2016 Run the Parkway Half Marathon Race Recap

The Sacramento Running Association, who host the big California International Marathon (CIM), decided to put on a new event this year. They timed this race so that it was about 4 weeks from the CIM. They called it a “training race” because they had a 20-miler, in addition to a half marathon distance and a 5K. For many marathon plans, a 20 mile training run is recommended anywhere from 3-4 weeks from race day and some plans call for more than one 20-miler. The race also benefits the American River Parkway Foundation. Since I live near the parkway I utilize it on a weekly basis for one or even a few of my runs. I figured that it would be good to give back to this great resource. As I am not training for CIM, I signed up for the half marathon (they had an option to change between the half marathon and 20-mile distance for free at the packet pickup). When I signed up for the race I flirted with the idea of bumping up to the 20-miler but with my lack of proper long distance training I stuck with the half marathon.

Packet pickup was at the usual Fleet Feet in midtown Sacramento. I had some errands to do beforehand so couldn’t make it to packet pickup until the mid afternoon. The store was quiet and pickup was quick. I realized this was a very no frills race as I literally was given a bib and a shirt and that’s it. I’m used to at least a few other things to pickup like some other race flyers and such but this was barebones. Being the inaugural race, I wonder also if they just weren’t putting a ton into the race like some other races (the CIM has a huge race expo at the Sacramento convention center). The other slightly odd thing about this race is that it was being held on a Saturday. I’ve done a few Saturday races but not usually half marathon distances. I actually liked this because it would give me Sunday to recuperate before having to go back to work on Monday.

I had my usual pre-race pizza the night before. We got a large combo pizza from a local place called Roma II (we haven’t actually been to the original Roma but have had Roma II a few times). We also got a side order of some meatballs (not pictured).

Then it was an early night for bed (which the wife enjoyed especially because she was feeling a bit under the weather). I slept well and woke up early at 3:40 am. I need some time in the mornings to get my stuff together (breakfast, bano, bano, bano). Surprisingly this was the second straight race that I’ve slept fairly well. Prior to these last 2, I almost always have a restless night of sleep and then get up. I do wonder also if it has to do with the fact these last 2 were “home” races and I slept in my own bed. Or maybe it has to do with the fact that this was half marathon #18 and I’m just getting used to it finally. Either way I’m happy with being able to sleep before a race.

Since the start/finish of the race was at the familiar to me William Pond park and this is also where the start/finish was for the 2 half marathons I’ve done previously (American River Parkway Half Marathon), I was quite familiar with the parking situation. After parking in the neighborhood by the park, I trekked into the park in search of the porta-potties. They weren’t set up as well as I thought but since I arrived about 40 minutes before the start time, the lines were still short for the porta-potties. It is quite hard to use when it is super dark outside and inside the porta-potties. People were using their cell phone flashlights as well as the better equipped who had headlamps. The race officials understandably pushed the race start time from 7 am to 7:10 am so there was some more light on the trail. Just prior to the start, the race people played a recording of the National Anthem – with recorded cheering and everything. People were chuckling with the cheering that was from the recording. And then we were off.

Immediately after the start, we crossed a long foot bridge that took us over the American River. We’d also cross this bridge at the 13th mile just before finishing back at the starting line. img_20161105_092745

The first few miles were run in the pre-sunrise haze and fog. It was quite beautiful and peaceful. This section of the river trail is quite remote with the river on one side and fields on the other side. I’m used to running in the area of the river trail that is relatively close to civilization (roads, buildings, other people). I don’t know how comfortable I’d be running in that part of the river by myself. But it was pretty and peaceful.

img_20161105_074804

img_20161105_074810

img_20161105_080307

img_20161105_080311

Eventually we made our way off the river trail and did a very short stint in a small neighborhood. Essentially we went through one exit on the trail and made our way about 2 streets over and onto the entrance of another part of the trail. At this point, the trail was not paved and was more packed dirt and gravel, with a few areas of unevenness. Eventually we made our way east and back onto paved roads. And then at some point we hit a turnaround and came back the way we started. I continued with my 4 minute running, 1 minute walking at an average total pace of about 10 min/mile. Throughout miles 4-10 I continued to feel good. I took a GU gel around mile 6. I picked up another gel around mile 7 and then took my 2nd gel around the 10 mile mark.

