Marty's Races!

Index

Success! I went out and ran a PR on the Crystal Springs cross country course on Thanksgiving Day during my high school's annual alumni event (it's for students, faculty, and alumni from the San Mateo high schools and CSM). I was hoping I could do it this year on the 20th anniversary of my first participation in the race. It was a perfect day, with some clouds, but mostly clear skies. It had rained a bit overnight - just enough to settle the dust. The course was in GREAT condition, since some of the coaches had gone out and re-graded the trails after the Pacific Association held a race in a driving rainstorm there last month (!). I was a bit fast in the first mile (5:45), but came through 2 miles in a nice even 12:00. I thought I had a chance to break 18, but didn't quite have the horses. Still, I shaved about 3 seconds off of my previous PR to finish in a bit under 18:12 for the 2.95 mile course. I credit, in part, a woman currently on Cal's cross country team running in the alumni division who finished immediately (and I mean immediately) behind me for pushing me along. I laid claim to be the oldest guy to get a PR that day (36.99). By the way, for perspective, some nutty high school kid ran 14:58 on this course last year during the high school season for the course record.

An OK race for me. I really wanted to run at least one of the Pacific Association races this fall, but the scheduling hadn't worked out. For this race, I had a cold, but decided to do it anyway. I started off a bit fast (sub-6:00), then settled into a pretty comfortable pace of around 6:30 for the last 3.6 miles. I deliberately didn't push too hard, for fear of my cold turning into a nightmare of bronchitis. My overall pace was around 6:15-6:20.

Very good race for me on Monday. The weather was awful: about 75 degrees (maybe warmer), with high humidity (for here). I ran about a minute slower than my PR for 10k, which I felt was very good under the circumstances. Mostly, though, I was pleased that I was passing other people for almost the entire race. That tells me that a) I didn't start out too fast; and b) I didn't slow down much during the race. Indeed, my overall pace was 6:14, and all but 2 of my miles were within 2 seconds of my average. Mile 3 was 8 seconds faster than my average, and Mile 5 was 11 seconds slower. I came in 160th out of 1,258 finishers, 143rd out of 658 male finishers, and 32nd out of 102 35-39 year old male finishers. My finishing places weren't so great, mostly because this race always draws a fast field.

Here's a picture of me at about the midpoint of the race:

Excellent race at the site of my mile PR last night, despite a hot (90-95) smoggy evening. My ultimate goal was 4:39, and I hit 4:38.99!! I went out exactly as planned, in a relaxed, not too aggressive 72. I slowed a bit on the next lap, crossing the 800 at 2:28, about 2 seconds slower than planned. I had planned to start my kick at 1000m, but was feeling dead from the heat. I passed a guy at 1100m as I tried to pick it up. When I came through 1200 in 3:45, though, I knew I'd have to really push it to meet my goal. I did, by clicking off a healthy 54 final 300.

I have mixed feelings about my performance on July 26th. I did run my fastest time of the year for 5k (18:22), and nearly a minute faster than the SF 5k two weeks ago, but I really should have been under 18:00. I just felt dead from the start, like my legs weighed 100 pounds each. The weather was ideal: cloudy and cool. I hit the first mile in 5:41, just as 2 guys caught up with me. I stayed with them to the top of the hill (about the halfway point of the race), but they gapped me on the downhill, and I couldn't get going to make up the distance. I ran 6-flat for mile 2, then 6:05 pace for the last 1.1. The winner ran 17:42, which is just where I should have been. At least I won my age group (30-39), as the 5k winner was 40, and the other guy who passed me continued on to complete the 10k in about 36.

"A step in the right direction," is what I'm calling it. First, the gory details: 73-81-81-78, for a 5:13 time. Note that I would have been leading the Goodwill Games decathlon 1500 for the first 2 laps with those splits (woo-hoo!). Slow, yes, but I achieved my main goal of being aggressive and not allowing any negative thoughts to affect my performance. It was about 90 degrees on the course (the Capitol Mall in Sacramento), although I don't blame the heat for more than a couple of seconds of my slow time. I did do a comparison of times of Open category men who ran last year and this year. The average change in performance was a slowing of about 5 seconds, with 69% of the 32 guys who repeated running slower. The 22 guys who were slower this year ran an average of 11.5 seconds slower.

I went out EXACTLY as planned in 73, although I could tell that the latter half of the first quarter was slowing down. Then I passed a few guys during the second quarter, which was the slowest part of the course (turns, slight uphill). I was a bit surprised to see my 2:34 at the half, but didn't get discouraged. Instead, I tried to really push the third quarter, knowing it was a slight downhill. I wasn't too pleased with my 3:55 split, but was determined to run hard to the finish. I gained a fair amount of ground on the 2-3 guys immediately in front of me, but couldn't catch them. My official finishing place was 91st out of 113 finishers. Note that only 3 "B" heat guys were listed after me, so at least a couple of guys must have DNF'd.

