burning sensation
i decided, sort of last minute, to jump in & run a 7-mile race this weekend, just north of the city, in marin county.
the race was yesterday morning at 9 am. there was also a marathon and a 25k starting on the same cource, but luckily i had enough clarity of mind when i registered thursday to only do the 7 mile run. i almost did the half-marathon, and for even a brief second i debated the marathon even though i'm totally not in shape for one.
i'm crazy like that (or some might call it stupid) -- one of my ex-boyfriends, several of my friends, my brother, and i had a history of running the boston marathon with no training. we always decided to run the week before the race. my first time i convinced my friend from crew that she needed to do it with me. that was on saturday, after practice -- the marathon was monday. we ran it - and had a great time. but i couldn't walk for a week.
brian and i used to joke about writing a book called "how to train for a marathon in one week". we even had plans for a sequel called "how to train for a marathon in three days". i think we'd make millions...
but back to my story. yesterday's race was great, awesome, fun - and also THE most insane run i have ever done! (keep in mind that i grew up in florida, so i don't run up mountainsides very often)
we started at sea level, on the beach. it was a gorgeous misty morning that cleared up and became an extremely wonderfully sunny day. since i got there a little early, i was able to spend about half an hour just walking the beach with my coffee and my ipod, watching the surfers wipe out and the little birds hunt for food. it was the kind of thing i wish i could do for the start of every day. pure heaven.
but the course -- we started at sea level, and by mile 3, we had completed the climb to the top (1500 ft). for some reason i didn't expect it to be such a bad climb - but the trails we took had completely vertical sections on it - complete with stone steps and ladders. before the end of the first half mile, i think everyone (i mean everyone) was walking. you had to in certain sections or you would have killed yourself... but also, our heart rates were probably hitting 300 from running straight up. we all needed to move to colorado to do some training!
at the top it was great - there was about a mile of rolling flat, and i got some great speed and was able to pass a few girls who had smoked me on one of the ascents. that felt good. now all i needed to do was keep them behind me on the way down, which made me nervous - i have bad knees, and they DON'T like going downhil. even if the downhill is mostly more stone steps because it was so dang steep!
i've never had to run on human-sized (not car-sized) switchbacks before, going top speed down a mountainside in a race. it made for an interesting experiment. i got to play around with the size of steps i took (large leaps that send me four feet and land with a uncontrollable thud before springing back into the air, out of control? or short, choppy steps that have less impact per step but overall more repetative bang and are generally slower?), all the while being extra-aware that the faster i ran down the more i would hurt the next day, and the slower i ran down, the higher the likelihood those girls would catch back up to me.
not that i'm competitive of anything.
the race also drew some blood (not from me, thankfully). we had to duck under a lot of trees - some small branches, and other very large redwoods that grew diagonally across our path and left about a 3 foot tunnel of crawlspace to get beyond them. two men had gashes on their heads at the finish. and there was one a girl who must've not seen one of the tight switchback turns and fallen into a ditch - or maybe she lost her footing on one of the single-track trails where there was a huge drop off to our left and she tumbled down the side... i'm not sure. but she had a huge scrape covering her entire thigh when she finished. ow.
i managed to get out with a tiny scrape on my ankle and some mud on my legs from the small streams we had to leap over. i felt good.
and when all was said and done, i got to drive home down route 1 with the windows open and the most awesome views of the pacific ocean. definitely a glorious way to pass a saturday morning.
...
results
my time: 1:32:04
overall fastest time: 1:03:41
overall slowest time: 3:40:00
my place overall: 46 out of 137
my place (women): 15 out of 80
my place (age group F25-29): 4 out of 22 (crap! how did one sneak by?)
see the results online
pictures to come...
the race was yesterday morning at 9 am. there was also a marathon and a 25k starting on the same cource, but luckily i had enough clarity of mind when i registered thursday to only do the 7 mile run. i almost did the half-marathon, and for even a brief second i debated the marathon even though i'm totally not in shape for one.
i'm crazy like that (or some might call it stupid) -- one of my ex-boyfriends, several of my friends, my brother, and i had a history of running the boston marathon with no training. we always decided to run the week before the race. my first time i convinced my friend from crew that she needed to do it with me. that was on saturday, after practice -- the marathon was monday. we ran it - and had a great time. but i couldn't walk for a week.
brian and i used to joke about writing a book called "how to train for a marathon in one week". we even had plans for a sequel called "how to train for a marathon in three days". i think we'd make millions...
but back to my story. yesterday's race was great, awesome, fun - and also THE most insane run i have ever done! (keep in mind that i grew up in florida, so i don't run up mountainsides very often)
we started at sea level, on the beach. it was a gorgeous misty morning that cleared up and became an extremely wonderfully sunny day. since i got there a little early, i was able to spend about half an hour just walking the beach with my coffee and my ipod, watching the surfers wipe out and the little birds hunt for food. it was the kind of thing i wish i could do for the start of every day. pure heaven.
but the course -- we started at sea level, and by mile 3, we had completed the climb to the top (1500 ft). for some reason i didn't expect it to be such a bad climb - but the trails we took had completely vertical sections on it - complete with stone steps and ladders. before the end of the first half mile, i think everyone (i mean everyone) was walking. you had to in certain sections or you would have killed yourself... but also, our heart rates were probably hitting 300 from running straight up. we all needed to move to colorado to do some training!
at the top it was great - there was about a mile of rolling flat, and i got some great speed and was able to pass a few girls who had smoked me on one of the ascents. that felt good. now all i needed to do was keep them behind me on the way down, which made me nervous - i have bad knees, and they DON'T like going downhil. even if the downhill is mostly more stone steps because it was so dang steep!
i've never had to run on human-sized (not car-sized) switchbacks before, going top speed down a mountainside in a race. it made for an interesting experiment. i got to play around with the size of steps i took (large leaps that send me four feet and land with a uncontrollable thud before springing back into the air, out of control? or short, choppy steps that have less impact per step but overall more repetative bang and are generally slower?), all the while being extra-aware that the faster i ran down the more i would hurt the next day, and the slower i ran down, the higher the likelihood those girls would catch back up to me.
not that i'm competitive of anything.
the race also drew some blood (not from me, thankfully). we had to duck under a lot of trees - some small branches, and other very large redwoods that grew diagonally across our path and left about a 3 foot tunnel of crawlspace to get beyond them. two men had gashes on their heads at the finish. and there was one a girl who must've not seen one of the tight switchback turns and fallen into a ditch - or maybe she lost her footing on one of the single-track trails where there was a huge drop off to our left and she tumbled down the side... i'm not sure. but she had a huge scrape covering her entire thigh when she finished. ow.
i managed to get out with a tiny scrape on my ankle and some mud on my legs from the small streams we had to leap over. i felt good.
and when all was said and done, i got to drive home down route 1 with the windows open and the most awesome views of the pacific ocean. definitely a glorious way to pass a saturday morning.
...
results
my time: 1:32:04
overall fastest time: 1:03:41
overall slowest time: 3:40:00
my place overall: 46 out of 137
my place (women): 15 out of 80
my place (age group F25-29): 4 out of 22 (crap! how did one sneak by?)
see the results online
pictures to come...
posted by megan at
11:27:00 AM
1 Comments:
Sounds like SOOOO much fun. I'm absolutely jealous. Way to go.
Amber
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