Thanksgiving, 2010: Run for the Hungry 10K — I’m happy with the result of my last “tune-up” race before the Tuscon Marathon in two weeks. Official time: 43:29, 4th AG out of 63, 84th Overall out of 1,359. This is a new 10k PR for me.
Though it is slightly disappointing to miss a podium finish by 17 seconds, I know that the real prize is yet to be obtained.
Silver Strand Half Marathon, November 14, 2010:
I love winter running season. I wish I had as much success in triathlon as I have had in running the past couple of years. But I’m sure in time with the excellent coaching/training I’m getting, I’ll get the podium results I want. But I digress. This post is about half marathon running.
My friend, Eric, and I were targeting this race as the last tune up before the big dance at the Tucson Marathon in December. My Boston Marathon qualifying time is 3:30, and my projected half marathon target time is 1:40, a time that I have already achieved. So for me, this was more about beating the 1:40 half marathon time that has eluded me for the last several half marathon races I have done. Both Eric and I had planned to complete this race in 1:35; I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to do that. So honestly, I was ready to
Modified Warm-up Strategy - 1:35
fall back to my goal of 1:39:59. To assist us in our endeavor we purchased pace bands from Races2Remember.com. We planned to use the Modified Warm-up Strategy as shown on the right.
I felt a little intimidated by this goal pace of 7:14/mile, especially given that during my last few races I have struggled to make the 1:40 time. While I still had a little doubt, I also had a lot of confidence coming off of my first sub-20-minute 5k last week at Shelter Island. Also, my training has been coming together nicely; I’ve noticed huge gains in speed and endurance.
Eric and I ran the first mile together at 7:12. Then he took off. I was a little irritated. He kept talking about passing up Coaches Luke and Felipe. I told him to just forget them and stick to the plan. But he blazed on ahead. I let him go because I was not going to spend my energy going at a sub-7:00/mile pace just so I could say that I kept up with the Breakaway coaches for a little bit. I settled into my own pace and mentally geared up for executing my race strategy. [You can check out my Lap Paces here. They are located in the bottom left corner. Using the drop-down menu, change Duration to Pace.]
The part of the race that worried me were the six miles that I had to do at 7:09/mile. Could I sustain that pace for 40+ minutes? In past races, I’ve started to feel tired at mile 7. So I was concerned about sustaining that pace. In past races, cramps in my calves have been a problem, so that was looming in the back of my mind. So I figured that after the first three miles of “warm-up,” I would just take it one mile at a time and see if my legs could carry me at that pace. Basically, the heart of this race for me was just a 10k at 7:09/mile. Mile 7 came and went; there were no cramps and I was not physically tired. I just kept telling myself: one mile down, one more coming up. P.S. I saw Eric stop at a porta-potty and I passed him up. Later I would learn that he sped up at the beginning of the race so that he could build up a minute lead to have time to go to the bathroom and run the rest of the race with me. Eric and I ran miles 8 through 10 together.
By the time I reached mile 10, I knew I would make my goal of going under 1:40. That thought wreaked havoc on my mental state. I started to “feel” out of breath. Still, I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t just more mental than physical. I told Eric: “Go ahead. I’m gonna easily go under 1:40.” Although, I verbally and mentally gave up the 1:35 time, for some reason I didn’t stay too far behind Eric during mile 11. He stayed within one minute ahead of me during that mile.
At the end of mile 11, as I made a U-turn to head to the Imperial Beach Pier for the finish, I found a second wind (miles 10 through 12 were on the Naval Outlying Field Imperial Beach). For some reason, the out-of-breath feeling went away. I found a renewed energy and my breathing became controlled and purposeful, rather than labored and heavy. After I passed the mile 12 marker, my Garmin elapsed time indicated 1:32. I thought 1:35 was probably out of reach and that 1:36 or 1:37 was more realistic. So I kind of put 1:35 out of my mind and focused on the finish sprint and seeing if I could beat Eric. In front of me I could see that I was gaining ground on him. I exited the airfield at about 12.25 miles where the final aid station was located. Eric was maybe 25 yards in front of me, and he went slowly through the aid station, taking a long drink. To my surprise he stopped for a second, which allowed me to draw even with him. I knew the final stretch to the finish line was just around the corner, so I said to him: “C’mon, let’s go!”.
Eric was out of gas. I could hear his labored breathing. As we made the last left turn, I saw the finish line and said: “There it is.” And then I took off. It was a little early for a final sprint with about three-quarters mile remaining, but I thought sprinting early would make it a contest to see who had enough gas remaining for a longer sprint. I passed about three or four people in front of me, including two women. I never looked back and sprinted faster as the finish line got closer. I kept expecting to hear Eric’s breathing behind me.