After I finished, I felt like I could do it again after a little rest, which means I didn't really run hard enough. I checked back in my running logs and found that my last mile was almost exactly 3 years ago, on 7/20/95, when I ran 4:57 at Los Gatos. I had run a couple of track races before that race, but my previous series of miles (also after a 3-year break) started with a 5:17. That time, I followed up with a 5:07, then a 5:00. This proves my theory that no matter what kind of shape you're in, it takes at least a couple of track races to remember how hard you can push your body. I bet I could take at least 10 seconds off of my 5:13 if I could run another mile in a week or so.

BTW, the event itself was great! Very well organized - my heat was next to last of a couple dozen heats, and only started about 5 minutes behind schedule. The spectating was a lot of fun, too. I highly recommend this race to anyone!!

Horrible race on 7/12. Worst 5k in at least 10-1/2 years, except for one 5k during the time I was doing my Masters. I was only running once or twice a week at the time, so it doesn't really count, as far as I'm concerned. Just couldn't go any faster. Started slow, slowed down.

Also, I recommend staying away from that race in the future. They have no idea how to treat the runners (although it may have been fine for the marathoners). They kept us locked out of the start/finish area (Kezar Stadium) until just 25 minutes before the start, which cut my (and others', presumably) warmup time in half. Didn't get a t-shirt because they didn't have my size. etc. . . . .

A very good "race" for me yesterday (6/7). First, the stats: 7th place out of about 100, a 2-minute PR of 1:02:44 on the 6.8-mile course, a 4-minute improvement from last year, no sprained ankles, 2 sore quads, 3 small spots of poison oak on my ankle.

The weather was actually ideal for running - cool, moist - but meant poor trail conditions. Many of the downhills were EXTREMELY treacherous, particularly ones with stairs. The "Suicide" short-cut was much more runnable, however, because of the moisture. I even lost some time on some of the uphills because of the slippery conditions.

I was running fairly close to 2 or 3 other guys near the top of the final major uphill (Cardiac?), but they totally smoked me on the final couple miles of downhills. This was perfectly OK with me, since I was not interested in risking injury to run those parts of the course fast. In fact, it made it kind of nice because my last couple miles were all by myself - very quiet, beautiful trail, etc.

After the race, I jogged/walked back to the start, making it a 14-mile day. Since conventional wisdom is that each direction of this course constitutes about a 10 mile effort, one could say that I ran 20 yesterday. I definitely feel it today. Next year? Sub 1:00:00. . . .

I think "surreal" is the best word to describe the experience of running as a sub-seeded runner. Sure, the race is weird anyway, but when you're back with the fun runners in costume, etc., it seems kind of normal. For us, we got herded into our starting area in groups (I was among the first groups at about 6:45) via a mysterious pedestrian alley between some buildings. The sun wasn't yet poking through the buildings, so it was kind of dim and quiet, except for the faint roar of the 50,000+ wackos being held back by a human wall only a couple hundred feet away.

I went to pay my respects to the porta potty at about 7:25 (about a 10-minute line), then jogged around a bit between some buildings to warm up. I chucked my old crappy sweat pants, sweatshirt, and t-shirt over the railing onto the sidewalk at about 7:55 and waited for the countdown.

The start was remarkably clean, and it took all of 7 seconds for me to reach the official starting line. I tailed one of the women's centipedes for about a half mile before pulling ahead, then ran into trouble at the Moscone Center. Lots of complete idiots were stepping off the sidewalk into the race at this point. I actually wouldn't have cared too much if they were running at my pace, more or less, but most were big fat out of shape once a year walkers. I plowed right into more than a dozen of them, not really trying to avoid them. Jeez!

Once at the right turn onto 9th, it was clear sailing. A naked guy passed me at the base of the hill, never to be seen again. Then, I passed a guy I sort of recognized, and he called over to me, "Hey, didn't you run the Guardsmen [Angel Island]?" It was the guy who I chased - and didn't catch - for two miles two weeks earlier. We ended up in a nice friendly battle for about the next 3 miles. Until I broke away in Mile 6 with a 6:07 split.

Nothing too exciting the rest of the way. I heard people telling the Chevy's centipede in front of me that the Aggie women were "right behind," so I thought they might catch me, but I ended up about a minute ahead of them. I had a good final 0.46 mile, as Pamela, Cameron, and friends Tamara and Kevin cheered me on.

I consider it a very good race, especially considering that I was sick with a head cold. Here are my splits:
6:11.7
6:24.2
7:12.7 (the hill)
6:39.4
6:25.9
6:07.2
6:14.7
2:34.3 (5:35 per mile pace)

Average pace per mile: 6:24.9

I came in 215th overall out of 56,000 registered runners, and was the 197th man out of about 27,000 registered male runners.

The weather was unbelievably gorgeous - perhaps the best weather ever for this race. It was as clear as could be, and warm enough to walk along Ocean Beach in shorts and a singlet.

I got some good pictures from the photo service that takes runners' pictures at mile 6. I was pretty much alone at that point, and tried to show good form (such as it is). Unfortunately, I lost the proofs before I had a chance to order, and the photo company never returned my call to get new proofs.