My restrictive schedule over the past few weeks made sneaking in a half marathon tune-up race, ideally about a month out from CIM, pretty challenging. There are definitely many HM options in the Bay Area at this time/all times of the year; it’s just that very few of them worked for me because of other, non-running commitments I’ve had on my weekend calendar (all good things though!). 

Plus, to be honest, HMs intimidate me, and especially in the throes of marathon training. That intimidation isn’t enough to completely turn me off from doing them during training, but it does make me less-than-enthusiastic to register for them. Typically, I often don’t perform better than GMP, in terms of my time, and of late, my HMs have been beset by other annoying externalities that negatively affect my performance (such as the weather, a challenging course topography, and the ever-popular GI issues mid-run). It’s certainly not the end of the world, but it’s definitely annoying.

Eventually, I came upon Redwood City’s Oktoberun half marathon, scheduled about 5 weeks out from CIM, on the last Sunday in October, and somewhat miraculously, it worked with my schedule. From what I could glean about the course, and from what I remembered from reading my peers’ RRs from previous years, the course would be flat and fast, and the whole shebang would be a fairly no-frills, inexpensive experience. That’ll work! RC is just about 26 miles up the peninsula, about halfway between here and SF, which was also convenient.

 

Coach Lisa’s plan for the day was that I’d run the first four miles around GMP and then run HM for the remaining nine, with the option to pick it up at the end, depending on how I felt. I’d take SiS at about miles 4-5 and then again around 9-10 and would supplement with fluids as often as my stomach could handle it. By approaching the race as a long run workout, I didn’t feel any pressure to necessarily “race race” or perform, which was great. Instead, I merely had to focus on executing the workout as prescribed. (There’s probably just a slight difference in semantics between “performing” and “executing,” but to me, the difference is substantial).

After a super easy warm-up mile, singular, and then chatting with the many friends I saw that morning (Robin, Margot, Sesa, Jen, Angela, Claire and Patrick, and more I’m surely forgetting, sorry), we were off. It was pretty perfect racing weather, and I was feeling really good from the start. I caught up to the 1:40 pacer, who — delightfully — was my buddy, Sarbajeet. We hadn’t seen each other in a while, so it was great to catch up with him and talk about CIM plans, how he’s going to Boston for the first time in 2019, family happenings,  and all types of dorky runner stuff that just makes my heart sing. Staying with him for the first four miles was also excellent because it helped me to stay honest about my pacing and to better follow Lisa’s plans for the day. I felt comfortable and had no problem running my mouth while keeping GMPish, which was encouraging.

Aside from maybe the first (and then final) mile of the course, most everything else was on the Bay Trail and/or through little HOAs that abut the Bay Trail. It seemed that very little of the “Redwood City” race was actually in the city, proper, and with no redwoods to be seen, and that we instead spent a lot of time alternating between running next to 101, running through HOAs, and then running on sections of the Bay Trail that were pavement, dirt, or loose gravel. I imagine it’s way less money for the race to get permits when they set up races in this way — as opposed to shutting down entire swaths of a city — but it can get monotonous at times. Fortunately, I couldn’t recall ever running on those sections of the Bay Trail (and had spent very little time in RC before), so I was trying to take in the scenery while doing my workout. If nothing else, it was nice to be away from cars and roads open to vehicular traffic.

Soon after I split from Sarbajeet and his pace group at mile 4, I downed an SiS gel and concentrated on hitting the HM pace range targets that Lisa had set for me. It meant dropping from a 7:33/7:40ish to 7:09/7:16ish, and more than that, it meant not being an idiot at mile five of a HM. I think part of the reason I have historically struggled with this distance is because I go out like I’m doing a mile time trial or something (note to self: a HM is not a 5k or a mile; don’t run it like one) and then I just taaaaaaaank and finish completely demoralized. At this race, I was determined *not* to do that and found myself really focused on staying in each mile and thinking about how the mile *felt* versus what I was reading on my watch. I was hopeful that I could do what Lisa told me to do.

A quick aside: for reasons inexplicable to me, during this training cycle for CIM, I have found that I’m looking less and less often at my watch, even during workouts and races. Instead, I’ve been relying more on my perceived effort and using that to guide me to work harder or to ease up. I find this especially interesting because it wasn’t as though I ever really clock-watched all that much during races or workouts in the first place, before this cycle. Now, however, I almost feel like I could ditch the watch altogether because I’m barely referring to it mid-run for pacing feedback (though admittedly, I think I’ll always wear something just to have the data points later down the line). If anything, I glance at it during races/runs/workouts to check on the time of day or on the mileage, but I’m barely looking at the paces most of the time. I’m not sure what to make of it. 

