Resolution Run – My first Anniversary of my first race

Friday January 1st, in addition to being the first day of the year and the new decade, was also a one year anniversary for me, that of my first race ever. This year I ran this race, the Resolution Run, co-sponsored by our running group’s sponsor, Athletic Performance, again. The race started and also ended with a lap on the Los Gatos High School track. 

When choosing what to wear for the race I paid homage to the two marathons I had run, wearing a in training shirt for my first marathon, the San Francisco Marathon, and the Tiffany necklace from my second, the Nike Women’s Marathon (also in San Francisco). 

One of of the things I love most about this five mile race is the beautiful scenery. Here is one of the first spots in which we run through a lush forest like area. 

Though I prefer running longer races to challenge myself more, I enjoy seeing all the athletes of all sizes, ages, abilities and types run these races. With paved or trail areas for most of the course, athletes wearing track shoes, sneakers, running shoes of all kinds, pushing strollers, even one on crutches, gave it there all for this race. 

We were not the only people out on this fine day, we were joined by dog walkers and cyclists as well. 

The course was changed a bit from last year. The last hill (the one I’ve jokingly referred to as the “Wow, why am I running this race?” hill when people ask me about the race), was substituted with one that was trail instead of paved, yet was less steep overall. Here’s the new last hill of the race. 

The course was just so beautiful all the way through. 

This is the top of the last hill, a scene we did not see last year, so glad they changed the route. 

I had a spectator take a photo of me near this great under bridge mural.  The race was a great overall success. We had many more people than last year (so much so that they even ran out of goodie bags). That aside, it was a wonderful day and great way to celebrate my anniversary. 

Coyote Creek Trail – A New Course for The Athletic Performance Group

When I started my endurance training program, a little over a year ago now, the group was very different from how it appears now. At that time the group was organized as a Jeff Galloway Group, and our leader Jenny, had everyone winding down for a season and gearing up for the next season. In each season, roughly six months, groups would start anew welcoming in new runners and everyone who wished to follow the program would start with a 2.62 mile run (1/10 of a marathon distance) and gradually build up to 26.2 miles (with maintenance runs of distances of 6 miles or less included), with one half marathon and one full marathon outlined to be run as a group by season’s end.

About six months ago our group moved to a less formal structure by which we didn’t have a formal leader and the group wasn’t actively training together to run specific races together. As someone motivated by mementos of my accomplishments, such as race T shirts, medals, etc., as well as the fun end of season banquets with food, raffle prizes, and medals. The sayings on the GSJ (Galloway San Jose) cake were even in-joke compliments we would trade on long runs.

I wondered if I would keep going to the group with the formal structure, and some of the planned fun moments going away. For now I will be keeping with the group, though I do hope to also join a more challenging running group in the future to help work on speed work, it would be great to run a marathon in about 5 hours sometime in 2010. The group is now evolving into The Athletic Performance Group, named after the running store where we meet every Saturday morning in Willow Glen.

I was recently given a race duck, in part to remind me that its not just the fleeing moment of getting a medal, shirt, etc., it’s also the entire journey of every training moment that makes up the total training experience. By definition ordinary moments can be over in the blink of an eye, so it pays to be ready to experience them, and if you can to save them as photos as well. Each photo today, with the exception of my duck below, was captured with my iPhone.

Saturday’s run through Coyote Creek Trail was made up of many great moments. As our group has often picked Campbell Park as our maintenance run, any chance we get to go somewhere else feels sort of like a field trip from grade school. The trail was pretty as described, and we even saw some turkeys at the beginning, a runner joked they were doing their own turkey trot. Later runners said they had seen a bobcat and a coyote, however, these were the only animals the group I was with doing a 2:1 run-walk saw.

Every so often I would stop and take another photo of the animals, the colors and even Laura at the half way mark. In spite of having to get up extra early to get there, and the fog making it difficult to see the road signs on the way there, everyone agreed it was an amazing run. There wasn’t a shirt, or medal at the end (though we did enjoy a pre-holiday party afterwards at Bernadette and Alan’s house). Still, I think it’s very likely we will return there to have more such moments as these in my best of the Coyote Creek Trail run moment collage, in the future.

One year of Galloway Training!

A year ago, I made one of the best decisions of my life, to start training for a marathon. Inspired by Julie, a runner of many marathons in my Community Bootcamp class, I joined a group of motivated runners meeting in Willow Glen at 7:00 a.m. on Saturdays. (Since my Bootcamp class meets at 6:00 a.m., I actually sleep in a bit those days.)

Technically, I started the Galloway group, the one of which I’m a member meets at Athletic Performance, at the end of a season. The group I joined up with was winding down, having only a few more runs before the season started again, however, Jenny Lockwood, who was the leader of the group, graciously told me I could run with the group a few times to see if it was for me, so I ran with them several times. Jenny is pictured above discussing the imprortance of woven running socks to a fellow runner.

My first run with the group was 6 miles. The group was scheduled for 5 miles, yet as 6 miles was a perfect distance, so the group, me included voted to gp the extra mile.

