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The 8th Annual San Jose 408k Race to the Row race report – San Jose, CA (February 2019)

The 8th Annual San Jose 408k Race to the Row race report – San Jose, CA (February 2019)

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2019’s front half carried with it a lot of stuff, as helpfully non-specific as that word is, and I felt like I had very little mental bandwidth or interest to write, which is pretty uncharacteristic. My writing mojo is slowly returning, so as bizarre or useless as it may be to write about races or training that concluded months ago, well, here we are.  

family at 408k
family shot at the kids’ race finish line (post-my race, pre-theirs)

Represent Running’s 408k, the Race to the Row, is my favorite local race in SJ and one that, for whatever reason, I usually don’t end up running, despite almost always having a comped entry as part of the social media ambassador team. In fact, in the last five years, I think I’ve only run it twice, including once during my second pregnancy.

This year’s iteration fell in early February, and unfortunately, even the move from the usual March date didn’t help my cause. I have no idea why, but 3 times out of the last 5 opportunities I’ve had to run this race, I was sick with typical winter/seasonal crap (or recovering from a hemorrhagic stroke), and at this year’s iteration, I was super stubborn and insisted that I felt “well enough” to race. 

You know how this is going to end. 

Generally speaking, RR races are an excellent opportunity to see lots of your local running buddies, and the 408k is no exception. During my warm-up, I saw lots of other Wolfpack, Arete, RR ambassadors, and Strava friends, which just made the already beautiful morning even more so. The 408k was going to be a rust-buster, a way to get comfortable getting uncomfortable for the first time since the last time I had raced, all the way back in December at CIM. After some time off in December and a gradual but respectable build in January, I felt ready and excited to see what was in my legs, for the grand master plan was to use the 408k as a barometer to help direct my training for the Mountains to Beach marathon over Memorial Day weekend. 

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attempting to get strong and fast in Jan

And then I got sick, and I was stubborn as hell (and kinda dumb), and you know how these things go. 

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team love at the starting line (& thanks for the free pics!) 

The beautiful race day morning really couldn’t have been better (we had a freakin’ rainbow at the start line!), and, well, the sickness that brought me down for the better part of February made its presence known pretty early in the race.

It’s probably revisionist history, but I’d like to think of it as the most positive (split) run ever, starting around 8k pace and ending somewhere in the easy/recovery zone. Seeing friends and teammates on the course, racing, or alongside the course, volunteering, is always a delight at this race. After the first mile, I felt laughably horrible, but hey. I kinda got what was coming to me.  

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repeat after me: do not race when you’re sick!! (or on the brink)

Racing while sick, or racing while in the beginning stages of getting sick, is a pretty dicey proposition; this was definitely one of those “do as I say, not as I do” situations. If any of my training partners had been in my shoes, I would have actively told them to not run (or to not try to race-race, anyway) and instead opt to volunteer or just stay at home and get some rest. For myself, though, I was too stubborn to see the forest through the trees, and I’m sure trying to run hard in the beginning stages of sickness was just fuel for the inferno that ultimately lasted five-plus weeks. Lesson learned.

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this is me enthusiastically telling Janet, “I FEEL HORRIBLE!” not even at the mid-way point  (PC: Janet)

(Runners are idiots sometimes… or I am, anyway). 

As goes the girls, they had a blast in the darling 408k kids’ run! C (understandably) wasn’t keen on standing around in the rain for a while, waiting for the kids’ races to begin, so after he took off, the kids and I had a blast playing in the kids’ zone area and chatting with local friends and their children.

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coloring in the rain 
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getting fired up to run. PS: she really, really liked her race shirt and wore it repeatedly for days after.

A had a blast hamming it up with the mascots, and G seemed to really enjoy both cheering for her sister (in the form of chasing after her) and running her own little race, herself, with her hand squarely locked in mine. Even though my race was (understandably) for shit, the girls had a great time, and that memory — not my crappy racing — is what has left such a positive experience in my mind so many months later.

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working hard in her Minnie shoes
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chasing after her sister during her older kids’ heat

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the 2020 408k will fall on a weekend where I’m not beset with a nasty seasonal sickness because I love this race (and TBH, the distance) and because I’m pretty sure the girls were ready to do it all over again as soon as they were finished.

