starting there since I’m not going out to lead the swim. My goal for the swim was to do it in 35 minutes.

When the horn went off, I felt good and started out strong. With no clock to look at, I typically gauge my swim based on my perceived effort. For some weird reason, I felt tired for most of the swim. The water was shallow in many parts of the swim course, so I actually stood up and walked at some points. This helped me catch my breath. When I reached the turnaround point, it was about 19 or 20 minutes into the race, and I thought my swim was pretty much toast. So I buckled down and swam a little harder to get back to T1. Later I was surprised to learn that my swim was 37:24, which was almost a full three minutes faster than Oceanside. I chalk up the tired feeling in the water to perhaps a greater perceived effort. One thing I did differently in this race was to kick minimally. I think this saved me from getting any swim cramps before the bike ride. With a wetsuit on, you don’t really need to kick. I feel that the additional effort spent towards kicking doesn’t really increase my forward movement all that much in a wetsuit.

At this particular race for T1, we have to pack up all our gear into a bag. Then the race volunteers bring our stuff to the finish line for us. In addition to my usual difficulties removing the bib john portion of the wet suit, I spent more time than I wanted trying to get everything into my bag before leaving on the bike ride. There is still much to improve in my T1 transition. It was a slow 4:06.

Bike Out

Bike Out

Bike: Immediately at the Bike Mount area, there is a small hill. Some people chose to walk their bikes up the hill, but it seemed to small to me to waste time doing that. Before the race I put my bike into a lower gear so I basically just sprinted up the hill while trying to dodge the noobs who were walking and struggling to clip into their pedals.

Basically for the first 8 miles or so, I was pretty annoyed with just passing people and trying to clear a path for myself where I felt I wasn’t surrounded by other athletes. I worried a little about getting a drafting penalty, but fortunately the refs weren’t monitoring the start of the bike course too closely.

I encountered a sharp right turn at mile 7, and then I forgot about the immediate left turn. I almost ate it when my bike ran into some dirt. I thought about my time trial face plant at Fiesta Island last March for a few seconds, and was relieved that I didn’t lose control as I got out of the dirt and onto the road.

The bike course was much easier than that of the Oceanside race. There were some points where I was going 30+ mph. But given the rolling hills on the course, I was very pleased to sustain an average speed of 21 mph for the entire bike route. The weather was still overcast, which enabled me to maintain a fast speed with little effect from climate and heat. The advice given to me before the race was to go “slower” on the bike course and save some energy for the run.

I finished half the course (28 miles) at about 1:15. The weather was still relatively overcast, but the sun and heat were finally making their appearance. I decided to race the rest of the bike route in such a way that I could go as fast as I can without exerting a lot of effort. To maximize this, I pedaled hard on downhills and used the momentum to get up the rolling hills with ease. Despite the overcast weather, I stuck to my race nutrition plan and took a sip of my Infinit bike mix every 10 minutes even though I didn’t feel thirsty.

At mile 45 I went up the lone steep hill of the course at a relatively slow pace. I could feel the beginnings of cramps in my quads, the same situation that caused my Oceanside race to be so poor on the run. I continued to ride as planned, going as fast as a I could without exerting my quads too hard. The last part of the race heading back into Windsor was relatively flat. I know I could have gone faster with a little more effort, but I was afraid of cramping on the run.

Overall, I was very pleased with my bike leg. I didn’t ride as conservatively as I had planned. My time was 2:37, and I was shooting for 2:45.

Run Out

Run Out

Run: When I arrived to my spot at T2, I secured my bike to the rack and tore open my bag of running gear. My T2 time was much shorter than T1, 2:49.

About three-tenths of a mile onto the course, I felt the familiar pang of pain in my quads, especially my right quad. The cramps were here! Instead of panicking, I moved off the run course to stop and stretch for a few seconds. When the pain subsided I began running again.

After the first mile of running relatively slow, I had a talk with my negative self and asked if there was any reason why I should settle for less on the run? I had a goal of finishing this half marathon in under two hours, but my current pace was definitely putting me at the 2:15 mark again. I convinced my negative self to go away and just focused on maintaining a steady cadence.

