Much to be Thankful for...

I've known for about the last two months that the two weeks preceding Thanksgiving were going to be a huge cluster--- as far as my work life was concerned. My prediction was spot on accurate. Thus the two week hiatus on blogging.  But that's mostly over now, so I can get back to the things that truly matter in my life, and in this post, those important things included:

1. Thanksgiving Day's Run for the Hungry 5K
2. Thanksgiving Day's Feast

Run for the Hungry

I haven't done an organized Turkey Trot in a few years, but I always want to, partially because they raise awareness and/or money to feed those who have little (which is a VERY good thing to think about...how incredibly blessed I am...) AND because The Run for the Hungry was the VERY FIRST organized running event I ever participated in. Six years ago, my FIL signed up the family and I up for this particular event, and I walked it...well, strolled would be a more accurate word...and finished in 1:02:38 (I swear, I am not making that up). 

For some reason, the energy of the event struck a chord with me. I don't know why. I was about the laziest couch potato of a woman at that point. I was fat, out of shape, felt bad about my body and myself, but after walking that morning, I decided I wanted to RUN a 5K. Maybe it was because there were people actually RUNNING who looked like me. Maybe because my hour finish time was sort of humiliating. Maybe it was because the people who ran looked like they were having fun, and I'd never considered running to be a fun thing to do. 

So I started running.

This year, I convinced Walter and DramaGirl to get up early on Thanksgiving morning to run with me. There are two Thanksgiving morning 5Ks in San Diego, the Father Joe's run in Balboa Park, for which about 12,000 people show up, and the Run for the Hungry which is downtown. There's both a 5K and a 10K and about 4000 people show up. 

I'm not going to lie. I'd been looking forward to doing a 5K for a few weeks. I hadn't run a 5K since Shelter Island last November. I've been running pretty well. I've been getting faster. My old PR was just a hair under 30 minutes and I thought I could really beat that...by A LOT.

Me, DG, and Walter...that's Petco Park in the background. Nice cloudy morning.

I did a quick warmup around the parking lot while DG complained about being too cold. We decided to walk over to the start and the leaders of the 10K were just crossing over (the 10K started at 7am...I briefly thought about running the 10K and I felt a little like a slacker for running ONLY a 5K as they passed). We passed by a couple of porta potties, but there was no TP and someone had left their pants in there. Walter wondered why someone would need to leave their pants behind. Ah...the joys of running downtown.

Actually, there was a whole row of porta potties set up for the runners. Later on we realized that the two we passed by initially were probably the "permanent" ones left for tailgaters (Keith...I promise to explain tailgating in a future post). In any event, since we still had about 40 minutes to the start of the race, we decided to walk across the street to a Hilton and use the restrooms there.

Much nicer and warmer than a porta potty

Once we got back to the race area, we lined up...trying to get ahead of the dogs and strollers (not easy).* 

My goal was just to keep up with DramaGirl for the first mile or so. She's not a runner, but she plays field hockey and soccer, is in really good shape, has long legs, and is much faster than I am. I figured if I could keep her in my sights for the first mile or so, I'd be on a really good pace to come in around 29 minutes.

As the race started, she took off, and we spent about the first 1/2 mile dodging in and out of walkers with dogs and/or strollers (GAH!), but I kept up with her. After about a 1/2 mile, she motioned that she wanted to pass a few slower runners, and I told her to go ahead...I'd hit my pace (I was running about a 9 minute mile...which is pretty much about as fast as I thought I could go), so she bounced ahead.

I loved watching her run.She runs effortlessly. I mean. I KNOW I look like I'm working hard when I am running. She doesn't ever look like she's working that hard. She swears she's not a runner, but I know she could be.

At about 1.5 miles, I could see that she had slowed to a walk. She told me later that she didn't see a reason not to. When I caught up with her, she started running again. I asked her how she was, and she said she was good. We smiled at a cute dog in a turkey costume or something like that and she pulled ahead of me again...I wondered where Walter was.