Anyway, the nine mile workout portion felt pretty good overall, and I was completely surprised to see Lisa pull up alongside me on her bike around mile 6 or so, just shortly after I began the harder running portion of the race. We chatted briefly before she left, and by about mile 7ish, runners did a quick U-turn and began their journeys back to downtown RC. Along the way, I gave and received so many side fives from friends on various portions of their outs/backs that strangers were visibly and audibly laughing at me over it, which was fantastic. (There really is nothing like a solid side-five shared with friends mid-race). It was especially curious when Robin and I side-fived and my hand had dirt in it afterward — ohmygosh did she fall mid-race?! How did she fall?? Is she ok!? How is this going to affect her PR attempt?! — but aside from trying to Sherlock about this mystery dirt presence for a few miles, the side-fives were awesome little pick-me-ups that stayed with me for a while. (Note: Robin did fall, and she was fine. Her words. And I think she still eked out a PR like a boss. Cray).

By about mile nine, my legs were beginning to feel tired and sorta powerless, like every footfall I took into the dirt/gravel mix took way more energy to propel myself forward than it should. I felt like every step I was taking was just making me sink more and more deeply into the ground, which made for an interesting strength workout mid-HM. Must! Pick! Up! Legs! Come! On! Hamstrings! I had a lot of moments with myself over this — convincing myself that it was in my head, or that I was tired from the cumulative fatigue of training, and that I wasn’t tapered at all (by design) for this race, since I had just done a workout a few days prior, all that stuff — and just kept keeping on. What else are you going to do in a race, ya know? You can stop, yes, but you still have to get back to the finish line somehow. You could slow down, sure, but it’ll still just take longer to get back. The fastest way out is through. I tried to just keep grinding and began playing the “30 minutes of running left, that’s like 1 minute 30 times; I can run for 1 minute 30 times” mental BS that we all surely subject ourselves to when we get tired. It works!

When I wasn’t playing that fun game, by about mile 10, once we were back near 101 and getting closer to RC, I began playing the I wonder if I can catch that person ahead of me wearing ________ game, which made the time go by even faster (and which helped me pull ahead of four-five people in the back 10k of the course). I didn’t dare look at my watch at all for the final 3-4 miles because I wanted to keep continuing with the effort, regardless of what my watch would tell me. During this fun game, I tried to focus my energies on catching the people furthest away from me and played a game that (I think) Deena wrote about in her autobiography, wherein you imagine that there’s a rope tied between you and the other runner up ahead and you have to pull yourself closer to that person. Again: whatever works. That seemed to do the job.   

My mental math attempts were for absolute shit at the end of the race, but since I was ahead of Sarbajeet, I knew that *barring catastrophe* I’d finish in a sub-1:40. It was hard to run tangents perfectly in the race due to how the course was set-up, so my watch was (acceptably) about .1 ahead of the mile markers. I didn’t recall seeing any other pace groups between 1:30 and Sarbajeet, and as I was getting closer to finishing, I thought that I may be able to post about a 1:38, which for me, in the thick of marathon training, and as a workout, would be solid. I was thrilled to get closer to the finish line (and hear Claire and her family just steps from the finish line) and realize that my math was worse than ever and that I was actually going to finish in 1:36. Yeah!

Because of all those externalities I mentioned earlier, I seem to run a good-for-me half marathon every couple years, so I was delighted that it happened at the Oktoberun. The other two half marathons I can remember running this year were met with very different outcomes — Silicon Valley half as the first big distance run that I completed post-stroke, when I was building up my endurance again; and the half in Ohio this summer that was super hilly and super humid — so it was nice to run the Oktoberun half, even as a workout, and get a little better idea of my fitness. 1:36 is a bit off my PR (1:33/1:31*), but given the conditions surrounding the day (doing it as a workout, on untapered legs, in the thick of marathon training, yadda yadda yadda), I was ecstatic. Plus, I didn’t shit myself mid-race, so that’s pretty awesome too (especially for me during HMs).  

After another super easy cool-down mile, singular, because I was being lazy, and then chatting again with Robin, David, Sesa, Margot, and Claire’s family, I hauled back to the south bay for day two of my eldest’s swim meet and gloriously made it before her first event. I had a really positive experience at the Redwood City Oktoberun and would recommend it to folks who are looking for a tune-up before CIM and who want something low-frills. The course is super flat, though I think it can be challenging to run ultra fast in parts just because of the varying terrain (pavement, gravel, dirt). It’s not an enormous field or rife with spectator support or anything like that, but if those elements aren’t important to you, then it’d be a great fit. It definitely has that nice little “community race” vibe to it, and it benefits RC’s public schools, which is nice to get behind. I think I’d do it again if I wanted to do another HM in advance of CIM next year (and especially compared to more expensive or farther afield options).

I don’t ask for much in races these days — just an accurately measured course that’s safe — and I think this one delivered. This was my last race as a 34 year-old (woot!), and now, only one more race — XC champs — stands between CIM and me.

One month to go!