The Best Friends in the World--A Carlsbad Half Race Report

Several months ago, I wanted to register for the Carlsbad Half Marathon. I sent an email out to the herd and was met by deafening silence from Betty, Elsie, and Mik. Apparently, after Nike, they'd decided to not run another half for awhile, and instead dedicate themselves to cycling.

But I felt like I was just on the precipice of running really, really well...so when Alberta said she'd run, I went ahead and registered for it, knowing that Alberta and I have very different schedules and I'd end up doing much of the training on my own.

But have I mentioned that I have really good friends? So good that they: trained with me anyway, went to an expo which was an hour a way, and even cooked up a plan to go for a ride up the coast from Carlsbad as I ran down the coast, causing themselves to have to get up at the Butt-crack of dawn on race morning

So, either my friends are saints,  or I've completely inherited the Italian-Catholic guilt thing from my mother, and I've mastered it really, really well.

I'm pretty sure it's the former! I have great friends.

Saturday - Expo Day

Betty, Millie, DramaGirl, and I drove up to the expo to pick up my gear. Carlsbad is about 45 minutes north of San Diego, so it was more than nice to have some company for the drive. And even better, DramaGirl and Millie decided to join us. I think they must have been bored. 

The expo was held in a tent outside in a mall parking lot. It'd been raining all morning, so when we finally got there (around 1pm), the tent was pretty stuffy. So much so that when I was in the back part of the tent, I started to feel dizzy and thought I was going to faint. So we didn't stay long. But I did stay long enough to take a few shots of some of my fave T-Shirt saying.

What I've been telling people all along...

For Elsie and Walter...who say they are done with the half

I hate to admit this...but I do think this.

And we all know what this stands for.... 

What were you thinking?

After the expo, Betty and I took the girls to lunch at The Beach House in Cardiff.

I think its very cool that DramaGirl and Millie call each other sisters...

One of the things I wanted to do at the expo (or before or after) was meet up with some of my blog-friends, but on that front, I was an epic failure. I arrived at the expo just as Meg and Jill were leaving. Judging by Penny's tweets, I was leaving as she arrived, and Irene sent me a text later on telling me that she was on her way... FAIL. I missed all of them. Later I read on FB that Yaz and some other bloggers who I've known and met over the years were running at Carlsbad. I didn't even know! What a lame blogger I've been...

Sunday - Race Day
I slept really well the night before the race. Usually, I wake up every hour because I'm nervous about sleeping in. But this time, I only woke up once! The plan was to meet the riding-herd at Betty's house and take two cars to Carlsbad. Two cars, five girls, four bikes, and a runner.

Me, Mik, Betty, and Anitra...Wilma was the smart one and took the photo. It's still very dark at 5:30am. Betty was thrilled to be awake.

Lousy picture of Wilma figuring out the bike rack.

The road to the race was uneventful...despite me taking the wrong exit and Wilma being super happy about following me through the back roads of Carlsbad in BBJ's pretty car. I mean, I had the GPS, so I knew where I was going, and I still say that three right turns does NOT equal a U-Turn!

What I will say is that at 6:30, when we got into the parking lot, it was COLD. I checked the weather Ap on my phone and it said that it was 39F. YIKES! I decided to start the race with a few layers...an old Underarmor compression shirt, some new dayglo-neon-lime-green arm warmers (awesome!) and the dayglo-neon-lime-green race shirt! Can you say HAWT.

We'd parked at the far end of the lot, which was probably 1/2 mile from the start, but really close to the exit. In what will probably turn out to be one of the smartest moves of the day, I decided to not check gear and just leave my a change of clothes in the car.

I waited in the car with Mik as long as I could, but I needed to use the potty and wanted to get to the start, so I said goodbye to my riding friends, and jogged up to the starting area where I pretty quickly found Alberta...also HAWT and glowing in her lime-green race shirt and green arm warmers, then I literally almost ran into Irene and Michael.

After the jog up to the race start area, I was actually getting warm and I wanted to get rid of the Underarmor shirt, and I'd forgotten my chapstick (very essential in a long run because in a pinch, it can double as GLIDE). So Alberta and I jogged back to the car, picked up the chapstick and jogged up to the Wave 4 area just in time for the start.

