So, no, I didn’t run anything this year, though I’d secretly harbored hopes to lumber through a half on my ten-mile-max long-run schedule. Nor did contributor RocketGirl (Jody/Muppet.) I was riding the pine with over-aspirational training and a stress fracture, she with a wonderfully though-out training plan that culminated with a sucky luck-of-the-draw case of runner’s knee (she can post more, if she wants.) But I was still up with the birds this morning at 6AM thinking that the runners were just hitting the Golden Gate. Much to Rob’s chagrin, I even opened the curtains to see what kind of weather they were having. I went back to bed, resting easy that it was sunny skies. Those in the race may or may not laugh along with me when realizing that 6AM skies on Bernal Hill might look sunny at first glance, but the grey-bright skies of that hour don’t mean smooth sailing. I woke at 8 to discover grey. Grey, grey, soul-sucking grey like it has been the past few weeks. Bummer! Reading race reports on RunnersWorld.com confirm that it was “Teh SUCK” on the Bridge, with gusting winds and nastiness.

At about 9AM, after laying in bed hearing the copters circle for an hour, Rob and I were up and at them. We went for a whites scramble at Pork Store at about mile 19 (what some folks on the RW.com forum described as either “the ugly part” or just before “the ugly part” lol), so I got to watch the late-wave runners go by and well up with tears of pride, as is my habit when cheering on people doing awesome things. *sniff*

Karen Spiegelman, we named you by name as someone who could do some awesome marathoning, if for sheer force of will and determination.

Then, down to the South Bay for a track workout while Rob played soccer. I never thought I’d be so stoked to post a workout like this, but…
1200 walk + 400 run x 4 for a total of 4 miles (give or take) and an hour workout. My first real “recovery” workout. And… no pain!

Man, my cardiovascular took a steaming poop in my time off, though, considering my HR got up to 180 during the 400 runs (a relaxed 1:30 pace, give or take, on the 400′s.) But, I’m pleased to say- NO PAIN! Other than my hip, which we’ll chalk up to just being “just one of those 30+ things.”

I went there with the plan to just walk 3 miles, but I was so inspired by the racers and also my doc said I could start trying out some light running on the treadmill this week, and I was on a cushy synthetic track in new shoes, so I thought I’d do some 400′s and see how it went. If still no pain tomorrow, I’ll do the same workout on Thursday and then start doing 800M W/800M W for the total amount of time of my usual long runs (~90 minutes) next Sunday.
When we got home from soccer, I kind of had to laugh my ass off at Rob who stumbled totally depleted from the shower and made himself an Edurox Recovery Drink with a whole packet of Jelly Belly Sports Beans in the blender. Me? I had Nature’s Recovery Drink, aka: a beer.