Columbia Gorge Marathon

My running goals this year were not many, as we've had a lot of other priorities for 2017. I wanted to run at least 2 marathons, and 3 if necessary, because my main priority was to qualify again for Boston. Next year will be 5 years since my first run of Boston, and I'd like to see it in all its glory this time. Luckily for me, I qualified readily on my first attempt back in May at the Capital City Marathon. This meant I didn't need to try again in July. It also freed me up to do a run that I've had on my list of "someday marathons", the Columbia Gorge Marathon. I've heard for years that it is a beautiful race, but definitely not a PR course because of its elevation and the windiness of the Columbia River Gorge. 
I've been spotty with my training the last 16 weeks because of this and that. Extreme heat didn't stop me from running outside, but it did slow me down. The gorge fires in September made the air quality inhospitable, and I missed a few runs from that. Family obligations had me miss a few. Nothing too aggregious, but for someone who only runs 3 times a week, I felt like I could have been a little better trained. That said, I was really excited about this race. The website cornily brags "You'll get a PR - not for time, but for most pictures taken on course!" I laughed, but in reality, that is true.
I was feeling pretty ready, and not at all sure what to expect for time. My PR is 3:34 (Chicago 2014), and my slowest ever (non-trail) marathon was 4:10ish at the Portland Marathon last year, with the extra .75 miles they accidentally added (that's a whole other story, but when I saw that I was 3 miles behind at the half, I fell apart, only to realize that because of the extra mileage, I'd actually been 2 minutes ahead. Ultimately it was a disaster for me). 
Anyway, suffice it to say, I had no idea what to expect for time on this one. I do run a lot of hills, and somewhat steep ones, too, so I wasn't daunted, but I've never raced a hilly road marathon, so couldn't really nail down an expected time. I told myself that if I came in somewhere between 4:00 and 4:15, I would be satisfied, and if I got a sub-4 hour, I would be delighted. 
My taper went well, and although I would swear I was hungrier during the taper than usual, I'm pretty sure I always think that. The week before the race I was really sore, and I couldn't figure out why, as I hadn't worked out especially hard. By Wednesday night, I had a tight throat and sinuses, so went to bed early. Thursday morning I woke up sick as heck. I was able to cancel all my clients for the day, but had to go in and teach my yoga class. I spent the rest of the day in bed, and Friday, too. Saturday I still felt ill, and noticed that the cold had moved into my chest, which was not a good sign. I'd been taking sudafed to prevent it, but it was clear that I was going to run this race sick. I googled the effects of sudafed on marathoners, and found that in large concentrations it is a banned substance. Not an issue for me, as I stayed below the recommended dosage anyway, and there is no way I was in contention for a win. But it was enough to let me know that I probably wouldn't die if I took one before the race. I know that an antihistamine will make you thirsty, though, so I decided to run with my camelback. I've never raced with it before, because the extra weight and sloshiness of it, but it was a good call on Sunday. I put the full amount of water with 2 Hammer Nutrition Fizz tablets for extra electrolytes. I also packed Hammer's Endurolytes and Anti-Fatigue tabs for the road. I filled my vest with gels and a bag of mini pretzels, as after a few hours of running, salty and crunchy tend to sound a lot better than sweet and gooey. I also had a shot of Fully Charged right before the start for a little kick.
The flash flood warning of the day before was gone, as was the forecast of rain. There were light sprinkles the first few minutes, but we had a lovely rainbow overhead as the gun went off:

It was a small field of marathoners, and among them are a few that I know from the half marathon group I coach at Foot Traffic. Four of them were running their first marathon, so I was glad to have an out-and-back course so I could check on them while still running my own race. I was careful not to overrun the beginning, and was glad to have my Garmin reminding me to stay slow on the initial 5 miles, which were easy rolling hills with a bit more down than up. While I was reminding myself to slow down around mile 3, I fell in step with Brittney, a runner from eastern Oregon with a similar pace and goals, so we chatted and stayed together for several miles. Miles 5-10 were a pretty steady uphill, but that was as expected. What I didn't expect was the pummeling we got with the winds at mile 10. The turnaround was at mile 11 (the finish line was further down than the start), and while I had hoped for a little relief on the downhill miles, they were not as fun as I had hoped, as there was a strong headwind. I consoled myself with the amazing views:

(Brittney and me near the halfway point)

(One of many stunning views of the gorge)

At mile 12ish we hit the peak elevation and I was looking forward to five steady miles of downhill, but the strong headwinds took a little of that natural downhill momentum away. I felt pretty good, though, and thought that possibly I was headed for a sub-4:00 race, which would have been great for that course in my current condition. At around mile 14, though, I started to feel a familiar tremor in my calf, and stopped to take more Endurolytes, hoping it would stave off the cramping that usually hits me around mile 22. By mile 16, I fell behind Brittney, knowing I would have to do a little walk/run to keep my calves from getting destroyed.