Resplendent in Dayglo-neon-lime-green, no?

As we were moving up, I realized I still had my Underarmor shirt tied around my waist...bummer! The ensuing conversation went something like this...

Me: Ah shiz...I still have this shirt. Should I (finger quote) donate it? (finger quote)
Alberta: Is that supposed grey or white?
Me: Uh...white? Theoretically.
Alberta: (laughing) if it's supposed to be white, you should give it up. Time for a new one.

Alberta and I think we've started about 10 races together in the last 5 years. Mostly we run about the same pace (or at least we start at the same pace). She is certainly my starter girl.

So the race started... Here's the route...

Small map, but you get the drift

Here's the report.

Miles 1-4 - The Easy Miles
I love this race. Sure, it starts in a mall parking lot, but pretty soon, you are running above the Pacific, watching the surfers and the waves break. When I did this race in 2009, three years ago, I was hurt and all of it after the first mile was a struggle. However, even then it was fun. I had Betty with me and we talked and laughed most of the way... Along the way I could remember a thousand things from 2009 that made me smile (more COWBELL!).

I ran with Alberta the first mile...then had her in my sights for the 2nd and lost her somewhere around the second water station...from there I could see her dayglo lime-green ahead of me, but she was just rockin' and I already knew I was going faster than I thought I should have been.

Along the way, I saw Penny (yay!) and Irene and Michael again. At the turn around Michael yelled out "Go Heffers!" and I waved like a crazy girl at him. I always wonder what people are thinking when they hear that. I hope it makes them smile. It certainly works for me!

My splits show that I ran Miles 1-4 faster than I really should have, but not too much. It certainly could have been worse. I could have tried to stay up with Alberta!

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
1	10:27.8	1.00	10:28
2	9:46.9	1.00	9:47
3	10:02.7	1.00	10:03
4	10:03.4	1.00	10:03

Miles 5-10 - Out-Back-Up-Down-and-Around
I always think ahead of time that Carlsbad is going to be a flat course...maybe it's because the Carlsbad 5000 is, but the half is anything but, there's lots of rolling hills.

No enormous climbs...but there are plenty of up and down.

I tried to keep a pretty even pace. At the 2nd Turnaround (around mile 7), I saw Alberta right ahead of me. She must have thought I was farther back because I could see her looking for me behind me.

I could also feel myself running out of energy. Unlike some of my long runs, I decided I needed a Gu around mile 6 or so and I thought I'd get more around Mile 9 (never saw it). I drank the energy drink at every station it was available. I'm bummed I didn't bring a 2nd Gu, I could have used it.

Around the 8th mile I caught up with Alberta and we chatted a bit. She had been tearing it up and I am so darn impressed with her. Her longest training run was something like 6 miles, but she's been boxing and training at the gym and is a complete beast! She said she felt really good. We must have looked fabulous, because right about then the Reno 911 guys ran buy and yelled something like "GO GREEN" and swatted our butts with their batons.

Yes, I fumbled with my camera and no doubt lost several seconds, but there was NO WAY I was going to miss this shot. Can you say chafe?

Wait...you need a closer shot? Let me offer this...

You're welcome!

Oh yeah...my splits, still not bad, right?

5	10:15.1	1.00	10:15
6	10:10.2	1.00	10:10
7	10:51.5	1.00	10:52
8	10:19.7	1.00	10:20
9	10:32.0	1.00	10:32
10	10:24.0	1.00	10:24

BTW...While I was running...somewhere between miles 6 and 8, Betty, Mik, Wilma, and Anitra were somewhere in the middle of Camp Pendelton

Hey Girlz...

Miles 11-13.1 - I Hate the 11th Mile
The WORST things about Mile 11

• I just hate the 11th mile. That's it. 
• Throughout the race, my calf had been bugging me. I took one step around mile 11 my lower-leg almost gave out. I thought for a moment, I was going to fall.
• I drank too fast at the mile 11 water station and almost threw it back up. 
• At the end of Mile 10, I really thought I had 2:15 within reach...yeah, it would have taken three consecutive 10 minute miles to do it, and then I just felt it just slip away

The BEST things about the last three miles.

