SRM WEEK 6 OF 20: I Survive Bay 2 Breakers + Alllll the Race Discounts

What's that you say? You're looking for a reasonably priced half marathon in California sometime between June and December?

LUCKY YOU:

• JUNE 20 Zooma Napa Valley Half Marathon/10K - 10% off with CAL
• JUNE 21 Marina Bay Riveter Half Marathon/5K (Richmond, CA) - 15% off with CAL
• JULY 12 Shoreline Half/10K/5K (Ventura, CA) - 20% off with CALHALF1520
• AUG 9 Arroy Creek Half/10K/5K - (Simi Valley, CA) - 20% off with CALHALF1520
• ***AUG 23 Santa Rosa Marathon/Half/5K - $30 off with CALHALF30 {You guys, this is a massive discount. Also, you know *I'll* be there!!}*** (Update 8/3 -- I've been told this one's expired & no longer working. Don't know about the ones for later races.)
• SEPT 13 Clo-Cow Half/5K (Petaluma, CA) - 10% off with CAL2015
• SEPT 20 Harvest Half/10K/5K (Camarillo, CA) - 10% off with CALHALF1520
• OCT 4 Tiburon Half/5K - 15% off with CAL
• OCT 11 City to the Sea Half/5K (San Luis Obispo, CA) - $5 off with CAL5OFF
• OCT 25 Harvest Marathon/Half/5K (Paso Robles, CA) - 5% off with @CALHALFSERIES
• NOV 15 Surfers Point Marathon/Half/10K/5K (Ventura, CA) - 20% off with CALHALF1520
• DEC 13 Pomona Holiday Half/5K - $10 off with CALRUNSERIES15
• DEC 20 Holly Jolly Half/10K/5K (Camarillo, CA) - 20% off with CALHALF1520

These discount codes are because all of these races are part of the Cal Half Series. Cal Half Series is also good if you are really into medals, because they give extra ones at the end of the year if you've run I think three or more of the races. I don't know if the discount codes work for the fulls, 10Ks, or 5Ks, but you can give it a shot!

In other news, I ran my first Bay to Breakers on Sunday with Alyssa & Courtney, & did not collapse & die on the Hayes Street Hill.

These ladies. I ran my first marathon with them back in 2011,
so it was super fun to get to do my first Bay to Breakers with them as well.

Post-race. The medal was an unexpected bonus!

Our original goal was to run the race around 8:00 pace for a sub-1 hour finish, but there were various questionable joints among us so instead we decided to just take it easy & run it at a comfortable pace (which....turned into sub-8:00's anyway by the time we reached the gentle downhill grade of the Park.) That was more than fine with me, since I basically didn't sleep Saturday night & was already feeling pretty sluggish during my 3-mile jog to the start.

Since it was a long run day & I wasn't planning on actually racing, I was able to solve two problems at once (getting in 17 miles & getting home from Ocean Beach after the race). At 6:30am, I jogged from my house to the start (~3.2 miles), ran the race (~7.55 miles by my watch), & then ran back home (~6.25 miles).

Really, the trip home was farther than that, but since I *definitely* didn't want to run more than 17 miles total and had also just run 7.5 MUCH faster than normal (including one wicked-ass hill), I decided to take brief walk breaks at each mile as I head back east through the park. That whole stretch is about 3 miles of steady, gradual uphill, and after the race I was anticipating kind of a slog.

Weirdly, though, that part actually felt kind of easy. Or not easy, exactly, but requiring a lot less effort than I expected it would. I just kind of jogged along, ticking off mile after mile and never feeling like I was working all that hard.

When I got back to the Panhandle where I could see the course again, I couldn't resist stopping to take a few pictures:

Lizards

Crayons

Coit Tower [historic SF landmark]

Downhill is really the worst on my bad leg, so once I was back in my own neighborhood I walked down some particularly steep-ish ones I didn't want to run, and hit 17 miles with less than a block left to go to my house, feeling, actually surprisingly good!

Er...except for that whole not sleeping thing. That, I don't recommend. I was basically a zombie for the rest of the day.

I don't have a whole ton else to say about the race, but I'll write up some kind of race report later this week. :)

~*~*~SRM WEEK 6 OF 20~*~*~

Anticipating I'd be running a good bit faster than usual on Sunday this week (plus the hill), I didn't do any hard workouts and also traded my morning strength sessions for extra sleep.

Grand Total: 38 miles

* 30.45 easy
* 7.55 race

Monday: afternoon 6 easy / p.m. karate. I was feeling sluggish after three days off and my leg was feeling a little better, so I decided to try a few easy miles & see how it felt. It was a bit achey, but never actually started hurting. Winning!

Tuesday: 6.5 easy, but with a GIANT mothereffing hill in the middle. I figured if I was going to try to run Bay to Breakers in under an hour, I'd better get out there & remind myself what it feels like to run up the Hayes Street Hill (.69 miles with 201 ft of climbing). Oof. I'd been hoping to use my watch to see what kind of pace I could do it at without dying, but forgot to plug it back in the day before.

Wednesday: Karate.

Thursday: 6.2 easy. Same route as Tuesday, more or less, but this time with my watch. It also just happened to work out this time that I got all green lights going up Hayes Street Hill, which in one sense sucked, but at least let me finish the thing feeling like I had a reasonably accurate assessment of what pace I could do the thing at with no breaks. (Um, also, the rest of this run was at my same usual super easy effort level, but was BY FAR faster than any easy run I've done since starting this whole low heart rate/base training business.)

Friday: Rest.

Saturday: 2.3 easy. Just a couple of easy shakeout miles.

Sunday: 3.2 easy / 7.55 race / 6.25 easy = 17 long.