Avenue of the Giants Marathon 2018

I let out one final shiver as I take my place at the starting line. In years past, I've placed pretty high in this marathon so I try to put myself somewhere near the front to keep from getting stuck when the road narrows down to a single lane. The pack lurches forward and a single shot begins the race.

Y. Kim, SRRC photo.

In that moment, everything else drops away. The taper hasn't gone the way I wanted. I caught a cold in the middle of week two and the last two days had left me feeling drained and sore as once again poorly timed lady cramps got in the way. But none of that matters now. If I were in the business of making excuses for why a race went poorly, I wouldn't even bother starting. Every race day is doing the best with what I'm given, whether it's illness, weather, or emotional stress getting in the way. It's time to see what I'm made of, I think to myself as I take the first step beyond the rubber timing mat.

In preparation for race day, I trained for a 3:15 marathon. Everything went perfectly. If this were a flat course, I would have chosen that as my goal. If I could match my CIM time and go sub-3:20 on this much hillier course, I decided, that would be excellent. My strategy was to break the course into four equal parts, the first of which I'd have to be especially cautious not to do too fast because it is uphill most of the way.

Mile 1: 7:14
Mile 2: 7:44
Mile 3: 7:34

Mile 3

The first few miles are surreal. It feels much like the training runs I've done here. Now that my legs are fresh, the race pace feels just as comfortable as my long run pace did with a much higher training load. Mile two has a steep hill in it and I remind myself to relax into it rather than force the pace.

Mile 4: 7:40
Mile 5: 7:36
Mile 6: 7:36

By the time I reach the first aid station, I've settled into my cruising effort for the day. I'm running in a pack with four men, but otherwise the field has thinned out considerably. We take turns leading while the others tuck in behind.

First Turn Around: 49:27 (target: 49:34)

The first few minutes after the turn around, I busy myself by greeting and cheering on the rest of my club friends. Then I look back to my pack of pacing friends. I'm alarmed to notice they've begun to pull away. I glance down at my watch, which I only half trust because of the dense canopy of redwood trees overhead. From what I can surmise, they're going much faster than I need to right now and I have no choice to let them go. This is your home course, you know what happens when you take the second quarter too fast. If they want to speed off on the downhill second quarter, you'll see them again later. Patience, Karen, I tell myself.

Mile 7: 7:33
Mile 8: 7:27

A team of Boy Scouts is manning the aid station. They've made a game of competing for our attention. I grab a cup of water from a boy whose catchphrase was most funny at the time: "Watch this ad for a free cup of water!"

Mile 9: 7:25
Mile 10: 7:31

Relaxing into the pace, I can feel my stride even out. I cruise through my favorite spot on the course. The redwoods are so artfully arranged on each side of the road that it feels more like I'm running through a painting. Their dark bark is covered in brown vines whose leaves are just beginning to reveal poison oak.

From a rainy run in March.

Mile 11: 7:46
Mile 12: 7:25

I catch up to another runner and we chat for a few moments. He tells me it's his third running of the Avenue. His last marathon was twenty years ago. I ask what made him come back. I enjoy his story and we both agree that this course is worth revisiting again and again.

Mile 12

Mile 13: 7:32

Approaching halfway is always a surreal moment. The peaceful forest disappears as a hum of cheers and activity draws near. I pass through halfway a little ahead of schedule due to the downhill, but otherwise I'm feeling good.

Halfway: 1:39:03 (target: 1:40:00)

I spot the finish chute up ahead. It's always a mental blow and making the decision to run away from it throws me a little every year. Yoon is busy shooting photos of runners finishing the 10K. A familiar face cheering me on is always appreciated.

Mile 14: 7:36
Mile 15: 7:33

Weaving through the pack of walkers in the 10K and half marathon, I try not to waste too much energy going around them. The pack seems especially spread out this year and I find I'm enjoying the company. I recognize one familiar shuffle stride as I pull up behind a white haired man. John is our senior most club member, still sassy and out doing his thing. "It's my 93rd birthday today!!!" he yells. He wants to keep chatting, I can tell, and his stories are always great, but I don't have time to chat. I make a mental note that maybe if I'm quick enough, I can pass him one more time before he finishes the 10K.

Mile 16: 7:43
Mile 17: 7:30
Mile 18: 7:33

Ever since halfway, I've noticed a slight blur to my vision. The world no longer feels crisp and vibrant. I make sure to take two cups of water at every aid station from here on out. One of the physiological changes I learned about racing during my period is that I require more water and food. So far I've been doing well with the food, but I definitely need more water. Luckily there are two aid stations within a mile of one another and I make sure to drink, take a salt tab, and have a gel to revive myself.

