Emerald Nuts and Blue Sky

Emerald Nuts

Yesterday I ran a 12K PR at the Emerald Nuts Across the Bay race from which runs from Sausalito, across the Golden Gate Bridge, and into San Francisco.  It felt great to get my racing season back on track after a really rough (i.e. slow and painful) 10 mile race a couple weeks earlier.

After Redding, I was struggling with my running confidence.  Some recent runs and workouts felt like a chore to get myself out the door.  Tuesday, I tried to fit my workout in between a busy day at work and a work dinner that night.  Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised that when I rushed to log my primary workout of the week that I felt tight and tired.  That day I punted on what was to be 2-3 sets of 1000, 600, 300 meter cuts downs after the first 1000 & 600 to give another go the next day.  Wednesday I made it home from work, relaxed for an hour, then headed back into the park.  As I was driving in, I had a thought - what about a cross country style workout rather than hitting the track again?  Last fall I was focusing heavily on XC workouts, and I had some great road race results.  Then what would you know, as soon as I get to the park, I see that the track is closed, so I grabbed my flats, jogged down to the Golden Gate Park XC course, and ran 2 loops of the course as a 3 minute on, 2 minute off Fartlek.  It felt good to switch gears, running on the different parts of the course.  I was able to move fast during the 3 minute intervals without over-stressing my body.  I drove home with a smile on my face, all of a sudden enjoying myself again.  Although I didn't appreciate that somebody stole my trainers while I was working out in my flat!

Heading into the race, I finally felt confident in the training I've logged so far this year.  The course is a weird one as it's net downhill, but fairly challenging.  You start the race running downhill, then climb up a long steady hill in the 2nd half of the first mile to the GG Bridge west sidewalk.  Then once on the bridge the first half is a gradual climb due to the camber of the bridge, then you go back down.  After the bridge as you're approaching the 4M mark you have a downhill section, but with some sharp turns.  After that it's a few miles on the flats before one last moderate hill in the last half mile (with a sprinting downhill that leaves you less than 100 meters from the line.  My plan was to take it really easy at the beginning and wait until around 3 miles to start racing.

When the gun went off I was behind most of my teammates.  The pace felt very easy, but most the field wasn't too terribly far ahead.  When we started heading uphill, I told myself to relax.  I held my position on the first half, and just focused on a light relaxed stride the whole way up.  As we go to the Golden Gate Bridge sidewalk, I pulled up to a pack of teammates including Jonah & Chris (who would be first place masters runners).  I moved up a few spots with Chris, just gradually reeling in runners up ahead.  By halfway across the bridge I caught Alan Jackson of the Rebels, who always runs a smarts race.  We worked together reeling in more runners, and eventually pulled close to Todd Rose as we finished the downhill sections of the course.  I really didn't have much going through my head early in the race, but dug in and ran fairly aggressively in the 3rd and 4th miles.

Once we got to chrissy field, I threw a small surge as I was eager to catch up to Todd.  As I pulled right behind Todd, Alan kept surging and caught up to a group of mostly Aggies team runners just ahead.  Having a spent a lot of juice to pass numerous runners, I tucked in right behind, then along side of Todd as Alan pulled away.  I was breathing pretty hard, so couldn't say much more than "let's go" & he managed to grunt out "5:20 pace", which since I hadn't seen a mile marker yet, was good news.  Shortly after that I see a large road construction sign, which I realize wasn't a road construction sign, but the 5 mile mark.  I hit it around 26:30 (5:18 pace) & was pretty stoked to have a great race going both in terms of pace and position wise.  At this point Todd had opened a few seconds up, but I just kept my eyes on him and tried to reel him in.  While I lost just a second or two on him in the 6th mile (31:57) and 7th (~37:20) focusing on trying to reel him in kept me running a good pace.

Just after the 7th mile mark (with 0.45 miles to go) I hit the hill at Fort Mason.  It's steep for the first 50 meters then slowly levels out.  2 runners - JT Service (an Aggie) & Stephen Donohue (who was 9th overall in the Dipsea last year) passed me as I pretty much stumbled up the first part of the hill.  I told myself there was less than a half mile to go, and managed to keep Stephen fairly close.  I pulled even closer on the downhill then gave it a good hard kick to get around Stephen right after we rounded the last turn with a flat 100 meter finish.

It's funny that I finished 16th place in each of the first 2 PA races.  I would have so said no way I'd finish that poorly in Redding, and unlikely I'd run that well at this race!  I was definitely happy with both my place, and my time - especially given that it's a hilly course.  Last fall, I felt like I could run much faster than my old 12K pr of 41:54.  But saying "I just lowered my 12K PR by 2+ minutes" sounds a lot better than saying "I could lower my PR by 2+ minutes!"

Next up will either be the Zippy 5K, unless I jump into a track meet prior to that.

*This was taken as I'm rounding the final turn of the race.





















Blue Sky

Between all the running and skiing, my aviation pursuits had taken a back seat recently.  But after the race Sunday, I scheduled time with my instructor just to go for a flight.  The dual purpose was just a proficiency check since I hadn't flown in a few months, but we also decided to use it as my "bi-annual flight review", which is required every 2 years to keep your license active.  It felt great to get up in the air, and was happy that Bob (my instructor) had very little to comment on.  We flew through SF International airspace on the way out, and Oakland on the way back.  He had me execute a couple of steep turns - meaning a 360 degree turn to the right at a 45 degree bank, followed by the same thing to the left.  It's one of the required maneuvers for the private pilot checkride.  The key challenge is to maintain a steady airspeed and altitude.  I think I pulled off two of my best steep turns ever!  I look forward to flying much more often this Spring and Summer. 

