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

Back to bread

188 g sourdough starter (100% hydration)

300 g Whole wheat flour

200 g bread flour

150 g rice milk

200 g water

18 g salt

25 g honey

1/4 c. olive oil

5 g yeast

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.

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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.

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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.

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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

NYC Day 4

With our NYC vacation coming to an end, we had a rough outline of what we wanted to do before heading to JFK and flying back to Sacramento. We had to check out of our hotel by noon so by 11 or so we checked out of the room and the hotel was kind enough to store our bags until we left for the airport that afternoon.

Our first stop was for food since we hadn’t had breakfast. I figured since we wanted to check out the High Line, we would look for a brunch spot near there. Many of our friends had told us that we had to “brunch” while in NYC so figured this was our last chance.

I found a place called Cookshop. I thought it was funny that the brief description on Google maps said “Farm-to-hipster American dining.” At first that made me not want to go there but it had some good reviews on the food and that really was all I cared about. D started with the Beignets and then had the Poached Eggs (with beefsteak tomatoes, basil, herbed breadcrumbs, and cheese fonduta). I started with the House smoked Arctic Char (with horseradish creme fraiche and toast) and then had their Fried Egg Sandwich. The Beignets were good, though not the traditional light airy ones that you think of. They have ricotta cheese inside their batter and made the internal part of the beignets more cake-like than airy. Overall the food was great.

Not too long after we ordered, there were two young women sat right next to us. Now they were not quiet nor shy about their conversation. From the conversation I gleaned that they were most likely towards the end of high school (suspect senior year) but they lived a fairly privileged life. One girl talked about how she spent the summer traveling through Europe and the other through Africa. What struck me as outrageous was one girl talking about how she was dating a boy but was very attracted to another guy on her trip and was proud of herself that she didn’t cheat on the boy she was dating. And I quote, “I didn’t kiss him, though I did shower with him.” um…WHAT?!? The conversation was filled with ridiculous things like that and distracted me from a nice brunch. Kids these days…

After lunch, we trekked over to the High Line. The High Line is essentially an old elevated railroad track that was converted into an elevated urban park walkway. Honestly, coming from Sacramento and the City of Trees, it wasn’t all that impressive to me. I can see how it is a nice getaway from the concrete and skyscrapers of NYC though. So I can appreciate it as a nice thing for people who live in NYC. However, the High Line is now a touristy thing that it was fairly congested and filled with tourists (like us). It was also a bit warm being elevated and not having much shade.

One thing that D wanted to see was the old cobblestones of New York. I told her that one place you can still see it is the Meat Packing District. We got off the High Line and found ourselves in Meat Packing and D got to see the cobblestones.

I needed to use the facilities and so while D was browsing in a store, I walked over to Chelsea Market. Now I thought the High Line was packed with people walking, but Chelsea Market was even more packed. I felt like a sardine. We grabbed some water here and then jumped on the subway back up to Columbus Circle (at the southwest corner of Central Park). We also used the bathrooms at the Essex Hotel so got to see the nice architecture in the lobby and registration area. We then just chilled on a big rock in Central Park until it was time to head back to the hotel and head for the airport.

It’s a good thing we decided to head to JFK early because there was a ton of traffic on the roads back tot he airport. Luckily we were able to get there with plenty of time to grab some food. Course it helped that our flight ended up being delayed because the co-pilot wasn’t at the airport in time. You would think as your job you’d try to get to the airport on time or early (it was an evening flight). The gate people came on once saying that the co-pilot was in a cab, that some people commute to work. Um, unless you work at home, everyone commutes to work, and plans as such. We ended up arriving home a half hour after our normal scheduled time.

That’s a wrap on our NYC trip, overall was a good time. Definitely left more stuff to do so maybe one day we’ll head back.

-StewsCat

StewsCat

Running, baking, cooking, drinking