I can't remember the last time I ran a half marathon with an attempt to race hard. I guess that's why I was nervous this week since I knew the Victory Half Marathon would be a leg killer. My goal was a 1:50 half, and considering that most of my runs have been between a 9-10 minute mile, I wasn't sure if I could sustain the required 8:24 pace for that long.

MAF training has really slowed me down. I don't regret doing it, and I practice some of it still and believe in the method. However, I don't think it's for everyone. I find a moderate approach of mostly easy and recovery runs with some mixed hard and medium efforts is doing well for me. I'm not sure if this is normal, but my legs often feel best after a tough work out from opening my strides up. It feels great to go fast!!! It becomes a problem is when you don't do the rest of your runs slow enough and injury becomes a more common visitor.

Let's skip to the race talk. I signed up for Brazen Racing's Victory Half Marathon since it was part of a challenge called the Breeze to Victory. If you did both the Bay Breeze race and the Victory race, you were given a connecting medal piece and it became one giant epic piece. Brazen has a couple of these throughout the year, and they're fun to do. You don't need to do the half distances, you could do two 10k's if you wanted. 

This year's Victory race was the Inaugural race, and had a 5k, 10k and a half marathon distance. The cost was $54 for the 5k, $61 for the 10k and $77 for the Half Marathon and includes a race shirt, goodie bag, and a lot of really great post race food. It was in Richmond, CA along the bay and started at the Richmond Marina. This is where 142 Victory ships were built for part of World War II and you can still see the Red Oak Victory ship. There is a lot of history in this area, and I definitely want to go back to check out some of the museums. 

A shot of the sunrise from the marina. You can see the victory ship over to the right.

The race started at 8:00 for the half marathoners, so Jon and I rolled out of bed at 5:30am to get to the race at 7:00am so we had time to grab our bibs and do our two mile warm up. It's still hard to get up that early...but it's always nice to greet the sun. 

Our lazy dog wondering what we are doing up so early

headed over the bay bridge for the sunrise

There seemed to be ample parking, and people really started rolling in closer to 7:30. I made a quick stop at the porta-potties and noted that there weren't a lot of them, maybe 8 or so? Since I had a 2 miler warm up scheduled, I ended up going at a bathroom a half mile away that was off the course by the Marina when it was closer to the starting time. Good thing too, since there was a lengthy line by that time.

We met up with some of our friends that registered when we lined up at the starting line, and I cozied up to the 1:50 half marathon pacer since that was my goal. The snapped a pic of me in line...I had no idea my sunglasses were that crooked.

I love it when races have pacers and I find that "chasing the rabbit" is much easier for me and I can kind of mentally tune out and let someone else do all the thinking. Of course it doesn't always work that way, and you're putting a lot of faith into a stranger. This race had SO many pacers going in five minute increments. 

I'm perfectly shadowing the 1:50 pacer...but you can see Jon!

The race started out fast and I was really surprised to see that our first mile was at an 8:05 pace. It felt unusually easy for me (it felt like a 9:00 min mile) and I wanted to push ahead. I knew better though, and did not want to go too hard at the beginning. The pacer seemed strong and confident, and her quick and easy strides were mentally comforting. It seemed effortless for her, and probably was, considering that she said her half marathon PR was something like 1:31. 

Clearly this is early on in the race when everyone is still happy

A quick blurb about our excellent pacer, Kiyoko. When you aren't completely distracted by her gigantic and obviously powerful calves, you'd realize she was super sweet and kept a steady conversation with Jon the entire time. She's part of the Tri Valley Running Club, and they were the official pacers at the race. While the pace seemed fast at times, ranging from 8:05-8:24, she paced a near perfect race coming in just under 1:50. A giant thank you for her for your time! Also, I should note that I just found out that she paced basically a PERFECT race just 4 seconds under the 1:50 time. AMAZING.

Thanks Kiyoko!

The course was super flat and easy to run on. It was mostly pavement. The hardest part for me was the sun exposure. It was only in the 60's, but I don't do well with sun. It really elevates my heart rate, and true to the majority of the bay trail, there were NO TREES. There was also a small stretch that was mildly unpleasant since it was literally right next to the freeway. 

