SFM Expo and Dads

Well, it's finally the weekend for my first double marathon. The buildup to these races has been the exact opposite of my Tacoma buildup: nothing! I did get in one more 20 miler two weeks after tacoma, which is 4 weeks ago but only about 40 miles for the month.

I'm not worried since I plan to follow the advice of Walt Stack: "Start slow...and taper off". 8)

I was toying with the idea of a 5 hour -ish pace..and then I realized it has been 6 years and 1 month since I ran my very first race (The Bay to Breakers) as newly born runner.

At that time I still weighed a lot and so I ran it at a very conservative but still difficult for me 12:23 min/mile pace. I had just started my journey to better health and was still 40-50 lbs heavier than now (see the FAQ for an old photo)

So in honor of that version of me back then I thought I should run that pace for the SFM.

 This is a 5:22 marathon which is so so slow for me.  

There is a 5:25 pace group: I will hang with them. in wave 8 (the last wave) and I signed up for wave 7 but I'm sure they'll let me in ;)

Weirdly it will take a lot of guts to walk to that last wave. But on the other hand I'm thinking about the next marathon.....

The goal is to negative split the double, i.e run Tracy's Fat Ass Marathon  sub-5 hours.

If the double goes well, next year I may do the WTH (Worth the Hurt) 52.4 mile Ultra. This is a really interesting wrinkle to the SFM: starting at midnight the night before, you run the course BACKWARDS. They have 5 aid stations open in the night but you have to bring a hydration pack of your own as well as a headlamp.

You must finish this loop by 5am (5 hours). Then, you get in any wave start you want (except 1 and 2) and run the SFM FORWARDS. You have to run this loop in less than 6 hours. 

Expo

What can you say about an expo that hasn't been said? I got there early and it was not a the zoo it was probably going to become later, which was nice. 

I checked out the huge wall map of the SFM to see if there were any course changes this year (no) and met a really nice couple visiting from Germany: they were from Berlin! It was fun talking about world marathons and also brainstorming other USA marathons they might run.

The shirt this year is nice: yellow long sleeve. The color came out more realistic on the second photo (shot of the back) ...I like the design on the back. 

I collect hats and especially marathon hats and so I got a black SFM hat. Don't have lot of black race hats.

I'm looking forward to the post race food at the SFM: it's always good. (and for $150 it damn well better be). In particular the free beer is a Sierra Nevada which is decent (unlike the Michelob light crap most races have)

Father's day

Driving back home, I suddenly remembered it was father's day this weekend.  I was nearly  overcome by a wave of grief that hit me like hammer. Does one ever get over the loss of a parent? After 21 years It would seem that the answer is still no.

I thought about all things we shared together: flying, science and engineering, home projects, etc. I know he would have been amazed and proud of my healthy self and my running exploits..he'd be following me along during the race via text messages I'm sure.

Our family had some tough times but somehow he kept it together and I am who I am because of him. I'll be thinking of him tomorrow. 

Off to bed now. The SFM starts early so they can open up the GG bridge before the locals get totally peeved....

Summer

We are fully in the midst of summer here and it is welcome 8). This picture from our garden.

Not any posting since I've been on a trip for the last 2.5 weeks which was mostly to visit friends and relatives but had a conference.

During this trip I did zero running. Nada. Bumpkis. Nix. Zilch.

I did do a lot of walking and moving around compared to office life, and this was plenty tiring (as travel often is). I feel that after the very hard training cycle a bit of time off is a good thing ...lot just sitting around time off but some walking is good. 

The new blog banner picture is from some dunes on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Walking in sand is pretty good exercise 8)

Coming up next week is my first marathon "Double": SF and then Tracy's fat ass. I probably should be more worried about my lack of training but I'm not really. I plan to run SF very very slowly and then see what happens the next day.

The actual pace I set at SF will depend on the temps. Today at home (when I photographed the dragonfly) it was 70F and very hot in the sun. If the wx is like that on race day (rare) I will be slowing way down to 5:30 pace run/walking for sure, maybe slower. My general feeling is I can't really take it too easy on the first race....I would rather have more oomph for the second race and not have it be a slow walk for too much of it.

I find running very VERY slowly is not that efficient so I intend to run/walk. Rather than a fixed run/walk time cycle, a la Galloway, I will probably run at a 10:30 pace or so and then stop and walk every mile until my average pace drops back to 11:00. I will walk all uphills and then do gentle downhill loping.

Who knows what will happen? It's terra incognita...should be fun. 

 I will have lots of time to take pics so it should be two very interesting days. If things turn out really well, I will be inspired to perhaps try a (flattish) 50 miler ultra such as the popular American River 50.

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In other news, my nephew Oscar (the one that said I couldn't possibly finish Pike's Peak marathon before the cutoff if you remember that posting) is now all grown up and graduated from high school and a freshman at Dartmouth College.  

This kid is uber fit: he's a junior olympics level nordic skier. In fact he picked is school because they have a good nordic team and lots of snow in winter 8)

A few weeks ago he emailed me for some advice: he was training to run the Vermont City Marathon. I gave him a bit of feedback (mostly he needed another 20 milers). 

Amazing: his first marathon he ran a 3:01!! (he's 19 years old so that is BQ!). This is with home grown training. I told him I think he's probably capable of a 2:30 eventually. ..he's got a LOT of years to improve.