FitLifeSF

I’m back from the Run Wild for a Child 10K in Golden Gate Park. Woke up this morning feeling really kind of crappy- nervous tummy and a lil’ barfy and just generally weak. Visions of every greasy/heavy meal and overindulgent cocktail outing of the past 3 days weighing heavy on my frame. Ugh! Went down to Golden Gate Park, thinking it would be easy

enough to street park in my old ‘hood. (6th and Fulton.) I was getting nervous that I was running late when I rolled up at 8AM and did one loop- no parking. Did another loop- still no parking! Finally decided to drive away from the park and pull into the first spot I see. Of course my nerves are in overdrive at this point. Why didn’t I just leave a few minutes early? I’ve been painfully early to all my other races. (Indicator # 345 that I didn’t take this race as seriously as I should have.) I finally find parking at like 8:18AM on Balboa and 6th Ave- about 4 blocks downhill from the entrance to the park. I grab the bigass bag of toys to donate out of my trunk and sprint up 6th into the park like some deranged Santa. It’s clear that my endurance is tenuous, at best. When I get to the starting area, out of breath and kinda shaky, I have to find someone to give the toys to (they wanted me to run them down into the festival area! Sorry, Charlie. I’d left them on the street vs run down into the festival and run back up to the start.) Finally a kind lady firefighter took them off my hands. Thanks kind stranger!

They have the folks from Crunch doing a warmup, but my knees are just feeling weak and I’m trying to warm up some. The start was nicely un-crowded. I was within 50 feet of the start line, which is nice because it wasn’t chip timed. They do the countdown, and we’re off. It doesn’t take too long to cross the line (since I was going for a PR, I started my Garmin at the gun, vs Bridge to Bridge where I started it at the start line.)

Mile 1, I’m feeling good. To hit my goal of 58:00, I need to be at about 9:20 pace. (For some reason, I have a “Personal Best” of 58:18 in my Nike Plus trophy area- I do not know when I might have run said 58:18- I’ve never done a sanctioned 10K, so I am betting it was embedded in another workout- or when my Nike + was crapping the bed there at the end when it ran out of juice, maybe it spazzed out and recorded something that never happened- Anyhow, my goal was to PR that mystery 58:18, and McMillan said I should be able to do a 58:29.) So, the goal was 58:00.

Mile 1- 9:05
Mile 2- 9:03

I realize I am probably going too fast and try to commit to running the next 3 AT goal and not a second faster and see what I have left for the last mile.

Mile 3: 9:28

Somewhere at about the halfway point, I have the weirdest sensation- my legs are EMPTY. Like, I almost can’t feel them right. Dead, dead, empty. I thank my lucky stars I’d packed a gel, even though I shouldn’t have needed it, and down half of that to see if I can get some juice in them. It ends up working, but at the cost of some nausea- I realize I’ve never gelled running at that pace.

Also included in this mile, we came down into the park and I’m thinking “Woo! All downhill from here!” And then we make a sharp right at mile 3:75ish and hit a hellacious hill. Now, I consider myself good at hills because I never have a run without several, but I hate Golden Gate Park for the “uphill both ways, hills around every corner!!” effect.

Mile 4: 10:18 – OOF!

Mile 5 has the benefit of some nice downhills: 9:14

At this point, my mantra is “PR or vomit, one of the two. Nothing less.”

Mile 6 has a debilitating down-hill/uphill switch back thrown in right when you think it’s REALLY all downhill to the finish. Ugh!: 9:39

Finally, it feels like the finish is in sight. Though I can’t be sure because I’ve decided that Rhodyco , the organizer that put on both this event and the Bridge to Bridge 12K that I ran back in October, must really love the mindsmurf of the “hidden finish.”

I come around the corner to see the clock- sadly, I’ve missed my goal, but if I turn on the jets I can get in under an hour. The first time I ran a 10K distance, I came in at 1:03:51. When I did the Nike+ Human Race by myself when coming off my injury, I tanked and ran it in 1:06:21. Anything over an hour would be unacceptable, so I turned it on and spazed it out over the line in 59:45 (waiting for official time.)

So, I’m pretty disappointed. I really thought I had a shot at maybe even turning on the jets at the end for a 56ish. But, I definitely learned some valuable lessons about having respect for the race process, even if it’s not a “goal race.” and, of course, don’t plan “goal races” on day 4 of a 3-day food and beverage binge. Ugh!

Best thing spotted on the run- at least 4 “squirrel frisbees.” Flat as a pancake, dry like jerky, round enough to toss to a friend.

Oh, and the people in the finish line festival handing out orange juice and CHEESE. Two great tastes that taste great together- especially after running 6.2 miles!

Also, a note on heartrate, since I’ve been doing HADD/low HR training. (Note: link will open a Word doc.) My HR got up FAST- It was at 171 in Mile One, with a Max HR during the rest of the race at 177 and a sprint to the finished to get me to 184, which is my max recorded HR from earlier this year. I’ve been training with a goal of keeping it at 145, so this was the longest I’ve been in that range for a while, and a higher avg HR than during the Half Marathon.) I opted not to look at my HR at all this race- not sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

Here is the Run Wild course map from my Garmin: