Race Report: Danville 10K

A few months back, Cathryn sent a bunch of us an email about the Danville 10K/Half where she was planning to go after a 10K PR. I knew I'd only be about 4 weeks post marathon at that point, but I love running with these ladies & it was only $35 through 3/1, so I decided what the heck & signed up. (And then....promptly forgot about it until post-Eugene.)

I felt like trying to actually race a 10K less than 4 weeks after a marathon was probably epically stupid and not likely to end well, but I was signed up & still wanted to run & see my friends. Since Cathryn was trying to PR I offered to pace her (read: inflict my debut pacing attempt on her), and she agreed.

A few days before the race she sent me a plan about exactly what she wanted to do--basically I would wear her watch & try to run somewhere in the 8:02-8:09 range, with kind of an "A" goal of sub-50 & a "B" goal of a PR (sub-50:38). We knew it would probably be a hot day but were both excited to see what we could make happen.

The drive was significantly shorter than I'd thought it would be (I guess there's no traffic at 6:30am on a Saturday....) so I arrived around 6:50 for the 8:10 start. This meant I had my pick of parking spots, got my bib in seconds, & was in & out of the bathrooms (the LDS Church where the race is staged graciously opened their doors for runners) before they had a chance to be fouled by everyone else.

Not too much later I ran into Cathryn's husband & son, then Cathryn, & then Jen & her sister-un-law, almost all at once. We chatted & pinned on bibs, & then some of us headed for the bathrooms while others amused ourselves by sitting on our asses & watching the group warm-up. (Yes....we're those people. But to be fair this was still 30-40 minutes before the race so hell yes, I'm sitting on my ass.)

At 7:45 Jen & I jogged about 5 minutes down the course & back (wanting to be back before the half marathon went off at 8:00), & then I did some strides & stuff on my own before meeting up with Cat again at the start. She gave me her watch, & we said goodbye to IronHubs & TriDude & worked our way towards what seemed like the appropriate spot at the start line.

I wore both Cat's watch (set to distance, pace, & time) & mine (set to distance remaining, estimated finish time, & average pace), & between the two of them just tried in that first mile to settle us into a comfortable 8:00-8:10 pace. While I'm terrible at racing even 10K splits myself (I tend to negative split WAY beyond what is appropriate), I know it's the most efficient way to run any given time, so my plan was to keep us right in the range of Cat's goal range, start to finish. (I also always count on my watch recording the course slightly long due to bad tangents & plain old GPS error, so I thought that if we could stay right around ~8:04-8:05ish, that would put us within striking distance of a sub-50 if we got to mile 5ish & she was feeling amazing, but even if not she'd still have a solid shot at a PR.)

Just a couple miles in, I was definitely feeling the heat & was very grateful that most of the course was shaded. I hit 'lap' on both our watches when we passed the mile 1 marker, which I think may have been a bit short because our watches only read about .96 miles & the split was 7:45-7:50. The error seemed to work itself out over the next mile, though, when our watches beeped right at the mile 2 marker & clocked ~8:11 for the split.

We saw Cathryn's husband & son at the turnaround, which was a nice boost. At this point she said she was feeling really good, which was awesome! I found out later that we hit the 5K in like 24 minutes (ie, at ~48:00 pace), but when I remembered that it was a slight downhill out & slight uphill back, I didn't feel too bad about that.

Courtesy of Cathryn's instagram ;)

5K down & feelin' good!

Also at this point they yelled to us that we were 3rd & 4th women. I hadn't anticipated that we'd be that close to the front and immediately my brain went "OH HELL YES I AM GETTING THIS GIRL ON THE PODIUM."

Of course mile 4 is where the bear climbs on your back in a 10K (or at least it usually is for me), not to mention that it was now so, so hot. I was asking Cathryn occasionally how she felt & it was towards the end of mile 4 I think that she mentioned it was starting to feel like work. She started to slip back a little in mile 5 but I tried to keep my pace under 8:09 so that she'd still have a clear idea of what we needed to do for her PR.

As I mentioned this was the first time I've officially paced someone, & a lesson I learned for next time is that you should talk ahead of time about what the plan is if the runner starts to struggle with the goal pace. Does the pacer stick to the pace anyway so that the runner knows what they'd ideally be running, or dial it back a bit so that they're not abandoning the runner? Since we hadn't talked about it I think I ended up kind of splitting the difference--I tried to stay under 8:10 so that if Cat did stick with me she could still meet her goal, but didn't want to get beyond cheerleading distance.

Glancing at our watches in mile 6, I knew we weren't quite going to get in under 50 minutes but if she really gunned it she could still PR and I shouted something to her of that effect. (She'd told me from the beginning that I shouldn't be afraid to channel my inner drill sergeant!) I tried to cheerlead her all the way across the line and I was thrilled to see that although we didn't break 50:00, her watch still read 50:14 (a 0:23 PR I think?) when we crossed the line & I hit stop.

Unfortunately, I got so caught up in cheerleading & desperately hoping Cat would get her PR that I'd completely forgotten that we were in 3rd & 4th & about my plan to get her on the podium. We crossed the finish basically at the same time--even had the same official time!-- but for whatever reason apparently I was counted as the 3rd woman & Cat was 4th.

