OC Half Marathon Race Recap

Yesterday I completed the OC Half Marathon. I was excited to do this race, as it would be the third and final race in the Beach Cities Challenge (doing the Long Beach, Surf City and OC Half Marathons consecutively earns an additional medal) and I had heard how great the race is.  I was also nervous about it, since I'd been having foot pain, and even wrote about downgrading my goals for the race from finally making my sub 2:30 to just finishing it and enjoying it. In preparation for the race, I made a special Beastie Boys playlist for my iPod, as rapper MCA had just died 2 days before.  I used to be a huge Beastie Boys fan in high school and college, and was deeply saddened by the news.  Their music got me through the first of the race with a big smile on my face.

I drove up to Costa Mesa on Saturday afternoon with one of my girlfriends.  We hit the expo, which was well organized but kind of crowded.  We got our bibs, t-shirts and packets and were on our way.

After checking into the hotel, we had an early dinner at Panera, hit the hotel's hot tub, and light's out by 9:00.  After all, we had a 4:00 wake-up call for the race!

Of course, 4:00 came too soon.  But we had a shuttle to catch that left the hotel at 5:05, and we needed to be down in the lobby before that.  Most runners had to park at the finish line (at the OC Fair) and get shuttled to the start line (at Fashion Island) for the point-to-point race.  Of course, this led to lots of traffic on the freeway. Because we were staying at one of the sponsored hotels (the Hilton Costa Mesa), we had a shuttle take us straight to the start line.  This was good, except that our driver got lost!  It was a bit frustrating to be circling around in the dark as the minutes to race start counted down...but eventually he found the start area and we got off.  We hit the port-o-potty line immediately, which was good as the line moved soooo slowly.  We then met up with my friend Mihael, got in our corral, and were on our way!

Overall, I thought the course was pretty, but definitely not what I was expecting.  I was under the impression that the run would be coastal, like Long Beach and Surf City were; however, that was not the case.  There were not too many ocean views.  We ran by the Newport Harbor, saw some amazing homes and yachts, and ran by the Upper Newport Bay  Estuary Reserve.  It seemed the majority of the run was through local neighborhoods.  The weather was great; overcast the entire time, without a hint of the sun.  It did get a bit warm for a bit, but overall a cool breeze made it perfect running weather.

The halfway point: 6.6 miles

I can't imagine how much it costs to live here!

Although there was plenty of course support (and the aid stations didn't run out of water or cups, as far as I knew----bravo!) I was disappointed that there was no entertainment.  I love it when there is a little course entertainment, whether it's a band or a local cheerleading squad.  However, the local residents were great!  Many neighborhoods were out in full force.  Lots of kids, still wearing pajamas, lined the streets giving runners high-fives (I tried to high-five every single one!).  Some kids had hoses to run through; I ran to one group of girls with squirt bottles and asked them to squirt water in my hands (I had had a Gu incident where my Gu exploded on me, and my hands were sticky.)   Handmade signs were great to read.  I really appreciated the great support in those neighborhoods!

As for my running, the first 10 miles were great. I hadn't run in 2 weeks, due to injury and wanting to rest my feet, so it felt amazing to actually lace up my running shoes and run. I took walking breaks when I needed them. At mile 10, however, the pain in my left foot suddenly came back. It a sharp, shooting pain, just like 2 weeks ago, although it seemed to ebb and flow.  I spent the last 3 miles walking more than I wanted to, as I didn't want to risk further injury.  I was excited to finally cross the finish line, where I heard the announcer call out my name (that was cool!)  I finished in about 2:36, no PR for me, but certainly not my worst half marathon time. I was very pleased, especially considering how much I had to walk during the last 5k.

After I got my medal for the race and refreshments (like the other races in the series, they gave each runner a bag containing snacks, like a banana, cookies, etc, which I love!) I wandered over and got my HUGE and HEAVY Beach Cities Challenge medal. This medal combines elements from all three races (the Queen Mary for Long Beach, the surfboard for Surf City, and the wave for OC).  I then found my friends; Mihael drove us back to the hotel so we didn't have to deal with the shuttle again.  Getting out of the Fair parking lot took a while, but that was to be expected.

Rocking my new purple Team Sparkle skirt

Ready to add to my medal rack!

 All in all, I enjoyed the race, although of the three races in the Beach Cities Challenge this was my least favorite (Surf City ranked first with me, and Long Beach was second). It was well-organized, well supported, and a pretty course.  I'm glad I completed the challenge. Now, I need to figure out what's wrong with my foot, as I have Rock 'n' Roll San Diego in a month, and I'm in 70.3 training as well!

Downgraded Goals

This weekend I will be running in the 3rd installment of the Beach Cities Challenge, the OC Half Marathon.  I've already completed the other two races in the series, the Long Beach Half Marathon and the Surf City Half Marathon; by finishing OC I will get an extra medal, which is a composite of all three medals. I'm really looking forward to adding both new medals to my new medal rack!  I've heard so many wonderful things about this race; it's supposed to be all (or almost all) coastal. And both the Long Beach AND the Surf City races were exceptionally well-organized, so I am expecting the same for this one.  Already they have been very informative on their website and emails, and quickly responsive to questions on their Facebook page.

However, even though I'm excited to do this race, I have some trepidation. I've been injured---again--and have downgraded this race in my mind from a "B" race to a "C" race (the only "A" race I have this year is my 70.3 triathlon in September). By "C" race, I mean I am running this solely for the enjoyment of running the race and enjoying the course and camaraderie of the other races. I have no time goal in mind (I am not even THINKING about trying to break 2:30, even though I was just a few seconds shy of this goal last month at the Hollywood Half Marathon.)

So yes, I'm injured.  Again.  This seems to be a theme with me....looking back at many of my race recaps, I spent the week before with a plantar fasciitis (PF)  flare-up, or something else happened. Maybe it's psychosomatic? Regardless, it's more than just my PF that's bothering me.  A week and a half ago, I went for a 10 mile run.  The first 9 miles were wonderful.  At mile 9.1, I took a step and had immediate shooting pain in my foot, along the outer edge.  I wasn't sure what happened; I didn't seem to step on anything, but it was an awful pain. Luckily, I was close to home, and ran/hobbled the rest of the way home.  All day I was in agonizing pain; I couldn't really bear weight on it and had to walk on tiptoe, which seemed to cause the least pain.  The next day I canceled my scheduled long bike ride and went to Urgent Care; I was sure I had a stress fracture.  Luckily, the x-ray showed no fracture, and the doctor said I must have hurt (strained? torn?) a ligament or something in my foot.

I decided to take off of running completely until the OC Half Marathon, which would be two weeks later.  I really wanted to do OC, even if it meant walking it, as I wanted to complete what I started with the Beach Cities Challenge.  But I didn't want to be stupid; no race is worth really hurting myself, especially when I'm training for a half-Ironman distance triathlon in 5 months!  I promised myself that if I were still in a lot of pain on race day, I wouldn't do it.   I knew taking two weeks off of running wouldn't really hurt me. For long runs, I  did 13.1 miles on April 7 at the Hollywood Half; the weekend after that I ran 8 miles; and the weekend after that I ran 10 (ok, 9 and then hobbled 1).  Up until my injury I've kept up my twice-a-week 3 mile runs.  So really, I would only be missing 5 runs total (4 3-mile runs in the two weeks, and one long run over that weekend, which was scheduled to be 6.6 miles).

And I really haven't run at all since then!  In fact, I haven't done much walking at all.  I usually take our dog, Padfoot, on a daily 1-mile walk (and he usually runs my short 3-4 mile runs with me too). I have only walked him once in the last week and a half, wanting to stay as non-impact as possible (my husband has been walking him as usual every night, so he IS getting out).  I have managed to work out every day, except for the one day I canceled that long bike ride.  I've swam, biked (even logging my longest bike ride ever, 40 hilly miles, last weekend!), done the elliptical, done yoga, and started pool running (I did pool running on Saturday for an hour and 15 minutes, the amount of time it would have taken me to run the scheduled 6.6 miles).  So even though I haven't been running, I'm still in good cardiovascular shape, and both the pool running and the elliptical mimics running.  And, of course, the biking makes my legs stronger.

What's great is that the pain I felt on my outer foot from that run went away in just a few days. I don't have any pain there anymore at all. What's not great is that I've been feeling the familiar pull on my heel from my PF, and also I've been having some glute pain, which has happened on-and-off ever since I ran the Silver Strand Half Marathon in November.  So I'm glad I'm resting my foot.  My plan for Sunday is to wear compression shorts for my glute pain (it helped me during the my last three half marathons) and tape my foot with KT Tape, run slow, and hope for the best. I truly don't mind walking more than I would like to.  As long as I make the course cut-off of 3 1/2 hours, I'll be happy.

Hopefully my next post, which will be my race recap, will be a happy one, and not a (too) painful one!

"Train Like A Mother" Book Review

I've written before about the website Another Mother Runner.  I was featured as one of their Mother Runners back in February, which was such an honor.  I actually became aware of their wonderful website last year when I connected with Sarah Bowen Shea on Twitter.  SBS,  as she goes by, is one of the two authors/creators of their books and website, as we bonded over our shared injury of plantar fasciits.  She and her friend, Dimity McDowell (also a Twitter friend of mine) have created this wonderful forum and community for mother runners, not just on their website and Twitter feed, but also on their Facebook page and their podcasts.

I had the privilege of meeting SBS last year at the Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas expo.  I stopped by her booth so I could finally meet her in person. I ended up buying a cute shirt that says "are my kids still chasing me?" (I swear I wear this ALL THE TIME, sometimes when I'm not even running! It's so cute and I love the fit) and their first book, Run Like A Mother.  SBS even signed it for me.





I love this book so much...it is full of stories, tips and inspiration, not only from SBS and Dimity but from scores of other mother runners.  So, you can can imagine my delight when I was contacted by them to ask if I would read and review their new book, Train Like A Mother.  I jumped at the chance.




This book, subtitled "How to Get Across Any Finish Line--and Not Lose Your Family, Job or Sanity" is the perfect companion to their first book, and an indispensable guide to any woman (or man, frankly) who is looking for a training plan for a race.  They have training plans for running a 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon. Additionally, they have chapters on strength training, injuries, nutrition, and more.  Like their first book, this one is not only written by both Dimity and SBS, but is peppered throughout with real-life advice from other real-life mother runners.

Although I have completed tons of races (countless 5ks, 11 half marathons, 1 full marathon and 6 triathlons so far, with  my 12th half marathon coming up this weekend) I have never actually followed a training plan. I have always made up my own, mainly consisting of doing a short run (3 miles) on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and a long run on the weekends (long being anywhere from 5-11, depending on where I am in the training and/or taper cycle).  Other days I cross train with swimming and biking.  So I eagerly flipped to the half marathon training section, and started reading.

Each race distance section comes with 2 training plans.  The first is the "finish it" plan, which is for the runner who just wants to complete the race; maybe a runner who is a beginner to the distance, or wants to cross that distance off their bucket list, for instance.   The second is the "own it" plan, which is for more experienced or intermediate runners/racers who want to better their time, set a personal record, and/or wants to do more than "just" finish a race.  I love how this is broken down, as every runner, no matter what distance they are doing, is looking to either finish or own the race.

The excellent training plans make up the meat of the book, but for me, the real gold are the nuggets of advice from SBS, Dimity and other mother runners.  I totally related to "The Five Stages of Grief" when dealing with an injury, and loved the Race-Day Checklist. And their "Top Ten Training-Related Questions" (How do I determine race pace? Is the treadmill the same as running outside?) is a great reference.  Most of all, I love the casual, humorous and informative tone of the book.  Both of their books are easy reads, and I finished both being even more inspired to run and proud to be a part of the running community.  I think they should be on every (mother) runner's reading list.