By mile 17, I was still pretty happy but had definitely slowed. I was walking one minute every so often, and tried to take it easy on myself knowing that I'd rather finish slower and happy than gun for some unreasonable time and hurt myself. So I stopped a few times and took more pictures and sipped on my fizz and pulled out my headphones to take some musical encouragement. 

At mile 23, my calf went into full spasm, so I stopped and stretched and didn't freak out about it or feel defeated as I had in previous races, and got back to business as soon as I could. At mile 24, I hit my second wind, and just felt great to the end. I think the last 2 miles were my fastest. They were largely downhill, but still. I felt great at the finish, and while I'd have loved to have gotten there 62 seconds faster, I was not disappointed with my 4:01:01 finish time.

I would absolutely do this race again. It was beautiful, and I think that with a little more of a visceral idea of what the course feels like (and without a chest cold) I could pull off a more satisfying finish time.

My stats: 56/186 total finishers, 26/90 women, 6/24 women 40-49

Next race: Holiday Half Marathon 12/10

Capital City Marathon

I entered 2017 with a steely resolve to qualify for Boston again. I ran it in 2013, and while I was lucky and fast enough to finish before the bombing, I really want to return to get the proper experience. 

I chose the Capital City Marathon because it was close to home, looked like a nice course, and I'd never been to Olympia before, except to blow past it on my way to Seattle. The elevation profile gave me pause to wonder if it was a bad idea to try to get my BQ here (not any crazy aggressive hills, but constant rolling hills), but by the time I'd done my research, I was really looking forward to experiencing this race. I made other backup plans for an easier course in July if I needed it. 

For my age and gender, I needed 3:55:00 or under to qualify for Boston. I was hoping for anything under 3:50 to get the 5 minutes of buffer.

Anyway, that's the back story.

My training went really well through this training cycle. I was kind of surprised, because I seemed to be holding on to a few extra pounds from winter that I was having a hard time shaking. I felt slow and heavy, and the back of my knee wouldn't so much hurt as let me know it was there, which is something that happens to me at a slightly higher weight. But, around the halfway point of my 16-week plan, I started to notice that my weight was getting back toward where I like it, and my speed work was coming closer to target. By the time I began my taper 3 weeks out, I had run a satisfying 24-miler, and my speed work was right on. I felt confident. I had been fueling with all my favorite Hammer Nutrition supplements throughout training - Recoverite and Tissue Rejuvenator are two of my go-tos, and added Race Day Boost for the 4 days leading up to the race. I booked my hotel room at the host hotel, and because apparently Olympia is very affordable, I sprang the extra $15 or $20 for a "city view suite". My husband had to work the day of the race, but my daughters both wanted to accompany me, despite warnings that it was going to be a lot of sitting around with my feet up and watching TV. (In retrospect, I guess I see the appeal).

Anyway, the hotel was old and interesting, and the room was very comfortable. At least at first. The girls and I went to packet pickup, and took a short walk around downtown Olympia, which is very cute and rustic. We had a very marginal pasta dinner and walked back to the hotel room to chill. Unfortunately the air conditioning was not working at the hotel, so despite having it on full-blast all night, I managed probably only about 2 hours of hot, fitful sleep. Disappointing, but I got up at 4:00, had breakfast, and hoped I wouldn't crash and burn. While I was getting ready, I peeked outside at our "city view" to find with delight that our room on the 7th floor was literally right in front of the finish line! I told the girls to look for me between 10:40 and 10:50, and headed outside.

I'm hit or miss with carrying fluids on course with me, but due to the predicted heat of the day, I carried my fuel belt with me, and had my flasks loaded with water and Grape Fizz electrolytes. I also had electrolyte capsules in my front pocket. Usually I'm good to take these once or maybe twice, but I resolved to take them on the hour, every hour. I'm not used to running in heat (to the point that the predicted 75-degree temps had me a bit worried), and I knew that Endurolytes would do me some good. As it happens, even though it was quite warm at the finish, I managed to completely avoid my usual mile-24 calf freak-out, and I credit the endurolytes with that success!

Anyway, the race started out downtown, and made a nice little loop through the charming and tourist-friendly locales. Around mile 6, we split from the half-marathon course (although the half'ers didn't start for 45-minutes after us, so we really only encountered them at the end). We headed up into the more rural neighborhoods. I'm pretty sure I can't remember any part of this race that was flat, nor do I remember any brutal hills. It seemed to be a nice, easy up and down the whole time. Even the long hills were under a half mile, or so it seems. My Garmin showed at the end just over 1000' of climb, and only one 9-minute mile on a longer hill.