At times I had to walk to prevent the cramps from taking over. As I reached mile 6 I felt my confidence return. I knew I had it in me to finish this run in under two hours so I continued at a comfortable pace that would allow me to do just that. It was not my fastest pace, but it was definitely a doable pace at which I could manage the pain of impending cramps while still achieving my time goals.

As I entered the finish chute, I passed about three people. Why weren’t they sprinting? Who knows? I took a last look at my watch and I knew my results would be good. I was very happy with my final time of 5:21:53. The run? Yea. I finished it in under two hours with a time of 1:59:47.

In addition to improving my swim time, I would also like to improve my T1 and running time. I feel like I’m on the cusp of going under 5 hours for this distance. If I can get my time under 5 hours, then I think I’ll have a good shot at qualifying for Clearwater in my age group. I know I can knock 20 minutes off my run time as I build up my strength and endurance for running after swimming/biking.

So yea. For me, I kicked ass in this race. And I’m pretty happy about it.


First Marathon

June 6th, 2010 2 Comments

Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon

For once I am attempting to complete a race report upon completion of the race and not several weeks later. I still plan to report out on my races at the La Jolla Half Marathon and the Spring Sprint Triathlon, but those will have to wait.

I achieved a major milestone this morning by completing my first marathon, the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Marathon, in under four hours with a time of 3:51:28. Although I did not achieve my goal of 3:30, a Boston Marathon qualifying time for my age group next year, I am very pleased overall with my performance today.

The day started quite early, waking up at 3:00 AM to eat breakfast and change. Fortunately, I packed my race gear stuff the night before and put all of it in the car. I was out the door and headed to Qualcomm Stadium by 4:00 AM as planned. Surprisingly, it was barely enough time to make it to the start line. With over 30,000 runners competing in this event, I will be sure to leave even earlier next time so I don’t feel rushed and stressed out before the race.

After arriving at Balboa Park from the shuttle ride, I headed straight for the porta-potties for a last-minute pit stop. Unfortunately, the lines were so long that I finally reached the front of my line and finished my restroom obligatories with about five minutes to spare before my wave started at 6:16 AM. After the restroom ordeal, I dropped my gear back at the Gear Check (thank you, UPS). But then I realized that I had lost one of my nutrition flasks. I ran back to the bathroom area to look for it, but gave up when I couldn’t find it right away. My backup nutrition for the lost calories was to drink the Cytomax at the aid stations as needed for the first hour, and then use my two other flasks for the last two hours. As I ran towards the starting lines to find Corral #2, someone was singing the national anthem. I found my starting area with about 30 seconds to spare. As I maneuvered through a barricade, I accidentally stepped on someone’s toe. She told me: “You just stepped on my toe.” Thanks for that info. I said nothing and then we were off.

The weather was awesome, overcast. I began to believe that this was going to be the perfect day for the perfect race. My plan was to run the first 10K at 8:15, the second and third 10Ks at 8:00, and the last 10K+ at 7:45. I actually felt great for several miles. My biggest struggle was holding back and conserving energy. The cool weather made it easy to run, so I decided to just follow how my body felt.

I’m glad I was able to get all my mile splits in faster than 8:15 and sometimes faster than 8:00 because when the race headed on to the 163 Freeway after mile 8 for a three-mile uphill stretch, my faster splits earlier would allow me to stay on track as I ran up the hills slower than I wanted.

I ran into a co-worker who was volunteering at an aid station at Mile 11 and grabbed some water from her. Thanks for your support, Debbie!

Amazingly, even after 13.1 miles, I still felt great. I shoved the idea that I had another half of the race to run to the back part of my mind. I didn’t want to focus on that. Instead, I continued to focus on my arm swing keeping my arms pumping forward rather than swinging across my chest, keeping my strides light on my feet and letting gravity take the momentum trying to prevent my body from absorbing the impact, and finally relaxing my feet as they struck the ground so I wouldn’t cramp. Read the rest of this entry »

I am the Biggest Loser

May 25th, 2010 No Comments

I love the hit reality TV show, “The Biggest Loser”. I can relate. Each season never ceases to amaze me with the physical transformations the contestants make on the show. It’s a testimony to the power of the mind, will, determination, perseverance, and most of all, hard work.