To my surprise, I crossed the line with an official time of 1:35:16. I crushed my goal! It turns out I also finished in the top 10 in my age group with 9th place. For the first time, I finished in the top 100 finishers in a semi-large race field (93rd out of 2,882 runners). I am pretty ecstatic! Eric finished in 1:35:38. We both ran a very good race. And I am well within my target to qualify for the Boston Marathon in December when I race the Tucson Marathon. I sure hope I have a good race day like today.
The 8th time did the trick. On the third anniversary of my first real race ever, I finally broke the sub-20 minute barrier for the 5k distance. I’m so jazzed that I finally did it.
I love this race. Not only was it my first race ever three years ago, but the course is just so fast and flat. I finished the race in 19:56, 2nd in my age group, and 35th overall.
For the last several months the running training has been somewhat varied. I’ve been training hard for the marathon distance with the goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon 2012. Part of my training involved some speed work intervals at the track. I’m pleased with how much my fitness level, strength, and cardiovascular base have improved. My friend from Breakaway Training, Eric, and I have done extra speed workouts on our own. Lately, everything seemed to be coming together. Everyone noticed that I have been much faster at the track workouts.
My strategy for the race was to run the first two miles at 6:15/mile and 6:26 for the last 1.1 miles. It almost didn’t turn out that way today. I ran the first mile at 6:11. Eric caught up with me during the first mile, which made me feel much better. Originally, he was going to hang back and go a little slower. But I feel like I always perform better if I run with him or chase him. The lame thing about mile one was some guy running with a dog who passed us.
We ran mile two at about 6:17. It was nice to pass up the guy with the stupid dog. Eric moved ahead towards the end of mile two, while I could feel myself getting tired in the lungs and slowing down. With about 16-17 minutes elapsed, I was so relieved to make the final turn with about half a mile to go. Eric was around 15-20 seconds ahead of me. He’d be crossing the line soon at 19:38.
At this point, my lungs were burning pretty bad. I had an a-ha/deja vu moment. For two or three previous 5k races, I simply folded and threw in the towel. I had come very close to breaking this 20-minute barrier a couple of times, but when the pain became unbearable, I simply gave up. This time I decided it would be different.
For a few seconds I debated with myself about slowing down and giving up the sub-20 goal. With the finish line in sight, I knew I needed to make my last-minute sprint or I would not meet the goal. In spite of my lungs being on fire, I sprinted for the line relegating my thoughts about pain to the fact that the pain would just be temporary. In corner of my eye as I crossed the line, I saw the time clock flash 19:57. I made it!
First wall down for 2010, two more to go.
October 16, 2010: I had heard about this event from another Breakaway athlete. After checking it out, I thought it would be a great idea to enter this race. According to last year’s results, it was a really small event, which would mean that I might actually have a good chance of placing in the top 3 in my age group.
Originally, I had signed up for the Olympic distance event, but then I learned another Breakaway Training coach (also in my age group) might be racing it as well. At that point, I decided to do the Sprint event instead to give myself a better shot at a medal. In the end, the coach didn’t race that day, but I’m still glad I did the shorter event. I’ll explain later. I was impressed with how easy it was to switch events; it just required a simple email request. And then I received an email confirmation.
The event was held at Lake Perris State Recreation Area, in San Bernardino County near Moreno Valley, which is a little more than an hour away. I woke up race morning at 3 AM to get ready and prepare breakfast so that I could be on the road by 4 AM. Transition was supposed to open at 5:30 so I wanted to get there early since I still needed to pick up my race materials, not to mention that I always prefer the end spot on the bike rack. I found the park no problem, but it was so dark that I could not see any of the little signs pointing towards the triathlon staging area. So after about 15 minutes of being lost in a campground area, I found my way to the race site.
Transition: This race is so small and low key. The transition area was pretty much first come, first serve. I was one of the first people there, so I picked out a good spot and set up my stuff. I then checked in to the race and got my bib number and stickers. I chatted with a former student of mine from when I was a student teacher in 1993 (!). This was his second triathlon. I scoped out the various exit and entry points. The run from the swim back to the transition area was much longer than usual, at least 1/4 mile if not longer. I figured it would be a good distance for me to catch my breath after the swim.
There was a pre-race briefing given by the race director. In addition to the national anthem, it had the usual information about water temperature, road conditions on the bike course with the construction on such and such street, as well as a brief profile of the three courses. But one cool thing about the briefing was that the race director began the meeting with prayer. I thought that was awesome. We bowed our heads and thanked God for the talents and abilities he gave us to be able to race and asked for his blessings of safety for all the athletes. Super cool. After the briefing, I went for a 10-minute jog, and then hurried up to put on my wetsuit to start the swim.