I'll save my health care / Pelosi rant for another day...

Harris Ranch Steakhouse

A couple weeks ago I had the impulsive thought to head down and take a plane up for a quick flight. I didn't get to fly much during the spring because of running and wedding planning. But this Monday, Dana was out of town, and I was going to take the day off running, so an after work flight seemed like the perfect activity. Since work was not busy, I left before 3:00 and headed down. As I left my house I decided to see if Jonathan Stevens (who lives near the airport) wanted to go, and he tagged along. We flew the "Bay Tour" where you fly right next to SFO (assuming the tower will grant you a Bravo airspace clearance) and over the city. Jonathan enjoyed the flight so I suggested another adventure.

This past Friday night, Jonathan, Jenn Stevens, Dana, and I took off from San Carlos and headed South to Coalinga, CA, 120 miles South in the central valley. Coalinga is pretty much just known for the Harris Ranch, which sends beef all over California (and other places I'm sure). Right off Intestate 5 & in the middle of nowhere is the Harris Ranch Steakhouse. The website states that the steakhouse is "Conveniently located midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles". Well since these 2 cities are a 6 hour drive apart, I'd say that's only convenient to the cows that live there and haven't realized they're going to be steaks soon. So with this in mind, they stuck a small landing strip parallel to the freeway - The Harris Ranch Airport. The airport consists of a 2800 foot runway that's a mere 30 feet wide with no taxi-ways. It's a crazy landing because it looks like you're aiming toward a pencil when you're on final approach. And if you drift off the centerline you'll probably land it in the gravel. My landing wasn't pretty, but I hit the marks.

We enjoyed some delicious fresh steaks with the Stevenses (unfortunately no wine for me as the pilot). I also picked up a couple vacuum sealed racks of tri tip steak to cook if we get around to having a housewarming party. So after dinner and after nightfall we climbed back in the plane to head back to San Carlos. It was a bit interesting heading back into the Bay Area as a very thin, but low cloud layer had settled over most of the Bay. The approach control warned me that San Francisco International was reporting instrument conditions (which I'm not rated to fly in), and San Jose had a very low ceiling. The San Carlos tower was closed, but there's a frequency that broadcasts the automated weather conditions... Somehow they were reporting clear skies. This was clearly an error since it was only 9 miles south of SFO, which was completely fogged in. But as I got close to the Bay, I slipped under the initial cloud layer, and sure enough when I approached San Carlos, the skies were clear. Weird summer weather in the Bay Area!

We stayed in the city the rest of the weekend. Saturday night went to Tyson Hendrickson's engagement party - praise the Lord that man found a girl! Then I rolled out of bed at 5am Sunday morning to combine a long run with SF Marathon spectating (the race starts at 5:30 so that they can incorporate the Golden Gate Bridge). I ran with a guy I bet at a recent race who I've recruited to run with West Valley, and I got to see a couple friends run well in the race.

Dolphin South End Runners

Sunday morning I decided to give my running an ego-boost and hit the Dolphin South End race (DSE for short). The DSE running club is low-key club that hosts a race almost every weekend of the year for the unbeatable price of $5 per race. There's no t-shirt's, fancy aid stations, etc. Just a race in a different (often scenic) location each week. I say it's an ego boost because you rarely see any of the competitive runners who kick my butt in the Pacific Association series. Not a hint of prize money, nor fancy trophies, just a ribbon for finishing and a ribbon if you win.

My first DSE race was two years ago. I had been running more than I had in a while, feeling good, so I decided to find a race and jump in. I did the 5k that day, while most runners ran the more challenging 6.8 miler. I won the shorter race pretty easily in a very slow 18 minutes. That day was really the start of what I'm calling my 2nd running career (or alternatively my 30+ running career).

So Sunday was my 2nd DSE race. It was the same event, but I went back for the 6.8 miler. The course was a 3.4 mile / 1000 foot climb straight up San Bruno Mountain, then straight back down. I averaged just over 6 min / mile pace to win by about 4 minutes. 2nd place was a rising high school junior is hoping to make his varsity squad for the first time this year. You'd always like to say you dusted some stiff competition, but it was my first win since the last DSE race, so I'll take it.

I didn't get to pick up my ribbon because I rushed back to the city to go to church with Dana.

Here's a picture of San Bruno Mountain















* Interesting fact: In 1998 a United Airlines 747 buzzed San Bruno Mountain by a mere 100 feet. One of the right engines had failed on takeoff, and the inexperienced pilot tried to compensate for the uneven thrust by rolling the wings to the left, instead of the proper procedure of using the left rudder to keep the plane level with the nose still pointed forward. He then had to push the nose down to pick up speed and avoid a stall. Unfortunately they were now headed straight for the mountain. Thank God the plane just cleared the mountain and the 307 people of board were spared. Perhaps if I ever train for a multi-engine certificate I'll post an entry on proper lost engine procedures.