People love RR races, and with good reason, too, since they’re typically extremely well-organized and executed, offer fun swag (including race memorabilia that you’d actually want to wear), and more than anything, these races just exude a great vibe. They’re fun and competitive, which can be a tricky combination to pull off.  

If you’re in town for the 2020 edition, I’ll see you there, for this is one race I’d gladly do again and again.  

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post-race with the man behind the magic, JT Service 
Pregnancy and running update from the halfway+ mark

Pregnancy and running update from the halfway+ mark

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Hard to believe that I’m already past the halfway point with this pregnancy. I’m happy to report that all is well, and Kiddo Dos and I are both healthy. I don’t have a recent ultrasound pic to post, but last I saw, he/she looked good, and last I heard, the heartbeat was strong — all good things, all good things.

I thought it could be interesting to see what my running has looked like this far into the pregnancy. When I was pregnant with A, I wasn’t using dailymile or strava or Garmin to track my mileage — just an old school, pen-and-paper log — so I can’t easily compare mileage and such from pregnancy 1 to pregnancy 2. As much as I can tell, my pregnancy gestational weeks begin each Monday, so for the most part, the mileage coincides with my usual Monday-Sunday training weeks. It’s really more for my own entertainment than anything, so I’m not too worried about being super meticulous with my bookkeeping.

Here’s how it has shaken down so far:

Gestational week 0-1 75.35 peak of 50k training
1-2 53.1
2-3 36.5
3-4 44.87 50k race unknowingly pregnant, though I had a hunch…
4-5 27.51
5-6 0 feeling like ass – hi, first trimester!
6-7 0 feeling like ass/family in town
7-8 0 feeling like ass/in the Caribbean with my family
8-9 16.8
9-10 0 feeling like ass
10-11 5.1
11-12 11.32
12-13 20.61
13-14 19.8
14-15 20.8
15-16 13.58 408k race
16-17 0 feeling like ass
17-18 25.41
18-19 21.27 5k s.i.b. race win pushing A!
19-20 28.36 5k wildflower race running/pushing A
20-21 9.1
21-22 31.51
22-23 12.3 in Disneyland most of the week with family
23-24 3.2 (as of Monday)
total: 476.49

As you can see, pregnancy can somewhat unpredictably affect mileage and training. I say ‘somewhat’ because I assumed, based on my first pregnancy, that I’d allow my mileage to tank. When I’m in the throes of marathon training, I usually peak around 70-75 mpw, and the low-end of my base is in the 50s. I’m not marathon training, so I’m genuinely happy to be in the 20s or, if I’m feeling great, the 30s. Likewise, if I feel like ass — and as my little chart above details, there have been days and weeks when I have felt like ass and when sleeping > running — I’m not stressing about missing a run or two (or five or whatever).

I wrote it before, and I’ll write it again: it is so critical to listen to your body — and your medical professional overseeing your pregnancy– when you’re expecting. This isn’t a time for heroics. If your practitioner says you can run, and you feel well doing it (and afterward), by all means, have a blast. Don’t feel bad about yourself, or your identity as a runner, or god forbid, your pregnancy, if you can’t run or just don’t feel like running. It will always be there.

Being able to race the few times I have so far in my pregnancy has been a lot of fun, especially since getting A involved. Running without expectations has been mentally refreshing as well. I’m excited to get back to the grind of training and working toward PRs, but I am also delighted to be in this sweet spot of running for the hell of running (and to prep for that 1-hour labor & delivery I’m fantasizing about…).

I have been surprised at how strong I have been feeling lately on my runs, averaging in the low-8s for many of my weekday miles, and while I’m sure that won’t last for much longer, I’m enjoying it while I still can. I sometimes forget that inherent to every run these days is basically a weightlifting workout, since I’m hauling around 15 pounds +/- more than my usual weight, but dammit if this doesn’t mean that this kid and I are getting stronger with each mile we share. The unsolicited news on the street from mostly strangers is that I’m having a boy, based on the very scientific way that I’m carrying, because apparently, when most of your pregnancy is concentrated in your midsection, that means it’s a boy because he needs lots of room to forcefully kick and stretch his legs outward. Whatever. Everyone’s an expert.

That’s about it for now. Coming up next is a half marathon down in San Luis Obispo on Sunday with Erica! It should be a fun experience and a really pretty course. I have no idea how I’ll fare — I know I’m aerobically capable of running 13.1, though in terms of my pace, your guess is as good as mine — but it’ll be a blast regardless. These things typically are.