At two miles, I looked at my Garmin. It said 17:xx and I swear I did a double take as I realized, I'd been running sub-9 minute miles... (it must have said 17:56 because miles 1 and 2 were both 8:58 according to my Garmin...but all I saw was the 17). I thought...OMG...I could run a 11 minute mile at this point and still get a PR...amazing.

With about 1/2 mile to go, Walter pulled up beside me, so we ran the last mile together. DG had decided to sprint it in. At one point, I think he tried to pull ahead of me, but I was having none of that and I kept up

DG - 28:05

Walter - 28:23

Alice 28:25**

I came in 4th in my age division...Imagine that! 

No I don't have any post-race photos...Imagine me being red-faced and sweaty. That should do it. It was a really awesome way to spend the morning...but we had to hurry home because I still had a dinner to cook!

Thanksgiving

My side of the family all came to our house for Thanksgiving this year. I love cooking, and after how much I'd been workingthe last three weeks, I was really looking forward to doing one of the things I really love to do best, cooking good food. I'd been working on fixing as many of the dishes as I could ahead of time so that the day wouldn't be a complete blur so that I could enjoy it. Gotta say that I planned it out pretty well.

Earlier in the week, I made a cranberry relish

DramaGirl baked A LOT of desserts

DG's pumpkin & berry (my favorite) pies...I don't bake much. This is very much her forte!

This is an apple spice bread pudding with a merengue topping (also...YUM)

Turbo and Papa...peeling potatoes (or what I call man's work)

Filling up - I should have taken a photo of the turkey before it was carved...it was beautiful!

The aftermath - watching the 49ers lose (the reason that Papa is a  bit glum...or he's full)

Sisters, my nephew, and Turbo

Me and nana

The girls - chillin' and watching African Cats on the Discovery Network (yes...I was surprised by this as well)

Mandatory end of the evening family shot

Clearly, I have so much to be thankful for. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
_____________

* I will never understand why...despite reminders and kind requests made by the race starter that walkers with dogs/strollers start toward the back...some insist on starting at the front anyway. Yes, this was a smallish field, but REALLY?  We were about 20 feet from the start line and at leasts 1/2 the people in front of me had absolutely no intention of running...AT ALL... I don't even have a problem with RUNNERS with dogs/strollers who want to start somewhere near their pace group, but if someone has absolutely NO INTENTION of running...why start at the front where someone who IS going to be running is likely to just run up your ass? 


** My previous 5K best was 29:53 

Gnat Baths and the Laws of Probability

Twice in the last eight days, I've gone for a ride in Coronado. Last Saturday, Betty and I did our first 20+ miler in lord-knows-how-long, and this morning, the herd went out for another ride on the same route. We were celebrating Clarence's Birthday...silly girl, slept in and couldn't find her riding gear. We figured she and the hubby were just snuggling. Even though the time has changed, at 6-o-dark-thirty, when I left the house, it was still pretty dark outside..

This morning's riders - Mik, Elsie, C, Alice, and Kat...with Betty acting as photographer...

This morning was Elsie's first venture out on her new ride. She did really, really, good, and only fell once.

My understanding is that this is a "staged" photograph. Nobody actually saw Elsie tip over.  (g'head, make a joke about cow tipping here...I dare ya)

Elsie is OK. We told her she was going to fall at a stop sign and she did. I thank her for proving me right.

One of the really wonderful things about riding from Coronado (nado...we learned the soccer moms call it), is that it is flat...

...like pancake flat...can you say something like a 10 foot elevation gain...so not impressive!

Also...there are also bugs, especially at the foot of the bay. Lots of 'em. They fly in the eyes and in the mouth, unless you keep it closed, which is really hard to do when you're riding as fast as you can to get through the GD EFFIN' GNAT BATH

Gnat Bath area...beware...

Finally, we ride on a fabulous running, riding, walking, stolling, in-line skating, path where inevitably if you are passing a runner (or a slow rider) and coming in the opposite direction, there is another runner or rider (fast or slow) or even better yet, a guy pushing his newborn babe in a stroller, and you are trying to pass the slow runner/rider, all three of your paths will intersect at exactly the SAME PLACE at the SAME TIME...

