Race Report: Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon 2022

Huzzah! The Kaiser Curse is broken! 🎉🎉🎉 After something like a decade of attempting and failing to both start and finish one of my favorite local races for the second time (the first time was in 2010), I finally managed it this past Sunday and it feels amazing.

Not only did I break the Kaiser Curse, I also brought my more general half marathon dry spell to an end--Sunday's race was my first half marathon *race* since October 2018 and my first 13.1+ mile run of *any* kind since July 2019. Also feels good!

Why did I sign up for this race?

The Kaiser race is super local for me (less than three miles away) and since I do a lot of runs in Golden Gate Park and surrounding SF, I know the course really well. I'd run the half once before, the 10K twice, and the 5K once (not to mention DNFing the half once and signing up & not being able to run it so many times I've lost count, hence the curse). The course is (mostly) nice and relatively fast, the weather is usually pretty good (usually), and with the exception of the bag check pickup in 2020 (it was 2+ hours before they found my bag!), it's always been very smooth and well-run.

I signed up for the half last summer when registration first opened and there was a chance they'd have to significantly limit the field due to COVID. I'd just started training again in earnest, SF case numbers were at an all-time low, and in a burst of optimism about the world that I hadn't experienced in quite a while, I signed up for this and a couple other half marathons, excited to spend the next few months getting back in shape, throw down in Golden Gate Park, and just see what happened.

And then what happened?

January 2022 Reads!

Getting on top of this from the beginning this year! It's been a good month for getting some reading done. Maybe there's a suggestion for you in here somewhere, dear reader?

(1) Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson (2020, 270 pages) (crime/mystery/drama). Audiobook, reread. Years ago, bookshop owner Malcom Kershaw published a blog post listing “Eight Perfect Murders” from literature–murders that he, as a crime/mystery aficionado, believed to be the most airtight in terms of what a person could actually get away with. Now, years later, it seems someone is using the blog post as a to-do list, and the police want his help to identify the killer.

I don’t 100% adore everything by Peter Swanson BUT when he’s at his best in this genre, it’s really something. I remembered this book being smart and riveting the first time around but, as often happens, re-reading something where I already know what happens gives me extra bandwidth to appreciate all kinds of little brilliant details that I missed the first time around. Anyone who loves a good mystery/crime thriller/psychological thriller will enjoy this one, especially if you’ve read a lot of classics of the genre.

1 Week Until Kaiser Half!

Sweet Jesus, friends, we are now just ONE WEEK (less, technically) out from Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon and SOMEHOW all my parts are feeling PRETTY WELL intact, all hail Beyoncé our lord and savior.

It’s probably been a while since I’ve mentioned it but I am cursed by this race. It was my second-ever half marathon back in 2010, then in 2011 I ran the 5K (which was actually 3.2 miles, like, officially), and after that, ONLY CURSES. In 2014 I had a stress fracture. In 2015, I hurt my foot the week before the race. In 2016, I was still working my way back to running from stress fracture #2. In 2018 I attempted the half as I was recovering from a similar issue in my right hip as I have now but had to quit at mile 4 because it still hurt too much. In 2019 and 2020 I was able to run the 10K (officially 6 miles in 2020, wtf), but I am still pretty excited to return to the half.

Kaiser Permanente 5K 2012!

I’d been hoping to be in shape to really race this race, but it was not to be. Too many ill-timed injuries and of course running away to Europe for 3 weeks, which yes, technically, is my own fault, BUT STILL! The timing, she has not been my friend.

So earlier this month, I turned my focus towards just building up from 3-4 miles (the most I’d run at once since early December, thanks to a calf strain) to a 13.1-mile long run and being able to solidly finish the race.

Was I totally sure this was feasible in 4-5 weeks? NO!

Do I advise the progression below as a half marathon training plan? ALSO NO!

Mid-Jan Kaiser Half Update

Hello friends. I hope you are still safe and healthy as we all ride out this stupid omicron wave. Not much happening lately that's super photo worthy so please enjoy this shot from last August when I went to Seattle for work and took the opportunity to bust out 10 carefree miles around Lake Union.

I am over here getting a GREAT start on 2022 Injury Bingo. Just two weeks into the year (not even!) and I've already been struck down by tendonitis in my left foot/ankle. As man know if it isn't one thing then it's something else.

Of course, this has meant scaling back on running just as I was starting to get into the swing of it again. Several great-feeling 3-5 mile runs during the first week of the year! Then, waking up Saturday morning 1/8 unable to put weight on my left foot. It felt a little better Sunday morning so I gave my scheduled seven-mile run a shot and knew two miles in it wasn't happening. So, four it was, and the tendonitis a little bit worse as a nice bonus. (The next time you hear someone say, "It can't hurt to try!," punch them in the neck for me.)

