2009 In Review: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The second in my year end series takes a look at some of the notable races for the year.  There are also notable training runs, but they do not lend themselves to a year end review.  Those will have to wait for future posts.

THE GOOD

The Waterfront 10 Miler on January 18 was my most satisfying race of the year.  The race starts in Aquatic Park, runs East through Fisherman's Wharf on Jefferson Street which turns into the Embarcadero as the road turns South.  The route goes past the piers on the bay for a little more than two miles and turns left at AT&T Park.  Then it is across the Lefty O'Doul Bridge which, as Cliff P. notes, is one of the bridges built by Joseph Strauss before he did the Golden Gate Bridge.  After the bridge, it is a couple of miles through the former industrial area of the City, mostly being redeveloped as Mission Bay, still hugging the waterfront.  It is a varied and interesting course.  I ran my most consistent pace, keeping my times grouped close to 6:30 for each mile.  This might be the flattest course I ran for the year, which makes that possible.  I finished in 64:44, for a pace of 6:28.  I felt good over distance and thought I was ready for the Kaiser Half-Marathon, two weeks later.

The Rainbow Falls 5K on March 15 was my fastest race with a pace of 6:11 per mile.  I also ran the Great Highway 4 Mile on November 1 at a 6:11 pace, but that course it probably a few hundredths of a mile short. 

The DSE Summer Race Series was a thrill.  I placed second overall, first in the MVP Points competition and won my age group. 

The Run Your Bunny Off 5K in Snow Hill North Carolina was my only out of area race.  It was fun to run in a different location and to see the local support the race received.  It was also nice to finish in third place overall.  Speaking of third overall, that is also how I finished the DSE Double Lake Merced.  So, these two races were my highest single race finish placement of the year. 

A few of the races I enter also have age group awards.  50 - 59 for the DSE events and usually 50 - 54 for the larger events in THE CITY.  At the DSE Waterfront 10 M and Lake Merced Half-Marathon, I took age group firsts.  At the Kaiser Half-Marathon and at the Bridge to Bridge 12K I took age group seconds for each event.  Bay to Breakers was a different story as I finished 14th in my age group.  More on the Bay to Breakers below.

THE BAD

There are no bad runs; some are just better than others.  Life is too short to wallow in the petty annoyances of daily living (or running).

THE UGLY

There may not be any bad runs, but there are some ugly ones.  The top of the list for 2009 has to be the Kaiser Half-Marathon in February.  Following a very satisfying performance two weeks earlier in the DSE Waterfront 10 Miler, I was looking forward to a strong run in the Half.  My primary goal was to get a fully seeded entry to the Bay to Breakers.  That requires a finish of 1:27:00 or better for a masters runner (age 40 and over).  I was reeling off these beautiful miles for the first eight or nine miles.  6:26, 6:16, 6:27, 6:27 (again), 6:23, 6:08 (where did that come from), 6:27 (again), etc.  Then it all fell apart.  6:45, 6:55, 7:01, 7:04, etc.  It went from smooth, beautiful running to a great struggle almost instantly.  I could barely make it to the finish line.  The silver lining was that I got my seeded entry (1:26:59 chip time) and an age group second.  Ah, but what could have been ...  I don't know if this was a training problem, a nutrition problem or that I should not have run the 10 miler two weeks before.  Given the rapid fall in performance, my guess is some type of nutrition, fluid issue.  My body ran out of something and started to shut down to preserve what was left.

Second on the list is The Relay in May.  This year it was a 200 mile (probably more) race from Calistoga, in Napa County, to Davenport, in Santa Cruz County.  Each team has twelve runners who run race legs from 3 to 8.9 miles.  The typical arrangement is to divide the runners between two passenger vans that leap-frog each other on the course.  One van is active for six legs, while the other is resting.  Some legs are flat and some climb up mountains (if you accept 1,000 feet above sea level as the minimum for a mountain).  Each runner runs three legs, for a total of 36 legs.  It was a rainy weekend.  I hate running in the rain.  I asked the team captain, who has been doing this for better that 10 years, what suggestions he had for dealing with the rain.  He said he couldn't tell me.  While it had threatened to rain in prior years, it never actually rained.  So, he had no experience with running a relay in the rain, either. 

I was runner 11.  I had to sit and wait for a long time to start running.  My first leg, through Petaluma, came at sunset on Saturday.  It was rated as "hard," probably due to a combination of distance and hills.  I pulled my hamstrings and they were irritated for the rest of the race.  My second leg, in San Mateo County along the Crystal Springs Reservoir, came in the middle of the night.  It was easy: flat and short.  With my tender hamstrings and generally lethargic legs, I ran a really crappy time.  It rained off and on throughout the race.  So far, I had been lucky.  It had not rained while I was actually running.  My third and final leg came mid-day on Sunday.  It rained all morning with no sign of let-up.  The leg before this came out of Felton to the entrance of a quarry.  All of the rain had caused a small landslide on the road leading to the quarry.  The poor guy ahead of me had to run a detour of an extra mile or two.  

Then it happened, the zen came over me.  I prepared with a two shot canned espresso (false energy), two ibuprofen (to dull the pain) and two pieces of sugary coffee cake (readily available carbohydrate).  I was going to run through the rain.  It was OK.  My legs hurt.  It was OK.  I had to climb out of the quarry and then through some steep inclines and declines through the Santa Cruz Mountains to the coast.  It was OK.  I was going to have a good run.  Rather than run in a soaked shirt, I took it off.  I almost never run without a shirt.  I pinned my race number to my shorts, grabbed the "baton" as runner 10 approached and took off.  I ran through a relatively warm rain through the mountain woods.  I did not care what my time was.  It was a good run through a beautiful setting in an ugly race.  Our team came in 12th out of 227 teams and we were the first place masters team. 

So, what happened?  I probably was not as well prepared as I thought I was.  I needed a better plan of long runs and tempo workouts.  Second, I sat too long, especially riding in the van, and did not warm-up enough.  At a minimum, I should have started my first leg slower and built up to the pace I wanted over a longer distance.

Finally, there was the Bay to Breakers, in May just two weeks after The Relay.  I knew this was not going to be a good race.  I was still hobbled from The Relay.  Then race day came and it was unusually hot and humid for San Francisco.  I decided to simply survive the race and aimed for a pace around 7:00 per mile.  Since I ran the race just to finish, it was enjoyable.  When I was done, my pace was 6:55.  What went wrong?  Actually, nothing.  I anticipated and adjusted for my condition and the weather. 

Here is hoping for a equally exciting 2010 with lots of running, some exciting races and lots to talk about.