Here...let me illustrate the situation...

Yes, you are impressed by my mad illustration skillz, aren't you?

I mean, you would think that since that the "bike path" is nearly 10 miles long, these "intersections" would be relatively rare...however, it seems that the complete opposite is true.

Why is that?

Just wondering...I had some time to think about these things for several miles this morning.

It was a grand ride...lots of fun. Glorious weather (where IS that rainstorm that they've said is coming?)

We celebrated the ride with breakfast and mimosas and toasted the vets whose sacrifices gave us the day off and an opportunity to enjoy the ride.

Happy Vet's Day AND

Happy BDay to Clarence!!!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Decision ONE

Well...I went and did it.

About a week ago...or sometime between the last post and now. I decided to register for the Carlsbad Half Marathon despite the fact that neither Betty, nor Elsie, nor Mik will run with me (disclaimer...Alberta is also registered...but as much as I love her like a little sister, let's be honest, she's way more into punching people in the face right now than she is into logging miles).

I'll admit...I just can't get enough of Alberta, the boxing home ec teacher,  knocking this girl down about 40 seconds into the video. I don't even LIKE boxing and I LOVED this!

In any event, I suspect my the majority of my training miles will be on my own. So part of the challenge will be to see if I can train for an event on my own. Even so, I'm excited about running Carlsbad. Last time I ran the Carlsbad Half was in 2009 when I'd pretty seriously pulled my ITB, but I ran anyway, feeling like someone was beating on my thigh with a bat. 

LOL...me, lying on the sidewalk, stretching my ITB at Carlsbad in 2009...really, it' didn't help much.  Such class...

Running Carlsbad with ITB issues and some serious massage, led to this hip bruise and a 9 month battle with Plantar Fasciitis...something I still deal with to this day.  Take it from me...if you're hurt, rest! (yeah...I never take my own good advice either).

Anyway, Carlsbad is known to be a flat, fast, course. I've really wanted to run it and not be hurt. This year is my chance...I just have to train for it....solo. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I want to finish in under 2:20.

Decision TWO

After a fair amount of discussion, The Herd has decided to do a century ride this winter or spring. We think it'll either be this one in Solvang in March, or this one in Palm Springs in February. So, come January, for the first time in four years, we I may not be doing the RnR training program with the San Diego Track Club...at least I won't be doing the long runs in January or February. 

Lest you think we are not serious about this bike riding thing...we had a cycling jersey logo done a few years ago...nice, huh?

Instead, The Herd will be doing some long rides with the local Trek store's Century Training Program. The problem with doing both the RnR training program AND the Trek Century program is that both the long ride and the long run are on Saturday mornings, so I'd have to choose. Also, I would be running more miles in January than the track club runs. (January runs lead up to the SuperRun on Superbowl Sunday weekend...a 10K).

It's a tough decision. 

I'm still going to renew my membership in the track club so that I can continue to do the Tuesday night track workouts, and I'll miss the camaraderie of the RnR training program.

In the meantime, Elsie decided to buy a road bike to train for the century. So after we ran last Saturday, I went with her to ensure that she spent enough money on a bike, so we are committed to the effort now.

Elsie getting fitted...SUHWEEET RIDE! YES? Elsie promised to practice clipping in and out of her pedals for the remainder of the weekend.

Decision THREE

This is a decision I haven't made yet, and I hesitate to even write about it, but since very few people who I work with actually read my blog, and since the ones who do read my blog, already know about THE BIG DECISION, I'll just briefly say that I'm currently trying to make a big real-world-professional-life-decision this coming week, and that I'll write more about THAT decision later. (how incredibly vague and obtuse could I possibly be?)

Quite frankly, it'd be easier to just run 13 miles....or ride 100.

Nike Half Marathon...Oh Yeah...We Ran it!

So...the race was on Sunday...and we got there on Friday morning...so what did we do on Saturday.

Seriously? We were in San Francisco.

We shopped. We ate. We walked.

None of these things, by the way, are stellar activities to be doing the day before running a half, but whatevs we were in SF.