It all starts with belief in yourself even when nobody else believes in you.

And so without further delay, below is a re-write of my biggest loser story. I was not able to include this “biography” in my EDTEC portfolio, so I’m posting it on my blog. Enjoy.

Transformation

What have you done today to make yourself proud?

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Running Blindly

May 9th, 2010 No Comments

Carlsbad 5000 retro logoThe Carlsbad 5000 is probably the most popular 5k race in the world. It’s flat and fast. On this course, I made my second attempt of 2010 to run a sub-20 5k. First off, it was not to be this time. I crossed the finish line at 20:43.

On April 11, 2010 I got to the race site early since parking is a big problem due to the race’s popularity. While waiting to start my pre-race warm-up routine, I got carried away reading a book and sipping on my Pre-Race Infinit drink. Unfortunately, I did more reading than sipping. Instead of thinking about my liquid intake right before the race, I drank the remainder of the Infinit drink, and immediately, I regretted it.

Carlsbad 5000

Carlsbad 5000

With about 40 minutes until race start, I did a short warm-up run and walked around for a little bit, waiting for my body to process all the excess liquid. Fortunately, I felt less water-logged by the time the race started. With about 15 minutes to the start, I powered on my Garmin 310 XT. I noticed the battery power was kinda low, but I didn’t think anything of it since the total race time would be brief. With 5 minutes to go, my Garmin powered down… dead battery. Apparently, I had left it on all night the other day, and there was no power left.

I know I’ve become dependent on the Garmin’s features. For runs, I use it to view my pace, speed, and elapsed time. For this race, I ran blindly, relying simply on my perceived effort and my experience from other races. I put negative thoughts out of my head and resigned myself to the fact that I’d be listening to my body rather than looking at my watch during the race.

Despite my lack of technology during the race, I ran a very good race and came within half a minute of my personal best. This year I was one of the top 250 finishers in the race so I got one of the cool First 250 Finishers medal.

IM70.3 CA 2010

April 18th, 2010 No Comments

IRONMAN 70.3 CaliforniaThis was it. The day had arrived: March 27, 2010. I’ve been mentally gearing up for this day since I registered for this race 10 months ago on May 26, 2009. I’d say that I began my serious training and preparation for my first IRONMAN 70.3 at the beginning of 2010.

Of the four elements in triathlon, yes I meant to say four, I identified two liabilities to work on in my race preparation. One, swimming. Two, nutrition.

Since January, I’ve been swimming at least three times per week for about 5 miles/week. Each Tuesday, I swam on my own at LA Fitness, following the swim workout created for me by my coach. For my other two weekly swims each Wednesday and Friday, I joined a Master’s Swim program with the Escondido Swim Club. In the last four months, I have swum about 95,000 yards. My swim pace decreased from about 1:50/100 yards when I first began to my current fastest pace of 1:37/100 yards. I swam my fastest 1.2 miles in the pool in 41:37.

For as much as I could control about my apprehension of water, I did as much as I could in the pool to overcome any doubts and fears. Swimming, swimming, and more swimming. I definitely improved both my speed and my endurance.

The big question still lingering: How would I do in the ocean? Where the water is dark and cold. Where there are tons of other people around me splashing and kicking in my face. The day before the race, I downloaded a race preview talk given by professional triathlete and coach, Jim Vance. I planned to follow his advice to acclimate to the cold waters of the Oceanside Harbor:

  1. Warm up prior to the swim so that I’m sweaty with the wetsuit on.
  2. Dunk my face and head into the water and breathe to prevent hyperventilating.
  3. Let my wetsuit fill up with water.
  4. Choose an appropriate place to start in relation to the other swimmers based on my ability.

With respect to nutrition, I enlisted the aid of expert nutritionist, Kim Mueller, of Fuel Factor. She performed a diet and exercise analysis on me. From the diet analysis, she created a baseline meal plan for me of 2200 calories per day, along with a plan for extra calories to account for pre-workout, work, and post-workout recovery. In the last four months, I learned a lot from Kim about how and when to eat to fuel my workouts and races as well as recover from them. Armed with a new nutrition regimen for the last four months, I must say I have never felt better. In the past four months, not only have I maintained a sub-10% body fat percentage, but I have also felt great for all but two of my workouts and events. My nutrition and diet, the fourth discipline of triathlon, have given me confidence in my body’s ability to perform based on providing it with the most ideal fuel.

