2008 B2B RR :D

So Sunday was bay to breakers, this is a crazy little race (65,000 +) people and no one know how many bandits “run” it as well. We were in costume this year, I feel that we did a great job with them, we were ladies going to a masquerade ball and DS was the court jester. We had a lot of people want to take our pictures; we were also photographed by people who do the B2B marketing I think, not sure who they were but they popped up every on and then and I signed a photo release.

It took up 35 min to get to the start line by this time the elites were done. There seemed to be a lot more people this year then in years past. We finished in 2:09:20 a whole 9 min better the last year. Not a PR but this is not the race for that to happen.

We went to the expo to get our packets; we got the boys just fine, but they were unable to find mine. I was kind pissed off just a little but, ok a lot but I got over it. I liked the # I was given, but no I had some stupid generic #, but when we did the time check it had my name on it so it all worked out.

Naked….hmmmmm, as always there was naked at the race, the only one that stands out was a guy that was on the sidelines with his package wrapped in plastic wrap, so I guess he was not “naked” but wow was that not a good look, it was moist and smashed looking. Not good!!! As we were standing the long line for the bus, there were people talking about the naked runners, and how perverted they thought they were. Can you say closed minded? I am guessing they were not from SF.

I got to meet some of the people from the BF (beginner’s forum on Runner’s World) that were having a FE. It was kind fun to faces to names. I do think that they thought we were kinda weird, but that is part of the charm of B2B all the weirdness that happens.

Tapper Madness, sheesh who knew.

So, people who train for distance races always talk about tapering the week before the race. There is some debate as to how much one should tapper, if some one should tapper at all, and if there is tapper madness. I would like to say that I am not training for any great distance, it is just a 12k, but I do know myself and race tendencies, I need a few non running days before my race. This may not be true for everyone, and it my work to my disadvantage, due to pent up energy (maybe that is my race day problem right there,will have to look in to that). I guess my person is in the routine of running on Friday mornings, but no run today and I am in a grumpy mood. I can't wait for the tapper that comes with the 1/2 training, sheesh I am going to be a mess, but I guess I know it is coming so maybe it will be OK. I hope!

Just a thought

I have been lucky in my life, I have always been fat. As a child, as a teenager, and all of my adult life. With that I have never been bogged down by the illnesses that come from being fat. There is talk that you can be fat and fit, and others say that is not true. If you are fat then you are unhealthily. So, I have to ask am I just lucky, or healthy? I can tell you that I am healthier then I have been in years. So, there were some effects of being fat I guess. Thankfully not as severe as some people. So even tho it is hard to be a fat person, people are mean and the world is cruel. It could be worse. I guess that is what I have to remember on day that I think my world sucks.

Fast, today was she.

So this morning at 5:00am it was to be 3 miles, the same boring 3 that we run every tuesday and may run every tuesday for the rest of running time here on earth. Met up with Mer and we are off. But today is different then other days, Kish is feeling strong and having a great go of it. Mer's goal for today was to run for 30min non stop. She was going to try it at my speed with is about 2 min/mile slower then she is. But today I was putting down 15 m. m. I was moving for me. I would like to run 15 m m. I think the long run on Sunday is starting to show that more mile i do the faster the short runs are. I ran the last 3/4 of a mile barefoot, this time not even the socks just my feet on the ground. It was a great feeling. The ground was cold, rough and solid. I did step on one rock that was uncomfortable but it didn't stop me. I love to run barefoot.

Well I did it, I ran 5 miles yesterday. WHOOOOHOOOOO!!!! So it was going to be a run with my training partner but she flaked on me, at first I was kinda pissed off about it, but then it dawned on me what it means that I could run where ever I wanted to. So off I went. Up was the theme of the day. The first hill that I came to was long steady climb, then there was some nice rolling hills much shorter then the first one. Then the next one was a steep short hill that one just about killed me, after I got to the top of that hill it was mostly downhill from there( in a good way). I ran through the downtown area, it was pretty quiet on a sunday at 9an. I thought I had go far enough to cut down and start heading for home but I missed by 2 block and had to run around the high school. Then I dropped back in to the area near home, which would take me my last 2 miles back home. I was feeling pretty strong leading up to mile 4 but then started to slowdown a bit. I got second wind and finished strong. 1:21 for 5 miles, not setting any land speed records, but when I start running 10 miles I will not be out there for 4 hours :D I hope any way. At the end of the run there were fist pumping and woohoos!! That is the farthest I have run the whole distance today. See what my training partner missed.

Runner!

I have all my bibs on this, I got it from one of the members at the Runner's World forms.

How to not crash and burn.

So here I sit wondering why I run races. I love the training part but so far I have not been able to complete a race with out walking; now I know this is not the end of the world and a lot of people do that every time there is a race, but it is frustrating to me. I had a race on Saturday and it was 4.2 mile. I have run that distance many times and ran the whole way, no walking, no gasping for air, no feeling of giving up. Ok, so there was that one time that we were running 4 and I felt like giving up. But Saturday was bruuuutal! With a capital B, I did cover the distance in a good time for me 1:01:36, but every step of the way was no fun, much, much less then fun. This is how all my races have been, for some crazy reason I push myself so hard that I don’t have a good go of it. And there is always walking. I need to learn how to keep from starting out to fast, I crash and burn in the first ½ mile. So I look like the fat girl who just started running and thought it would be a good idea to go run a race. Not sure that any one even notices me but that is how I feel they feel about me. I do know that I will never be fast and gazelle like, more like slow and steady like the tortoise. But I would really like to be able to cover the distance start to finish with out walking. I think I am going to enter some small 5K ( I run one most mornings that I run) and see if I can get over this “balls to the wall” way of racing that leads to me being disappointed in myself for not being able to run the whole way. Either that or I have to give up entering races, but I would never do that what would I do with out all the t-shirts, and I would have no reason to train.