I started the Galloway program with a run-walk interval of 2 minutes to one minutes or 2:1. I’ve tried out 3:1, 1:1, even 4:1 for short runs, truly 2:1 is the best fit for me.

Just a few weeks prior to my first half marathon the group was treated to having the program’s founder, former Olympian Jeff Galloway come speak to us as a group.

Among other things that Jeff talked about, he mentioned that running has many benefits including making you stronger, possible weight loss (when combined with the proper diet), increased overall health and possible life extension.

Jeff spoke at length to Sid about his injuries. Sid had injured his IT band, yet was determined to keep running. Jeff advised him how he could do so, and later gave him further advice over email. Seeing Sid run even though there was some pain for him, and seeing him at the finish area of the San Francisco Marathon was a huge inspiration for me.

Jeff graciously signed copies of his books, one of which was the textbook for the class. I had him sign something different than a book, an item I could take with me on races (photo to follow later in the post).

After Jeff spoke to the group we had a regular running session. We were scheduled for a short run to a nearby school, a timed one mile run around the school’s track and a run back for about four miles. I ran the mile in the fastest time I had to date, perhaps motivated by Jeff being there.

After the session, some of us stayed for an additional running clinic with Jeff. As part of the clinic Jeff watched us run individually, then instructed us on how we could improve as individuals. Here he is talking with my friend Felix who went from casual exercising to running my first half marathon with me.

Jeff instructed me further that my overall leg motion and gait was correct, however, I needed to stop swinging my arms out so much (a problem I still struggle with on the longest runs).

The thing I wanted Jeff to sign most was my running shirt. As Galloway members we got two, one long sleeved one and no sleeved version. I had Jeff sign the white shirt I’m wearing in that and this photo below, and wore it to my first half marathon.

Happy Thanksgiving! Silicon Valley Turkey Trot

What a beautiful day it’s been in San Jose. My alarm woke me up at 5:00 and at 6:00 exactly, not by design, but since I wanted to charge my Garmin GPS watch a bit more, I left my house for my first Silicon Valley Turkey Trot.

What a difference a year makes! Last year on Thanksgiving, I took the day off fitness wise; having been in Community Bootcamp for only 5 months and not being used to endurance running I didn’t feel up to such a race. This year I ran the longest option, a 10K, and walked there and back, 2.5miles each way. Though it was very dark at 6:00, I knew I’d easily get to the registration tables before they opened. It took roughly 50 minutes to walk it, while red lights slowed me down a bit, this was close to predictions if walking speed on the Web.

All of today’s photos were taken with my iPhone. Everything was so colorful, I had to take lots of photos, and for the first time on this blog, I’m doing an all collage style entry to show them off.

This was the 5th annual race, and the announcer told us that while the first race had had only 1,000 racers, this race, which had had a goal of 9,500 races had 11,000 paid entrants. Before the run we had speakers and a costume contest.

The costume contest was very enjoyable. The holiday themed division won by a mother and daughter team dressed as a hungry pilgrim and scared turkey (wearing a sign proclaiming she wasn’t a turkey), respectively. They’re shown here waiting with the other contestant, another turkey, awaiting results.

The non-themed division was down to a Big Bird and a Human Whoopie Cushion. I love the shots of them trying to get crowd support for votes and especially their reactions.

The winner was the Whoopie Cushion who turned out to be Councilman Sam Liccardo of District 3 in San Jose. Sam ran by me early in the race and when I yelled, “Go, Sam!” even turned around, gave me a thumbs up and tried to encourage me to run faster.

I couldn’t help but notice the newsprint inspired runner. He is Mac Tully, publisher of The San Jose Mercury News, who was gracious enough to let me get a photo taken with him. We talked about journalism a bit, and he assures me the paper will be there next year at this time.

As I was taking a shot of him speaking I was marvelling that no one, not security, or the real press near me with SLRs and a video camera minded that I was there and shooting with my iPhone. Perhaps it helped that I made sure to stay out of their shots. Also in this collage, some runners at the start, and the front and back of the arch, yes it really was that crooked before the start.

The race itself was amazing. Every race I do, I set for myself a reach goal. I usually set them a little too high, and often don’t share them with others. Today’s goal was very special. I wanted to run the whole time, no walk breaks minimal slow downs even for water (there were two stops, no Gu or energy bars, drinks etc.)

I debated how I’d tackle this on my blog if I didn’t make it, since I wanted to write about results no matter what. At the first mile, I felt really accomplished. Then it started getting harder.

My training has been run-walk-run, and I’ve never even tried a 4:1 pace, let alone tried to run straight through. Miles 3 and 4 were the hardest with overlapping portions making it seem even longer. Still I was determined to run, even if it was a slow run until I couldn’t help but walk. The two water stations were even a fast walk/run for minimal seconds. I found myself praying for the first time during a race for strength and endurance.