I felt really strong until the turn around at mile 7. There was a small loop that had you veer off onto a dirt trail that went up this small grassy hill onto uneven dirt. It really wasn't much, but it was so drastically different and unexpected from the rest of the course, so it tired me out. Our pacer rolled through that section without missing a beat, and I was really pushing to keep up with her 8:15/8:10 pace on that hill.

Since this was supposed to be a hard effort race, I really wanted to use most of the energy that I had in me. I decided to break away from the pace group halfway through mile 10. I assigned Jon the task of keeping me at a faster than comfortable pace, and to push me toward the end. Thanks, my love!

In miles 11 and 12 I progressed to an 8:05 min mile, and lastly an 8:01 min mile. He did a great job at pulling me along, and I really appreciate him sticking with me the entire way even though the pace was slightly faster than he was hoping since he had to do another 9 miles after for a total of 24 miles. 

We finished strong, and I was able to open up the legs and sprint through the giant brazen sign at the end. My official time was 1:49:08, which I am pretty thrilled with. My Garmin says that I went 13.25 miles total for an average of 8:15 pace. I was left wondering if I maybe could have gone faster since the first part felt so easy to me, but I really think the strategy worked out for me this time. I snagged the 3rd place medal for my age group, W30-34 - just narrowly beating the 4th by FOUR seconds. I placed 12th for women's overall, and 52nd for the runners and there were 282 runner's total for the half.

Reluctantly, I headed back out for another 5 miles to get my complete 20 miler done for the day. It was really...really difficult. I didn't see a lot of runners trickling in like the Bay Breeze race so I guess there were a lot of fast runners at this race.

Once I got back, I came through and attacked the finish line food station. Let's see...I had a plate full of fruit, a bagel with cream cheese, a cup of goldfish, a cup of cherry pie, two rice krispie treats, and then I grabbed this packaged brownie which I proceeded to smash into a pulp for the rest of the day due to having no pockets. They had other food too though, most notable were the It's-It's ice cream sandwiches which I couldn't partake since lactose isn't my friend. 

So much fooood

Then I remembered we have access into the Employee Mountain Hardwear store that was just next door to the start/finish line. This store is pretty exclusive, and has really great deals. Everyone with a Victory Race bib was allowed access, and Jon and I walked away with a few goodies. Another backpack that I probably don't need. I have this thing for backpacks...

Overall, it was another really great run from Brazen! I did overhear that they ran out of connector medals which I imagine would be a disappointment if you ran both courses. I'm sure they are handling it, but I didn't see them checking for names when handing them out. Luckily we were able to grab ours. I'd definitely be back to do this one again!

The Medals!

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Victory Half Marathon Race Recap

HeatherIhn 1

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I was perfectly content with my running schedule for the rest of this season. I knew that I had a couple of long runs planned with some sprinklings of speed work, but I hadn't intended on doing any more races.

Then my friend Audrey asked if I wanted to do some 5k race in Palo Alto on the 27th. I told her that I think I would need to do a longer distance race, so she told me to check out the Victory Half Marathon which was going on the same day. THENN the gears started turning...and I fell into a bit of a rabbit hole. I discovered Brazen Racing had this awesome triple medal going on since the Bay Breeze Race and the Victory Race combined to one ultra medal called Breeze to Victory. For the record, Brazen has some of the best medals, and some of the most impressive art of any race organization. The triple piece medals are our favorites...

I assume there are a lot of runners like me, but I'm kind of a sucker for medals. I don't even know why, I just hang them all on top of each other like an elaborately colored and sparkly sandwich. This was only before Jon made me a medal rack since my friend told me it was terrible luck for me to stash them in my bottom drawer like I used to. 

I looked at the date of the Bay Breeze race...it was Saturday 2/13...the very next day (I looked it up on on Friday 2/12). It was so close that they even closed the online registration and we could only sign up race day. Luckily, I have a couple of equally spontaneous and medal loving friends, and a very sweet fiance. Did I mention that this day is also our fifth anniversary? Kind of a big deal. 

