I am in San Francisco for my nephew’s graduation from the University of California in Berkeley. There are about 14 of us here. His parents live in Mexico and most of the family came from Mexico.
I left Saturday morning with my mom. I don’t always enjoy traveling to CA because of the long flight and the time difference. I think I’ve been to CA about 6-7 times.
After getting our luggage, picking up a car, and meeting my niece and her grandmother, we make our way to our AirBnB in San Francisco. My nephew got us a place in the Mission District where he lives and where he got another place for his parents and other family members.
Our place is nice. It has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, large combo of living room and kitchen. My nephew warned me about parking and yes it is terrible here. On street cleaning days, the cars park temporarily on the sidewalk and wait for the truck to drive by and then they park their car on the street. Also, they are serious about composting here in California!
That evening we did a little sightseeing and then went to Lombard Street. The view from the top is pretty cool!
The next morning I went out for a 3 mile run. Interesting things I saw along the way. I saw a lot of homeless people, a lady peeing on the sidewalk, and so much garbage on the sidewalk too. The owner of the AirBnB said that this area is the hottest new area in San Francisco. Umm, OK?
Later on we went on a Mother’s Day Cruise. It was cold and windy but still was great to see some beautiful views of San Francisco.
Graduation was Monday afternoon. Isn’t that a weird day for a graduation? We took a Lyft for the 30 minutes drive to Berkeley. We wanted to get there early to get in line to pick up the tickets and also to get good seats. The graduation took place at The Greek Theatre.
The past few days has been an exciting time for us. We are proud of our nephew (first in my side of the family but his dad also has a Ph.D.). Next graduation is his brother in June 2019 from the University of Seattle.
Linking up with Marcia, Patti, and Erika for Tuesdays on the Run.
I feel like April just started. How is it over so soon? As of yesterday, I have 5 weeks left of school.
• Training went very well this month. I had a good month in April. Some days we had decent weather and it was nice enough to run in shorts. Though there was a day or two that we did have a little bit of snow.
• Ran 110.51 miles. Another month over 100 miles. Total to date is 410.01 and that put me at 34% done of my yearly goal.
• Total time running was 21:42. Not quite a whole day but pretty close.
• Ran another race. Instead of running a marathon, I did a half marathon. It wasn’t my day. You can read about it here.
• 21 days of running. I run 5 days a week and have been loving it. My rest days are Monday and Friday which is good because those are the two days in which I am the most tired. I will begin training for a half marathon (ZOOMA Great Lakes or Rock ‘n’ Roll Denver) but haven’t decided which one and how to train for it.
• More great quality session workouts. These workouts are my favorite. I love the variety and the challenge. I did GREAT in all of them.
• I sort of kept up with Rachel’s challenge. I didn’t mind too much the pushups or the tricep dips. The burpees/jump squats are the worst.
• I am a ZOOMA Great Lakes Ambassador. I am excited for this opportunity and looking forward to running another half marathon in WI.
• Looking forward to 2 races in May. I am excited to be running the Chicago Spring Half Marathon and 10K (register today w/code “BRCHISPRING18” & get $10 off the half/$5 for the 10K) and the Soldier Field 10 Mile (use “BRSoldierField” to score some bonus RAM Racing sunglasses).
Overall, I am proud of myself with how I did in April. I did all of my runs which made me very happy. The only thing that didn’t go as planned was my race on Saturday. Not a big deal anymore and life goes on.
So how did April go for you?
Linking up with Marcia, Patti, and Erika for Tuesdays on the Run.
Disclaimer: I received a free entry to the Illinois Marathon part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find and write race reviews!
Whew! It was an interesting weekend. The weather was perfect after battling with Mother Nature with the never ending winter. However, my race didn’t go as I planned. I didn’t run the marathon but instead ran the half marathon.
Let’s go back to Friday before the race. I worked for 1/2 day and then drove to Champaign. It took me about 3 hours to get there. No big deal.
I arrived at the Activities and Recreation Center to pick up my bib at the expo. The expo was pretty small. I didn’t buy anything but did sign up to be a bone marrow donor for Be The Match.
Found a picture of the course and saw Abe Lincoln. 🙂
Later that evening I went out to dinner with some friends at Old Chicago Pizza and Tap Room. I had pizza and pretzel sticks. We didn’t stay out too late and I think we left around 9pm. Earlier in the day I got my stuff ready for the race and that night I double checked to make sure I had everything I needed.
The next day my alarm went off at 5am. I got ready and then went to Dunkin Donuts for coffee and a bagel. It was cold. I knew it would warm up and was glad to see lots of sunshine in the forecast.
I parked in the lot and stayed in my car to stay warm. Finally I got out to use the port-a-potty and to check in my gear. I saw a few friends and we talked for a bit and got more excited about my race. I took one huma gel at about 6:50am. The plan was to take one every 4 miles.
I ran into Amanda (another BibRave Pro) and it was great to finally meet her. Then it was time to run!
My plan was to start running “slow” and then pick up the pace after the 13 mile marker. I was enjoying the warm sun and soaking it all in. I was FINALLY running a marathon that I had trained for a very long time. Training that took me outside running in very cold weather this winter. Finally everything was coming together.
I took another gel at mile 4. Still feeling good. I made sure to drink water at the water stations. Then after mile 6 my stomach began to hurt. I felt like I had to use the bathroom. I decided to walk a little and hoped that I would feel better. I didn’t. I kept walking and knew I was in trouble. I could feel my heart beating fast but couldn’t understand why since I was WALKING. I then got very tired, had some trouble breathing, and struggled to run. There was some wind but nothing worse that what I had encountered during my training. I wasn’t cold since I had a jacket. By mile 9 I knew I wasn’t going to finish the marathon.