Mile 17

It's within this stretch that I catch up and pass three out of the four guys who ran the early miles with me. I encourage them to stay with me and one does for a moment before falling back again .It's a nice mental boost to know that I ran that part right. Being a local sure has its advantages sometimes.

Mile 19: 7:39

Turn around 2, 19.6 mi: 2:28:20 (target: 2:29:30)

Mile 20: 7:39
Mile 21: 7:38
Mile 22: 7:40

As the miles pass by, I compare how I feel to the last time I ran this course. In 2016, I ran my first sub-3:30 here with a two minute negative split. I can't tell quite what feels slightly off today, but I know I'm not running as strong. Mentally, my head is there, but my legs aren't feeling  as they usually do. My breathing is surprisingly calm too for this late in the game.

Mile 23

Then there's a slight twinge in my right calf. It's just a little tug at first. I try not to panic. Relax. You can run through this. Let the pace be what it wants and focus on relaxing your leg. Gentle self-coaching always works best for me so goes my inner monologue.

Mile 23: 7:39
Mile 24: 7:39

The hills continue to roll and I suss out what makes the twinges worse and it's definitely when I go uphill. The downhills provide just enough time to keep my leg calm in between the inclines. I'm praying I actually make it without totally seizing up and falling to the ground.

Mile 25 game face, hahaha

I pass the final aid station at Weott and am stopped up behind a queue of half marathoners taking their time choosing the perfect cup. The cramp intensifies and my left leg has now joined in. Ugh. I grab two cups of water and take a deep breath. Here's where we see what I'm made of.

Mile 25: 7:43

The twenty-fifth mile marker sits just before the freeway overpass. This bridge. Ugh. Always. 10K, half marathon or marathon, it's always my least favorite spot. But I know that once I reach the other side, it's downhill for half a mile before we get to go up again. I pull up next to a half marathoner. We're keeping the same pace. I feel like I'm practically dragging my right leg behind me. I stop for a short walk, it seizes up completely. Okay, back to a run. Walking isn't helping any. Let's finish this so we can go sit down somewhere, I tell myself.

I crest the final hill and try to pick up speed. Brandon is there screaming at me about running a PR. I'm pretty sure I'd lost contact with that goal miles ago, being so fixated on not cramping up completely and I figure he's miscalculated.

Up ahead I spot that familiar mop of white hair. John!! Am I really going to catch him?! Just before I pass Yoon again for one final photo, I make my way by again.  "Happy Birthday!" I call out to him.

This is my "holy shit, I'm going to make it!" face.

Mile 26: 7:40

Emerging from the forest into the sunshine, I finally realize that I'm going to finish upright. Friends line the bridge, including Paul who calls out a warning that there's a girl just behind me and closing in fast. Suddenly I've forgotten everything other than making sure she doesn't get ahead of me. My tired legs shuffle feels more like I'm on stilts now, but I over-stride and lope my way across the line. I don't take any chance by looking back.

Mile 26-finish: 1:33 (6:53/mi)

3:18:57
7:37/mi.
5th Female, 1st F30-34, 28 of 372 overall

I don't know what time I've run yet because the finish clock is showing gun time. I'm somewhere within seconds of my PR, I know it. (The timing company's wifi went out so no live results were available. Six hours later I finally figured out my time.) The girl behind me comes up and congratulates me on a great race. I thank her for lighting a fire under me and pushing my time under 3:19. Turns out, she's in my age group. Whew.

The moment I realize I get to stop. You can also spot the next women behind me. She was two seconds back.

A volunteer places the medal around my neck and I notice my bib number is red. Was it red before? I can't be sure. Turns out, I'd chafed through my singlet and bib number to produce this lovely red hue. Fun.

I grab a few snacks and a bottle of water and return the way I've come. I'm limping a little bit but all I can think of is watching Rachel finish. She's worked hard this year and I just know she's got a BQ time coming for her. After a few minutes, I spot her and Brandon. She finishes a full fifteen minutes ahead of her previous best in 3:30. I guess we're going back to Boston next year!

Matt finished in 2:54, also in fifth place for the men. It's fun how both of us seem to place similarly time and time again.

We spend the rest of the day volunteering and by four o'clock we're ready to call it a day and hit the shower. That night, I get to finally see my race result. TWO seconds shy of a PR. I could agonize over where I could have shaved a few seconds off but with the cramping, I'm proud of how I handled it. I hit the sub-3:20 goal I had planned and am happy with how I could produce the same time on a much more difficult course.

