I feel like I’m right on the edge of posting a monthly recap at the it’s too late; no one cares time of the month, so I’ll shoot for brevity and see what transpires.

Much as I had predicted, June approached fast(ly) and furiously and brought with it a lot: visiting family (my MIL) returning home after staying with us for over a month; the (very short-term) wrap-up of school plus all its concomitant obligations; (another short term conclusion of) my eldest’s GS troop year; a week or two of downtime; and then the beginning of the kids’ and my yearly midwestern sojourn. Included in that mix was a solid month of San Francisco Marathon training — right around 230 miles for the month — and a couple pretty solid races (ATB 12k in SF and the HILL YEAH! half in Ohio). In short: June was good. I’m really, really excited to race TSFM at the end of July and to run Wharf to Wharf (first time!) a week prior.

Let’s jump right in with everything else.  

Reading: Lots. Highlights include Scott and Jenny Jurek’s North; Natural Causes by Barbara Ehrenreich (eh, not what I thought it would be); David Sedaris’ Calypso (very enjoyable; I can’t look at someone carrying around a water bottle the same again); Cecile Richards’ Make Trouble (of course I was going to like this); and I started a couple others that I didn’t finish until July.

Also, remember when I wrote a recap about Jonathan Beverly’s book a couple months ago? Turns out he caught wind of it. I got a message from him (both on my blog and on twitter), thanking me for my review. My runnerd self is silently exploding on the inside! AND I just now saw that Deena Kastor caught wind of my review of her book. Double explosions on the inside! (note: I rarely log in to twitter anymore, so it takes me months to see these things). This makes so much of me so happy! 

Racing: As I recapped earlier, my team and I ran Represent Running’s Across the Bay 12k, which was my first time at the storied event. It was a beautiful day for a 12k and on a great course, and I would highly recommend it if you’re local to the SF Bay Area.

In Ohio, I ran the HILL YEAH! HM as a structured workout and also had a really enjoyable time there (and would definitely recommend it). After not racing at all during May, I really enjoyed finally pinning on a bib and wearing some orange for a change.  

 

Running: I’ll go nitty-gritty here for a minute since I glossed over it above. June was the thickest part of my TSFM training and saw back-to-back 50+ mi weeks, about half of them in Ohio. In 2017, I ran 200+ mi months for just about the entire year (until December or November, if memory serves), but of course, this year, that hasn’t been the case. No matter. I was happy to work up to that and have felt healthy and strong throughout the process, and perhaps most importantly, training has been a ton of fun this time around. (My point: don’t compare your past to your present. Different circumstances, different variables, different everything will inherently affect your outcomes). In June, before I left California, I had a lot of fun doing a pretty challenging GMP LR on the road hills near my ‘hood with Janet and Lisa (alternating on run/bike), and before that, I hosted a handful of community fun runs at SB Sunnyvale and SB Campbell to get people excited about TSFM.

 

 

 

Running in the summertime in the midwest is no joke, and each year that I return to visit my family, I’m reminded what it feels like to seemingly sweat out your body weight during your workout and then to keep sweating for what feels like freaking hours afterward! Between four weeks’ worth of humid running and lots of opportunities to run some great hilly routes in NE Ohio, I feel like I’ve gotten a lot of mental wins that I will harness come race day.

Oh, and here’s one last thing about TSFM, in the event that I don’t have the opportunity or interest to write a pre-race post. As a social media ambassador for the event for the fifth consecutive year, I’ve been really lucky to have been given the opportunity to go out and spread my love for this race by hosting fun runs at running stores, writing lots of blog posts for the event, and the like. Rumors had been circulating since earlier this year about this year’s iteration actually not running over the Golden Gate Bridge, and as far as any of us knew, that wasn’t going to be the case. In fact, before my community fun runs, I got confirmation from the race that the GGB would be part of this year’s race (for the first HM, the ultra, and the full) because I knew people would be asking about it on the community runs (and yup, they did!).

All of this is to simply say that I was really surprised when I learned a couple weeks ago, maybe four weeks out from the race, that TSFM ended up having to alter the original course and take the GGB portion off the first HM’s course. (As much as I understand it, though, full marathoners will still run the GGB, just not on the roadway, and first HM runners will run a still-scenic course that provides excellent photo opps of the bridge). I’m hopeful that this change will be good for the race long-term and that more people than not — particularly first HM runners — will be amenable to the change. The course change, and the announcement today that TSFM has a new title sponsor for the next three years in Biofreeze, potentially makes this year’s race even more exciting. I’m stoked to be a part of it all and will give my feedback accordingly. Change can be good, hard, frustrating, and exciting — sometimes, all at the same time — so I’m really curious to see how it’ll all pan out. (Let me know what you think, too. I’m happy to pass it along).  

 

Watching: Not too much, per yoosh, though I managed to get caught up on season 5 of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (highly recommended, of course). I watched Black Panther with my kids and most of my nephews, though I think I need to re-watch it because I missed parts of it due to the simple fact that I was watching it with five kids under nine. I think I caught most of the new season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt but thought it was kinda dumb.

Listening: There have been some great podcasts out recently, including interviews with Kellyn Taylor on both Lindsey’s and Mario’s respective shows; Mario’s interview with Aliphine; and Lindsey’s interview with Mario on her show. Rukmini Callimachi’s Caliphate wrapped up in June (so good!), and I’ve also really begun to appreciate NYT’s the Daily as part of my morning routine, either on the run or getting ready.

Anticipating: the marathon (of course), Wharf to Wharf, and the remainder of my time at home and getting back to California. Basically: everything.  This has been a fantastic summer and a lovely trip.