My left leg felt a little sore at mile 5, still I kept running. I knew at that point I could and would make it. I dismissed the idea of photographing the mile 6 marker as I didn’t want to stop. Seeing the finishing arc, I sprinted the last bit. What an incredible feeling it was reaching this goal and setting a personal record for this distance (1:08:54 tag time with a 11:06 pace). While my Galloway training made me strong, I literally could not have done this today without God’s help, and I am grateful.

After battling a long pushing and shoving swarm to get my technical shirt, beautiful in color and design, I had some quick photos taken of me. Rounding out the last collage are cans signifying the food drive that went on, and the squeaky toy given out to finishers.

This race made this one of my most memorable Thanksgivings ever. I will definitely do it again next year. I am grateful this year for friends, family, my business, my health and fitness, and God. Hope your day was wonderful as well!

Running Photography

It’s funny how my mind works. When I’m exercising sometimes it will think of anything but the movements I’m making, which is bad for form, I know, and sometimes it will think of just what I’m doing. Sometimes, there will be a little mixture of both at the same time, like today.

This morning I was at Community Bootcamp when my mind started flashing some of the funniest scenes of “Yes Man”, which is probably the second funniest Jim Carey movie I’ve ever seen. (The first will always be “Liar, Liar”.) Some of the funniest scenes were about one of the main character’s jobs, as a running photography instructor, she lead a group out to run, and along the way stop and take photos.

The movie’s scenes probably came to mind as that’s something I’ve done a bit of lately, used a camera, for the most part that built into my iPhone, to shoot things while running. Which in itself is quite funny as at the time I thought the idea was ridiculous, little realizing I’d be doing it myself someday (though not with large SLRs the way the people in the movie were doing, I would never take such expensive and heavy equipment with me, all photos below taken with my iPhone).

Above is one photo taken of our San Jose Galloway group. Some of the members of the group were doing 18 miles that day, I as a new runner, was only doing 8. It seemed kind of like cheating to be in the photo, especially after a member posted it on Facebook, yet, knowing now how far I’ve come in my training, I’m really proud of it.

This is the first running photo I took. There was such a huge glare on my iPhone, I couldn’t even tell if I had the shot or not, yet, I was so exhausted on this run (I think 14 miles), that I figured it would be good enough, either way. This sign, showing where the pigeons were on one side and the cormorants on the other (and supposedly no birds ever sat on the wrong side), was our half way mark. I was so happy to reach it, it honestly felt like it kept moving further and further away the closer we got.

Here’s a closeup of the sign (cropped from my photo, the prettiest thing I saw all day, as it meant the run was half over):

Though I had my iPhone with me on my first marathon and half marathon, it really didn’t occur to me to try to take photos during the race, not only as there were official photographers, but also as I was concentrating on finishing the races so hard.

When I did my first (and only so far) trail half marathon, I was inspired to take some more, in part by friends on Facebook asking me to post some of the course. Here I am wearing my Dirt Inspires Women race shirt. While I admittedly get really sunburned during races, I still was really red (even after I toned down this shot a lot in Photoshop).

When I took photos in this race it was both to capture the beauty of the course and the markings. Pink tape markers let us know we were going the right way.

This one looked so much like an arrow that I had to take the photo.

Though I knew it was a trail marathon, I was still surprised by all the creeks we had to cross, two of them twice. When I took this photo I remember thinking, wow, another creek, I’m glad I didn’t know about this when I signed up, I may not have chosen to run. My shoes ended up very soaked and dirty after this race.

Lastly, the Nike Women’s Marathon, which I ran for the first time two weeks ago, was filled with inspirational signs. I really liked the message on this one.

Race Day Volunteer

This entry will be my first test of the publish with a future date option of the WordPress App. Right now it’s 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, if this works it will publish at 12:30 p.m on Sunday. (The photo above was taken on race day as I got to my station. Though it’s grainy and all orange, I kind of like the gritty effect.)

Today is my first time volunteering with a marathon. In 2008, I started working out in a regular basis. New Year’s Day 2009 was my first race, a 5 mile run to start off my new resolution.

I have run two half marathons and two marathons this year, and each event has had great volunteers. Since I’m still in recovery mode from my first one, today I will be giving back to the running community.

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Volunteering was a good and instructive experience for me. I was placed at the intersection of Bird and Minnesota Aves. It was so close to the meet up place I walked there (assignments were given out randomly at 6:15 a.m.)

I got to see the start of the race and the runners at their freshest and near the end, my station was in mile 2 and mile 24 of the race as much of the race was run back on itself.

Notable points included:

– The male pace leaders (two run by me the second time almost in line) and the female leader were all separated by the rest of the pack by a lot.

– I saw very few people with water belts (like I wear), and none of those that did were near the front

– Near the end of the day, everyone had less energy: runners, spectators, and volunteers like me

– Even though my cheering (my job to both cheer on runners and guide traffic/keep street traffic away from runners) wasn’t always original peppered with phrases like “Good job!” “Looking good/great!” “You can do it!” and calling to the runners by name, by things on their shirts or to the pace groups directly, it seemed appreciated by most people.

While I still enjoy running more than being a spectator or volunteer, I will definitely volunteer or help out with future races in some way.