img_20161105_082316

Overall I continued to feel good for the race and coasted into the finish line. I didn’t do a crazy sprint like I often do with the last 0.1 miles. I actually stopped a few times in the 12-13 mile range to get some good pics.

img_20161105_091349

img_20161105_092840

img_20161105_092916

At the finish line, I picked up a banana, half a donut and had a beer. I went with the Erdinger because the Shipyard beer was an IPA and I thought that was a bit alcohol heavy for post-race.

img_20161105_093338

img_20161105_093939

Final Time: 2:13:25

-StewsCat

2016 Urban Cow Half Marathon Race Recap

Any race where I: a) don’t get hurt and b) don’t have GI issues, is a good race.

This was my fourth running of this particular race, what I’d consider one of my hometown races. I took last year off just because…I think partly due to injury but also possibly just from burnout. Since I didn’t have much on my race docket earlier this year, I figured I’d sign up for this race on a whim. I’ve always enjoyed it and the free post-race beer, plus you get a cowbell!

Summary: Well organized race with little in the way for major gripes. The race packet pickup is at the local Fleet Feet, which has 3 days of pre-race pickup (and they had race day packet pickup this year as well). I elected to go on the first day (Thursday) of pickup right after they started (noon) so there was no line though the volunteers were still gearing up for the crowds. This year every runner was given a nice tote bag (think grocery bag).

This is definitely helpful because earlier this year California banned plastic bags from supermarkets. I guess there is still controversy as to whether or not the plastic bag ban really helps the environment, but we’ve bought into it and have been using reusable grocery bags for even before the ban.

I was a little nervous about this race only because I hadn’t properly trained for it. A few days before the race I looked back at my training log and realized my last long run was back on August 19th (10.6 miles) and then after that my longest run was 7.5 miles at the beginning of September. So I knew that I was definitely not going for a good time or going to push myself. I also decided I was going to try a run-walk method that I had been reading up on. I attempted this once in a regular run in September.

The night before the race I had my usual pizza except this time I made it. I also elected not to have any alcohol, which is unusual. Typically I have a beer the night before a race. Also unusual was that I actually slept pretty well. Again, usually before races I’m nervous and don’t sleep well – waking up every hour to check the clock to ensure I don’t oversleep. This time I had about 6 solid hours. I woke up and did my usual pre-race things – hitting the bano, having a bagel with peanut butter and just relaxing. I also decided this time to head over to the race later than previously (it is about a 15-20 minute drive to the race start).

I had a feeling that since I was heading to the race later than usual there would probably be a line on the freeway at the race exit. For this reason I checked the map before heading out and elected to drive past the exit for the race and use the next off ramp and loop around. Good thing I did because there were cars stopped for at least 1/2 mile on the freeway itself waiting to get off. I found some street parking and walked over the William Land Park (the start and finish line). They had a U shaped setup for their portapotties and even though I was there only 40 minutes before the race start, I found one with no line. By the time I came out though the lines had started forming. I walked around and there were numerous tents set up – from same day registration to various running groups and etc.

They had a two wave start for the half marathon. The first wave took off at 7:30 and was for people expecting to run a sub-2 hour half marathon. I had signed up for wave 2, which actually only took off 5 minutes after the first wave so not a long wait. The early part of the course (~ the first 1.5 miles) weaves its way through the actual park before dumping into the residential areas just north of the park. I felt a little strange walking after just the first 5 minutes so decided I’d start my run-walk race plan around the 15-20 minute mark. Now everyone knows that runners are a supportive lot and while I do appreciate it, sometimes it can be annoying. Pretty much as soon as I started my 1 minute walk break, I had a runner come up next to me and pass me the whole time saying “come on man, you can do it!” and other such cheers. Now I know he meant well, but I had a plan that I was following and not like you can explain that as the person saying it is already 20 feet ahead of you.

From the residential area, the course took us into the industrial part of Sacramento just south of the downtown area. We also ran by the Front Street Animal Shelter and then north into downtown Sacramento. We then made our way to Old Town Sacramento. Old Town is kinda a kitschy throwback to the “wild west” days. Cobblestone floors, wooden walkways and such. In years previous, we ran down the main street on the cobblestone streets. This year (maybe last year too but I wasn’t there) they altered the route so you didn’t run on the cobblestone at all (not sure if this was due to liability or what). Then we reached the halfway point of the race as we ran southbound along the Sacramento river. We following a bike trail down the river until we were dumped back into the residential area near Land Park (the start/finish).

