Race Report: USATF Club Cross Country National Championships 2022

The deets:

Every December USATF holds club cross country national championships, and every so often it's in San Francisco. Since this is one of those years, my team wanted to pull together teams for as many of the five races as possible (open women, masters women, open men, 40+ men, and 60+ men). The races were all in Golden Gate Park, & the masters women's race was 6K (about 3.6 miles). Originally I was planning on running CIM the weekend before so I thought I'd probably skip it, but since CIM didn't work out but I felt like I was on the upswing, I thought I could probably get through 6K without completely embarrassing myself.

Why did I sign up for this race?

Honestly, just for the team vibe and to have the experience. Our women's masters team had eight women signed up (five are required for a team) so we ran two teams -- our five fastest runners on the A team and the other three of us on the B team. I was injured this time last year and while I am only just *barely* not injured this year, I am in fact NOT injured, so I was excited to show up and participate in this special event!

And then what happened?

O hai, perhaps you want some running-related content...

Who wants to date themselves by explaining the photo? Go on, I dare you. 🤣

Lately this has been more of a book blog than a running blog, but to be honest there hasn't been much of note to write about running-wise, unless you include one running-related injury after another "content."

So, yeah. It's been quite the month, with at least three distinctly different injuries, and I can't say I've had a single week in all of November that's felt like it warranted its own training journal. But perhaps a quick round of highlights (and lowlights) to catch us up to the present day??

 

 

 

Saturday 11/5: 14 miles at Indiana Monumental Half Marathon! This was my last running-related post. You can read the race report if you want, but the tl;dr is that I went ahead and went, though I was not even remotely fit and was still getting over a bad cold. People kept going on and on about the weather in dramatic fashion and how horrible it was, but friends. I was at CIM 2012. I was at Boston 2018. Both were much, MUCH worse. The only issue at Indy was some rain and some admittedly forceful wind in hours 3/4/5 (so, I feel a lot worse for the marathoners than the half marathoners). But the rain was more a drizzle than a downpour, and it wasn't even cold. Now, was it perfect PR weather? No, so I felt much less bad than I would have about the fact that I had an asthma attack around mile 6 and had to run the rest of the race a mile to a half-mile at a time with lots of breaks.

August Reads

The slog continues!! If my math is correct we are now two-thirds of the way through the year. Have you picked out anything from my first even months for your own list??? If not, August offers a couple of good ones (plus several that are fine enough)!

In case you missed it:

January 2022 Reads
February 2022 Reads
March 2022 Reads

April 2022 Reads

May 2022 Reads

June 2022 Reads

July 2022 Reads

July Reads (will we finish 2022 before 2022 ends??? only time will tell)

I'm not giving up, friends! Here are my July 2022 reads, which I must say included some of my best reads of the year. Hope you enjoy! 

In case you missed it:

January 2022 Reads
February 2022 Reads
March 2022 Reads

April 2022 Reads

May 2022 Reads

June 2022 Reads

Race Report: Indiana Monumental Half Marathon 2022

The deets:

The Indiana Monumental Marathon (and half, and 5K) or "The Monumental", as it's affectionally known by locals, is maybe one of the all-around best races I've ever participated in. Clearly runners in the Indiana area are aware of its charms, but I can't really speak for how well-known it is beyond that. Despite it being one of the 15 biggest marathons in the country, my West Coast self had never heard of it before I started researching smoking fast half marathon courses.

What makes this race so great in my opinion?

June Reads (slowly but surely catching up!)

June was a busy month in that I was home for only about a week for the entire month--I spent the first two in Spain and Portugal & then for the last week of the month I was traveling for work. So most of my reading was done either on plane/train rides or via audiobook. There were a few good ones worth sharing, though!

In case you missed it:

January 2022 Reads
February 2022 Reads
March 2022 Reads

April 2022 Reads

May 2022 Reads

Race Report: Urban Cow Half Marathon 2022

The deets:

Urban Cow is another annual mainstay of the, maybe not Bay Area, exactly, but Northern California road racing scene put on by the Sacramento Running Association (which also puts on CIM). I have only ever heard good things but it is a *bit* of a hike (Sacramento, if that wasn't obvious) and it hasn't ever fit well enough into my fall plans to warrant the drive.

Why did I sign up for this race?

Urban Cow Half was a Pacific Association race this year and a bunch of my teammates were planning to race. I was planning to target the Indy Monumental Half a month later as a tune-up before CIM, so I had planned to use this race as a details-to-be-decided marathon pace workout; that way I could still help our masters team score for the event. 

And then what happened?