Thanksgiving, cold-weather training, and Half-Marathon PR

After a short run in 24*F weather

The holidays are always such a busy time. Even though it is the start of a hectic season, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, because its focus is on family, spending time together and appreciating all of the blessings in our lives. Especially with the knowledge that so many families are missing loved ones at this time of year, I am especially grateful that my parents and parents-in-law, brother and brother-in-law, my husband, myself and especially my daughters are all healthy.

This year we were in northern Indiana for Thanksgiving, where it was in the 20s and 30s. Having been born in Buffalo, NY, I rather like the cold, as long as I'm appropriately dressed. It was 24*F on Sunday, Nov. 24 when I went out for a run around my in-laws' neighborhood. With my face completely covered (by yellow instead of black, much less frightening!) and several layers on top, I was relatively comfortable. It was good preparation for our return to Northern California, where we've had some really cold weather (20s and 30s!) over the past 2 weeks! Normally, we are pretty spoiled with temperatures in the 40s and 50s throughout the winter, so it has been good to remind myself what all of the east-coasters do all winter long to train for Boston!

34*F in San Rafael on 12/8/13

Yesterday my husband and I had the rare privilege of running the same race, the Walnut Creek Half Marathon. Our girls stayed with friends overnight so we could stay at the Marriott in Walnut Creek and not have to leave home before 5am. We picked up our bibs at the Elite Sports Authority and I bought a Batman shirt to run the race in - the story of SF Batkid has inspired so much goodwill (not to mention increasing the country's awareness of childhood cancers); I wanted to run this race with Miles in mind and maybe bring a smile to some of the supporters on the course.

We ate at Denny's (oatmeal, and egg-white omelet and wheat toast for me) and bought some throw-away sweats at Walmart since temperatures were predicted to be 32*F at the start. The Marriott was about a mile or so from the start, so after a donut and some coffee in our room, we hopped on a shuttle to Civic Park and arrived at about 6:35. There was hardly anyone there yet, which was odd given the 7am start time, but I was happy not to have to wait too long for the port-a-potties. Just before the start I took off my Walmart sweats and draped them over a parking meter, with the thought of possibly retrieving them later. A woman in the same start area asked if I was going to leave them there, and mentioned wanting to leave her gloves to pick up later. I asked her what her target finish time was and when she replied 1:55, I said "Oh, great, mine, too - why don't you tuck the gloves into my sweatshirt so they won't get blown away or taken. Then hopefully we'll finish around the same time and you can pick them up!" A minute later, a local pastor led us in prayer, and then the race began.

I started just behind the 1:50 pace group but didn't try to keep up with them, knowing their pace would not be sustainable for me. My goal was to stay between 8:40 and 8:50 per mile on the flat portions of the course, and having done the 9-mile race at 8:35s a couple of weeks ago, I felt pretty confident that I could achieve that. I knew there were a couple of hills, including a great big one, but after Tiburon even the hills didn't scare me. I knew they'd slow me down, but I knew I'd be able to get up them without walking!

The first few miles, through downtown Walnut Creek, were flat, and it seemed like there were lots of people running with me.  At mile 5 there was a little hill, and a few of the runners around me made comments like "That can't be the only hill." and "Oh, there's a much bigger one coming up!" By then the crowds had thinned a bit; we had left downtown, passed some residential areas on Cowell, and turned right onto Ygnacio Valley Road. Running up the hill, through some of Walnut Creek's beautiful open space, the line of runners was almost single file. The hill crested at a summit of 476 feet, in the Lime Ridge Open Space, surrounded by chaparral. It was beautiful!



Even though the ascent was difficult, I still felt strong, and, knowing there were no more hills to come, I let myself fly down the hill, which felt great! I passed runner after runner on the downhill and continuing through mile 10. I was a little disappointed that I started to feel tired around mile 11, and slowed down quite a bit the last mile, but about half of that last mile was on a trail instead of road, and I'm always a little ginger-footed on trails. It was narrow, windy and the ground was uneven but frozen, so I was a little tentative. It was a cute path through a park. Just before the finish, there was a tiny hill up to a pedestrian overcrossing, and Edward was cheering me on as I crossed the bridge. "It's a race!" he reminded me, helping me kick it in for the last tenth of a mile to meet my goal of 1:55 (plus a few seconds), a new personal record! (My previous best was 1:57:21 in August 2012, on a flat course.) I felt like a champion.

The snacks after the finish were plentiful, but I couldn't eat anything except an orange slice. I was tired! Happily, when we reached the start, my pink sweatshirt was still sitting on the parking meter where I'd left it, with my sweatpants and the other runner's black gloves underneath. (I was a little sad that the other runner hadn't met her goal and we weren't at the finish at the same time, but happy to have my sweats back!) I left her gloves on the meter and put my warm sweats on for the walk to find a shuttle bus. It had only warmed up a few degrees, so I was grateful for the sweats!

With no shuttles in sight, we walked back to the Marriott. A few minutes into the walk, for the first time ever, I had a really bad cramp in my right leg, and couldn't put weight on it for a minute. I stretched it out, tried to walk it off and was able to resume the slow trek back to the hotel. We showered and enjoyed a buffet breakfast before heading back to San Rafael to pick up the girls. I'm pretty sore today and did not run, but will go out for a mile or two tomorrow.

No official photos from the race yet, but I'll post when they are available.