Surprisingly I felt really good with my 5 minute run-1 minute walk method all the way up until about mile 9-10 when it started to become a little bit harder to maintain my running. I aimed to maintain a run pace of somewhere under 10 min/mile pace and typically was hitting around 9:40 min/mile. I was proud to maintain that overall speed because of my lack of proper training. With no run longer than 7 miles in the 6 weeks leading up to the race, I knew that my legs weren’t technically ready for 13.1 miles.

That last 0.1 miles always gets to me. I was doing an easy jog from miles 11-13 and then when I saw that finish line, I go into auto-pilot and start running quickly (aka sprinting). In previous races, I’d walk through the finisher’s chute after collecting my medal and start picking up the usual post-race refreshments (bottled water, bananas, bagels). I remembered to bring a plastic bag with me during the race so I’d have something to store the post-race goodies. This year’s bounty certainly did not disappoint. I picked up a bottled water, can of coke, 2 chocolate milks, some Kashi GoLean bars, and some pop chips. They also had fresh strawberries and individual serving granola things. This spread was a lot better than previous Urban Cows. The highlight of my finish for this race is the beer garden.

This year’s beer was from Lagunitas (previous years it was Lockdown Brewing, which is located in nearby Folsom). I picked up my free beer and also they had some chips out to snack on.

And a few minutes later…

Finish time: 2:07:35 (9:44 min/mile overall pace). I am extremely happy with that time given my conditioning going into the race.

imag3434 — *I’m wearing my RnR San Jose half marathon shirt from 2011 that was actually 5 years ago on this day.*

Here’s my collection of cowbells thus far (I don’t have any specific plans to do this race again since I’ve done it so many times and I want to try to do new races I’ve not yet done).

-StewsCat

Urban ride

With the Urban Cow Half Marathon 2016 just around this corner this coming Sunday, I had to pick up my packet at the local Fleet Feet (located in downtown Sac). Since I had the time and thought I’d be good to the environment (and to my health), I decided I’d try riding my (in actuality the wife’s) bike downtown.

She purchased a Momentum iNeed STREET bike a few weeks ago. One complaint she had was with the saddle (slowly learning the bike lingo) so she ordered one she thought might be more comfortable. I helped her install it this week.

I currently have a Giant Roam 2 but because it is sized a little bigger, I am not as comfortable taking it into downtown since it is hard to stop and start easily. So my wife gave me permission to test out her new seat on my trek to the running store.

After she had purchased her bike, it spurred me to look into getting some much needed accessories that I had been putting off since I didn’t do a lot of riding in the last year. One neat thing about her bike is that it came with a bunch of already attached accessories that are helpful for urban commuting. There is a U-lock holder attached to the seat tube. They also designed the top tube as two smaller parallel tubes allowing you to slip your U-lock through it (see pic below)

Bike security is a pretty big thing and business. I scoured various review and bike web sites looking at the different types of locks available. In the end I settled on some U-locks for each of our bikes. The ones that I found came with additional cables (that can be used to help secure your front wheel). I ended up going with the Kryptonite Series 2 Standard that came with a 4′ cable. For D, I bought her the Abus Facilo 32 with a Cobra Cable. I found that for U-locks, Abus is very good as is Kryptonite. Each of the companies have varying levels of protection, which I find a little funny. “Get this lock and it’ll mostly keep your bike safe or get this super duper expensive lock and no one will steal it.” I guess it makes sense because it depends on where you live and will be parking your bike. Are you in a high theft/crime area? Are you out in the suburbs with not much crime around? Those sorts of things. From my understanding here in Sac, bike theft is a huge issue and people will take your bike or components if they’re available. So I ended up going with medium protection for both our bikes (also because we don’t have super expensive bikes in the thousands of dollars).

