For the last three months I have been lucky enough to be
a coach for
Fleet Feet Sports of
other coaches, one an elite marathoner and local
champion, the other
an advanced competitor who regularly places in her
female division
and is a personal trainer also participated. I felt
like the ugly
duckling among the bunch as I was just this
overachieving running
junkie, who had just quit smoking cigarettes about a
year ago when I
moved here from NJ, and was slow compared to most
other runners who
run as much as I do (I run around 40-50 miles a week
but consider
myself as an 8 min per mile pace
guy). I thought I should be signing
up to be in the group, not be one of the coaches. I
later find out
though that it was my passion,
some say obsession, for running that
made my contribution to the group substantial and
valued. Anyways, we
had over 10 or so runners sign up to run the Avenue of
the Giants
Half
these runners, the race would be their first Half
Marathon and
longest run ever, and for some, their first race. All
ability levels
were well represented. Runners as fast as a
sustainable 8 minute per
mile pace and others as slow as a 13-minute mile pace,
with several
other pace groups somewhere in between. A great bunch
of people who
all had different goals and different reasons for
undertaking this
endeavor. Each one of these participants has their own
interesting
story behind why they are running.
We met twice a week to run in various places of different distances.
Wednesday Nights at 5:30 we would meet at the downtown Fleet Feet
Store and run around town for 3-5 miles usually at a very
conversational pace as this was written in our
training schedule to
be the fun slow run of the week. Sunday's we would
meet in the
morning at either 8 or 9am to run our long runs. We
always had
beautiful courses with increasing difficulty selected
for these
workouts. These runs took place in beautiful
vistas from Oakmont, and many more. Friendships were
made along the
way and we had various, I say celebrity Guest, runners
join us during
some of these long runs, mainly other co-workers or
family members
from Fleet Feet. These runs were such great fun and so
gorgeous that
sometimes it was easy to forget that we were actually
training our
bodies to deal with the stresses of running 13.1
miles. That is not
to say that these runs were not challenging. I don't
think there is a
person in the group that will tell you the 9 miler we
did in Annadel
was "easy". However the challenge was worth
it. To experience running
on the trails with such beautiful terrain and vistas
made the
challenge worthwhile. The 11 miler we did in
Healdsburg felt long but
the views were just drop dead gorgeous.
Unfortunately, running can sometimes be synonymous with injuries. We
had a couple casualties along the way. Both minor
injuries, but
nevertheless, significant enough to cause two runners
to drop out of
running the race. They had participated in most runs
up to that point
though and had built their endurance up significantly
enough that
they would be able to recover and with just a couple
of weeks of
training be able to plan and race another Half
Marathon. There seems
to be a half marathon going on somewhere every weekend
here in
A few of the other runners knew that they would be unable to run the
Avenue of the Giants from the get go, but had signed up anyways for
the training with some having the intent of running a
different Half
myself, Liz (another coach) and my friend Ted who is a
co-workers
husband. Ken, the other coach, was getting married and
had a
bachelor's party to attend that weekend. Initially, I
thought I would
just run through the course and enjoy the scenery
while running
alongside all of our participants and encouraging them
to finish as I
have the Dipsea Race coming
up, another story in and of itself.
However, before the race, Liz told me that she didn't want me running
near her during the race as she wanted to focus and
she knew that I
would just talk her ear off during the race. I knew
that she intended
no ill will but I did decide to turn it into a
challenge. I
challenged her to a good old-fashioned footrace.
Whoever finished
with the fastest time would get exclusive bragging
rights. Liz told
me to bring it on. While we are good friends and took
this as a
friendly challenge we both wanted to win and Liz
always wants to get
her fastest time. I also knew that I had challenged a
faster runner.
Liz is about 10-15 seconds per mile faster than me. I speculated out
loud that I would need to run a 1:39:59 to beat her
old Personal
Record for the Half Marathon and beat her. That is almost 5 minutes
faster than my previous Personal Record. An average
pace of 7:38 min
miles over 13.1 miles. That's 22 seconds per mile
faster than what I
ran for my last PR in the Half Marathon I thought I
was in somewhat
better shape though and with some preparedness and
some luck I could
get close to that time and perhaps Liz would have a
bad day or
whatever. I also had already challenged a very fast
girl at work to a
10k race in July and could use this race to prepare for that.
I didn't know how it would go down but I couldn't wait to race
against someone. I had always run to beat my previous
best times or
just enjoy the course and had never ran with the
intent to actually
beat someone. This would be an interesting twist.
Saturday morning of race day weekend, Ted and I drove 3 hours north
of
in a very small town called Myers Flat, 2 blocks was
the entire town.
We just chatted all day and night and had dinner at the Pasta Feed in
a nearby town's fire hall for the race participants. A
few of the
runners had planned to get together and hang out the
night before the
race but no one was able to get a cell phone signal in
the entire
area so those contacts were unable to be made.
Probably a good thing
though, as I would have most likely of had one two
many beers.
Anyways, I was unable to sleep that night for several reasons; one I
hadn't camped in years so that was odd and the other
was that I
couldn't stop thinking about the race. I didn't panic
though, as I
had learned from previous race experiences that as
long as you get a
good nights sleep the night before the night before
you will be fine.
I've put up with keg parties going on outside, some of the loudest
snoring ever heard, and some of the hugest race
butterflies ever felt
the night prior to previous races and have still been
fine come race
day morning with little or no sleep. As long as you
lie down and rest
your eyes, you’re good.