A week before the race, Kim gave me the best advice. I think it was the key for my mental outlook on race day. She said:

Just go out there and have fun. Enjoy each sport as you do them. You’ve already done the hard part and all the work. The race is the easy part.

This totally put me at ease. Along with the tips from Jim Vance, I felt very relaxed for my swim! I don’t think I have ever been more prepared for a race before. Swimming, cycling, and running had all peaked at the right time.

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Time Trial Face Plant

March 23rd, 2010 6 Comments

I think it’s an interesting story. Or at least it could be if I tell it right. So, here goes.

Despite my silence  on my blog, I have been very busy in 2010. My new role at work as a project lead is challenging; I’m managing two projects. I’m finishing up my Master’s degree in Educational Technology from SDSU. And I’m fueling my passion for endurance sports by training about 12-15 hours per week. My primary goal this year is to have my peak performances at the long course triathlon distance, or Ironman 70.3. In the midst of all this business, I’ve competed in three races since January, a 5K and two half marathons. In two of these races, I barely missed my personal goals by a margin of about 16 seconds. So I’d say that my running is doing very well. At our recent track time trial, I ran a 6:20 pace over a 2-mile distance.

Even swimming, my nemesis, has improved. I’ve been swimming about 4.5 to 5 miles weekly in the pool for the last three months on my own and as part of a Master’s Swim group with the Escondido Swim Club. My swim pace has steadily dropped. It was about 1:55/100 yards when I first started. And now, I can swim a little faster than 1:38/100 yards. I’ve had my fastest 1.2-mile swim to date at 41:38. The only unknown left to conquer is to find out if I can relax while racing in the ocean and just let the miles of swimming that I’ve been doing take over.

Even though I’m relatively new to serious athletic training, I’ve found my cycling to be my strongest discipline of the three sports. I don’t really have anything to make that determination other than a couple of informal time trial results at Fiesta Island. My fastest prior to this writing was 31 minutes over 20K, which is three large loops around the island, or 12 miles.

Two days ago, one week before my big race (Ironman 70.3 California), I participated in the first time trial of the season with Breakaway Training. Despite being only one week away from the race, Coach Luke said to go for it. My goal: finish the 12 miles in under 30 minutes, which meant that I needed to average greater than 24 mph.

My buddy, Eric and I, started off together. Just as an aside, before the start of the trial, Eric was moaning on and on about how tired he’s been and not feeling well. Just so you know, Eric, I’m on to you buddy! Anyways, I “warmed up” my legs for a hundred yards or so, then Matt took off. And so the chase began. I followed him with the lead group of about five or six others) close behind. For a second or two, I reached speeds of about 29-30 mph to give chase, overtaking the lead for a short time around the first turn where it’s easy to go fast on a slight downhill. The lead group (Matt, Eric, Dave P, Kent, Gary, and one other dude) set the pace, and I followed behind.

I’m not sure if the lead group was forming a paceline. As you know, there’s no drafting in triathlon, but our coaches said drafting was okay for this informal “race”. In any case, I didn’t participate in any rotating off the front, but hung in the back, conserving energy. We rode anywhere from 25-27 mph at any given time. Whenever I thought the group was going too slowly (under 24 mph), I sped up and took the lead. I’m not sure if they liked that or not; the lead group never let me stay too far ahead and always brought me back into the fold.

I like to think that most of the guys (other than the other middle-aged 40-yr old+ athletes) didn’t like some new guy on the block up in the front, especially some 44-year old with gray hair and all, like me. Ha! Most likely, nobody in the group thought about that. I like saying it, though. By the middle of the second lap, I noticed that my buddy Eric had taken a strong position in the lead group.

Although I wasn’t really sure if Eric was truly on his second lap, I decided to surge forward and pass the whole group when we reached the back side of the island. There was a slight headwind, and our group speed had dropped to about 22-23 mph. I was a little agitated by the slow down, so I yelled out: Let’s go. We’re under 24!” Again the lead group brought me to the back of the fold as we came around for our last lap.