Closing the gap

In a feeble attempt to catch up on all the adventures you missed while I was not writing here, let me offer you one post with highlights.

As usual, spring was all about road running and racing. My year began with formal 10 mile training. I ran a new 10K PR in a training run and I knew that it set me up well for the race. As race day drew closer, it looked like it would coincide with the most sluggish and inopportune time in my menstrual cycle to be racing. I know it's not talked about, but I'm basically a tired achy blob the three or four days before my period. That's just how it is.

Foggy Bottom 10 Miler: I ran the 10 miler, hit my goal pace for all of two miles of it before having to slow down a bit. My legs didn't have the zip I wanted despite a full taper for the event. Be that as it were, I had never trained for a 10 mile race before so I still managed to lower my PR by three minutes.

1:12:35, 7:15/mi.

Redwood Wild River Run 15K: Six days later, I ran another race. RWRR is one of my favorites each year but I was a little concerned about racing twice this close together. My period began on Tuesday and my energy returned. Despite running fifty miles in between both races and this second race being hilly, I managed to hit that 10 mile goal pace I had planned after all. It was fun to get a second chance at that goal pace when I was feeling better. Another three minute PR here and my second time finishing runner up. One day I'll get that gigantic trophy!

1:06:09, 7:08/mi.

Spring training continued to intensify as I transitioned to marathon training. Once again, I targeted my local marathon, Avenue of the Giants, for the spring. Last September, they repaved a badly deteriorated road on the first half of the course and I knew I had to act fast if I wanted to run it on the fresh pavement.

Training went well. I hit paces I'd never before hit and brought my mileage up to 75 per week three times before tapering. Since the course isn't flat, I decided to train for a time slightly faster than what I wanted at the Avenue. My plan was to run a sub-3:20 time on this course; with over 1200 ft of climbing, I based my training on a 3:15 marathon time assuming that the hills would slow me down a bit.

My next post will be the marathon recap. I promise I'll finish it sooner than two months from now.

My 2018 Approach to Social Media

I'm part of the so-called Xennial generation. I'm old enough to have grown up without the internet at my fingertips, yet young enough that most of my friends today rely heavily on their online and social presence in creating and maintaining friendships. I'm still being pressured to get one of those darn smartphones because apparently people don't talk on the phone anymore and if you don't receive texts you don't interact with them.  I can see merit in both sides and this year I found myself straddling the divide more than ever.

Social media is a funny thing. From the moment you sign up, you're encouraged to share. That's the whole point isn't it? But then the more you post, the more you're encouraged to post. If you don't share anything, the whole exchange makes you feel like a stalker, just watching others' lives without contributing your own and reciprocating. Then friends tell you about their favorite platform, a different one from where you've been sharing and connecting already. So you join. And then at the end of twenty-seventeen, you're suddenly overwhelmed by the number of accounts you have and cross posting, and where to share this, and when to share that. It's sort of ridiculous to think about, honestly.

Lunch on the beach with my book.

By the end of 2017, I had accounts on five different platforms including this blog. On January first, I said goodbye to my Tumblr and Strava accounts. I never really liked Strava because it takes stalker to an entirely new level by showing where I've actually been on a tidy interactive map. Tumblr was often a repeat of what I posted here and on Facebook. Both of those were easy to drop and I didn't look back. That left me with Facebook, Instagram, and this blog. With these three remaining places available to share, I tried not to be too repetitive with any of them.
 
At the first of the year, I also decided to spend less time mindlessly perusing these remaining accounts and carried my tablet along with a book. Once I consciously noticed I was just scrolling without engaging, I put the tablet down and picked up my book. So far this year, I have read twenty-six books. By comparison, I finished twenty-six in 2016 and thirty-three in 2017 respectively.

An unintended result was the neglect of this blog. My posts became less frequent. My interest in creating ebbed and flowed. Then I realized it had been two months since my last post. I considered writing one last goodbye post and closing up this blog forever.

However, I'm not ready to do that quite yet. The truth is, writing is a part of who I am. I truly enjoy writing and putting my thoughts into words. Proof of that is in nearly a decade of childhood journals I have tucked in a box in my garage or the fifteen years of blogs that I have archived here and elsewhere on the internet.

Posting may continue to be sporadic but I'd like to continue sharing my adventures in running and hiking with you. Thanks for sticking around. :)