Race morning, around 6am, Ted and I packed up, got a
cup of coffee
and headed out to the race start. During the drive I
asked Ted how I
might prevent from having to go to the bathroom during
the race, as I
have never NOT had to go to the bathroom during race
distances of
half marathons and over. He amusingly pointed out that
perhaps I
shouldn’t be drinking coffee if I was so worried about
that. Anyways,
we met up with all of the other runners, except Liz
and Linda were
nowhere to be found. I wondered if anything was wrong.
I even
fantasized as a joke with myself that perhaps Liz
couldn't handle the
pressure and had bailed. Or maybe she woke up late and
I would win by
default or get a huge head start. Not the case though
as two minutes
before the start, Liz made her way through the crowds
to all of us
who had all been hanging out waiting for the starting
gun to go off.
In reality though, I would have been disappointed had Liz not shown,
as I did want to race her fairly. We both smiled at
each other
cockily and looked each other in the eyes, sort of
confirming that we
were still going to race. Absolutely.
The race was on. We should have
probably moved up in the crowd as we were pretty far
back from the
starting line but I kind of wanted to stick with the
training group
until the gun went off. We had chip timing so it
wouldn't be too big
of a deal. We all wished each other luck and then the
race had begun.
Liz took the right side and I took the left and we navigated through
the slower runners in front of us. I could hear Liz on
the right
yelling "On your right!" I would yell back in retaliation and
also
to navigate through the crowds "On your
left!" This requires some
technical running as well, as running through crowds
requires you to
shorten your stride and be more precise with your foot
placement. You
also need to be considerate while you pass and not
jeopardize someone
else's race and months of training by accidentally
tripping them. We
both continued to shout back and forth for the next
quarter mile or
so before we were able to break through the crowd. At
the half-mile
point I looked down at my heart rate monitor watch and
it said I was
running at 92% at a 6:45 pace. I later learned that my
watch pace and
distance was off significantly but the heart rate
wasn't lying. This
is way to high of a heart rate to have at the
beginning of a half
marathon. My pre race strategy was to run at 75% max
heart rate at
the beginning while slowly building up to 80% by the
end of mile 2
and then slowly take it from 80% to 90% by the end of
the race and
then just let it all hang out at the finish. I didn't
want to panic
but knew that I couldn't run this pace for the whole
race. I decided
to tough it out though and see if Liz slowed first.
She didn't and at
mile 2 I looked back at my watch and it said I was
running at 90%. I
decided that I needed to slowly scale it back if I
wanted to finish
strong. I would try to keep Liz in my sights as I
dropped back until
my heart rate was approximately 85% of max (about
155). For the next
three miles or so, I struggled mentally as I knew Liz
was getting
further and further away from me and I was cursing
myself for not
running faster during my training runs. Somewhere
around mile 5 I
lost sight of Liz all together.
The course is an out and back and at mile 6.55 the course turns
around. As I approached the turn around I see that Liz
is about
250-300 yards in front. We high fived each
other as we crossed
paths. Still within reach but she was showing no signs
of slowing and
I desperately needed a second or third wind. I picked up the pace a
bit but this was a hillier section of the course and
in actuality I
had slowed down. I felt the race and a fast time
slipping away. I
finally started seeing runners from our training group
approach the
turn around, as I was midway through mile 7 or so. Go
Tammy, Go
Kathy, Go Linda, Go Dawn, Go Mandy! Dawn and Mandy shouted to me that
Liz was not far in front of me. I felt an incredible surge of
adrenaline. My second perhaps third wind had kicked
in. I shouted in
confidence "Liz. You are going down!" She
heard me (I found out
later). I picked up the pace considerably, by as much
as 30 -45
seconds per mile faster. My heart rate rose to about
90% but it no
longer seemed to matter. I was determined to close the
gap between
Liz and myself. I felt myself running faster and more
efficiently
than I ever have. I started to pass lots of other
runners. At mile 10
I looked at the mile marker and realized even with the Gun time I had
run the fastest 10 miles of my life. All of a sudden,
beating Liz no
longer seemed to matter. I just wanted to not bonk and
finish at the
pace I was running which would assure me a new
Personal Record for
the Half
At mile 13 I prepared for the final kick. I just put the gas pedal to
the floor and let it all hang out. I was going to
break the hour and
40-minute mark. I was elated. In my own little
universe, this would
put me in a different realm of runners. I almost
screwed it up though
as I mistakenly identified the chip time reader pad
thingy for the
announcer, as the finish line. As I threw my hands in
the air and
prepared to stop my watch a member of the crowd
screamed "No it is
just a bit further!" I screamed an expletive and
continued on. I
probably lost just a second if that. I crossed the
finish line at
1:39:58 beating my old PR by close to 5 minutes (previous PR was
1:44:16) and beating the time I thought I needed to beat Liz by 1
second. Liz however finished 47 seconds in front of me
and placed
first overall in the Masters Female Division (she is
40). She raced
her PR as well. While I had lost the race I was very
happy. I had
pushed myself beyond what I thought I was capable of
achieving and I
was also very happy for Liz. We hugged and
congratulated each other
on a great race as Liz then pointed out that my right
nipple was
bleeding. Great, I thought out loud ... a battle wound
that won't
keep me from running. I told Liz that I gave it all I
had as I almost
threw up on the person removing the chip timer from my
shoe. We were
both very very happy. Before
you know it Ted joined us. He was just a
minute or so behind me. Pretty incredible feat
considering the guy
runs just 3 times a week for exercise only. He is just
a natural
though and has kept himself in great shape for many
years. We then
watched and cheered as the rest of the runners from
our training
group began crossing the finish line. Everyone was
very happy with
his or her accomplishment. We all gathered for lunch,
beer and
stories at a local cafe before we all made the long
trek home.