I was fairly comfortable riding with cars passing me by and such. Since I hadn’t had much chance to lock the bike(s) to things, I was a bit nervous and had to think about the proper way to position the bike and lock it up. The place to lock bikes in front of Fleet Feet was not your typical U shaped bike racks (like here). This rack was low to the ground which made it tough to get the frame and bake wheel within the U-lock, but I made it work. I had also watched videos and read up on the proper way to lock your bike to try to prevent theft. I looked at the other various bikes parked on the street in front of store next to Fleet Feet and realized so many people just willy nilly lock their bikes. After picking up my race bib and free bag (will post pic later), I biked over to a local sandwich place that makes some awesome sandwiches. They also have a bunch of various snack items and beer/drinks for sale as well.

In the end I rode a total of about 10 miles (this after a 4 mile run this morning). The new seat (saddle) overall I would say is fairly comfortable though I did get some soreness on the big part of my rump towards the end of the ride. The built in “shocks” of the new seat also make sounds when I went over some bumps. Overall I’d give the Cloud-9 Comfort Ladies’ Saddle a passing grade. We’ll see how it works out for D as it gets worn in.

—

On an unrelated note, hopefully my pictures will start to be better as I am due for a phone upgrade soon. I have had the HTC One (m7) for the last 2 years and while the phone is good, the camera sucks. There is a known defect in the camera that turns any shot that is not in nice bright sun into this hazy purple mess (hence the pictures you see on the site). So now I’m trying to decide between the following: Iphone 7, Iphone 6s, Galaxy S7, or the yet to be released Google Pixel phone. I know all these phones have good specs and are probably really good so it makes the decision much harder. We shall see.

-StewsCat

Turkeys! Bikes! Celebrities!

On today’s 5.5 miler, I ran into a rafter (yes I had to look that up) of turkeys. Apparently some people will refer to a group of turkeys as a “gobble” or a “flock.” I like rafter. That’s a neat term. Anyway, we have a ton of turkeys in the greater Sacramento area and there are usually multiple different rafters that I run into on my travels along the American River (and also sometimes in the residential neighborhoods surrounding it). I was near the Guy West Bridge again by Sac State when I at first spotted 2 turkeys coming from the river to the berm. As I approached them, more turkeys started showing up and they kind of surrounded me on the berm’s paved trail. I know sometimes turkeys get a bit aggressive so I snapped off a few pics and kept going.

—–

Last year I invested in a bicycle, my first bike that I purchased on my own. I have intermittently biked over the last 12 years or so since finishing college. During grad school I biked to work/class/lab on a regular basis. The bike I purchased was the 2014/2015 Giant Roam 2. My intent was to use the bike for general biking as well potentially some longer distance rides (for me, longer distance is like 10-20 miles). I went to my LBS (Local Bike Shop) and they helped me out. I did feel like the guy helping me maybe wasn’t as helpful as I was expecting from an LBS. People always talk about with bikes that it should be a dialogue between you and the bike pro about what you need and they also help fit the bike to you. I realize now he maybe wasn’t as helpful because D recently bought a bike at the same shop and a different bike pro helped her and was much more informative. Admittedly I didn’t ride much over the last year. Now that D has a bike, I know we’ll be doing more rides together.

I’m always interested in how things work as well as DIY. So now armed with two bikes, I am learning and reading up on how to do regular bike maintenance myself. I went to the library yesterday and checked out Zinn & the Art of Road Bike Maintenance. The plan is to learn how to do basic bike maintenance to keep our bikes running well and maybe even do some more advanced stuff, we’ll see.

So that’s a new hobby of mine. Plus it has the added benefit of providing some health perks.

—–

A few things about NYC that I forgot. We saw one celebrity and one pseudo-celebrity. While on our way to the Beautiful show, a double-decker tourist bus was rolling slowly down the street with music blaring from it. When I looked up, I could see a film crew on the top deck and some guy standing and dancing, with a bunch of other people sitting and dancing. Every few minutes, the guy on the bus would shout to all the pedestrians walking “What’s up New YOOOORK!?!?” Someone walking near us pointed out that the person was Jason Derulo. That was the celebrity.

The pseudo-celebrity that we saw is/was on the show Million Dollar Listing: New York. Ronita is the assistant to one of the realtors (Luis) on the show and she’s featured in a lot of the episodes because that is the only assistant he has working for him. She basically organizes and runs his life from what the show depicts. Anyway, we were just walking along near Grand Central when she walked by us (we were walking on opposite directions). After she passed, I turned to D and said “she looks familiar!” and then I said “that was Ronita” from the show.

