Category: Running
With the San Francisco Marathon just four days away, taper madness is kicking into full gear here at the FitLifeSF Compound. Today, for example, I lost my lucky safety pins. This apartment WILL get torn to shreds before I race without my lucky safety pins.
Yesterday, I spent some time making a batch of delicious dark-chocolate drizzled bananas with a little bit of walnuts and seasalt. These are chillin’ in the freezer awaiting my first-ever carb load, which starts tomorrow… I also need to make a batch of my “famous” Pruney Oat Piles on which to snack in the next three days… and, OK, I decided to treat myself to a Nerds Rope after months of being at once intrigued and horrified by the product. I’ll let you know how that works out.
As for training- It’s tapering off as it should. I just got done doing my last “real” workout– a 4 mile run, one round of 8-rep-to-failure upper body weights, and Ab Blaster from Tony Horton One-on-One. I ain’t gettin’ any more svelte before race day, so it is what it is.
I’m reluctant to say too much on the subject of “finally making it to a marathon healthy” after my string of injuries, but I do have a lot to say on the subject which I’ll save up for after the race– 4 days, no jinxies. 4 days, no jinxies…
With the completion of my last long run on Sunday, the hay- as the runners like to say- is in the barn! I’ve done all I can and, barring serious divine intervention in the form of falling pianos or hurtling meteorites*, on July 25th, I’ll be running the San Francisco Marathon!
Scary thought, as I seriously started to doubt at the end of last year whether I’d ever see the day– yet, I made it through Higdon’s Novice marathon plan (with a few miles thrown in) without hiccup or foible, missed run or niggle. Scarier still that I kind of like to royally bonk on at least one training run to “get it out of the way” and clear up my juju for race day… Usually, that hiccup or foible comes in the form of an injury so severe that I question whether I’ll be able to run the race at all, and inevitably delivers me to the line totally unprepared where I go on to surprise myself, earning me more than one accusatory “sandbagger.”
So, needless to say, July 25 will be a real “first” for me on several levels.
With the “hay in the barn,” the only thing to do between now and then is hunker down to get this last 3 lbs off for good… and spend an inordinate amount of time messing around with pace predictors, creating playlists, planning my outfit… doing crunches… You know, important stuff.
*Just in case anyone “up there” reads this blog, NO, that is not a challenge!
I don’t even think I mentioned that I was running the Angel Island 25K with Pacific Coast Train Runs, because I had just intended it to be a “real pretty and hilly training run.” Now, “Trail Runners” in the running world are kind of their own breed. They get dirty, they run with backpacks on, they pee in the woods, they eat potato chips and M&Ms and scarf boiled potatoes at aid stations. City Smurf and her wetnaps and lil’ mini handheld (I’ll admit I was even wearing a little mascara) was quite out of her element. Before Saturday, I’d never even run on a trail- unless you count the dirt patch next to the bike path in Golden Gate Park. But, not to ruin the big ending, I ended up coming in FIFTH-PLACE FEMALE (out of about 35), so in order to brag, I guess I have to write a race report. So, here goes…
It took a little while for all the wheels to get spinning over at DailyMile.com, but I’m actually having loads of fun with now that more friends are joining.
You can upload data from your Nike+, Garmin or manually. Runners, walkers, swimmers, all are welcome! Post and find routes in your area, get training tips, encourage folks, talk trash and generally banter. It’s also a pretty clean interface for posting runs with maps on Facebook, Twitter, etc. if you are into that kind of thing. *cough*
Or just search under Smurf… I think I’m the only one of my kind over there for now.
I’ve waited until about the halfway point in my training to announce this– Yes, I am making another go at the San Francisco Marathon! I’m all signed up and hope that July 25, 2010 will see me crossing the finishline without incident! Well, other than the requisite amount of “incident” involved in running 26.2 miles. 
The week before Bay to Breakers was total crap, as we found out on Tuesday that a friend had taken his own life… this led to WAY too much time out on the town as we dealt with the events of the week. I opted to stay home the night before the race because I was just physically and emotionally depleted.
At any rate, I made myself some delicious perogis that sat like a rock in my stress-sensitive stomach, tried to get to sleep early but still was just on edge and slept fitfully….Wasn’t feeling too hot at all Sunday morning, but I took the time over my traditional pre-race breakfast to check my 12K PR, just so I would know.
So, everyone knows that I love, love, love geeking out on technology– especially fitness technology. Pair this with my love of pseudo-medical devices and you know I’ve got pretty much every bodyfat caliper/scale, pedometer, running gadget and gizmo you can imagine. Enter: BodyBugg. You may have seen the BodyBugg strapped to the arms of contestants on The Biggest Loser, but I’m convinced this tool has value for everyone from your average person looking to drop a few (or many) LBs to a seasoned athlete wanting to fine-tune their fueling for training.
We are 5 weeks (a little more) into the new year… do you know where your goals are? We got in touch with the FitLifeSF Challenge contestants to find out how they were doing, and here is a little bit of an update.
Dear Friends: Following is my race report from the 2009 US Half Marathon. This was written a few hours after the race, when I was still flying high on a totally unexpected PR, and before it became quite obvious through internet uproar concurring with my Garmin results that this race was short. In the past week, Project Sport has been ignoring emails and blatantly deleting all inquiries about the length discrepancy off of the US Half Facebook page. In fact, they now delete me from being a “fan” of the page- yet still can’t take the time to offer any response at all to those of us who noticed the course was short. Please, if you feel that race directors should be upfront with the runners who pay for their races, send an email to info@projectsport.com or DM @RyanDawkins on Twitter asking that they respond to the concerns. I will keep this site updated, as I have had a few conversations with the USATF about this situation, but for now- as much as I love this race- I cannot in good faith suggest that anyone else who wants a legitimate Half Marathon benchmark race run this one. And, the race organizer’s bedside manner is, frankly, appalling. Race Report after the jump…
I need to print this article on How to Spot a Runner in a Marathon from Time Out Chicago for Rob, who has a proven ability to not see me, even as I run right by him and they shout “SMURF!” over the loudspeaker.