My plan was to do the half marathon as part of my scheduled 20 mile long run. Nice and easy, not pushing the pace. I'm going to attempt to get some speed on the Victory race in two more weeks, so a hard effort would be poor training. I don't have a problem doing races just for fun. I like the energy and it's nice to have a little bit of nutritional support along the way as well. 

Jon and I woke up at the butt crack of dawn, and we both wondered why we were doing this again. We had a quick drive over to San Leandro which is on the East Bay, just a skip and a hop over the 92 bridge.

The morning was unusually foggy, and we even witnessed a car accident on the bridge right in front of us because of it. We made it to the race in one piece, but the thick fog remained through most of the race. 

There was no line for the race day registration, and parking was ample although it was just about a half mile away. I was really surprised at how many runners were attending! It was a pretty major race with pacers and everything! I'm used to Brazen Racing's smaller trail runs, but this one was really bustling. 

The registration for the half marathon was $70. In return, I received a small goody bag with a couple of weird foods. A bag of sriracha cashews, some probiotic prunes, and a corn cake. Nonetheless, the shirt was really cool! I opt for the cotton tees instead of the tech ones, because I find I wear them more often. Additionally, were tons of porta-potties there, and I had no problem going in 15 minutes before and coming back out with plenty of time before the start. That is always a HUGE perk in a race for me. They also had a gear check station and supplied garbage bags with our bib numbers written on them.

At 8:00 the 413 half marathoners took off across a bumpy grass patch before hitting the asphalt trails. There was also a 10k that left at 8:15 and a 5k that ran at 8:30. For half marathon "Hikers", they were allowed to start at 7:30.

I kept my pace pretty easy, never breathing hard. The weather was PERFECT, not too cold or hot with a nice blanket of fog between my skin and the sun. The trails were flat and easy, although I wasn't too keen on the gravel. Up until about mile 2.5 it was paved, but then it was mostly gravel until the turn around. It wasn't bad at all but if you're looking for speed it's something to think about.

There were several pacers, and I tried to stick between the 2:00 pacers and the 2:10 pacers. 

I wore my pack since I wasn't sure what kind of nutrition they'd have there. My stomach really isn't too fond of Cytomax, so I like to have my Tailwind just in case. I didn't stop at any of the aid stations, but there were three of them. One at mile 1, mile 3, and mile 5. 

I finished the race in 2 hours and 2 minutes, snagging 174th place and averaging a nice 9:18 min/mi. I was awfully tempted to squeak in under 2 hours but didn't want to anger my coach since I'm sure he wasn't too pleased about me hopping into a last minute race. Jon waited at the finish and snapped some quick pictures. 

The super cheery volunteers happily handed me this gigantic medal.

I made a quick pitstop at the finish to drop off my pack, and then headed back out for another 7 miles. Jon also had his long run scheduled, so he went off for an additional 9. People looked at us like we were crazy, and we got a lot of "wrong way" jokes. When I finished, I stopped through to see if there was any food left over, but it was mostly picked through at that point. I grabbed some extra bagels, rice krispy treats, and skittles (definitely not doing the low carb thing now), and hobbled back to the car.

Overall it was a surprisingly good day. My run was easy, effortless, and the 20 miles went so much faster breaking it up into a half + 7 miles. Everyone was really friendly and supportive, and the race was executed very smoothly with a ton of really kind volunteers. It was a great way to do our long run together on our super special 5th anniversary. I can't wait for the Victory half in two more weeks!

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Bay Breeze Half Marathon Recap - Brazen Racing

HeatherIhn 0

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I know it's been a while. I've been a bad blogger. Throwing newly hatched chicks into my life has made things terribly unbalanced, and uninteresting for the running world. However they're becoming more independent, so I will be more consistent, I swear!

The past few weeks weren't very interesting. I did lots of MAF runs, and one hill run. MAF runs have been slowly improving, but I'm sure the race I did today will knock it back to "damaged runner" state. I also got some new Hoka Valors which will serve as my daily (almost daily) road shoe for the next few hundred miles.

But there's a race report to tell, so let's cut to the chase, shall we?

One of the few races that I signed up for this year was the highly anticipated Dirty Dozen & Half Dozen that Brazen Racing hosts. Jon and I did it last year, and loved it so much that we gathered a larger crew and did it again. 