Swim: The water was amazingly warm, like 72 degrees. Freshwater, no salt. Awesome. I had the best swim of any of my preceding triathlons with a 10:42 for approximately 800 yards, a little less than half a mile. That put my swim pace a 1:21/100 yards, which would explain why I felt so tired towards the end of the swim. I was wondering if there was something wrong with me because it was puzzling to me why I felt so out of breath for such a short swim. I was very glad for the long run back to T1. It gave me time to catch my breath and recover so I could hammer down on the bike segment.
Bike: For some reason in my mind, I thought the bike segment was only 9 miles long. It had a couple of hills in there, one medium hill at the beginning and one short, steep hill near the end of the route. For a 20K (12 miles), I did reasonably well at 34:34, averaging about 21 mph. By the end of the race, I would learn that I had passed most of the people in the first swim wave.
Run: My goal for the run was to do the 5K sub-7:00/mile. With a time of 22:03, it was just a little over. I definitely pushed it for most of the run, but I clearly ran out of gas towards the end. Unfortunately, I learned that the guy in front of me was 3rd to finish in my age group, and I missed passing him at the finish line by 2.3 seconds. In my gut I knew I should have started my sprint to the finish line earlier, but I waited too long and simply ran out of real estate to make a pass before he crossed the finish line.
I was pretty pleased with my swim, which took away some of the disappointment I felt from finishing 4th place by only 2.3 seconds. Just some.
September 12, 2010: The Malibu Classic triathlon was unique event. It was an athletic competition as well as a media spectacle where celebrities raced to raise money for the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. As far as my participation in this event, it was obviously all about the athletics. In the last couple of months, I’ve noticed improvements in all three disciplines of triathlon.
Beach Start
Swim: 1/2 mile in 17:32. I guess the 9th time is a charm; this was my 9th tri. Beach starts are not my favorite thing. There’s something a little unnerving about running down the beach towards the water and diving into the waves. But I felt strangely confident. Not even that loud, annoying canon the race officials used to start each wave bothered me. I’ve learned to play it low key at the start of my swims. I find I perform better and keep my heart rate down. Because I’m not going to lead the swim in a race, I try to start mid-pack.
I cleared the wave break with two dives and began swimming towards the first of three buoys. The water was relatively calm and I just felt a little jostling around as some waves rolled over me. I don’t know what else to write about this swim other than it was probably the best open water swim I’ve had to date. Not once did I get nervous and have to stop to catch my breath or sight.
Transition 1: 3:14. I struggled with getting the wetsuit top off. Fortunately, the run from the water to my bike was pretty long so I had plenty of time to work through removing my wetsuit. My T1 time improved from Vineman. I decided to sit down and remove the last part of the suit from my feet instead of trying to step out of the legs while standing. I would still like to get my T1 time under 3 minutes.
Bike: 18 miles in 47:39. For my bike ride, I wanted to strike a balance between hammering really hard and saving some juice for my run. I felt that I could go faster on the bike, but I didn’t want to fizzle on the run. So I went as fast as I felt my quads would allow me to go without cramping. The course had a couple of hills, but they seemed negligible.
Transition 2: 1:23. Racked my bike pretty easily, put on my visor, shoes, and grabbed a quick sip of VITALYTE.
Run: 4 miles in 29:10. My entire goal for the run was to run it at a pace close to 7:00/mile and finish the run in under 30 minutes. The first two miles were fairly easy to sustain a sub-7:00 pace. As I neared the turnaround with two miles left to go, I reminded myself that I can do anything for two miles. It was really tough to keep the pace for the last mile, but I reminded myself that I can do anything for one mile. I had passed the only other person in my age group a long time ago, and so the thought that I might be leading my age group kept me going. In a sense, I’m glad I didn’t know my position in the race because I might not have tried as hard to keep my pace if I had known I was really out of medal contention.
You got rocked by someone 16 years older than you.
For the last two miles I chased a couple of people who weren’t in my age group. One guy was 28 years old and I stayed behind him for 1.5 miles. With a half mile remaining I started to push myself harder. Then with a quarter mile remaining I really started to put the hurt on that 28-year-old. I could see the race tents in the background and the finish chute. As we neared the chute, I sprinted. He turned up the heat as well and passed me for a brief second, but somehow I found another gear and sprinted past him again. I got a kick out of the crowd’s reaction as I crossed the finish line. They gasped when I rocked him. When I crossed the line, I limped because my right quad cramped up.
Afterward I was pretty disappointed at the awards ceremony. It seemed like I was the only Breakaway Training athlete who didn’t get on the podium. It was a strange feeling. I knew I raced a really good race. I left everything out on the course, and I don’t see how I could have gone any faster at my current ability level. It feels strange to know that my time of 1:39:00 was good enough to place 8th in my age group, but sadly I was not able to enjoy it at all.