As soon as I realized what happened I was sick about it. The way I see it, I wasn't racing, just helping a friend try to meet her goals. I know this probably sounds a bit poor-me-my-diamond-shoes-pinch but it felt completely wrong to me that Cat had raced her guts out & I got a trophy.

Ill-gotten loot. :-/
Seriously. Sick about it the whole way home.

She was a little bummed that the race distance read 6.15 instead of exactly 6.2 and that our official time was was 50:21, which I can understand. My take is that ~0.05 is well within GPS error for a 10K so I have no problem calling it that distance-wise. (I feel like my bar for calling a non-certified 10K course "short" is maybe ~6.1-ish.)

Time-wise, it turned out that the chips only registered finish time, not start time, so everything was a gun time. We were pretty close to the front but not right on the line, so it probably took us a few seconds to cross the start. (Also, looking at our finish pictures which have the race gun time up, it looks to me like we crossed the line at more like 50:19 than 5:21.)

Which is all to say, if it were me, I'd call the time 50:14 & the distance 10K, no question. (Obviously certified, fully chip timed races are awesome, but you can't always find one where you want & when you want, & as long a course is not obviously woefully short, I have no problem going by my watch as long as I know I started and stopped it at the right time.)

Then again, as I mentioned to Cathryn, maybe those little niggles are just motivation to go out & find another nice flat 10K on a cooler day. By sheer luck, I have never had to run a 10K in warmer than maybe 55°F, and I have to say WOW what a difference 20° makes! Having run a 24 second PR on a hot day, my personal opinion is that if it had been say in the 50's, she would have easily gotten her sub-50 and I'm super excited to see what she does at her next 10K. :)

Layla, Cat, Danielle, Jen (who also PR'd!!), & me. #bloggers

Victory French Toast!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~LOGISTICAL STUFF~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Location: Danville, CA

Date: Late May (May 28, 2016 this year)

Price: Pretty reasonable if you get in early. From the website:

I remember the days when you could run a quality 10K for $20 but sadly the times they are a-changing so these days I consider it a deal if I can run a good one for under $40. (Also, this one is a charity for the Semper Fi Foundation so really, it's completely fine.)

Deadlines/sellout factor: This is a small local race so there was still race day registration.

Field Size: Finishers:

• Half Marathon - 186 finishers
• 10K - 111 finishers

The Course:

Both races started behind the LDS Church in Danville and within a quarter mile or so entered the Iron Horse trail & were out-and-backs. This meant both races were fully paved & almost flat with very few turns. There are a few road crossings, but traffic was being managed by volunteers so there was no worry of having to stop for cars. (THANK U VOLUNTEERS U DA BEST!!!)

Half Marathon:

10K:

The portion we ran on was smooth, plenty wide enough for the number of runners, and mostly shaded (for which we were grateful). Water & gatorade were provided about every 2 miles.

Staging:

The race was staged behind the LDS Church in Danville, which has convenient access to the Iron Horse trail. It seemed like there was plenty of parking in their lot (I arrived pretty early & parked in like the 3rd closest spot), & they had graciously opened their bathrooms for runners' use. (PRO TIP! If there's a line at the front bathroom, go around behind the basketball course to find the SUPER SECRET EXTRA bathrooms. I would like to say this was savvy on my part but honestly I just got lost & those were actually the first ones I found.)

Race day bib/shirt pickup was super easy. Like I said I arrived early & the table was obvious, so I literally walked right up & had my bib in seconds.

Swag:

Nice medal & logo cotton T, plus mini trophies for top 3 men & women in each race. (I have a giant giveaway bag of race shirts in my basement as it is so I skipped this one.)

ILL-GOTTEN.

Also, plenty of post-race snacks & beverages.

If you decide to run:

Just know that it will probably be warm. Everything else about this race was fantastic & it was super well organized, but it's Danville at the end of May so even at 8am you're almost guaranteed 70+ temps.

Overall Assessment:

This was a lovely local race at a reasonable price and really the only thing to even kinda-sorta complain about was the weather, which we knew going in. If you magically happened to get a cool day, this could be a PR course. (Or, you can just be a hot weather #beast like Cat. ;) )

How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation.

I know technically we still have like another month to go, but for some reason I feel like the Eugene Marathon sort of ushered in summer, maybe because afterward I had a bit of that WEEEEE EXAMS ARE DONE TIME TO CHILL!!! vibe.

And, I have been taking full advantage of it. I took a week off from running (though I did go to karate & do some climbing) and have been getting to all kinds of procrastinated tasks in the afternoons when I'd normally be running. Behold, my car is smog tested & legally registered, my luscious locks no longer make me look like a sheep dog when not tied back, and I once again have professional office lady shoes that are not literally falling apart.

#lusciouslocks ca.2001

We've also had a few weekends recently where we didn't have to get up early or be anywhere specific, and as a result our floors are shiny, our toilets are spotless, and our friends have been well fed on 10 year old cab & 90-day dry-aged sous vide ribeyes.