So, when last I wrote...we were finishing up dinner at John's Grill, and quite frankly, the night wouldn't have been complete without this...

Signature glasses from John's Grill that just "accidentally" made their way into various handbags.

and this...

A woman walking down the street was carrying this fabulous handbag! We asked her where she bought it and she said "Australia." I'm not sure I get the whole patriotic symbolism of the nerd-cow though. I'll have to ponder it some more.

so by the time we got back to the hotel room we were ready for this...

Elsie and Mik...they were done!

But the next morning we were up bright and early(ish) and decided to go for a little warmup run to the Embarcadero.

It was still a little warm...for San Fran...I'm just saying (yeah...she'd gonna kill me for this one)

We ran about 2 miles, then stopped at the Farmer's Market at the Embarcadero and had one of the prettiest latte's ever...seriously, it was a work of art. 

Then we walked back to the hotel (Elsie, Betty, and Mik)

After breakfast and showers, we decided to do some shopping...or at least some of the herd did. I wandered around Macy's for awhile, but didn't really feel the shopping bug. So at one point Elsie, Mik and I decided to walk about two miles to North Beach for some Italian food.

The Trans America Building - Walking through the Financial District

Past Chinatown

Just not something you see every day

Finally...all I really wanted was a Pelegrino and a Panini

So we hung out and felt cosmopolitan, but I was thinking...geez, I've logged about five miles today...not sure this is the best pre-race day activity to be doing.

So what do we do to add onto non-helpful pre-race activities? A glass of wine of course. Actually...as we were walking around North Beach, we walked past a place called Rose Pistolas. When we were on the plane flying up to SF, Betty sat next to a guy who gave her a list of places we needed to go to. It was on his list...so we went. Eventually, the rest of The Herd and friends showed up.

Madge and Momma reenact a scene from Lady and the Tramp...no I don't know who is the lady and who is the tramp...no wait a minute. I think I do....

Oh no fear...I can run a half mary tomorrow. No problema (say Betty and Mik)

We stopped at another restaurant for an early dinner (because they could seat 12 of us at 6pm on a Saturday night with a last minute reservation...) and then decided to walk some more....through Chinatown on our way home.

Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with the streets of San Francisco...NONE of this is easy walking. The walk into Chinatown was UPHILL, the walk out was DOWNHILL, but all of it is really entertaining.

Alberta, Momma, Daisy, and Sandy in Chinatown

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE DEER STICKING ITS TONGUE OUT AT???? (One of the windows at Barney's)

Amazingly, we were all in bed by 9:30pm...In fact, I'd say that my roommates were asleep before 10. Me? Not so much. But I tried.

Good thing because the wake up call came at 5am. Truth be told. I was already awake, but by 5:30, we could look out onto the street and see people walking toward the race. It was ON!

DAMN it was dark at 5am! 

I just LOVED that we were about two blocks from the start of the race. When we did this race a couple years ago, we ran into some troubles at the gear check. I studied the race materials and noticed that it indicated there would be gear checks on both sides of Union Square. Yay I thought. We'd just walk up Stockton and check in our gear at Stockton and Geary...the other back checks were at Powell and Geary...which is also where the racers were lining up. We got stuck there a couple years ago.

And we're off to the races!

Here's where things went bad AGAIN!...we walked up to the gear check buses about 6:30 and one of the volunteers told us that they weren't using those busses YET (WTF? The race starts at 7am?) and that we should head to to other side to check our gear...so like dutiful little ducks, we did. Only by the time we neared Powell and Geary (we had to cross Powell to get to the bag check) it was complete and utter GRIDLOCK.

Too many people walking up Powell to the start. Too many people walking to the start from the other side of Powell on Geary. Too many people already in their starting corrals (the 9-10 minute pace group was lined up on Powell and the 10-11 minute pace was lining up on Geary) converge around Union Square...arguable the largest groups in a women's race). It was absolute madness...and sad...and frustrating because I KNEW it was going to be a CLUSTER EFF to get to the gear check on the other side of Powell, which is why I was really happy that there were gear check busses on Stockton.