In each part of the race I did what I wanted to do. So after a few days to reflect objectively about my race, I believe I’ll look at this race in a much more positive light. Oh yeah, this is Part 1 of the story. Right now, I plan to write Part 2 after next year’s race.
I don’t normally dream about racing, especially the night before a race. Typically, it’s very difficult for me to fall asleep and the night before the AFC Half Marathon was no exception. After getting all my stuff ready (translation: after procrastinating packing for the race), I finally lay down to sleep at 9:00 PM (though I wanted to be in bed by 7 PM). I seriously can’t remember if I slept at all. I slept so lightly that I felt like I stayed up all night.
I had set my alarm for 2:30 AM on race day (August 15, 2010) to give me time to prepare my breakfast and be on the road by 3:30 AM. I left the house on time to arrive at the home of my buddy, Eric, by 4:10 AM. He was driving us to the race parking lot. Eric and I had targeted this race to shoot for a 1:35 half marathon time. We were ready. We had a pacing plan. We each had a role: Eric was in charge of driving, overall time tracking, and mental fortitude. My main role was ensuring that we kept to our set pace plan for each mile.
Pre-race: Immediately after parking the car, I had to take my first bathroom pit stop, what would be a total of five before the race. For some reason, racing takes away my normal constipation tendencies. While I appreciate the extra “movements,” I’ve been finding that the timing of these bathroom trips right before races to be inconvenient. Fortunately, I brought my own toilet paper. I timed breakfast perfectly, 3 hours before the race start of 7:00 AM. I just had an energy bar and pre-race Infinit drink mix to consume. Eric and I made our way to the front of the crowds near the start line for the national anthem and official start.
Crossing the 10K Platform
First 10K: We ran the first mile at a comfortable 7:44 pace as a warm-up. It seemed easy especially since the first four miles of the race were downhill from Cabrillo Monument in Pt. Loma to downtown San Diego. I felt good and we both kept pace. At mile4+ we were about 10 seconds ahead of schedule overall. When we completed mile 5, Eric announced that he had a blister on his foot, was not feeling well, and could not sustain the pace. Immediately, I felt deflated. I guess I was depending on Eric to help me get through the race mentally. I didn’t expect that he would be “in trouble” so early in the race. I still felt good. My legs felt good. But I felt bad for Eric, and I toyed with the idea of just hanging back with him for the rest of the race. When he told me to “go ahead if you can,” I took off.
I decided to adjust my race goals and shoot for a “just under” 1:40 race time. Though my 10K split was not my fastest 10K ever, the split of 45:12 was still close to a minute within my 10K PR.
Second 10K: After crossing the 10K platform, we headed right towards Harbor Island, for me, the most boring and mind-numbing part of the race. I took my first drink at the next aid station right before mile 7. I need to improve my aid station skills because I dropped the first cup. I also need to practice drinking while running because it always makes me choke even though I don’t drink a whole lot of water when I pass through.
As I choking on my sip of water, I slowed down a little to recover. Eric was able to catch up with me. Finally as we made it around to mile 8, I felt better about the race course as I knew we would be leaving that lame Harbor Island loop and making our way to the heart of downtown. Feeling good I pressed forward harder and dropped Eric. I would not see him again until the end of the race. I was totally on my own.
Sprinting and Suffering into Balboa Park
By mile 11 I was feeling okay, much better than I felt in the previous year’s race at the same milestone. At mile 11 the race course starts its toughest portion, a slight uphill for about 1.5 miles, followed by a steep hill during the last part of mile 12 through 13. At this point, I was torn between pressing hard uphill and running conservatively, saving some energy for a last ditch sprint inside Balboa Park where the race would finish.
The Finish: My time goal of 1:39:59 was within reach, but I knew it would be close. Unfortunately, I chose the conservative route. And it cost me a sub-1:40 time by 17 seconds. I’m pretty sure I went up that last hill faster than I had in the previous year, but my last ditch sprint when inside Balboa Park was too little too late, and so the Berlin Wall still stands. I continued sprinting into the finish chute, and completed the race with a time of 1:140:16.
Honestly, I was pleased with my results, but mildly annoyed that my time was still over the goal. What pleased me about the results was that I got close to my half marathon PR on a difficult course. I obtained my PR at this distance this past February on a super flat course at the Surf City Half Marathon.
Eric came in almost a full-minute after me with a time of 1:41:15, a new PR for him.
With the 2010 calendar year more than half over, I’m recommitting myself to training harder and racing all out at the end of races. I’ll start with declaring my top race goals for 2010:
Eric and I celebrating after a good race. Please ignore my belly button.
I 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.
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 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.
What have you done today to make yourself proud?
The 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
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.