#sousvide

Basically, perfection.

(Related: Dinner parties are good for floor mopping and toilet cleaning.)

Running-wise, I'm now up to a brisk 4 miles per day, more or less, and feeling pretty darn good. My next big training cycle will be CIM in December (and Folsom Breakout Blues Half in mid-October) which I'll probably start training for in earnest sometime in August. So what's going on between now & then?

• Danville 10K on 5/28. I kind of forgot that I signed up for this! I think trying to actually race it less than a month after a marathon is probably incredibly stupid, but it sounds like maybe I will try to pace my lovely friend Cat to a PR???? I have little experience as a pacer but maybe she will let me hang on for the ride.
• Ireland 6/1-6/14. This all happened kind of suddenly & I don't know all the details, but I have been told there will be amazing food and lots of beer & whiskey and really what more does one need to know. #sláinte
• Jungle Run Half on 7/16. Again, not actually racing, but I have a deferral from last year so what the hell. (Also it's in Los Gatos in July meaning temps will probably be in the 90s so major race goals include not passing out/dying.)
• Another round of base-building, y'all. Honestly, I doubt I'll even follow a real schedule; my only goal is to log a metric butt load of really slow, easy miles.

Apologies if you've read the aerobic base training schpiel before, but ever since I spent fall 2014 & spring 2015 doing almost nothing but running lots of easy miles and collecting data on it, I'm a believer. I mean, I understood the principle in theory, but it's a whole other thing (for me, at least) to use my own body as a guinea pig & watch the hard evidence pile up.

Basically, when it comes to distance running (or any endurance sport), your body works like a combustion engine, and the two things that determine how fast you'll be are 1) power and 2) efficiency.

(Okay fine, there's also a third thing, but it doesn't really fit into the engine metaphor, so I'm leaving it out for now.)

Power is about how quickly the engine can process fuel. A car with a big 5 liter engine will be more powerful than a similar-sized car with a small 2 liter engine, because when you hit the accelerator, it can combust over twice as much fuel in the same amount of time. In endurance sports, the "size of your engine" is your VO₂max. If you have a big engine, your body is able to burn a high volume (that's the V) of oxygen (that's the O₂) very quickly. (The "max" just refers to whatever that fastest rate your body is capable of at all-out effort, which is how it's measured.) The most effective way to increase the size of your engine/VO₂ max is through speed work.

Efficiency is about how much forward motion you get out of each bit of fuel. A sedan that gets 30 miles to the gallon is obviously more fuel efficient than an SUV that gets 15. In endurance running, this is called running economy--how much of the oxygen that you burn gets converted into forward motion. If you can go very far on a little oxygen, you are obviously more "fuel efficient" than someone who can't go very far on that same amount of oxygen, or who needs to burn more oxygen to go the same distance. The most effective way to increase your fuel efficiency/running economy is through lots and lots of easy running (aerobic base training).

Now obviously the fastest people are both very efficient AND have big engines. And when you're actively training for something, you need a healthy mix of easy miles as well as faster running. But, a very very (very) common problem among semi-serious recreational runners is focusing too much on speed work & growing that giant-ass engine and ignoring its efficiency. Which, as I understand the science, is a great way to not make much progress in the long term.

So yeah. In fall 2014/spring 2015 I decided to bite the bullet & do almost nothing but base train. It had been a very long time since I'd devoted any real attention to it, and because I was sure it would be the most boring six months imaginable I decided to collect some data and see if I could actually detect changes in my running economy.

You can read about my methodology here, but these were my results from September 2014 (when I was already in what I considered pretty decent marathon shape) through February 2015:

(r²=.39 for all you stats nerds out there, i.e., damn significant.)

The vertical units are "miles per heartbeat," ie, higher = more efficient/better running economy. Weeks and weeks of nothing but slow, easy running may not sound sexy, but it effing works.

Sadly, in February 2015 I left my HRM charger in a hotel room in San Diego and they never found it. BUT! In January of this year I ponied up for a Forerunner 235, which has a heart rate monitor built in. The upside is that that means I get heart rate data automatically every time I run with my watch with zero effort. The downside is that apparently sometime after March 13 my watch deleted all its data and that was the last day I'd synced with Garmin Connect.

ANYHOO, I was curious to see just how poorly my current running economy compared to that little experiment in 2014/2015, so I added the data to the same graph:

Side-by-side:

When we do graphs in math we ask kids to make "summary statements," ie, what conclusions can you draw by looking at the graph. My summary statements for the right-hand (Jan-Mar 2016) graph are:

• Probably this is not enough points to draw meaningful conclusions from. (We have formulas for this in statistics & I did not do them, but r²=.02, ie probably not very significant.) That said...
• I maybe wasn't starting from *quite* as bad a place efficiency wise this January as I was in Aug/Sept 2014.
• Kinda-sorta marathon training these past months might have improved my running economy by a tiny amount.
• I'm *maybe* kind of in the neighborhood of where I was in say October 2014.

So. Now that I've got a working HRM again, I'm planning to kind of run the same experiment this summer--collecting data & seeing what happens.