They had pace groups, which was actually a source of stress for me. I was targeting 3:44 as an ideal finish time, so figured I should be just ahead of the 3:45 pacer. At around mile 2, that group passed me, and were it not for my Portland Marathon experience last year, I probably would have tried to keep up, but I learned my lesson: trust your devices. I kept my 8:30 pace, and watched that group go faster and faster away from me. It was a little unnerving, but I stuck to my plan. At mile 14, I passed the pacer who had been leading the 3:45 group, walking and looking rough. I assume that they swapped leaders at the half - I hope his replacement was ready! Over the next 4 miles, I passed what I believe to be every single person who was running with that group. I felt so bad for them - I've over-run the first half of a race a few times, and I could feel their pain. My friend who also ran the race said she saw that pace group come through roughly on time, so they must have just run a nice, chill second half. All the same, I'm glad I didn't stay with them. 

Because it was a smaller race - just over 300 participants in the full marathon - there was never much jockeying for position, although I never felt alone. The volunteers were great. There were quite a few turns on the course, and I was never left wondering which way to go. The water stations were efficient, and offered Gu and gummy bears, although I brought my own Hammer Gel in my pack. I did hit them up for water, though, in the second half's heat.

We joined up with the half marathon around mile 19, which could be a bad thing, but I found the walkers in the CCM to be very courteous and not tending to walk six-abreast. Everyone shared the road (runners as well, many of whom I'm sure were feeling a bit brusque at this stage), and I heard a lot of supporting words exchanged between all the participants.

As we headed back toward the Capitol and the finish line, there was a nice, long, downhill stretch. I'd been pacing really well throughout the race (almost every single mile was within 4 or 5 seconds of my 8:30 target, save for the one long hill and a mile-16 bathroom stop), so I opened it up a bit at the end. Mile 26 was my fastest at 8:12. As I came up on the finish line, I looked up at the hotel to see my daughters cheering for me, which was the highlight of the run. 

I ended up with a time of 3:47:39, which was just a couple minutes shorter than my 3:44 hopeful target, but well within my more reasonable 3:50-or-less goal, and good enough to give me a pretty good shot of getting into Boston for 2018. It turned out that I got second place for my age group, too. Officially third in my age group, but my fast friend Renee got second overall and first in Masters, so once they pulled out her stats, I fared a little better. LOL.

I would definitely recommend this race. It was a pretty course, well-organized, big enough to be fun and still small enough to be low-stress, and very enjoyable.

Hop Hop Half Marathon

After such a sloppy, cold, wet winter and early spring, what a surprise it was to have a nice day for the Hop Hop Half Marathon on 4/15. There was a nice, cool fog in patches, and a gentle breeze.
Although I've lived in Portland for over 10 years now, I had never been on Marine Drive, so it was quite a pleasant experience running along the Columbia.
But I'll back up. This race is run by Foot Traffic, the company for whom I coach runners and walkers to cover a variety of distances from 5k to full marathon. Although this is not the featured race for the training group, there were several of my athletes out there doing either the 5k or the half marathon. I mingled a bit pre-race, and led a dynamic warmup for my group, although all were welcome and many joined in from the crowd at large. The Easter theme was really fun, and there were people dressed like bunnies, eggs, and carrots, as well as various pastel-splashed springlike outfits. I wore my pink Hammer Nutrition shirt, but decided to opt for aerodynamic rather than bunny-eared.
The course was really flat, with only a few overpasses provided the only real texture to the course. Since I was using this race mostly as a quick tempo run rather than racing to win, I planned to stay at 7:50-8:00 per mile for the first 10 miles, and see what I felt like in the last 5k. Frequent checks of my Garmin found me in the 7:40s, so I kept trying to slow myself down, wondering if I had a gentle wind at my back, and wondering if that would turn into headwind on the return trip. The view was nice - the Columbia River on one side, and PDX Airport on the other. I tried to stay slow and not worry about the runners around me, and just stay consistent as I headed out. Because of an initial neighborhood loop, the turnaround for the largely out-and-back course was at mile 8.5 or thereabouts. When I turned back, I was pleased to see that there was not a headwind, and I was feeling pretty strong. At this point, I started to think about whether I wanted to accelerate into the last miles. 
I was running next to a dude wearing an R2D2 shirt for a moment, and we passed a walker still on her way out to the turnaround. She smiled and said "I like your shirt!" I said "Thank you!" and realized halfway through the word "thank" that she was of course talking to R2D2, and not just a Hammer Nutrition fan. Oh well.
There was a woman in a yellow top with whom I had been tag-teaming. At least that's what I call it. She'd be right behind me for a while, then she'd pass me for a bit, and we'd go back and forth. I wasn't feeling that feisty about beating her, but I did wonder which one of us was inconsistently pacing. My garmin told me it wasn't me, and I hoped that was correct. Anyway, around mile 10, she was about 5 seconds ahead of me, and I thought, "you know, I bet she's between 45 and 49 years old." I kept my eye on her, and considered whether it was going to be a race for our age group in that last mile. Mile 10 was too early to really open up, so I just stayed there with her and maintained my 7:46. I'm pretty sure she was aware of me, too, and wondered if she was planning a strategy.
But then something funny happened. At mile 11 there was a water station right before we crossed over the road. And she stopped for water! I wondered if she was super thirsty or just not competitive, because it would not have occurred to me to stop for water at mile 11 when I was jockeying for position with another runner. Maybe she just wasn't competitive. Anyway, I passed her without accelerating, figuring she would catch up to me and we could race the final .25 or whatever. I wasn't sure how far behind me she was on this flat, straight course. When I got to mile 12, I found I still had quite a bit of energy, and thought maybe I could finish strong, so I kicked it up a bit. Honestly, the best I'd hoped for was a 1:44-something, but I ended up finishing in 1:43:15. Not a PR by several minutes, but the fastest I'd done at this distance since 2014, and good enough for a win in my age group.
A quick check of the results later showed me that the yellow shirt woman, who finished about 30 seconds behind me, was in fact in my age group, which satisfied the competitor in me. Ultimately, however, it gave me a good steady tempo run, and adds to my confidence going into my upcoming marathon.
Foot Traffic knows how to put on a good post-race party, and I heartily enjoyed the egg-croissant sandwich and mimosa that awaited me. I'd definitely run this one again. Fun race.

