San Francisco Half Marathon

Today I ran in the San Francisco Half Marathon. My goal for this race was to beat my time from the Oakland Running Festival Half Marathon (which was 1:59:38). I accomplished my goal, I shaved off five whole minutes!! Here are my stats:

Finish Time: 1:54:28 (8:44 minute mile pace)
Overall: 1025/4244 = top 24%
Female: 301/2367= top 12.7%
Age Group - F20-29: 123/756= top 16%

This time I raised money for the HALO Trust, a non-profit organization that clears land mines all over the world. With the help of friends, family, and co-workers, I was able to raise $700.

I ran in the "Second Half" which started in Golden Gate park at Spreckels Lake, meandered through the park, then eventually through the Haight/Asbury district, down through SOMA (area South of Market), past AT&T Park Stadium, and down the Embarcadero, ending just before the Ferry Building. Here is a shot my husband took of the finish line.


My friend JP ran this race with me again, which always makes things more fun!! She and I ran together the whole time, so she had the same finish time as me!


Here is a shot of my husband and me, enjoying the free Sierra Nevada that was offered at the finish line area.



Below is the map & time from my Garmin watch. My Garmin was off by 30 seconds because it clocked the end of the race by .1 miles too soon. The distance of the Garmin is probably accurate in that it likely reflects the tiny amount of distance added by weaving around other runners for the first several miles. Even though the race had five different wave times, there were a lot of runners in front of us with a much slower pace than our wave group. The beginning of the route was also narrow, making it harder to get around people. Once we got out of Golden Gate Park, we had much more space to maneuver around other runners.

Street Speed Intervals With Dog

This week I did 2 rounds of interval training. On Monday I did my regular 400 meter repeats with a mile warm-up on the treadmill for a total of 4 miles.

Tonight I took Jackson (my dog), and my husband, on a speed interval run on the streets around our neighborhood. We started with a mile warm-up, followed by 4-400 meter sprints at around 6:30-7:00 minute mile pace. Then we finished with a cool-down mile.

It was really difficult doing fast running with Jackson because he wanted to sprint really fast, instead of moderately fast. At first he was sort of all over the place. We taught him the "heel walk" a while ago, but it was necessary to teach him the "heel run" tonight. Basically I taught him not to run all over the place in front of me like some crazy monkey, and instead run alongside me and keep my pace. It is definitely a work in progress. Jackson is still panting from our run! The picture below was taken of him about 10 minutes after we finished the run.

Flying Yoga on Telegraph in Oakland

I have been having a lot of tightness in my hips and legs from the last few long runs I've done. I've been doing exercises on my own to loosen the muscles in my hips (particularly my left which is weaker), but in preparation for this weekend's half marathon I wanted to make sure I could squeeze in a good solid yoga class.

Last night I finally had a chance to check out Flying Yoga on Telegraph Avenue in the Temescal district of Oakland. I went to the 7:45 p.m. Bhakti Flow class with Rachel Meyer.

The sequencing in the Bhakti Flow class encourages alignment, flexibility, balance, strength, and cardiovascular endurance. The climate of the class was moderately hot. Rachel played music during the class and I found it really added to the experience for me. I found that the songs coincided well with the flow of the movements and I liked the artists she chose. Rachel did chant at a few points during the class, but it was tasteful and not annoying.

I found the class appropriately challenging. While they say it is "moderately hot" I was definitely dripping in sweat during most of the class (as were my neighbors). Some of the postures were cardiovascularly challenging, but the emphasis was not huge on strength building (it isn't Power Yoga). By the end of the class I felt rejuvinated and relaxed.

I definitely recommend Flying Yoga to new and experienced practitioners of Yoga!

Bay Trail 10 Mile Run

Saturday's 10 miler went pretty well, I clocked a 9:03 minute mile. Note, this time did not include one bathroom break at mile 5, and the break I took for stretching after the first mile.

Next week is the half marathon!!!!

Almost There

This past weekend I ran 12 miles for the first time since the flare up in my tendons, and I had no pain after the run nor any pain today! The longest distance I've run to date still remains at 14.5 miles. Hopefully in a few weeks I will be back to that distance.

The half marathon is now less than two weeks away!! I will try to post photos of the event.