(Gotta stave off the boredom somehow, eh?)

STAY TUNED FOR RIVETING UPDATES!!!!

A Race Discount + Travel Discount

So this tab has been open in my browser for like 2 months & only just now did I notice that the expiration date is June 1. Maybe there's still time for a few of you to take advantage!

First, save $15 on Rock N Roll Seattle (June 18) with promo code ALASKA.

Second, there are a bunch of races where if you need to fly there and you fly Alaska, you can get 10% off your flight. I haven't looked into any of the details, but that's what it says. I fly Alaska reasonably often (we did first/business class to both Alaska & Italy on award miles) & they've never screwed me over.

(Is this post sponsored, you ask? I ONLY WISH. Alaska, call me.)

The races & associated valid airports are:

Jun 3-5 Suja Rock ’n’ Roll San Diego Marathon and 1/2 Marathon (San Diego)

Jun 4 Virginia Wine Country Half Marathon (Baltimore, Washington-Dulles, Washington-Reagan)

Jun 18 Alaska Airlines Rock ’n’ Roll Seattle Marathon and 1/2 Marathon (Seattle)

Jul 16-17 Group Health Seattle to Portland (Seattle, Portland)

Jul 17 Napa to Sonoma Wine Country Half Marathon (Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Rosa)

Aug 13 Oregon Wine Country Half Marathon (Portland)

Aug 26 Hood to Coast Relay (Portland)

Sep 4 Kelowna Wine Country Half Marathon (Kelowna)

Oct 1-2 Rock ’n’ Roll San Jose Half Marathon (San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco)

Oct 22-23 Oasis Rock ’n’ Roll Vancouver Half Marathon (Vancouver, B.C.)

Oct 29 Healdsburg Wine Country Half Marathon (Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Rosa)

Oct 30 Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon (Los Angeles, Burbank, Orange County)

Nov 10-13 Rock ’n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon and 1/2 Marathon (Las Vegas)

Enjoy!

Books: 2016 Quarter 1

As you probably already know, I've been reading a classic a month for the last two years. It started as a one-year project in 2014, but I've enjoyed it enough to keep going with it & will probably continue until it starts to feel like a chore.

(Apologies that we're now halfway through Quarter 2 and I'm only just finishing this post. You probably shouldn't be surprised by now. Again, that post marathon = sudden additional free time thing.)

These were my first three classics of 2016:

January: Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut (1973, 302 pages). 3 stars. I dunno, I guess this book was pretty revolutionary for its time and Kurt Vonnegut clearly put a lot of himself into it, and it's mildly entertaining for the tone & drawings. But I did not come out of it feeling particularly wiser or more enlightened. Also, there is a kind of irony to reading a book written in 1973 about how everything in the country and planet has gone completely to shit and there's no hope for anything or anyone anymore and chuckling to yourself about how quaint the whole thing seems compared to the capitalist hellscape we're currently living in. Then weeping quietly.

February: The Color Purple, by Alice Walker (1982, 295 pages). 5 stars. Yeah; this is another of those books I'd give six stars if I could. Or maybe 10. It's up there with To Kill a Mockingbird, in any case. True story: I actually got to the end and flipped right back to the beginning. The story is told by the main character, Celie, a Black woman living in 1930s rural Georgia, as she navigates family, marriage, motherhood, business, race, class, friendships with men and women alike, and above all, the subject of God. There are some tragic parts (because how could there not be), but it's also *hilarious* at times, which keeps everything in balance. Definitely one of the deepest, most thought-provoking books I've ever read and also one of the most beautifully written, both in terms of structure and voice. Can't recommend it highly enough!

March: Middlemarch, by George Eliot (1872, 904 pages). 4 stars. Really I'd planned to read To the Light House this month, but I read Middlemarch by accident, so oh well. Anyway, based on the jacket copy, this books sounded like all my least favorite literary elements rolled into one (old-timey English setting, workaday lives of plain old average people, lots of parlor scenes & talk of "making a good match" and local politics and hand-wringing about things that are *just not done*). But it kept showing up over and over again on lists of "Greatest Books Ever Written in the English Language," so I decided to give it a shot. And, I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it! Yes, there were a bunch of parlor scenes & a good chunk of the story is devoted to a kind of matrimonial musical chairs (in a way it reads like a Victorian soap opera), but alo multi-dimensional characters with well fleshed-out personalities and relationships, strong female characters (I mean, for the 1830s), and some really entertaining Victorian snark. That said, at 900+ pages, it's not exactly a quick read, nor is it an action-packed three-ring circus, so if that's what you're looking for, I'd look elsewhere.

OTHER RECENT READS:

Here were my favorite reads for January through March:

The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah. (2015, 440 pages) 5 stars. I don't usually pick up historical fiction, so I was a little wary of this one, but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Well; "pleasantly" maybe isn't quite the word. I mean, it is the story of two sisters, plucky, recalcitrant, 20ish Isabelle and 30ish domestic wife and mother Vienne, in World War II France, so in a lot of ways it's a pretty sobering book. The characters were really well-written and fleshed-out and 3D feeling; I was invested in their stories and dreams and desires and fears from early-on, so instead of feeling like I was reading a story about women in World War II Nazzi-occupied France, I felt like I was reading the story of real people that could have actually existed. In the end, this ended up being less a story about war and more about what people will and will not do during war, and how it can and can't change us as humans.

