Hills are Horrendous (Brazen Racing Badger Cove Half Marathon Race Recap)

About a month or so ago, I thought it would be a good idea to incorporate some hill workouts in my marathon training. After all, the hills at Big Sur are what I hear people complaining about the most. What a better way to do this than join a Brazen trail race!  I looked at Brazen's race calendar, and saw that the Badger Cove half marathon would fall on March 16th, a week where my long run was scheduled to be 12 miles. Perfect timing... or at least I though it was.

Well, fast forward to this past weekend and it was time for my first trail half marathon. I was already kind of worried about this race, since I've never run a half in this type of terrain. Brazen labels this as part of their "Ultra Half" series, which makes it sound even more dubious. To make things worse, the week leading up to this race was not a good one. Work was super crazy and on top of that, I caught a cold. Basically, a whole week of training leading up to the race was wiped out. On race day, I still wasn't feeling well and had a nagging cough that kept me up part of the night. I finally resorted to taking some of the "good" cough medicine, but that left me feeling kind of hung over that morning. I contemplated about pulling out of the race, but I decided to go through with it and I promised my wife I would try to take it easy if I wasn't feeling up to it.

The race was held at Lake Del Valle in Livermore, CA. This was my first chance to go there and it was beautiful! It was just south of the vineyards and wineries of the Livermore Valley and had gorgeous views everywhere.

The start of the race was a brisk 48 degrees. The Mountain House Running Club was in full force and well represented in all the distances (5k, 10k, half).

The race started and all seemed well. I moved up to one of the groups up front and tried maintaining a pace of 7:30 min/mile while I was on the flat terrain. Once we started running uphill, that's when some issues arose. I don't know if it was my cold, the cough medicine, or all the above, but after the 2nd or 3rd mile, my mind was starting to wander (more than usual) and thoughts about quitting crept into my mind. Questions raced through my mind like, "Why are you running this? Why aren't you in bed resting?" Valid questions, but strange nonetheless. I actually considered dropping out at that point. I tried to ignore these thoughts and pressed on ahead, but it seemed like I couldn't shake them, especially during those uphill climbs. What to do...

Eventually, I think the physical issues overwhelmed the mental ones as I was having a hard time with both the uphills and the downhill segments. I was finding myself walking the majority of the uphills and struggling down some of the steep downhills. There was one particular downhill segment that I had to run through twice where I almost lost my footing on both occasions because it was so steep. I was noticing that my knees were taking a beating because of the downhills.  At one point I came close to injuring my left knee because of a particularly bad jolt I had experienced on a descent, but thankfully, it wasn't anything serious.

I don't know how I got through the two loop course, but I finally made it to mile 12 and the home stretch. Home free, right? Uh uh. My left calf muscle started cramping up. I tried numerous times to stretch it out, but every minute it would cramp back up again. At one point, I let out a high pitch shriek and a woman behind said, "I know that cry! You cramping up?" Yes ma'am, I was. Thanks for asking. With the end in sight, I tried to jog as painless as possible to the finish line. With my arms barely held up in some silly attempt at a victory salute, I crossed the finish line almost doubling over immediately. It was finally over!

Post-race, I gladly indulged in the free sports massage to get my calf worked on. I also realized that I didn't really cough during the race. That didn't stop my cough from returning afterwards, but it was a small blessing I guess. Actually, it was a small miracle that I made it through the race and managed a decent time. I have no idea how that happened. This was the toughest race physically and mentally that I've run to date. Hopefully, this will make Big Sur a little more manageable.

Race stats: Distance: 13.1 miles, Finished in 1:54:09, 8:43 min/mile, 23rd/240 overall, 5th/24 in Men's 35-39, Total Elevation Gain/Loss: Approx. 2,250’

Almost halfway there!

Well, with the Big Sur Int'l Marathon (http://www.bsim.org/site3.aspx) a little over 9 weeks away, I am almost halfway through my training plan. To spice up my training, I was able to run in two local races which also subbed for a couple of my training runs.