Given the few glances at my speedometer over the course of the trial, I knew that I would easily finish in under half an hour. I was sustaining speeds of over 25 mph for the race. My strategy for the last lap was to hang in the back of the group to conserve energy, and then sprint to the finish when it was in sight. I estimate that the sprint would be about 1.25 km long, maybe 45 seconds to 1 minute. At the back of the group, it was effortless. I love that feeling where your legs are pedaling in almost a free spin. Whenever I look at my speedometer at that point, I’m always amazed by how fast I’m going with such little effort.

At the back of the island there were a couple of cars that were riding to far to the right, which slowed us down to about 22 mph. We had to pass them on the left, which was kind of weird. After navigating around another couple of cars, our speed had dropped to about 21 mph. All of a sudden, I saw Eric take off. Matt and a couple of others gave chase. Dave P and I were in the back of the group. I knew in a few moments, the finish would be visible in the distance.

With the finish line in sight, the group spread out. The sprint was on. Dave P and I maneuvered to the left of the road. I glanced down at my watch. 27.3 mph. I looked at the space. I looked at Dave. For a second I hesitated because I was on the edge of the road, very close to the sand. Neither Dave nor I wanted to yield. In that moment of hesitation, Dave took the space and my bike had no choice, but to go in the sand.

In slow motion, I could feel the bike wobble. And then wham! My front wheel turned left at 90 degrees. I yelled, “Oh sh…!”

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Reflections on 2009

January 17th, 2010 No Comments

This reflective post is long overdue now that we are more than half way into the first month of 2010. When I think back on my athletic adventures of 2009, it really boils down to three phases.

Phase 1  (Jan- Apr) — The Triple Crown: I started out the year with a focus on running, something I had begin in October 2008. My primary goal for the year was to complete the Triple Crown of San Diego half marathons. I clearly remember running my first half marathon (Carlsbad 2009) wondering if I could complete it in under two hours. The finish line never looked so beautiful for that first half marathon. Apparently, my base level of fitness was not as high as I thought it was. After that race, I had cramps in my calves and feet. When I completed it well under two hours with a time of 1:52:10, I knew I was on my way.

Up next in Phase 1 was the La Jolla Half Marathon. I had heard so much hype about this race, about how difficult it would be with “all the hills”. For the most part, I trained near my home by doing hill repeats up a local street near the local community college. Funny, my personal trainer said that I was a “badass” when I showed him the hill. In retrospect, it was more like a bunny slope compared to what was to come later on in the year. I really believe I could have set another PR at the La Jolla Half, but instead I settled for finishing under two hours again and a major lesson learned. Note to self: Do not eat lots of fiber the night before a race.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that my personal trainer had been whispering “triathlon” in my ear during this time. In February I purchased a book to help me train for my first triathlon in 12 weeks.

Phase 2 (May-Oct) — Triathlon: With a couple of half marathons, 10Ks, and 5Ks under my belt, I focused on my first triathlon, a sport that I vowed that I would never do. And now look at me; I have an entire blog devoted to triathlon. So it’s no secret that I like race bling. For my first triathlon, the Spring Sprint, I raced the Super Sprint race, for which only the winner in each division would receive a medal. My personal trainer told me to put any thought of winning out of my mind. He said people spend years chasing the podium and never get on. Needless to say, I didn’t listen to him. I entered the race with all intentions of winning, and that’s exactly what happened. A key decision I made a few days before the race was to take my training to the next level, and so I decided to sign up with Breakaway Training.

During this phase I focused on my training with Breakaway. My coach, Luke Walton (no, not the lame one from the Lakers), wrote challenging custom workouts for me. The group workouts were humbling at first. I learned that I was not that great compared to some experienced triathletes on the team. Despite my initial discouragement with how much I would have to improve, I forged ahead, working very hard in my training while balancing full-time work and going to school part-time. It’s a wonder I didn’t drive my coach crazy with how impatient I was with myself.

I competed in four other triathlons with varying results. I didn’t get the race results I wanted (i.e. top three spots), but in each one I made improvements in the various aspects involved in doing triathlon. The interesting thing about this time period is that I must have made many small improvements over time because in October I noticed a significant improvement in my cycling and running.

