Races #91 and 92

Two weeks ago (on Sunday, November 3), race #91 for me was the inaugural running of the Tiburon Half Marathon. It was my first half since the Seaside Half Marathon in February, and I was nervous. Even though I run along the Tiburon waterfront frequently and am used to the wind, I had never run out along the Strawberry peninsula.

At right is a photo taken from downtown Tiburon at dusk, with Angel Island and the San Francisco skyline visible. If you've never been to Tiburon, it is absolutely worth a visit, especially in the fall.


The half marathon course is gorgeous - easily the most beautiful half marathon course I've run - but has some killer hills! Having driven the course on Saturday, I knew I'd have to take it pretty easy in order not to die on the last half of the race. So I kept about a 9:30-9:40 pace, which is pretty much where I run my easy training runs, for the first 5 miles. Then miles 6-9 were the hills, on average about 110-120 feet of elevation gain over each mile, and I was so proud not to have walked at all. Even though sometimes my paces were reading 13+ minutes per mile on the uphill, I managed to average under a 10:00 pace throughout miles 6-9. By mile 10 I knew it was downhill to the finish, so I was able to get back under 9:30 for miles 10 & 11,  then at 8:45-8:55 for miles 12 & 13, and 7:46 for the last tenth of a mile. I was thrilled to have negative splits, especially given that the hills are all in the last half. It was a great race and I hope to do it again next fall!

Today, race #92 was the DSE Double Lake Merced 9-mile race. I used to run the DSE Summer Series around Lake Merced just about every week, so the course is really familiar to me, and I was looking forward to it. It was foggy in San Rafael when I left, so I was quite surprised to find it gorgeous and sunny in San Francisco. I was feeling pretty good, decided to try to run at an 8:30-8:45 pace, finished in 1:17:08, and was surprised to find I was the 2nd female finisher! (Now who knows, maybe only 5 females ran the Double today... but I'm happy anyway!)

Tomorrow I'm at UC Davis for the day, and Maggie's track workout is in the dark at Tam High, so I'm not sure when I'll get a run in. I've been averaging about 30 miles per week for the past month or so, running 3-5 miles five days a week and 6-10 on the sixth day. Tuesdays are my day off, because typically that's the longest surgery day for me. It's harder to get a run in after work now that it's dark by 5pm! I may have to start doing some treadmill miles. It beats getting up early when it's 45*F!!