-StewsCat

Travel thoughts

Just finished a 4 mile run after getting back from NYC last night. I’ll be putting up a full day by day review of the trip but wanted to jot down some thoughts on the whole travel experience.

We had booked a red-eye flight leaving on Monday late evening and arriving in the Big Apple early Tuesday morning. I have done a few of these flights in the past though honestly I can’t remember the experiences as they were all a very long time ago and my memory doesn’t serve me well on those occasions. My wife was worried about the red-eye because she historically has not been able to sleep on planes (flights to Europe,Hawaii, Asia) and this would make it tough to get off the plane and go directly to exploring the city.

To maximize the chance of success for sleep, my wife had a few tools in her arsenal. We picked up some Benadryl (active ingredient diphenhydramine) to help with sleep. If you look at the “sleeping aid” OTC pills you can purchase, they’re almost all diphenhydramine except more costly. So we just picked up some regular ole’ OTC benadryl because it is cheap. The second tool was a good sleep mask and ear plugs. Finally a J-pillow travel pillow is something that she had used on a previous trip.

We arrived to Terminal A of the Sacramento International Airport, which is where JetBlue flies out of. Luckily for us there is a direct flight from Sac to JFK. They had been doing renovations on Terminal A ever since putting in a new Terminal B a few years back. This time around they had finished a seating area with desks that had plugs so people could charge their devices. They also had these cool benches that allowed you to lay down.

IMAG3264 — *New benches and tables in Terminal A*

I laid down and tried to nap before the flight. However, there was too much going on – overhead announcements, people talking, etc. I gave up on this and we boarded just before midnight. Originally I had booked an aisle and middle seat since I like access to the walkway and bathrooms during the flight. My wife pointed out that since she wanted to sleep, she didn’t want to be asleep next to a stranger. I gave her the aisle seat and took the middle seat. JetBlue kindly had a “sleep kit” on each seat that contained an eye mask and earplugs. I never realized the droning loudness of being on a plane until I put the earplugs in. Somehow I managed to get about 3 hours of sleep – though I felt like I was constantly waking up here and there. I’m happy to report that my wife managed to get some sleep as well. This truly helped out as we were then able to explore the city that first day as opposed to napping/sleeping the day away.

Our return flight last night was delayed for just over an hour because the 1st officer (co-pilot) was running late. We purposely left the city early because of concerns for traffic as well as security at JFK. While sitting there waiting for the boarding process, the ticket agent came on and said the 1st officer wasn’t there yet so we couldn’t board yet. For some reason you’d think that this was his job so he would have planned for traffic. They announced that he was in a taxi and that he commuted to work. Um…pretty much we ALL commute to work. That’s something you’re supposed to take into account, no? It was just frustrating because we waited an extra hour for this guy to arrive. In the end we landed about 30 minutes later than the originally scheduled arrival but it was still late (11:30 pm). As I laid down to sleep last night I had an interesting thought. I woke up yesterday morning in NYC and walking around these giant high rises and the crazy crowds of the streets and Central Park and last night went to sleep in my own bed in northern California. I think we sometimes take for granted the advancement in technology and travel. Back in the day you’d probably take a train that would be multiple days to get across the country. Now we do it in a matter of hours.

I do enjoy travel by large boat (cruise ship) because you don’t even feel like you’re on a boat yet can travel good distances. I like that you can go about your day (exercise, eating, sleeping) relatively normally while on a cruise ship and yet still travel from port to port. I’d consider it for travel across the oceans though I don’t know how long that would take. I could see getting bored on a ship for longer than a few days. Still the cramped spaces and dry air of plane travel is not something I’m a huge fan of. I’ve learned to tolerate it, especially with the extent of flying I did through my many years of schooling, but don’t enjoy it. I’m definitely a fan of the shorter plane hops (SMF to the PNW and down to SoCal).

NYC recaps up next!

-StewsCat

StewsCat

Running, baking, cooking, drinking

Category: StewsCatRuns

2016 Run the Parkway Half Marathon Race Recap

2016 Urban Cow Half Marathon Race Recap

Urban ride

Turkeys! Bikes! Celebrities!

Travel thoughts