Race Reports, Garmin and Baby... OH MY!

I know, I know. I've been bad. Bad about blogging and bad about reading blogs. I haven't abandoned it or anything. Just... bad about updating. So, I'm going to give you a quick succession of brief updates about me and what's been going on the past few weeks.

So, the painful memories of Napa Valley Marathon dissipated pretty quickly although, the remnant of the running plagued for several days! Blisters from the marathon lingered around my feet but I also got more. Ugh. Turned out, I had the wrong type of shoes for my wide feet. I needed more stability than motion control. Anyhow, I was directed to the "right" shoes by my new favorite shoe guy at the Sports Basement. Hello, Mizuno Alchemy 8! I ran on it a few times and it's SO much better!

Two Sundays ago on March 8th, I ran my first free race ever: The Sports Basement 5k in Sunnyvale. There was a 175 cap on the runners and it was definitely a fun run. There were bibs but no timed chips, although our finish times were recorded as we crossed the finish line. Nothing fancy but definitely a run I'll do again. Mega points for free t-shirts and great swag for a free race! My official finish time was 24:35! Not bad considering my PR for a 5k was 24:15, when I weighted 10 lbs less and it was the first time I ran after Napa Valley!

This past Sunday, I ran my first 12k at the Emerald Across the Bay 12k in San Francisco. It's one hilly ride but a beautiful course and well worth the pain. I also got to run it with Maritza, Tara, Kristin, Sandra (she was in an earlier wave) and my good friend Michaela. We all ran a fantastic race and I'm really proud of my 1:04:56 finish. That is a 8:48 min average pace... which for me, is pretty decent. In all honesty, I was disappointed that I didn't run faster but really, I'm pretty happy with what I did. As you can see, I looked very happy running it, too. I'm such a ham in front of a camera! (Did I mention it rained the WHOLE time??)
While I was up in Portland last week, I also got to do a Tweetup with fellow runners: Christine and Michelle from Running Chicks in PDX (top)and Amy, Alisa and Justin (bottom). :-)


Oh and did I mention I have now joined "The Fellowship of Garmin"? Or the "Church of Garmin"? I bit the bullet and threw down some serious cash for the Garmin Forerunner 405. If you remember from my previous post, my Nike+ Sportband died in the rain. And I was so hearbroken, I couldn't get another one to replace it... So I decided to upgrade to what the "serious" runners use. I had issues setting up "Kermit" the first day but I soon figured it out and now we're happy as can be.
And guess what? I was asked to pace the San Francisco Marathon in July!! I didn't have much choice but I am pacing the 4:45 finish group. I don't really care about the time, I know I can do 4:45 easy. I get to run my 5th SFM for free!! Woot!

I also ran the Mermaid Half Marathon (a women's only event) this past Sunday. I thought I was ready for a PR but turns out, I wasn't. There were some strong gusty winds in both directions and towards the end rain... again. AND mud. Lots of mud that felt like I had 10 lb ankle weights on both legs! Below is me, our friend Shelly and Tara at the start. Oh things started so well... We started off at sub 8:30 pace and I soon petered out. I finished at 1:58:35. Not my best finish but considering, not bad! We also saw Audrey at the end but we didn't get a pic together. :-(

By the way, thank you ALL for your encouraging and supportive comments on my Napa Marathon post. I got choked up thinking how lucky I am to have such an amazing running community behind me.

OH and we had an unexpected surprise Saturday morning! My sister delivered 3 weeks early. Averie Eunhae Lopez showed up at 11:15am weighing 5.8 lbs and 18" long. Thankfully, my sister had a wonderfully short labor... less than 2 hours and pushed for only 15 minutes? I hope that's all genetic! Here's Averie at Day 2! Both mother and baby are doing wonderfully!! (More gushing about niece to come!!)