SF Giant Race
As part of my ongoing training for the Chicago Marathon in October, I ran the San Francisco Giant Race Half Marathon on August 4th to sub for one of my long runs. I went into this race with little to no expectations since honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect from my body. I had some ups and downs in my training up to that point, mainly with my long runs. I even had to pull my iPod out of storage to provide some inspiration to my long runs. Nothing pumps me up more than 80's new wave and contemporary synthpop :)
The race course was pretty cool with lots of SF sights along the way. The starting line was right outside AT&T Park (home of the SF Giants) and finished up inside the ballpark. The course followed the outer edge of SF up the Embarcadero all the way down past Chrissy Field where you got a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge before turning around. Along the way, we passed the Ferry Building, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghiradelli Square, Fort Mason, and the America's Cup Park and Village.
Overall, the race went much better than I expected. It helped that the morning was nice and cool and the course was mostly flat with the exception of two small hills. I took a GU gel somewhere between miles 4 and 5 and another one between miles 9 and 10. I was able to keep a pretty steady pace throughout and even managed a slight negative split. Overall I ran the 13.1 mile course in 1:39:04 (7:33 min/mile pace) and came a minute short of matching my PR! I was very happy to say the least!
Tri For Fun #3
I raced in my second triathlon of the year on August 17th at the Tri For Fun #3 at Shadow Cliffs Regional Recreation Area in nearby Pleasanton, CA. This was exactly the same race course as my previous triathlon the month prior.
The swim went much better this time around. I was able to get some open water swim training in beforehand and in the end, it helped quite a bit. I was more relaxed and started out at a more manageable pace. I still got caught up in the crowd of flailing arms and legs, but I managed to remain calm. I ended up finishing the 400 yd swim almost a minute faster than my previous swim.
This time around in transition, I decided not to clip in my cycling shoes beforehand. I didn't feel like doing a flying mount/dismount and also wanted to see how big of a difference it made. It did end up taking a little extra time to get my shoes on and to get out of transition, but it wasn't a huge deal.
The bike ride was the same as before and I felt a bit more comfortable overall. I remembered my own water bottle this time and had it filled with some GU Brew. I decided not to take any additional GU gels for this race to see if that would help keep my stomach settled. I was able to maintain a ~19 mph avg pace (which is fast for me) so I was pretty happy. I was also glad that no one in red speedos was ahead of me on the bike :)
My T2 was pretty straightforward and I got into my running gear pretty quickly. The 5k run was pretty uneventful which was good, because the last time out I was having all sorts of GI issues. This time though, I was in decent shape and was hoping that I would be able to break the 1 hour mark. Unfortunately, as I headed towards the finish line, I saw that the hour mark had passed, so I just tried to finish as fast as I could. I ended up with a total time of 1:01:47.5 which was 2 minutes faster than my previous time, so I was pretty satisfied.
Next up: The Disneyland Dumbo Double Dare!!