Jon and Johan last year

Like the name suggests, this run is a (dirty) trail run in Pinole, CA, and goes on for 6 hours and 12 hours for those that think 6 hours just doesn't cut it. I'm pretty set on 6 hours...but who knows what the future holds.

This race is great because everyone sort of sets up camp there. People bring tents, canopies, lawn chairs, coolers, dogs...you name it, and it's probably there. You can have a 2 person team for the 6 or 12 hour race, or a 3 person team for the 6 or 12 hour race, or run it individually. There's also a morning 5k/10k at 10:30, and an afternoon 10k/5k at 4:00. Pretty much everyone can run, from elite ultra marathoners to the casual 5k walk/runner. 

Tents from last year

Entry fees aren't too shabby either, considering you get a super sweet hoodie (for the 6/12 hour runs), tons of snacks and goodies at the 2 mile marker and the start, as well as a BBQ at the end with pulled pork and beef brisket. We registered our 2 person team at the last moment which was $160 total.

The course is relatively fast with rolling hills and partial shade. The trail is primarily soft dirt, and not technical at all. Our total elevation for the 3.37 mile loop was 180ft. The mini .67 mile loop which opens up in the last hour had a little hill that definitely serves as a good speed bump for the faster runners, but I would say that none of the hills would require walking as long as you were used to some moderate hill running. You get a decent breeze from the ocean, and the views range from oceans and mountains to beautiful forests.

Pinole tends to get pretty warm, so that's something that we were half expecting, but it still got uncomfortably warm for us and probably hit around an 80 degree high.

When Jon and I ran the race last year, we ended up snagging 2nd place even though we were just using it as a long run training for a marathon. That gave us some hope to winning it this year, so we organized some quick teams. Jon had our super fast friend Ko run with us, and they recruited a fellow PARC member, Charles, who was also quick footed. I was supposed to be on their team, but hopped over to a 2 person team with Rini since I wanted to get in more mileage and also really wanted Rini to join in on the fun and not sit out. 

Jon, Johan and I, all winners in 2014!

The farthest that I had ran was 13.7 miles at the Double Dipsea since the American River 50 in early April. I had no idea what I was capable of. Rini was in a similar boat, and had just came back from hiking the 220 mile John Muir Trail, and her farthest run since was 7 miles. Since I knew it was a slim chance of winning, I named our team Noot's wUnderdogs. Neutron is Rini and Brandon's Border Collie, and she just celebrated her 16th birthday this week.

THE RACE.

Jon and I rolled out of bed at 4:15am. It was rough. The first time I was up before the sunrise in many months. Charles, who is on Jon's team, carpooled with us.

Going over the Bay Bridge around 5:30am

We got to the race a little before 6am and set up our tent. All of our other friends joined us shortly after. Our area was pretty pimped out, complete with a canopy, dog pen, ice bucket, cot, foam rollers, 3 chairs, 2 food coolers, a water cooler, and some blankets.

Rini at our setup.

The race started a couple of minutes past 7am, which was great because it was already starting to get warm. I started the relay for our team.

It was a bit of an experiment for us, since we really had no idea what the best approach was. Do we swap every lap? Every 2 laps? We decided swapping every lap was the most ideal if we were going for a win.

The start was rough for me. I was very anxious, and after doing a hard effort 3.37 miler, my stomach was in my throat. I couldn't relax since I knew Rini would be back within 30 minutes. The A goal in my head was to do 20 miles each, but a more realistic goal was 36 miles, 18 miles each. I barely ever run under a 10 min mile now a days, so I knew doing that alone for 18 miles would be hard.

My first loop

Rini has the leg speed between the two of us, and her first lap was around an 8 minute pace! Her 2nd lap was around an 8:10 average. SO FAST. That really helped us in the long run. (no pun intended).

The fastest I could get my little legs to go was an 8:35 pace average. 

My 2nd loop

Surprisingly, after the first two loops I started feeling a lot better. My anxiety subsided and I started to feel more stable and calm. I would still get little butterflies in my stomach the couple of minutes before running, but I guess that's to be expected. It was nice to have another group there to keep me company instead of just me being antisocial in a tent like last year.