It was truly one of the scariest things I've ever been in. About 10,000 women all trying to get to THE OTHER SIDE (oh...did I mention there were porta potties on Powell too?). Thank god it was about 90% women, or I think there would have been fights, but for the most part, everyone in the crowd was helpful, polite...way more "excuse me's" and "I'm sorry" and "oh my bad's" than I would every expect in a race that wasn't 20000 women (and 2000 men). We lost Mik in the crowd (actually, she was smart. She saw that we were never going to get through, so she turned around and ran down Market to Mason to check her gear.)

If I ever do this race again...I hereby swear that I will get to the gear check by walking up Mason.

Alas...I talked to someone later in the day who said that they walked right up to the busses on the Stockton side and had no problem. They probably got there about 10 minutes after we were sent away.

So..despite the gear check debacle, once we did get our gear checked and calmed down, it was time to get to the start.

He was shouting to some friends about how he'd just checked his "bag." Really? I love San Fran! 

Again...thank GAWD for the green. It's how we spotted each other all morning! 

Yep...it was crowded

And we're off

 So...Alberta, Elsie, Betty and I started together. I cannot emphasize enough how crowded the beginning of the race is...and also, since we were on the streets of SF, how we really had to pay attention to who is around you, who is walking in front of you (four or five abreast...grrrrr), potholes, dropped clothes. It's a pretty treacherous start. Betty and Elsie moved over to the right side and ran on the sidewalk, so they got ahead of us. Alberta and I just trotted along and tried to stay together (again...yay for the green).

About a mile an a half in, my Garmin had some pretty strange readings and was indicating that I'd already run three miles and for 30 minutes (HUH? I mean I know we were running SLOW...but 30 minutes to run two miles? THAT'S RIDICULOUS!)  I figured the satellite signal was bounding off all the buildings and screwing things up, but I realized later that it was because I'd neglected to reset it from the previous day's run. (DUMMY). So at mile 2 I told Alberta I was just going to reset my Garmin and start it over. This had a really interesting effect on me for the rest of the race because whenever I looked at my Garmin, I'd see that I'd run 7.6 miles and I'd end up FEELING like I usually feel at 7.6 miles, not like I'd run 9.6.

Or maybe it was because I'd been running so slow. So here's the best I can piece together my pace for the first few miles:

Mile 1: 10:45
Mile 2: 11:30
Mile 3: 11:31

So...maybe it was the slow. But no matter, the Nike Women's 1/2 is just a beautiful run. I loved running past fisherman's wharf, past the bakeries, past all the cheerleaders and with all the women (and a few men).

Alberta, cruising through Fisherman's Warf 

Backatcha

Around the 4th mile we hit the first of the infamous SF hills...a short little jaunt up a hill...around a corner, and up another hill. Alberta and I hung in there with the 11 minute pacer (who rocked and who was giving everyone around her excellent advice about taking it easy on the hills...using our arms). With those hills come some of the best views of the Golden Gate Bridge...so I stopped a couple of times to take some pictures. Those stops aren't represented in my Garmin times (because I had it set to auto pause), but it accounts for about five minutes of time during the race.

Mile 4: 12:30
Mile 5: 11:03
Mile 6: 11:27

I think I took this near Marina Park.

Alberta and I and a lousy picture of the bridge. 

This is as we were headed up toward the Precidio. It looks like a lousy-foggy day, and it was cloudy, but it was rather warm and quite humid. 

We caught up to Speedo boy who was cheering everyone up the hill. 

My whole goal for this part of the run was just to run the hills, no matter how slowly, and although there are some pretty slow times here...I ran all of 'em, and I am really proud of that. Actually some of my slowest times are NOT from the uphills though, but are from when I was running DOWN some hills. That Mile 9 split is almost all downhill and includes a stretch where you lose about 300 vertical feet in less than a 1/2 mile. It's just brutal on the knees. I watched one woman wipe out. I decided to take it REALLY SLOW.