• Thinking...its only three miles and hell...I can run three miles
• Seeing Betty with less than a mile left 
• The finish...yep, I still had a sprint at the end and I gotta be happy with that.

Betty's working on her photography skillz... I may look happy, but really, I was only happy to see the end in sight

It's sorta ugly at the end...I agree.

11	11:14.0	1.00	11:14
12	10:25.2	1.00	10:25
13	11:12.5	1.00	11:13
14	2:38.9	0.28	9:29

I really gave it my all. 2:18:17 (official) 10:33 pace. That's a PR, almost 5 minutes faster than last summer's Rock 'n' Roll Half and almost a whopping 22 minutes faster than the last time I ran Carlsbad.

I am completely happy and proud of myself for the race. My goal was to come in under 2:20. I did that. My super-secret-don't-tell-anyone-dream-race-goal was 2:15 and I know now that I will finish a half in under 2:15. I really didn't think it was going to happen yesterday, but I also didn't think I'd be as close as I was...

WOOT!

Post-Race - Get Me OUT of Here!
I have almost no idea what I did after I crossed the finish line. Someone handed me a medal. I almost hugged a woman who handed me a bottle of water. I snarked at an woman in a red shirt from Elite security who was YELLING at runners to keep moving as I was holding onto a fence in my attempt to stretch my screaming-aching calve muscles. ("uh...I just need a second here to stretch...or I could throw up on you"). I may not have said this loud enough so that the woman could hear me, but I guess I was loud enough because I made a young girl who was also trying to stretch next to me laugh.

Some angel handed me a carton of chocolate milk and a bag of food. Then there was a huge cluster-@!*& just to get out of the runners area, but I managed to get out. Then I found a curb to sit down on and I did.

Cell phone service was (of course) a nightmare due to the high density of texters, callers, FBers, Twitters, and the suckiness of ATT, but eventually I elegantly (hahaha) got up off the curb and started my long walk back to the car. By then my snot-rags arm-warmers were pretty soaked and I started to feel chilled (where were the post race mylar blankets? Probably with the GU). I wondered why we thought parking near an exit was such a good idea.

Once back at the car, I threw the keys to Betty and said, "please drive," and as we decided where to go to eat I said "not it" first, so I didn't have to decide. I crawled into the back seat and started seeing the slew of messages from all my friends who were stilli in the runners aread. Once again, I missed Meg and Jill (GAH!) probably within minutes, but I just wanted to sit in the back of my warm car and eat pretzels.

I'm really happy I decided to not check my gear as I'm reading some reports that the gear check was a cluster-@!*& (I already did that once at Long Beach about a year ago, thank. you. very. much. and don't ever again want to wait for gear after a race)

It was a great run. The weather was perfect. It's a beautiful route on the ocean. The hills are challenging, and of course, I have great friends who, even if they don't run with me, come along for the ride.

But of course we did

Carlsbad, Here I Come

Well...so much for that resolution to be a better blogger...GAH!

Just wanted to check in with this:

You can completely see the months where I did a significant number of bike miles...no?

And also with some pre-race thinking related to running the Carlsbad 1/2 this Sunday...some thoughts brought on because Clarence posted a link to this article on her FB page this morning. It's mostly about raising children and the author's annoyance with the Carpe-diem or "Sieze-the-Day" philosophy she often hears from people who see her with her three young children. Those of us with kids often hear things like this...your kids are doing something that you find particularly annoying and some stranger says something like "enjoy every moment, it goes by so quickly!"

Uh...yeah. I hate that too.

I agree with the author. She compares raising children to climbing Mount Everest and notes that there are moments during a climb that are sheer joy, but most of it is hard work. Mona would agree. She climbed Kilimanjaro a few years ago and her tale is full of "it was the hardest thing I've ever done." and that much of it was painful and difficult and just plain hard work. She tells about how there were moments when it was all she could do to take another step.

I've certainly compared long runs to childbirth, how there's a lot of hard work, but finishing the marathon was one of the best moments of my life. There were lots of moments during the race that were not fun. at. all. BUT, I really enjoyed finishing the race, and there were parts of the race that I remember with great clarity because I was having so much fun...