I ran the Brazen Bay Breeze Half Marathon (http://www.brazenracing.com/baybreeze.html) a couple of weeks back and went into the race curious at how I would do. I wanted to use this race as a test to see if I could sustain my goal marathon pace and see if my training was paying off. It was held at Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area in Fremont, CA and it was a beautiful course! It was a sunny day, but a little nippy temperature-wise (high 40's F) at the start of the race, but it eventually warmed up and was a nice race experience!

One of my goals for this race was to not repeat the same mistakes I had made in my first half marathon last fall. I had gone out too fast at the beginning of that race and paid for it dearly at the end of the race when I nearly bonked. I also believe that I didn't take in enough hydration/nutrition along the way either. It didn't help that the hydration stations weren't where they had announced they would be which kind of messed up my plan a bit. I was determined to make some changes so these things wouldn't happen again.

So, at the start of the race, I went out fast for a short period just to navigate around some of the crowds and then I quickly settled into my goal pace of 7:30 min/mile. Nutrition-wise, I carried 3 GU gels with me along with an emergency 10 oz flask of coconut water. I lost one of my GUs along the way, but that was fine since I was planning to use only 2 of them anyway. Being this was a Brazen race, there were plenty of hydration stations set up throughout the course, so I didn't need my emergency hydration.

The course was relatively flat and was on a mix of paved and gravel trails. I felt relatively comfortable throughout my run and surprisingly ran my goal pace mile after mile. While I didn't run a negative split, I did have enough energy to maintain my goal pace and was able to push it a little bit in the final mile. I finished the race significantly stronger than my first half marathon and was really happy with my results. I finished in 1:38:10 and met my goal by running a pace of 7:27 min/mile. I was tired, but there wasn't any puking or bonking at the end which was a positive :)

Another bright spot was two of my friends ran this race (with ease if I may add) and thus completed their very first half marathons! A family member ran what I believe was her first 10k race here as well! The running bug is definitely spreading!

Last Sunday, as a part of a huge contingent from the Mountain House Running Club (mhrunners.com), I teamed up with my wife and ran in the Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders (LMJS) Couples Relay (http://www.lmjs.org/Couples_Relay) in Oakland! It was another beautiful day for a race and our first time at the Lake Merritt. Since this was a relay, each one of us took turns in running a 5k leg around the lake. My wife started out by running the first leg. She was dealing with some plantar fasciitis issues and hadn't run much in the week leading up to this, so I wasn't quite sure when she would arrive. After seeing some of the women in our running club arrive, I saw my wife surprisingly come into the picture and ran over to the transition area where she met me, tagged me, and off I went!

The race course was nice and flat and mostly on paved trails/roads. There were a lot of people at the lake that morning, so we had to be careful when weaving in and around foot traffic. One minor annoyance that I dealt with for the first mile was with my heart rate monitor not staying put on my chest. It must of gotten too loose during the past week so I had to place it around my abdomen. Because of this, my HR was registering in the 220-240s! I was able to place it back properly later on when I had enough moisture (i.e. sweat lol) on my chest to keep the monitor secure. I tried pushing my pace throughout the run with the goal of beating my previous personal record (PR), but I could tell I was losing some gas towards the end.

Despite that, I ended up running a PR of 20:38.7 with a pace of 6:39/mile. My wife, despite her injury, finished 1 second short of tying her PR! As a team, we finished 3rd amongst our running group friends, and in the middle of the pack overall. It was a lot of fun, especially with such a big group from the running club cheering everyone else on. This was by far the most enjoyable speed work training session I've had thus far!

Just as a reminder, I'm not only running the Big Sur Int'l Marathon, but I'm also raising money for the Lazarex Cancer Foundation (http://www.lazarex.org/) by running with Team For Life (http://www.teamforlifelcf.org/). A big thanks to everyone who's supported me thus far! If you are interested in finding out more or would like to sponsor me, please check out my fundraising page at: http://lazarex.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1033261&lis=1&kntae1033261=3B6A1A5783174206942079B423323763&supId=366230312

Thanks and happy running!!