Symptoms of Being Human, by Jeff Garvin. (2016, 352 pages) 5 stars. This is one of those books you read and go "DAMMIT, every teenager in in America should have to read this!" 16-year-old Riley Cavenaugh is the gender fluid, not-out child of a Catholic Orange County congressman & has recently transferred to public school for the first time ever; the usual gauntlet of teasing and harassment ensues, except for two unlikely friends. Also, Riley starts an anonymous blog as therapy which promptly takes on a life of its own. The rest of the book is about how all those elements interact and play out. All the feels ensue. For sure there are people who will read it and complain about the author pushing an agenda, but the thing is, the characters in this book reflect real, actual people and the real, actual crap they have to deal with for no other reason except that they're trying to be themselves just like everyone else gets to. And we need literature (ESPECIALLY YA literature) that reflects the diverse realities of all people, not just that of the privileged majority.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here, by Patrick Ness. (2015, 343 pages) 5 stars. Originally, I just wanted to read this book because I found the premise utterly brilliant: At a certain small-town high school, bizarre supernatural events periodically engulf a small, close-knit group of hip, trendy kids with names like Satchel and Finn and Dylan. They fight zombies, or fall in love with vampires, or save the world from angry gods. All this gets pretty annoying for the Mikes and Melindas and Jareds of the town who are just trying to live their ordinary, non-supernatural lives and deal with mundane, teenage concerns like getting into college and mooning over crushes and dealing with moderately messed up families. But, there is much more to love beyond the clever premise. The ordinary kids (and their parents) feel three-dimensional and real, and their ordinary problems are beautifully written. There are some emotional moments, but also enough tongue-in-cheek and/or hilarious ones to keep it fairly light and from veering into melodrama.

The Bone Season, by Samantha Shannon. (2013, 452 pages) 4 stars. In not-too-distant-future dystopian UK, people with some type of pyschich/supernatural mental ability (collectively known as clairvoyants) are feared/looked down on/hated, and many make their living in underground criminal organizations. In the wrong place at the wrong time one night, Irish clairvoyant Paige learns the truth: The corrupt government has for the past 200-some-odd years had an alliance with a mysterious yet human-looking alien race called the Rephaim, who also have powerful psychic clairvoyant abilities and train the human clairvoyants they collect as soldiers to fight against their enemy, the Ammites. Incredibly well-written, emotionally powerful & realistic-feeling without becoming melodramatic. That said, I spent most of the book thinking to myself, "Oh god, please just don't [spoiler]. If you can just avoid that temptation, this book will have been truly amazing start to finish." But no, which broke my heart. Still, it was well-written enough that I will probably read the next in the series to see what happens and if [spoiler] is somehow justified.

The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Groff (2008, 384 pages). 4 stars. I picked up this book because I loved Fates and Furies & the hive mind seemed to agree that Monsters was Groff's best otherwise. On the brink of finishing her PhD in archaeology at Stanford, Willie Upton finds herself in the midst of a scandal with her advisor. Certain she's about to be kicked out of Stanford & blacklisted in her field, she returns to her childhood home of Templeton, [unspecified New England state]. Events conspire such that Willie ends up using her summer trying to hunt down her biological father, about whom her mother has never told Willie much, and soon the search has her digging through generations of the town's own scandalous history and mythology. A sick friend, her mother's love life, hometown admirers, and a giant sea monster that turns up dead in the town's vast Lake Glimmerglass all figure prominently. Mellower than Fates and Furies, but beautifully written with lots of gorgeous detail, the characters are believable and interesting, and there's enough comic relief to get you through the more sober historical pieces.

The Weight of Feathers, by Anna-Marie McLemore (2015, 320 pages). 4 stars. A really beautifully written YA along the lines of The Night Circus. Maybe Night Circus meets Romeo & Juliet. Though I suppose Night Circus had some R/J elements as well. Basically, two older teens from two different feuding troupes of traveling performers (the Latino Palomas, who perform as mermaids, & the French Corbeaus, who perform as acrobatic/tightrope-walking birds) collide, & have to deal with a) their warring family members & b) the prejudices they've grown up with. Writing convincing, realistic teenagers (particularly teenagers in love) whose dialogue doesn't make me roll my eyes and/or cringe is incredibly difficult and fraught so I'm super impressed any time someone manages it.

Orphan X, by Gregg Hurwitz (2016, 356 pages). 4 stars. I don't read a ton in this genre but enough people with ARCs were raving about it that I decided to give it a shot. As a child, orphan Evan Smoak ("Orphan X") was recruited into a black ops program designed to turn orphans into highly trained assassins. After an upsetting encounter with a fellow orphan, though, Evan decides to leave the program and disappear, using his unique skill set to bring justice to the lives of the downtrodden. Now someone is hunting him down, using those he tries to protect to get at him. Clever, well-written, with interesting characters and not too many genre tropes. Also, enough humor to cut the overall darkness of the story. This was a fun read and I totally recommend it to anyone who enjoys action/thriller/intrigue.