I was in tears and was so mad. I was angry because I trained so hard for this marathon. Angry because instead of allowing this anger to push me to keep going, I was allowing it to mess with my head.
Yep, I went left.
The finish line was inside Memorial Stadium. I got my medal and went up the stairs to the Great West Hall to get some food.
I didn’t stay there too long and then went back to the hotel to shower. Afterwards I met a few Oiselle gals for brunch at Big Grove Tavern.
I spent the weekend trying to figure out what went wrong. Did I panic? Did I get nervous/scared? Was I a wimp and decided to take the easy way out by running 13.1 miles instead of 26.2? Did I start off too fast? Too many questions and honestly I am not even sure I will figure it out. Below are my splits.
Thanks to Athlinks I added another race to my profile. I have now run 158 races (69 half marathon)!
By Monday I decided to just let it go and stop thinking about it. Regardless I still ran a half marathon and I should be proud of it.
I thought the race was well organized. The half marathon course was pretty flat. There weren’t too many spectators and the ones that were there did a good job cheering for us. The best part was seeing a guy on a unicorn bike blowing bubbles. 🙂
For now I don’t plan on running a marathon anytime soon. I am signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon but plan to transfer my bib, so if you are interested in a bib, let me know.
Linking up with Marcia, Patti, and Erika for Tuesdays on the Run.
Disclaimer: I am promoting these races as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find and write race reviews!
As you’ve been reading along these past few months, I’m training for the Illinois Marathon on April 28th. I began my training on November 27 (just realized it will be 5 months of training). I joined an online coaching group with Mary and Rochelle where they’re coaching a group of women training for the Boston Marathon. We had our last Facebook Live call yesterday in which Mary talked about the course. It was interesting and one day I will be there!
This has been a hard and wonderful training experience. It felt hard because of the weather and some of the runs. I did most of my training outside and there were so many COLD days. I did 4 runs on the treadmill. Surprised I didn’t do more since I don’t mind too much running on it. However, I did tell myself that I would try to do my runs outside and only on the treadmill when I really and absolutely had do. <<Nothing wrong with it but a personal preference.
My training began with mostly easy runs. Those felt good. Sometimes it was hard to run “slow”. That wasn’t a problem later in the training when the runs got more intense and my body could only run “slow”. Sometimes I even ran slower than the “slow” pace and I was OK with it. I did miss a few runs – I was too tired or didn’t feel like running outside or the treadmill.
I had some awful and great runs. Awful because the pace felt hard or the weather conditions simply didn’t help (this has been a LONG winter). Some great runs because the weather was decent and/or I nailed the required paces. Those were GREAT confidence boosters and just what I needed when I had a run that didn’t go well. All about balance, right? Marathon training isn’t easy. We have our good and bad runs.
My last long run was this Sunday – 3 hours. Ugh, I was cold and tired at the end. I will admit that I had my doubts (again) about how I would complete a marathon when I had no desire to run after 3 hours (and this marathon will take me more than 3 hours).
So let me tell you about my goals for this marathon. I still have 3 weeks of training and a few more “long” runs. Nothing crazy like 3 hours but yet more like an 1 hour or so.
After the marathon I will take some time off. I signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon (October 28) and I know Mary and Rochelle will have another coaching group training for that marathon. For sure I will be a part of it!
I do have 2 races that I signed up for in May. I am doing the Chicago Spring Half Marathon/10K (I signed up for the 10K) on May 20 and the Soldier Field 10 Mile on May 28. While I would love to PR in those races (it’s been years since I’ve PR in those distances), I have to see how my body recovers and feels after the marathon. It will feel weird not running 5 days a week but I am sure my body will love the time off.
If you’re in the Chicago area and would like to join me, below are two codes you can use.
Use code “BRSoldierField” to score some bonus RAM Racing sunglasses for the Soldier Field 10 Mile.
How is YOUR Spring Training coming along? Does it feel like Spring where you live? Not here. We had snow yesterday. 🙁
Linking up with Marcia, Patti, and Erika for Tuesdays on the Run.
Happy to know that March is over. It was a LONG month. Three months done for the year. I am on Spring Break and am excited to be relaxing and plan to do more decluttering…or not. I am still looking for a house and now is the perfect time to get rid of stuff that I don’t want anymore.
• Training went very well this month. I didn’t miss any of my runs and pretty much hit all of my paces. The weather wasn’t as horrible as in previous months but it was definitely too cold for March. I think we had one day with a little bit of snow?
• Ran 121.43 miles. I was very happy to see that number. After missing my goal in both January AND February, it finally happened in March. That put me with almost 25% done of my yearly goal.
• Total time running was 23:00. Yikes! That is almost a whole day of running. Pretty cool!
• Ran my first race this year and came close to a PR. I ran the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle 8K and while I didn’t PR, I did better my time by more than 6 minutes. My finish time was 50:03 and last year was 56:26. I’ll take it!
• 22 days of running. I’ve been running 5 days a week and for the most part really like it. My rest days are Monday and Friday which is good because those are the two days in which I am the most tired.
• I had some great quality session workouts. These workouts are my favorite. I love the variety and the challenge. I seriously need to stop doubting myself.
• I have not kept up with strength workouts. I am still failing in this department. Rachel has another challenge for April and I signed up for it. We’ll see how I do.
Overall, I am proud of myself with the work I put in this month towards my training for the Illinois Marathon. It has been a wild training season with many ups and downs. I have my moments of panic and fear which is normal, right? I know I can do this but yet my brain likes to mess with me.
So how did March go for you?
Linking up with Marcia, Patti, and Erika for Tuesdays on the Run.