When I traveled to Austin, Texas for the LIVESTRONG Challenge, my cycling and running speeds were significantly faster.

Phase 3 (Nov-Dec) — The Chase: Whatever madness to his methods, my coach was definitely putting together a very successful training program for me. During this phase I finished in the top three spots in all my 10K and 5K races, as well as set a new sub-1:45 half marathon PR. It was during this time that I began to chase the sub-20-minute 5K. With respect to cycling, on our last 20K time trial on Fiesta Island I averaged 25 mph WITHOUT drafting off our top athlete.

In retrospect, 2009 was a banner year. I think I’ve done really well given the eight months of training with Breakaway.

For 2010, I intend to complete a 5K in under 20 minutes, improve my swimming, and focus on the half Ironman triathlon distance as well as complete my first marathon.

Jingle Bell 5K 2009

December 12th, 2009 1 Comment

I chased the elusive sub-20 5k during my last race of 2009 in the Jingle Bell 5k held in Balboa Park downtown on December 12th. I placed 3rd in my age group with a time of 21:17. I guess I did not scope out the race enough because the course was definitely not a flat one. There were some rolling hills, which definitely impeded my efforts to finish the race in under 20 minutes. My next shot at sub-20 will have to wait until 2010.

I fully expected to run in pouring rain, but the skies withheld their moisture for the duration of the race. The rain didn’t start until about an hour before the awards ceremony. I’m glad I didn’t have to contend with wet roads while running although Coach Luke told me that running in the rain would be no problem.

I had some minor agitations before the race. My pre-registration was messed up because I was Paola De Ocampo, a 30-year old female. This mishap was pretty surprising especially since I had signed up for the race online. To correct the problem, I had to fill out a scantron registration form, and the race officials gave me a new bib number.

For whatever reason I didn’t have the same speed or energy as I did in my previous race. With the small rolling hills in the course, I knew by the second mile of the race that I would not be reaching my race goal. Despite the disappointment, I was happy to place 3rd and receive my last medal of 2009.

Nothing gong on but training during the holidays. Next race for me is a 5k on January 9th at Mission Bay. I’ve run the course before, and it is flat. I think it will be my best opportunity to beat this 20-minute barrier both in terms of flatness and availability. For other flat courses in the early months of 2010, I already have other race commitments. Wish me luck!

Mainly Masters 2009

December 11th, 2009 No Comments

Last year when I ran this San Diego Track Club sponsored race, I lined up at the start line with some older folks. I immediately felt sorry for them, thinking that I was going to smoke them. When the race started, these 50 and 60-year olds left me in the dust, some of them finishing 15 minutes faster than I did. Well this year I was not fooled at all.

I put last year out of my mind, determined to run my own race at my own pace. My goal was 0:44:59. In order to finish the 10k race in under 45 minutes, I knew I would have to run close to a 7:00 minute/mile pace. I planned to do the first 5k of the race at about 7:10, and then to speed up for the second half to about 7:05 or 7:00.

Before the race I did a little 10-minute warm-up jog. At Fiesta Island you don’t have much of a choice of where you run considering it’s just a small island with one main circular road. After my warm-up the Open Division started, and I knew my event (Master’s) would be starting in about half an hour. As I lined up at the start line I saw the familiar faces from last year, the older, veteran runners from the San Diego Track Club. I blocked them out of my mind and thought only about the pace I needed to run. Despite the cold weather, I felt good, energetic yet relaxed.

The race started and I let all the old folks pass me, sticking to my plan and maintaining a pace of 7:10. Really the first four miles were kinda boring. I did bring my iPod and just listened to music and thought about stuff, what specifically, I cannot remember for the life of me. There was a woman who was running at about the same pace as me, so I decided to pace against her. It was kind of annoying at first since we ran side by side for four miles. But I got used to it. At first, she would try to speed up and go faster than me, but I stayed with her. After awhile, I guess she gave up because we pretty much ran together for most of the race.

After the first 5k, I tried to speed up a tad, but decided against it. I felt it would take too much energy out of me. So fortunately, I felt fine in maintaining the 7:10 pace. At mile four, I noticed that a couple of runners who had remained in front of me for the whole race had slowed down slightly. I even lost the pace woman somewhere in the middle of the fourth mile.

