AREC Half Marathon – 2009

August 29, 2009

As part of our marathon / half marathon training program, AREC puts on a practice (though we count it as an official race) half marathon and 10K about 6 weeks prior to the actual marathon and half marathon race.

I decided to give it a try, even though it had been over SIX years since I had run a half marathon.  I know.  I can’t believe it, either.  I know most people do more than 6 half marathons IN a year… but ever since I started doing ultramarathons, a half marathon seems like a couple of wasted hours (especially with the expensive price of them nowadays).

I wasn’t sure what to expect, so went out at a moderate pace.  It was a bit overcast and I didn’t do so well in the muggy conditions.  I overheated fairly rapidly… and ended up using my ultramarathon skills in walking up all of the hills and just coasting.

In the end, I had a certain expectation of a time for myself, and came in, just under 2 hours.  I will say that I am neither elated nor upset with the time, because it’s a decent time and not bad considering that I hadn’t paced myself out for one in such a long time.

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Sunset in the Park 3M – 2009

August 13, 2009

Last year, my friend Oscar Rosales and his Finishline racing company retired from doing races in Huntington Beach Central Park.

For the most part, his races were attended sparsely by teenagers, with the exception of the Sunset in the Park 2.8M (and 4.8M) race.  Prior to the regular 2.8- and 4.8-mile races, high school boys and girls would have their own separate race.  It was an unofficial kick-off to the high school cross-country season.  Local high schools would field teams (with non affiliated names (and often fake competitor names, too)) and have a fun time and scout their competition.

EPI Sports decided to take over the Sunset in the Park race, and mostly gear it towards high schoolers, but also have an adult race as well (locals, parents and coaches mostly).  I miss being able to run this event, and so it was fun to go back and run it again, albeit a slightly different course.

Most of the competitors (even in my, non-high school race) were pretty dang fast… though in looking through the results, I determined that I was the 5th fastest M35-39 competitor (perhaps out of 5) in the race.  So small race, but rabid competition.

AREC Prediction Run – 2009

August 12, 2009

Dateline one week ago:  Inger and I decided to figure out what kind of time we are running, in order to accurately gauge our predicted running time.  We ran 43:20, so it seemed reasonable that we would run something similar.

For the Prediction Run, you cannot wear your watch or use any timing device (other than counting aloud).  I decided to predict 43:11 (slightly faster) and Inger predicted 43:24 (slightly slower).  We came in at 43:35, which put me in about 20th place and Inger in 3rd.

I guess it says something about everyone’s consistency when I am only 24 seconds off my prediction and it is only 20th best!

Boeing 5K (7) – 2009

August 10, 2009

Since the triathlon, I have not raced.  This is not due to some kind of exhaustion, but rather the advent of my 20-year high school reunion.  I was able to do the triathlon because I opted against doing the Skyline 50K (which is often the same weekend), because then I would be in the Bay Area two consecutive weekends, and that ends up being a lot of driving.

Friday night of the reunion, many of us gathered at the old Kings X bar on Piedmont Avenue (now a Tiki Bar).  I had never been there, but drove by thousands of times in my life.  I tried to drum up some support for people to join me the next day and run trails up at Skyline Gate.  Some said they might go, which is code for, “Absolutely not.”

I went up by myself in morning and was just running on my own, when a runner asked me if I knew the way to Bort Meadows.  I did, in a sort of fashion (having to do with running by it on several Skyline 50Ks).  We ended up running together (and never finding the Meadows), but the pace was nice and I had a good time.

The other runner turned out to be the wife of a former Seal Beach Boeing employee… and ironically, I was running the Boeing 5K on the Monday after the reunion!

The reunion was great.  Probably unlike most people (unless you went to a private school), I knew EVERYONE in my graduating class.  This is not to say that I was close friends with all of them, but most of them I had known for at least 7 years of middle and high school, and probably 3 dozen of them I had had 3-6 years of elementary school with them (or we went to the same church).  People who know me now know that I am pretty good with names and faces, but this was more due to the fact that there were only 162 people in my graduating class (I’m from the era known as the “Baby Bust,” so there aren’t as many of us).

We had a good turnout – probably about 120 people (maybe 80 classmates, plus spouses).  I made the name tags, which were their names and their senior pictures (and laminated).  Most people looked the same to me (but with Facebook and other social media, we are not totally out of touch with one another).  Two of my classmates had died since graduating – one of pancreatic cancer, and the other by electrocution (while out on a run the morning of his wedding).

On Sunday morning, we had a picnic, which was attended by classmates, any kids, parents of my classmates, and a number of my teachers from elementary, middle and high school.  Very fun to reminisce.  I drove back in the afternoon to Long Beach so I could run the Boeing 5K in the morning.

The run itself did not start out too great.  The time in the car, having a long weekend, headwinds, etc., contributed to a slowish out- time… but I recovered on the way back and posted 22:13… the identical time from last month (which was my best of the year).

David Hancock Triathlon – 2009

August 2, 2009

As I mentioned with the Kayak Run Relay, for David Hancock Triathlon, I have not been on a bicycle or in the pool (well, I mean, I’ve swum a little bit, but not for exercise) for nearly a year… probably not since last year.

For the swim, I do what I’ve always done, which is swim breast stroke (with my glasses on) and alternate between swimming with my head out of the water and mostly underwater (because real breaststroking should have your head completely under the water).  This is similar to my kayaking technique, which is paddling hard and then gliding.  Swimming (mostly) underwater propels me faster, but is more exhausting than just planing above the water.  I have pretty good endurance in swimming; I’m just not fast.  The swim takes me 30 minutes and I am definitely the last person out of the water.

On the bike ride, it is mostly about just getting through it, because cycling long distances is no fun for me.  I did get my friend Jimmy Lewis to help me replace my old knobby hybrid tires with “racing” tires, and this helped me a little bit… but I still have a seat extender, but no handlebar extender, so I am still stooped over in an uncomfortable pose.  The 28 miles take me about 2 hours and 15 minutes (about the same pace that I can run a lap around the track).

When I get off the bike, there are still a dozen people on the run, and not all are out of reach.  At mile 4, I catch one competitor, who is running with his young daughters (I don’t care; I’ll take it) and I pass a few others who are not that great at running.  I finish the (fairly hilly) run course (6.5M) in 59 minutes and finish overall in 3:45.

Hard to believe that I have completed over 50 multi-sport events in my “racing career.”

Boeing 5K (6) – 2009

July 13, 2009

Another Boeing 5K.  I am reasonably fresh this month… no marathons or ultramarathons to ruin my fitness… and I had even had about a month’s break in between races in June.

The wind is picking up today, so I ran a negative split, because it was breezy (in your face) on the way out and pretty hot on the way back.  My time of 22:13 is my best of the year!

ThomBob Kayak 1M / Run 5K Relay – 2009

July 11, 2009

Todd Rose and I are teammates once again at the ThomBob Kayak Run Relay.

This “duathlon” is one of my favorites, yet I treat it in the same way I treat triathlons (or duathlons) – I don’t work out at all on the non-running discipline.  This means that I basically have not paddled an ocean kayak since last year (and I also don’t really do upper body workout, either).

The past few years the kayak portion has been between a kilometer and a mile, but this year, it was certainly a mile and no shorter.  I still get a lot of jazz from the other competitors about my paddling technique, but the reality is that I don’t really fit in the boat, and I cannot get any leverage… and I don’t have great endurance in paddling.  The effort it takes to paddle continuously is much more strenuous than shuffling forward on foot.

As for the run, I get my usual 22-odd minutes while Todd runs to recover from the kayaking, and I manage around 24 minutes, which is respectable having kayaked or not.