Music Monday: Get Closer

Artist: Life in Film
Title: Get Closer
Fave Line: "You gave them everything that's left, take in another breath"

Miles logged: 2.5

Happy National Running Day 2015!

Hope you got out there to celebrate National Running Day. Whatever your motivation, I hope you enjoyed it. Here's mine...

Miles logged: 2.4

Music Monday: Ex's & Oh's

Artist: Elle King
Title: Ex's and Oh's
Fave line: "One, two, three, they gonna run back to me, they always wanna come, but they never wanna leave."

Miles logged: 0.0

Race Report: 2015 Bands on the Run Half Marathon

It was a cool and gloomy morning for the start of the 2015 Bands on the Run Half Marathon. I had signed up for this race earlier in the week and really took no effort to prepare myself well for it. In fact, I hadn't run at all in a week, due to a busy schedule at work and the night before the race, I still wasn't sure of the starting time. Boy was I happy to find out that the half marathon didn't start until 9am! With the starting line only 15 minutes from the house and the races capped at 500 people (for the 5k, 10k, and half combined), I knew I was in for a treat. I was able to sleep in and didn't even need an alarm clock to wake myself up before the race. I don't think that has happened in the history of me running races.

We arrived around 8, just to ensure we were able to get my packet and hit the bathroom line before the start. There was one person in front of me at packet pick up and only 3 in line for the restrooms. I knew this was going to be a laid back race. After all, we were running 13 miles on the beach, how could it be high strung or high pressure. 

Packet pick up and the race start/finish, Morro Bay High School

There was BBQ at the finish, but you were going to have to change your pants.

The Morro Bay High School choir sang the national anthem and it was the most beautiful rendition I've heard before a race. And then we were off. The race took a bit of a detour around the school before heading down to the beach, where we would spend the vast majority of the race. At about 3/4 of a mile, we hit soft sand, which made it feel like I was running in place. My pace slowed down significantly, but I refused to walk. By the time I made it to the hard packed sand on the beach, I was huffing and puffing and had already changed my pre-race goal. I have never run a half marathon on anything besides pavement and was looking to finish this race with an average pace of 12:00 per mile. I had no expectations of a PR or breaking any land speed records. Instead of adjusting my time to be more favorable to the conditions, I changed my goal to be EVERY mile under 12:00 per mile. Considering I had slowed down to almost 14 minutes per mile with the soft, I had to get my butt in gear!

It was a long and quiet path

My husband and Eddie came out to cheer me on. They were the ONLY spectators on the entire course.

There were individual artists playing their instruments every 3 miles or so. My favorite was a banjo player around mile 5. I, of course, forgot to take a picture of him. Despite the cloud cover, the course was beautiful. What else would you expect from 13 miles on the West Coast? Thank goodness for the cloud cover, otherwise it would have been too warm and there would not have been enough water stations. There were 4 stops for 13.1 miles, and the last one was around mile 8. I would have liked to have seen better placement on the water stations and more of them. The half marathoners felt like an afterthought to the race. Most of the focus was on the 5k, including a water stop that was there at the beginning of the race, but gone by the time we halfers came back through.

I was definitely not the winner, but I had several long solitary miles.

The Avenue of the Trees (note the soft sand)

I finished all by myself!

I had so much sand in my shoes, I couldn't believe it.
My main disappointment was that there was no medal for finishing the half marathon. This was the first race of this distance that I've run where I was not rewarded with a medal, but I'm trying to get over it.

Instead, I rewarded myself with this MASSIVE burrito!

Miles logged 13.1

The First Run in My New City

We moved last weekend and while we're not completely settled, I had to get out for a run today. I planned to do a little exploring to see what's nearby. First stop, the middle school track. My main goal of stopping here was to see what "facilities" existed. I found a bunch of people playing soccer, an impromptu dog park and a port-o-potty. I was hoping for a water fountain, but didn't see one. The track was gravel, but the views were spectacular.

Then it was off to the Effin Elfin Forest, which is a nature preserve known for the pygmy oaks that grow there. It's on the bay and again with beautiful views.

That's Morro rock in the background.

I ran through the neighborhoods and found the beach! It was a nice run, but boy is Los Osos hilly! Good training!!

And a beach!

Miles logged: 5.35

Music Monday: Don't Wanna Fight No More

Artist: Alabama Shakes
Title: Don't Wanna Fight No More
Fave Line: "There ain't nobody left, why can't I catch my breath?"

Miles logged: 0.0

SLO Marathon Race Report: Loving the SLO life

To say it has been a busy weekend is an understatement. To give you a little perspective, it is barely 7pm on Sunday and I'm already in bed. I'm exhausted, but I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

It started Friday with the SLO Marathon expo. My friend and I were running the half marathon distance of the race and my lunch break on Friday was the only option I had for packet pick-up. Thankfully, parking was easy, there were no lines for bibs or race shirts

Inside the expo tent. Wish I had time to shop the LeftLane sports booth.

I had a few minutes to stop by Clif Bar and try the Pizza Margherita goop. It wasn't bad for a salty snack. The Salted Sweet Potato was DISGUSTING.

The reason I had to go to the expo on Friday was because we moved into our new house on Saturday! Finally! After 4 months of living on the Central Coast, we finally made it to our forever home. The movers arrived in the rain at 9am and we weren't fully unloaded until 2:30pm. It was a long day, but I am so glad to be home.

Thankfully the rain subsided midway through truck loading.

I made sure to hand carry my running gear to the new house, for fear that I would never find it amid the move. Boy was I right. We had boxes everywhere, and most things we hadn't seen since we left Texas. We unpacked only the essentials yesterday. Then, my dear friend brought us dinner and spent the night so that we could get to the starting line together in the morning. Yep, less than 12 hours in the house and we had an overnight guest!

I think I had about 5 hours of sleep before the alarm went off. The race started bright and early, at 6:45, so there was no sleeping in for me. Thankfully, I slept really well for the few hours I was able to sleep.

The starting line about 30 minutes before the gun.

 

We were not planning on setting any land speed records or finishing with a PR, so we lined up with the 2:30 corral. My feet were already achy from being on my feet all day Saturday, so I was nervous about even being able to finish the race.

It was cold and windy, but we were in good spirits.

The dynamic duo pre-pain.

Only a few thousand people were running the half marathon distance, so the starting crowd thinned out pretty quickly. We ran through town and then made our way out to Edna Valley (wine grape growing country, or wine berry country as my Grandmother calls it).

The course was rural and scenic and I took almost no pictures!

It was a partial out and back course through the rolling hills of Edna Valley. It was quite pretty, but the streets had a severe camber and it was tough on the knees. I tried my best to stay near the middle of the road, but it was difficult on the out and back section. There were several challenging hills as well. I never looked at the course map in detail or the elevation map at all, so it was a bit unexpected. My friend and I ran the whole way together and it was nice to have someone to crack jokes with and point out interesting choices of running gear.

The finish line frenzy!

Happy to be done!

There were a few things that the race organizers performed really well, several not so well. The course was well marked and the volunteers were great. There were several flavors of Clif Bar sports gel at every aid station. Unfortunately not every aid station was well stocked with water, there was an extra $10/person charge to take a shuttle to the starting line (it was a point to point race), there was a MASSIVE line to get out of the finish area (turned out to be the official photo line, but we waited for several minutes before someone informed us that we could skip it), and there was no free beer. This was quite an expensive race, so overall, I am disappointed with it. It's a relatively new race, so hopefully they'll improve on the areas of runner feedback.

Miles logged: 13.1