Or like childbirth, maybe I just remember it that way. That kind of rose-colored-class 20/20 hindsight is certainly what leads many of us to thinking we could have two or more children.

The author notes that mountain climbing (and I say running) and raising kids are like this--lots of hard work and repetition broken up by both little and big moments of complete amazement at life and the joy of raising kids.

These moments of hard work mixed with joy and beauty will undoubted be part of the story I end up telling about running this year's Carlsbad Half

The other story I will end up telling will be adventures related to some of the herd (Mik, Elsie, Betty, Wilma & possibly Clarence and some other friends) riding their bikes from Carlsbad to San Clemente and back as I run Carlsbad that morning and the ridiculousness that will ensue as we try to meet up with each other.

In any event, regarding the race, I feel quite prepared for it. I have some time goals in mind, but I really don't want to write them out because I have an ego the size of Montana and on the chance probability that I don't make a time goal, I don't want to admit it or explain it or justify it.

But I have been running really, really, really well lately and I think I can PR. No matter what, I'll take on the Mt. Everest/Childbirth/Childrearing philosophy - there will be some difficult moments during the race, punctuated by moments of fun and absolute joy, and at the end, I'll be really happy that I ran the race!

I thought you might need a photo of San Diego bay to make your day. I took this one a couple weeks ago when I met Irene and some SDTC peeps for a long run from Glorietta Bay Park (near Coronado, on the strand). It was a beautiful morning!

Full Disclosures... Big Waves, Running in January Heat, and Zipp Fizz

On Friday morning(ish) I decided to go run at the beach. There's been some big surf due to the latest southern swell (10-20 foot waves), and I thought it'd be a good distraction while I did a 4 - 5 mile run.

Full Disclosure - It was really closer to 11am by the time I got to the beach, so it almost doesn't count as a morning run.

The other reason that I went to the beach is that about a month or so ago, I got some samples of Zipfizz with a request to review the product. I don't do many product review for several reasons including, 1) I don't get asked to; and 2) even when I do get asked to, I don't blog with enough regularity to feel comfortable agreeing to do a review in any timely fashion.

When Zipp Fizz contacted me the first time, I was busy (remember November? Me either) and didn't answer the email, but when they contacted me a second time, I said sure...send me your stuff and I'll try it out.

For those of you who don't know, Zipfizz is an Energy Drink powder that you add to water. It makes the water a little fizzy and is supposed to give you 4 to 6 hours of energy. It comes in a groovy little tube that makes transporting it convenient. It does give water a little bit of a fizz, but not as much as a soda. If you want gobs more info about what's in Zipfizz, you should go here.

Full Disclosure - I'd used Zipfizz prior to being asked to review the product. In fact, it was one of the reasons I agreed to use it. That beings said, Zipfizz did send me some product to review.

Generally, I use Zipfizz in the afternoon when I'm feeling especially tired instead of drinking coffee. Even though (according to their their website) it has some caffeine (about 1/4 the amount in a Starbucks Tall Coffee), it doesn't seem to affect me like an afternoon cup of joe does. I find that if I drink coffee after 2pm, it's guaranteed that I'll never fall asleep before 1am, but Zipfizz didn't seem to have that effect on me. 

But I'd never used it as an energy drink or electrolyte replacement beverage during or after running. The San Diego Track Club uses a product called Vitalyte at its aid stations, and I've gotten rather used to using that. Vitalyte reminds me of  how Gatorade used to be when I was a kid. Not very sweet...and I like that. 

In any event, I decided to give Zipfizz a try during a run on Friday. 

Here's how it came packaged for me... I think it was supposed to be like a holiday gift.

I'll be honest...I'm really excited about the BP free bottle. I needed one of those (for work...for water with Zipfizz) 

They also sent me a flash drive...along with five different flavors of  "the fizz." I think there was grape, lemonade, orange, citrus, something called orange cream and some others. 

I decided to use the citrus flavored, thinking it would be the least sweet. Because my hand-held running water bottle holds 12 oz, and the directions say that one tube of Zipfizz is enough for 16 to 20 oz of water, and because I know from experience, the stuff can be pretty strong, I used less that 1/2 the tube.