Mile 7: 12:45
Mile 8: 10:51
Mile 9: 12:46
Mile 10: 12:09


Somewhere around Mile 7, I lost Alberta. She hadn't done much training (being a boxer and all). To a certain extent, I sort of regret not running more closely with her, and Betty and Elsie. They ended up finishing only a few minutes behind me. It would have been really nice to have crossed the finish line together.

Here's another thing about Nike...it is so full of distractions (in addition to the neighborhoods and scenery) that you almost forget how far you're running. One of my favorites was the bra exchange at Mile 7. I could have exchanged my sweaty bra for a new Nike one. I wish I'd known about it. I would have worn an extra bra (one of my old Target Champion bras) and just gotten a new bra. Unfortunately, I really like the bra I was wearing, so I passed it by.

Around Mile 8, volunteers were passing out orange slices. We were in, what must be, one of the chi chi neighborhoods, lots of gates and mansions, and here we are sucking on oranges and leaving our orange peels everywhere. I suspect that Kaiser (the volunteer organization manning the station), must do a kick-ass job of cleaning up after us.

Headed toward some point (Los Reyes, Lobos? I can't remember...it was breathtaking BTW)

Those are busses and the finish line up ahead, but we weren't going directly there...we first had to take a left at the bottom of this hill.

Finally, by mile 10, we were out of the hills and I could pick up the pace a little bit...only by then (no matter what my Garmin said), I'd run 10 EFFING miles...a mile more than I'd run since Napa in July...and it was still super crowded...and there was still one more hill to climb as we ran back into Golden Gate park. (I do think that any race that has you run past the finish line at Mile 10 and then has you make a left turn before you get to it is just being mean).

As I ran through Golden Gate park, I started getting just a little bit annoyed with all the people around me (really...we were pretty much shoulder to shoulder the whole way). On the race photographer website there's a video of me at about Mile 6 (which was part of one of the first hills), and I was moving along and this woman in front of me came to almost a complete stop. I nearly ran up her backside! If you are so inclined to look at the crowd, I'm in the yellow hat about. If you are not so inclined...here is a still shot.

In other words...WTF? I love the two women on the right who hare having a wonderful chat and who have MOVED THE HECK OVER TO THE RIGHT!

Mile 11: 11:56
Mile 12: 10:56
Mile 13: 10:21
Last little bit: 2:18

So my Garmin time says 2:35:26 - Which is about 10 minutes slower than Napa to Sonoma and 13 minutes slower than the San Diego RnR half in June. My official finish time was 2:40:08...which means that I stopped along the way for about 5 minutes to take pictures...which sounds about right to me as well.

I never thought this would be a PR race...that's for sure.

Waiting for my Tiffany.... 

Me with Irene and Elsie and Betty (right behind Irene) at the finish.

Like almost all other things at this race, the race area at the end was organized and efficient (as efficient as you can be with 20,000 runners who are, shall we say, not completely firing on all mental cylinders). We gathered our bagels, and energy drinks, and t-shirts and (of course), our Tiffanys and looked for Mik and Alberta. The cell phone service at the beach was HORRIBLE, but we eventually found each other. The Gear Check system enabled us to get our gear quickly and the changing tent? Well...lets just say that nobody cared who was ready to change ALL their clothes and who was not. I always manage to make BFFs with someone in the changing area who just needs someone to lean on.

Even the shuttle bus system was pretty efficient and about as good as it gets for a bus ride across SF that is always longer than you want it to be.

Once back, we showered, met the rest of the herd, and headed off to Johnny Foleys for some good grub and beers, and to debrief the day before most of the herd headed off to the airport.

Smartest thing I did that day...As we walked by the restaurant on our way to our hotel, I stopped in and made a lunch reservation for 12 in "about an hour and a half." Our table was waiting for us when we arrived. I LOVE that place.

All upright...in our bright yellow shirts and sporting some serious bling!

All in all...a perfect weekend. I am so very blessed to be able to have these adventures with The Herd, and am so very, very glad all of the ladies (both running and non-running heffers) are really truly my BFFs. I absolutely cannot wait for our next adventure together.