Be Frank With Me, by Julia Claiborne Johnson. (2016, 304 pages) 4 stars. This was a really cute, funny, touching book about famous, reclusive, misanthrope/one-hit wonder author M.M. Banning and her extremely odd but lovable ten-year-old son Frank. When finances force Banning to commit to actually finishing and delivering a manuscript for the first time in decades, twenty-four year old nanny/personal assistant (Alice) comes to manage the household. Hijinks and feels ensue. Will not change your life probably, but funny, entertaining & well-written. Fans of Where'd You Go, Bernadette will enjoy.

* * *

Currently Reading:
The Heart Goes Last, by Margaret Atwood

Currently Listening To:
Fellside, by M.R. Carey

Up Next:

• The Fifty Year Sword, by Mark Z. Danielewski (who brought you the mind-blowing cult classic House of Leaves)
• Use of Weapons, by Iain M. Banks
• I Kill The Mockingbird, by Paul Acampora
• Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon
• American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis
• Sunset Park, by Paul Auster
• The Doors of Stone, by Patrick Rothfuss (PLEASE let it come out this year!)

And who knows, whatever else tickles my fancy. (Taking future suggestions as always!)

eugene training by the numbers

One of the nice things about the first week post-marathon is that you suddenly find yourself with some free time, which was nice because I was able to write & post my race report (Part 1: My Race; Part 2: Logistical Details) before a geological age had passed.

As I was writing about my race, I kept thinking about how it felt like I didn't do a whole lot of running this training cycle (particularly since I was still spending a lot of time on the elliptical in those first few weeks), but then again my memory can be unreliable (hence the blogging) so out of curiosity I decided to go back and look at my training logs & reflect on what actually happened.

Behold:

• WEEK 1: 14, all easy
• WEEK 2: 20, all easy
• WEEK 3: 18, all easy
• WEEK 4: 23.8, all easy
• WEEK 5: 10.8 easy, 3.3 tempo, 10 long = 24.1
• WEEK 6: 16.5 easy, 4.3 speed, 6.2 race = 26
• WEEK 7: 16 easy, 14 long = 30
• WEEK 8: 14 easy, 4 tempo, 16 long = 34
• WEEK 9: 13.66 easy, 3 tempo, 5 speed, 18 long = 39.66
• WEEK 10: 13 easy, 6.4 tempo, 4.9 speed, 20 long = 44.3
• WEEK 11: 12.9 easy, 8 speed/tempo, 13.1 race = 34
• WEEK 12: 22 (all easy)
• WEEK 13: 17.5 easy, 2 speed, 20 long = 39.5
• WEEK 14: 19.5 easy, 8 speed/tempo = 27.5
• WEEK 15: 15.35 easy, 6.3 speed, 4.8 tempo, 16 long = 43.5
• WEEK 16: 25 easy, 9.7 speed/tempo = 34.7
• WEEK 17: 26.2 race

Weekly average: ~29.7 D:
Biggest week: 44.3 miles (week 10)
Longest run: 20 miles (x2)
Longest workout: 11.5 miles (2 warm up, 2 x (1600m @ 10K pace/1:30 jog), 30:00 @ marathon effort, 2 x (1600m @ 10K pace/1:30 jog), 1.5 cool down)

Lolololol. In some sort of weird, warped way, seeing all that made me feel even BETTER about my time, because except for all the speed workouts & the two 20s, this is kind of indistinguishable from, like, not training. (Then again, any amount of running kinda looks like training compared to being injured/not running/the elliptical queen for a few months.)

Indeed, looking back over past marathon training cycles, this is the least volume I've EVER run training for a marathon, in every possible way you could measure it. I am never going to be an 80 mile-per-week runner, but I do like to be consistently in the 40s with 2-3 peak weeks in the 50s. (Which, of course, requires staying healthy and also having some kind of aerobic base to build on.) So there is definitely a part of me going, oh, you're not fast again yet? Yeah; *nobody* can be fast on 30 miles a week. Fact.

So. That is...whatever is.

I also realized that I never posted training logs for my last two weeks, which to be honest seems kind of moot once the race report is posted, but I know the OCD part of me will not be at peace until it is done.

So here we go, my last two Eugene training logs (such as they are).

(Spoiler, it's only really one!)

~*~*~EUGENE MARATHON WEEK 16 OF 17~*~*~

Grand Total: 34.7 total miles

* 25 easy
* 9.7 speed/tempo

Monday 4/18: Karate

Tuesday 4/19: 1.75 warm up, 6 x 200m hard/200m jog, 2 miles @ marathon effort, 6 x 200m hard/200m jog, 1.75 cool down = 8.5 total. Last track workout before Eugene! There is a kids' track group that practices on Tuesdays around the same time I tend to be at the track, and after 8 years of this business the coaches and I recognize each other and nod but don't really talk. As I was leaving the track that day one of them said to me as I passed, "Man, I been watching you. You're consistent. Gettin' it done every day." I wanted to say, "You are generous, sir, but I will still take it."