If you use this, be warned...it does fizz up, so if you put it in bottled water, make sure the water bottle isn't 100% full, or you'll have fizz all over the place.

And I was off...first I ran south, toward South Mission Beach. Although it wasn't as warm as Thursday (it hit about 80F at the beaches on Thursday...crazy January weather here...who says there's no Global Warming?), the sun was in my face, but still running at the beach always makes me happy.

It's about 1/2 mile to the Jetty at South Mission, so I stopped to take some photos.

The important thing to know about this photo is that those waves are breaking in an area that is between two jettys (A jetty is built to protect a beach from violent waves.

There are two jettys in this area...one that protects Ocean Beach (in the photo) and one that protects Mission Beach (which I'm standing on). There's about a 1/2 mile area between the two where the San Diego River dumps into the ocean.) For the most part, waves don't generally break between the two jettys unless they're pretty big and really strong...which was the case on Friday. 

Not like this they don't

Full Disclosure: I stopped to take photos for several minutes. Do you blame me? 

As I headed North, back toward Mission and then Pacific Beach, the sun was at my back, and you would think that would be fine, but I was also running with the wind, which made it HOT. I started sipping from my water bottle, and was pleasantly surprised that, even though the Zipfizz made the water a little fizzy, I didn't immediately burp it up.

However, it was still pretty sweet. When I got to Mission Beach, I stopped at a water fountain and filled  it to the top with more water (I'd drank about 4 oz at that point), which made it about perfect strength wise, but because it was in a hand held water bottle, and probably because it was getting warm outside, the water/Zipfizz mixture also got warm, and I'll be honest here, it wasn't very pleasant.

By the time I got to Pacific Beach (I'd run about 3 miles), I decided to turn around and head back to the car. It was hot. I was tired of running. Maybe it was the heat, but the Zipfizz wasn't settling so well. I filled up my water bottle with more water (it was down to about 10% Zipfizz at this point) and headed back. Running back into the wind made me feel much better.

Full disclosure: I stopped one more time to take some more photos...I mean really...do you blame me?

As I finished running, I let out a HUGE BURP.

Full disclosure: I do this after every run. Ask Betty or Walter. I can make the walls shake with my burps, so I can't really blame that on the Zipfizz.

After the burp, I felt much better, and I walked back to the car, grabbed some dry shorts, shirt, and bathing suit top, went to the restroom to change, then grabbed a beach chair and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the beach, watching the waves and the crazy tourists in the ocean (water temp wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it would be), and was mostly entertained by a mother who let her kids run into the waves, but who hadn't brought any towels or dry clothes with her. ((shakes head))... Rookie mistake.

Ahhhhh

So...some notes on running with Zipfizz

• It's super sweet...too sweet for me to use full-strength while running. If I'm going to use it, I will dilute it to only about 30% of the suggested strength.
• I like it better when it's cold which makes me think that I should try it when cycling. On my bike I use a Camelback insulated water bottle, which should help it stay cold.
• I don't like it much when it's not cold. 
• The packaging in the tubes is really convenient, which is why I want it to work! On long runs when I have to carry my own water, I'd like to be able to carry an electrolyte replacement with me as well.
• I will continue to use it as an occasional afternoon energy drink when I go back to work....and I LOVE the water bottle Zipfizz sent me.

As for the rest of the afternoon at the beach?

Let's just say, it wasn't painful 

But that water...was still cold! For all of you, I went into the water so that I could get a better shot of the waves (the tide was a negative tide and the waves were breaking pretty far from the beach)...the things I do...

Full disclosure: The cold ocean water was sort of like an ice-cold whirlpool bath for a twitchy tendon that has been begging for me to pay more attention to it.

Later that day, Walter, Turbo and I went back out to the beach to see the sun set at Sunset Cliffs (south of where I was earlier in the day)

My boys

In the background is south side of the Ocean Beach jetty, and the Ocean Beach Pier... Waves, typically, do not reach the bottom of the pier when they are breaking. 

Full disclosure: It wasn't high tide yet, which made the size of the surf that much more surprising. 

It really was quite beautiful