Coyote Hills 10K Trail Race

It's not often that I run a 10k race. I find it to be an odd distance. Too long to go too fast, and too short to go slowly, and it's not a distance I'm accustomed to racing. When I had the opportunity to do this race, however, I thought that with its mixed surfaces and varied grades that it might be a good test of my pre-season fitness as I begin my training for the Capital City Marathon in Olympia, WA in May. It seemed like a nice, small race in a pretty area, and we happened to be in the Bay Area that weekend.
Anyway, for a small race, it was very well-appointed. The course itself was in a state park, in a marshy area of Fremont, near the Dumbarton Bridge. Because parking was limited, they had us park at a local business park, and bused us to the course on these extremely luxurious commuter buses (not relevant to the race, but an interesting experience for me and my husband). Once we arrived, I was pleased to see a rather grand setup for such a small race - they had coffee, hot chocolate, vendors, bib pickup, music, and covered areas to stand out of the rain. These came in handy - since we came from out of town, I had to pick up my bib that morning, and arrived extra early, so I had a lot of time to literally chill while waiting for race time.
The half marathon was clearly the featured race, and due to recent torrential rains in California (mercifully bringing many counties out of drought), the course was partially flooded and re-routed. Still, they explained the new course and got the half marathoners off on time at 9:00. 15 minutes later, my 10k group got the same spiel, and also took off on time. We were also told that the course was a little long. The race director called it an "Ultra 10k" because of the extra distance, and said we could expect it to be about 6.3 miles. Okay, noted.
My goal was a consistent pace throughout, to the best of my ability. Left to my own devices, I am what I consider an 'emotional runner', and my pace can bop all over the place. However, I was left to my other devices, my Garmin and my Nike+ app. They kept me on target, and for the first three miles, I ran exactly 7:41. Bam! These miles were paved multi-use trail with rolling hills. Very nice, and very pretty. At the 3-mile mark, the course changed to hilly and muddy. Also very pretty and fun, if wetter and sloppier. The second three miles, I ran exactly 8:15. Very happy with that, although I'd have liked to go faster, but it was slippery. At mile six, I figured I'd kick it up a bit, so accelerated. When I hit 6.3 miles on my Garmin (which generally shorts me mileage), a volunteer called out, "Great job! Only a quarter mile left!" I laughed, and groaned, because I'd planned my acceleration to be only .3 miles. Anyway, when I passed the finish, Garmin and Nike both told me 6.56 miles. A bit long for a 5k, but a nice run all the same. My finish time was 51:53, which was definitely not a PR for 10k, but...the extra distance. My devices gave me an average pace of 7:54, which seems about right. The official race results say it's 8:14, because they divided by 6.2. Oh well. 
I feel really good to have even that level of consistency right now at the start of my training for Olympia, and I did quite well in the race, too. I was the 6th woman across the finish line out of 153, 1st in Masters (out of I don't know how many because they didn't award masters), 1st in my age group out of 27, and 22nd across the finish line overall male and female, out of 277. Pretty satisfying for a run that is not my distance used as a barometer of finess. :-)
I'm not sure what the post-race looked like, or if they did any sort of awards. They had a delay getting the results, so after waiting for 30 minutes or so after the finish without any postings, I decided I was more cold than anything, so left. Other than that, though, the race was very well-organized, very well-appointed, friendly, and enjoyable. If I'm back in the Bay next year, I may try the half.