I took Monday 1/10 through Wednesday 1/12 off running but did my Monday morning weight training as usual. Thursday 1/13 it was feeling much better so I decided to test it out by running to the gym (about 1.25 miles), thinking worst case I could just walk. While it's clearly not 100%, it felt MUCH better, just a little discomfort still. All in all I ran to the gym plus a bit more, then back home after for a total of three miles. The next day (Friday 1/14) I ran another 3 miles; I had a tiny bit of discomfort after but was totally pain-free the next morning (Saturday 1/15) so I went for 5 miles. And, success!

StoryGraph! + January 2021 Books

Hi friends. Your favorite topic I know, of course, is running, BUT I have learned over the years that your *second* favorite topic is books. It's been a while since I’ve felt motivated to keep track of what I’m reading/want to read, but I’m feeling the urge again.

I’m going to see if I can keep it up this year, so if you want to follow, join me on StoryGraph*!

With a little sleuthing (and trawling through various book-related accounts I have in different places) I think I’ve managed to mostly reconstruct last year’s list, so before we get into this year, please enjoy: Books I Read in January 2021.

(1) Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell (2018, 359 pages). In 2020 I really came to adore Lisa Jewell. This domestic crime/mystery/drama alternates between ten years ago, wherein Laurel’s brilliant teenage daughter Ellie suddenly disappears one day without a trace, and the present, where Laurel–still searching for her missing daughter–finds herself falling in love with charming Floyd. Things get weird, though, when Laurel meets Floyd’s young daughter Poppy–who is the spitting image of Ellie. What does it mean??? I really loved this book. It was both well-written and engrossing but also just so heartfelt and earnest in a way that could have fallen flat had it not been so skillfully done.

(2) The Dark Forest (The Three-Body Problem #2) by Cixin Liu, translated from Chinese (2008, 512 pages). It’s hard to say much about this series without getting into spoilers, but what you will very quickly figure out is that some folks on Earth have kind of accidentally found themselves in communication with a race of aliens called the “Trisolarans,” so called because their planet is part of a three-star system whose chaotic gravitational interactions mean the planet experiences unpredictable seasons of pleasant climate (in which civilization thrives) and extreme cold/darkness or catastrophic heat and dryness (in which civilization is destroyed). In desperate need of a stable home world, they are now coming for Earth.

PRESENTS + Kaiser Permanente Half Update

Hello friends! I hope you and your loved ones are having a joyous, fulfilling holiday season and staying covid-free.

Just a quick update on my goal to complete the Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon at literally any pace. I had been starting to build back up after getting back from vacation at the end of November in hopes that my right hip/hamstring would cooperate. And, woo-hoo, it really had been! I slowly worked my way up to ~5 or so days a week of short runs and a "long" run of 6 miles. And then one day, 3.5 miles into a six-miler, my left calf seized up to the point of cramping. I tried walking it off and seeing if I could jog a block here and there (seeing as I was now 2.5 miles from home) but it only got worse. I tried again after a full week off, but I didn't even make it two miles before my calf was seizing up again.

A visit to my sports chiro revealed some weakness in my lower legs and ankles on both sides, which isn't a smoking gun exactly (it seems to me there rarely is), but it certainly isn't helping, so I've been diligently doing my calf/ankle/foot strengthening exercises over the the holiday break. And in each of the past two days, friends, I have been rewarded with a painless three-mile run through my neighborhood! (Well; three one-mile loops so as to never have to walk back more than half a mile should something feel off.)

Announcing: Goals, MF

It always feels a bit scary to put a goal out there when you are still in the midst of a comeback and not entire sure it's going to take, but what is the point of having a blog (er, sort of?) if you aren't going to share what you're doing and what's on your mind.

So, what is on my mind, you might ask? Nothing earth-shattering; just the Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon, one of the big local SF races that takes place every Superbowl Sunday (Sunday, February 6 this year).

KP was my second-ever half-marathon & typically features a half marathon, 10K, and 5K. I've run all three distances at least once at one time or another, but for the last few years I've most often signed up for the 10K because "I won't be ready to run a half yet," or signed up for the half and then dropped down to the 10K a few days or weeks out because "I'm not ready to run a half yet."

And by "I'm not ready to run a half yet," what I meant was "I'm not ready to run a half in a time I find acceptable," where "acceptable" was probably somewhere in the 1:37-1:43 range. I've never had much interest in running races at an easy pace just to finish, except in situations where I thought it would be helpful to do a supported long run or long tempo workout. Plus, if you looked at a heat map of my long runs, you'd see probably 90% overlap with the KP half marathon course, and paying money to run a casual long run on the same route I'd probably run anyway just felt kind of....not worth it.

The last fast half marathon, 1:41:07 - October 2017. A wonderful day that I did not appreciate nearly enough at the time.