Wednesday 4/20: Karate

Thursday 4/21: 2 warm-up, 10:00 @ marathon effort, 10:00 @ marathon effort + 0:30/mile, 10:00 marathon effort, 1.5 cool down = 8.2 total. The end of the week got shuffled because Don's birthday party was Friday night & I knew I'd been spending my usual running time prepping for it. Still, last workout!

Friday 4/22: Rest/throw a killer birthday party!

Saturday 4/23: 6 easy (Thursday's workout)

Sunday 4/10: 12 easy. Last double digits!

~*~*~EUGENE MARATHON WEEK 17 OF 17~*~*~

Let's be real, week 17 was taper/cation & the only running involved was the race. Which I think I worked out well, given how fresh & energetic I felt on race day. (Not working that week also meant I got a lot of sleep, and I'm sure that didn't hurt either).

Instead of running, there was a lot of this:

Even marathon non-withstanding, it was still a good week. :)

Race Report: Eugene Marathon (Part 2: Logistics)

(This is the part where I give you all the logistical/nuts & bolts information you might want to know about this race if you're thinking about maybe running it. You can check out this post to read all about my race experience & how it went! :) )

Before we dig into the logistics, here are a couple of my other favorite race pics:

I feel like good race shots from the end of a marathon are pretty rare so I should hoard & flaunt them whenever I get the chance. #yourewelcome

Location: Eugene, OR

Date: Late April/early May (May 1, 2016 this year)

Price: *Extremely* reasonable if you get in early:

MARATHON:

• $85 until 10/1/2015; 11:59 p.m.
• $95 until 1/2/2016; 11:59 p.m.
• $105 until 3/15/2016; 11:59 p.m.
• $115 until 4/22/2016; 11:59 p.m.
• $140 at Health & Fitness Expo

HALF MARATHON:

• $65 until 10/1/2015; 11:59 p.m.
• $75 until 1/2/2016; 11:59 p.m.
• $85 until 3/15/2016; 11:59 p.m.
• $95 until 4/22/2016; 11:59 p.m.
• $120 at Health & Fitness Expo

EUGENE 5K

• $20 until 1/2/2016; 11:59 p.m.
• $25 until 3/15/2016; 11:59 p.m.
• $30 until 4/22/2016; 11:59 p.m.
• $40 at Health & Fitness Expo

KIDS DUCK DASH

• $10 until 1/2/2016; 11:59 p.m.
• $15 until 3/15/2016; 11:59 p.m.
• $20 until 4/22/2016; 11:59 p.m.
• $20 at Health & Fitness Expo

Deadlines/sellout factor: I don't know why but I had this idea that this was one of those really popular races that sells out super fast, but at least by expo day there were still spots in the half and the full. (Don't know about the 5K.)

Field Size: Again, not sure about the caps, but the results page lists the following numbers of finishers:

• Marathon - 1666 finishers
• Half Marathon - 2560 finishers
• 5K - 472 finishers

This was basically my perfect size race--big enough not to feel tiny, but small enough to make race day logistics pretty easy (including being able to actually run in the first miles).

The Expo:

The expo took place in a soccer field attached to Hayward Field proper. To be honest I think they could have been clearer about this. All the info I got just said that the expo would take place "in the shadow of historic Hayward Field" which is pretty ambiguous. My strategy was to set the GPS for Hayward Field & then follow everyone else. After some hunting around, I finally found the little soccer field. So in the future it would be nice if they were like, "in the soccer field on the west side of Hayward Field (enter on 15th st)." Apparently I was not alone in this because as I was walking back with my bag to meet Don (about 15 minutes before the expo was closing), frantic people kept coming up to me & going, "OMG WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR BIB??"

You get them in the soccer field west of the track, enter on 15th st.

The expo was open from 9am - 6pm, plus a shorter window Friday afternoon. (No race day pickup unless you pay extra for it. I actually approve of them at least having this option for people who are local but not THAT local.) Again, I'm not sure why, but I kind of had in my mind that Eugene was a really popular, destination-type race. False. As my friend T who arrived ahead of me texted, "This is definitely a small town race. The expo is tiny. If you need anything don't plan to get it here."

She was not wrong. It was small, & practically deserted by the time I arrived. Now, I don't really care about this because I've never really been one to wander around the expo for hours, and all I really cared about was getting my bib & shirt. I rarely buy race schwag but this was kind of a destination race for me, so I actually might have paid real money for something extra cool if they'd had anything, but it was just kind of more basic T-shirts and a few tanks in a limited number of designs, and I wasn't particularly inspired. Hop Valley had a beer garden, but being really not a fan of hoppy beers, I skipped it. There was literally nothing else I needed to do there & I was in & out in maybe 10 minutes.

The Course:

As marathons go, I really liked this course. It was a mix of city streets and park bike/foot trails, including part of Pre's Trail (though I could not tell you which part; it wasn't obvious and I didn't go out of my way to look for it ahead of time). The half and full start at the same time and stay together for the first ten miles, a huge sort of dog-leg to the south. After the split, there's some tooling around town, then another huge dog-leg to the west along the Willamette River.