By the time I reached the last mile of the race, I was waiting for that “wall” to hit. The “wall” is what I call that physical feeling that I typically get when my lungs and legs scream “NO!”, and then I have to slow down. The weird thing is, the “wall” never came.

There was a husky, heavier guy who was ahead of me for the whole race, but by mile 5 I knew I’d be passing him soon since I never did hit the “wall”. As I turned around the final bend towards the finish with about 0.6 miles remaining, I decided to begin a gradual sprint. I passed the big dude. With about 0.3 miles remaining, I passed someone else. As I passed him, I could hear his feet picking up speed, and I knew he didn’t like that I had passed him especially with the finish line in sight. So I stepped it up to a full-on sprint.

After the race, I enjoyed some post-race treats and drinks. The one dude that I passed before the finish line told me afterwards that he tried to catch me but couldn’t. I thought that was cool. After changing, I went back to the finish line to check on my results: 0:44:09. I finished 25th overall. If I had raced in the Open division, I would have finished 18th. Go figure. Anyways, I thought that 25th was definitely not good enough to win anything, so after calling Maria and letting her know the results, I decided to leave.

As I approached the exit to the island, I decided to turn around and go back to the finish line to check the results one more time. I had realized that even though I finished 25th, those were the overall results. I had not really paid attention to how I did in comparison to my age group. It’s a good thing I went back because when I checked the results board, I discovered that I placed 1st in my AG. So I headed over to the awards ceremony gathering and collected a cool (but cheap-looking) plaque. Seriously, I would just rather have … yeah, that’s right … a cheap, plastic medal.

Overall, I’m very pleased. I set another PR for the 10k distance and won my age group yet again. Weird. But I definitely can get used to winning.

Run for the Hungry 2009

November 26th, 2009 1 Comment

I had signed up for this turkey trot event last Thanksgiving, but I skipped it due to rain. I know. Wimpy. But that was a year ago.

This year I followed through on the race, doing the 5K event. I’ve been chasing after breaking the sub-20 minute barrier for the 5K distance. To that end, I need to maintain a pace of 6:24 or better on average. On this Thanksgiving morning it was not to be. My official time was 20:44. However, it was good enough for 1st place in my AG (out of 44) and 18th overall (out of 1440). So for those results, I am extremely pleased!

My strategy for this race was to try to do a negative split as advised by my fellow Breakaway team member, Dave P. For the first mile, I planned to run 6:30, followed by 6:25 for the second mile, and 6:15 for the last mile.

After waiting around for almost two hours for the race to start, I was feeling pretty antsy. So when the gun finally went off, I felt relieved and energized. As the lead group of runners ran out ahead, I purposely held back and let several people pass me. It was difficult at first to see so many people driving forward past me. But after the first mile or mile and one-half, I had passed most of the people easily by sticking to my plan.

I executed the plan flawlessly for two miles. By mile 3 though I was feeling a little tired. I managed to speed up for a few seconds here and there with short bursts of speed, but my pace during that last mile would not be fast enough to guarantee me a sub-20 finish. As I approached the last half-mile, I thought about sprinting as hard as I could. But I hesitated, thinking that I would not be able to sustain the speed and slow down too much by the time I reached the finish line.

At the end, I was off by only 45 seconds, which is basically about 15 seconds/mile off pace. So close. My regret for this race was that I did not sprint all out for that last half-mile. And due to that small miscalculation, I missed my goal time.

After resting for a bit and snacking on some post-race grub (bagels, water, electrolyte drinks, and even some pizza!), I checked out the results board and learned that I had won my division. For the awards we were given these nice blue aluminum water bottles. You know already… I would prefer to have a cheap plastic medal for a prize. But I’m happy my name is in the record books as the first place finisher in my age group.

At first I was just going to let this sub-20 thing go for this year, and just try again in 2010. But my coach says I should go for it. So I’ve signed up for another 5K in a couple of weeks. I plan to use the same strategy, and hopefully, I’ll have more juice at the end for the sprint to break the 20-minute barrier.

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