Ko and Jon talking strategy

Between the runs I would mix up dixie cups of water and unflavored Tailwind. I REALLY love Tailwind. It is by far my favorite sports drink, and I think I'm set on making that my primary nutrition for runs. The naked flavor had a bit of sweetness but was refreshing. I didn't take in any additional calories, and was completely fine. Seriously, if you have stomach issues with other drinks, I highly suggest giving this one a shot. Easy to drink, mixes really well, very simple and straight forward.

Random photo of Kali, Rini's dog, eating a celebratory cupcake for Neutron's birthday

I didn't track my heart rate for this event because frankly, I knew it was going to be insane. I didn't need anything strapped to my chest to tell me that. I think it would have just been additional weight and stress. I will say that I pushed very hard in all of my loops, and wouldn't be surprised if my heart rate was between 170-180 the entire time I was running.

By the time I was on loops 5 and 6, the temperature REALLY started heating up. I was no longer finding relief in the shade, which is never a good sign. My pace slowed to a 9:20 average by lap 6.

After loop 6, we had under and hour left, and Rini started out on the shorter .67 mile loops. This little loop was different than last year, and not as painful as I was expecting. 

I should mention that during all of this madness we had Jon's group of 3 people competing against this other super fast group. They were neck to neck almost the entire way, and it was thrilling to watch them catch up to them. Both teams gave a very hard effort that was inspiring to watch!

Ko was flying through the course!

Rini and I finished with 40.67 miles overall. I had done around 22.6 miles I guess? And Rini did 18? I don't really know honestly, I am really bad at math at the moment and too careless to add up all my miles in Strava.

Jon's team finished with 51.01 miles! Only .6 miles ahead of the other team. The other team congratulated them very quickly, and everyone was extremely friendly and supportive of each other. They had some seriously quick folks on their team, and everyone was giving it their all in the final laps!

Team Ko Dependent chatting with Team Third Wheel

Rini's husband, Brandon ran it with no training, and he managed to do over 27 miles! His farthest run in his life was a half marathon, so this was impressive to say the least. He is an amazing athlete, and does a lot of mountaineering, so I can't say I was exactly surprised that he did this super human feat. What an athletic pair!

Our other friend Johan ran 33.67 miles on his own, and got 4th for the men's category and second in his age group. He's a great ultra runner that is an inspiration to Jon and Me, that eats marathons for breakfast! High fat, low carb marathons.

Oh yeah, and both of our teams won first place! We were so excited about it, and really put in a lot of effort and energy. For sure we will be limping around tomorrow. Noot's wUnderdog's got 4th place of both the 2 and 3 person teams overall out of 32 teams, and 1st for the 2 person teams. 

Team Neutron's wUnderdogs

Team Ko-Dependent

We celebrated with the BBQ food that they provided. Delicious pulled pork, and beef brisket! Sorry, no photos...ate it too fast! Can I just request though, that they don't put cilantro in their coleslaw next year? Pretty please?

The prizes were Brazen Racing hats that they had in a box. The most hard earned hats ever!

The medal was also great. I have to say that the artwork for Brazen Racing is impressive and some of the best. Oh, and the hoodie is one of our favorites. It is so warm and cozy that I don't ever want to take it off!

Would we do it again? YOU BET. We're going to be regulars! This race was well organized, had a great friendly vibe, wasn't too painful on the wallet, and has some of my favorite swag! My only complaint is that I found the course to be a little bit confusing. There was one moment where I ran off course (right at the start by the bridge) and I wasn't the only one to do that either. I also accidentally ran through the wrong funnel at the end of the big loop, and it was counted as a little loop. Luckily the customer service for Brazen is spot on, and it was resolved within minutes of me emailing them. 

Congrats to all that competed this year, and a giant thank you to the wonderful hard working volunteers and race directors. I know it's not easy putting on such a large race with so many categories, but you pull it off well and we appreciate it.

One last note: splitting up the relay into swapping every lap was ideal for us. There's no way I would have been able to keep that pace running it in one go. I was able to recover pretty well within the 30 minutes, and went much farther than I was expecting.

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Brazen Racing's Dirty Dozen and Half Dozen! Race Report

HeatherIhn 0

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