Most of the time I couldn't see the river, but there were some nice views when you crossed the various bridges. There was a bit of congestion at the beginning but things thinned out fairly soon and I never felt too crowded.

By and large it is a pretty flat course, with just maybe a handful of shorter, steeper parts (but really in the grand scheme of things, it's pretty darn flat). There are some long open exposed stretches, but also a goodly amount of shade (which I greatly appreciated given our weather).

The water stops were well-organized and staffed by enthusiastic volunteers, & seemed to appear pretty close to every two miles, which, again, I really appreciated. There were also plenty of spectators and "spirit groups" along the way, and everyone seemed really excited to be out there.

My friend T said that she found the ground on the half course to be kind of annoyingly chewed up, but I didn't notice this or just must have been on a different part of the road because it was fine for me. She also mentioned that there was no mile 11 marker for the half-ers, which kind of freaked everyone out.

Staging:

Like I said in my previous post, the start was an easy half mile or less from where we stayed, and the race was small enough that honestly if I hadn't had a bag to check I probably could have left the hotel at 6:45 and been totally fine. Corrals were super well organized and you could easily slide into whichever one you needed to be in (vs. hurdling the barriers). There were a billion port-a-potties and I think at ~6:30 I waited behind one girl.

My only complaint is the bag check. It was cold so I was putting off getting rid of my sweatshirt, but around 6:40 I decided to go see about dropping things off and HO-LY SHITE SNACKS there was a line like 100m long. Like that type of line where you start walking towards the end and you're like, "This must be the end. Really? It can't be too much father. SERIOUSLY? Maybe it just loops all the way around and eats itself." I waited for about 10 minutes or so before they announced to people to just drop their bags where they were & the volunteers would collect & stow them, because we needed to get over to the start. I don't know if this was a staffing issue or what but it was the only part of race morning that didn't go 100% smoothly for me (though it was completely fine in the end).

Swag:

Tech T, plastic water bottle (which they handed out at the end instead of disposable water bottles = A+ for environmentalism), & a rather hefty medal.

And of course, there are the post-race pancakes.

(Also beers too, I think, but again, Hop Valley = not for me.)

If you decide to run:

Let's be clear, there is nothing to see or do in Eugene unless you are a track nerd & you just want to, like, go stare at Hayward Field for a few minutes. Literally, there is the University of Oregon & the infrastructure needed in a college town (pizza, beer, coffee, etc.) but that is about it. You do not need to plan extra days to "see the sights."

(Sidenote: If you're traveling a reasonable distance & thinking of making a trip out of it, spend those extra days in either Portland (north) or the Rogue Valley (south). Two days in Eugene itself is more than sufficient.)

This is literally all there is to see in Eugene, the end.

In terms of race travel, though, here are my top tips:

• Book early if you want the cheap price, but you probably don't have to worry about it selling out right away.
• That said, if you're even *thinking* about registering & not local, book a hotel room nearby ASAP. There are at least three within half a mile of the start, but apparently they booked up really fast. I booked us at the Days Inn for $110/night in like October and did not regret it. (The hotel even opened up breakfast at 5am & extended race day check-out until 1pm for everyone.) Immediately adjacent to the Days Inn are a Best Western & the University Inn. There are some other hotels father away, which is also fine as they run shuttles to & from a bunch of them and also Autzen Stadium, where there is ample parking. (Parking near Hayward Field itself is all street parking, plus a lot of surrounding roads are blocked off for the race, so try that at your peril.) I am just super lazy & like being able to walk to things, so I'd do the Days Inn or Best Western again in a heart beat.
• For pre-race carb loading, try La Perla for pizza & other Italian or Beppe & Gianni for somewhat fancier Italian. They're owned by the same family & both were excellent.
• You would think post-race brunch/lunch would be a shit show in such a small town, but we found some really tasty gastropubs just a few blocks from the race & they were nearly all deserted. (I think we ended up eating at First National Tap House on Broadway, which was great.)
• Try Falling Sky for tasty, interesting beer. Ninkasi is great too but gets a lot of distribution so there's less of a reason to make a special trip just because you're in Eugene.
• Hit up Wandering Goat or Perk for tasty independent coffee.
• If tasty high-end pastries strike your fancy, head to Noisette Pastry Kitchen.
• If you feel like a ~20 minute drive to what feels like the middle of nowhere, there's some delicious wine out at Silven Ridge. Some of it is free, they've got a gorgeous view, & three-time Olympic runner & Eugene Running Club coach Cathie Twomey Bellamy is sometimes pouring. #onlyineugene

Overall Assessment:

I had a great time at this race and I would absolutely 100% run it again if I felt like spending the travel $$. (On the other hand, Oregon is kind of ridiculously gorgeous & full of delicious wine, so it's not like one needs to work too hard to find excuses to visit.)

It was well-organized & had around 5,000 runners, but still had the feel of a friendly, small town race. There's nothing to complain about on the course, and I can totally see how on a cool day it could be a great PR course. If Eugene is on your list & you have the opportunity, do it!!