San Francisco and More

I ran the San Francisco Nike half-marathon, following the same strategy as I did at Long Beach the previous Sunday. It was definitely a much colder day and a hillier course compared to Long Beach. I didn't expect to find any of my friends amongst the 20,000-plus women runners at the race. Around mile 10-11, I somehow found myself just behind my girlfriend Jennifer So, who I had originally signed up for the race with. She looked great, despite her telling me that she was ready to pass out in 2 seconds.

We chatted for about a mile or two, until we slowly created some distance between us as i was ready to finish as quickly and get back for a hot shower. I had not been feeling well at all that morning and I started to really struggle after a couple of miles.

All in all, SF weekend was great, I got some hang-time with my good buddy Quinton (who I learned that he has a strange fetish for crisp brand new bills) and my college dorm-mates: Sailor, Sam, Monica, and Monica's BF Chris. I was quite happy to drag Monica out for a 4 mile run Saturday and inspired her to train for her first half-marathon this November.

This week for October 21st, Coach Joe has me scheduled to run total of 40 miles and still keeping up with my push-ups and crunch drills. I am to start double session runs one day of the week. He tells me no more running 2 half-marathons in a span of one week. I smiled.

Personal Worst?

Long Beach is special to me in many ways. It marked my first marathon in 2001, clocking in just under 5 hours of 4:53 --- on my 22nd birthday. I returned four years later in 2005, to set a long-standing personal record of a 1:54 half-marathon race. It was one my proudest moments not only in my running experience, but I had personally navigated through a rather turbulent time of my young adult life, and I had grasp onto running like dear life. I turned to running as my outlet and a source of personal strength and confidence. I had transformed into a renewed and stronger person. And most special, I had discovered new personal limits.

Now, with my 3rd race in Long Beach this year, I finished the half-marathon distance with a 2:10 time, my "Personal Worst (PW)", by far. Coach Joe was very stern and adament that I needed to really treat this race only as a training run, and run by heart-rate. I was to follow his guidelines strictly, using the first 3 miles as a warm-up, heart-rate under 130 and then maintain an average of 150-155 for the remaining 10 miles. Sound easy?! Alot harder than it sounds.

Among me and my co-workers, we made up a First Q Team to coordinate carpools in the morning and run together, which added some exuberance and excitement to the day. We made it to Long Beach just in time before the gunshot. My IPOD played its first song where I decided to put on repeat for the entire 2+hours. I figured the monotony of the song will help me keep balanced and even-paced. Change of new songs would get me pumped up and give me the natural urge to pick up the pace. I saw my two friends Jennifer and Jomel about 1/4 mile into the race! My heart-rate spiked but I had to slow down to a walk to bring my heart rate back down 130's.

It was definitley an enjoyable learning experience. I should have brought my camera to enjoy and capture some moments of beautiful long beach. Next time perhaps.

Although I enjoyed the easy run with more than 18,000 other runners, it was challenging to hold-back at times when I started to feel almost my best. I constantly reminded myself to keep my eyes on the prize and it would be completely dumb to risk any type of injury at this early point of the game. Although I may have set a new "PW" with the time, I like to think of it as "Personal Wisdom".

I repeat this same run next Sunday at the Nike half-marathon in SF.