Drive By Blogging

It's been a crazy week at work. Back to back meetings, conference calls and lots of year-end project management stuff. And on top of that, I've been bogged down with a cold since Saturday. I've been away from my running blog way too long! I miss those slow days where I could sneak off to my own little blogging world! I'm hoping to catch up on all the blog reading this weekend. I have seriously missed all of your updates on your lives. Just to give you a brief update, D and I did go down to Orange County this weekend and had a great time. We didn't end up going to Disneyland because the fires in the area! We got to the Disneyland parking lot (withour pre-purchased tix) and saw ash and soot falling on our car. It was bad. I fell asleep in the car on the way there so I didn't even notice how bad the air was in the distance! I think there were at least 3 major fires down in SoCal this weekend. Yikes.

Woke up Saturday morning with a bad sore throat and it just got worse from there. I tried to go for a short run Saturday morning but it was tough. Not only was I under the weather but it was like 90 degrees the entire weekend. I think it was already in the mid 70s at 8am when I set out for the 6 mile run. Let's just say I walked a lot during this "run"! I give mad props to those of you in the Southern California who train in this weather all year round!

I had already decided on Friday that I was going to run Monday so I didn't worry about the long run over the weekend. We got back home on Sunday night after the weekend of birthday celebrations and I tried to prep myself for the 20 miler on Monday morning but just wasn't feeling it. I still was suffering from the cold on Monday morning so I decided to take the day off from running again.

BUT I FINALLY WENT ON MY 20 miler on Tuesday morning!! Even though, I still wasn't feeling 100%. But it felt good to be out there. The temperature hovered around high 60s during most of my early morning run and only stopped a few times to fuel up and fill up my water bottle at couple of water fountains. Total running time 3 hours and 29 min. It was about 10:30 min pace. Not the fastest but happy that it didn't hurt too badly. At least I have that under my belt.

I felt ok all day yesterday but woke up feeling like crap again this morning. I went into work but left early feeling sick. Took a long nap and now feeling a bit more alive again. (Which means I didn't go to my Wednesday track workouts! But my legs needed another day off.)

Shoot, really meant this to be a short post (hence the post title) but I guess I'm more long-winded than I'd like to believe!

Leaving you now with a photo of me and the nephews and niece down in Rancho Santa Margarita. (Nolin, Rily and Analisa are actually Duane's nephews and niece but we've really bonded!!) We watched Kung Fu Panda like 3 times on their laptop this weekend!

Less than 3 weeks to go!

Yep, less than 3 weeks to go until the SF Marathon! I completed 20 miles on Saturday, last of my long runs. From here on out, it's all about tapering baby! I'm actually thrilled that I only have to run 12 miles next weekend! (What's wrong with me, thinking 12 miles is light running???!!) It's a good thing, too, since Saturday is my bridal shower. Yay!

D and I ran the 20 miles starting from the AT&T Park along Embarcadero, Fort Mason, Marina Greens to Golden Gate Bridge and back. This is one of my favorite runs in the city and I'm very familiar with it! Not only because it's part of the marathon route but because I ran this route quite often when I used to live in the Russian Hill area of the city. Actually, the route that I mentioned is only 18 miles so we doubled back to Mariposa (on 3 Street) to get our additional 2 miles. The weather was absolutely perfect (mid 60s) and a bit overcast, which is just how I like it. The usual hills at Fort Mason and up to GG weren't as tough as I remembered but still, wasn't easy by any means. And there were TONS of people out running and training, too. The Avon 2 Day Breast Cancer Walk was in full swing on the GG and it was tough dodging and weaving the pink-clad women (and some men). But to see so many people supporting such a great cause was really heartwarming. We also saw the Aids Marathon training group running and the Nike Women's Marathon training group along the route, among others. It was quite encouraging to see so many other runners out there and made me feel like part of something bigger than me.

We started our run a little before 7am and not sure exactly what time I finished but my Nike+ said that I ran 20 miles in 3:35 at about 10:45 pace. Which isn't the best time but I'm happy I finished the run. So at this point, I may not look like I'll be running a sub 4 hour marathon but I'm going to try my best to run it close to 4 hours as possible! By the way, I found out that in my age category, I need to run 3:40 marathon to qualify for Boston. Next year, when I go up to the next age category, I would have to run it under 3:45. That might be more doable...

As for the wedding cake, D must really really love me because he told me today that I could go with my new favorite cake maker Amy Peeples!! So we're going to Peeples Baking, afterall. No sheet cake. But, I may get a small grooms cake for D from his favorite bakery. It will be a nice surprise for him. :-)

20 Miles on the Bay Trail

0This past Saturday, I ran 20 miles with the SFM runners from Team Asha. This is the second time I've ran with them and again, it was really great to have the support other runners around me. I'm used to running alone or with my fiancé usually. But what's great about these guys is that they run about my pace and they are really encouraging. And they run for a great cause - to provide education to under-privileged children in India. This is what I found on their website, "Asha for Education is a non-profit organization on a mission to catalyze socio-economic change in India through education of under-privileged children." I found them through Augustus, who is a member of Team Asha. I randomly Googled for running teams in the South Bay and inadvertently came across Augustus' blog. I contacted him to see if I could join his running group a few weeks ago. My fiancé and i drove out to Sawyer Camp in San Mateo for our 16 miler. I've met a few more runners from Team Asha and I look forward to my runs with them. Most of them are Indian decent but they didn't mind me tagging along.

I tried to map my 20 miles on mapmyrun.com but because it was my first time running the trail, I had difficulty locating certain area of the run. So, here's the best version of my run: Bay Trail Maps

We started out at the Oracle campus in Redwood Shores, up the Bay Trail through Foster City, passing the San Mateo Bridge to Bay Side Park in Burlingame. Actually, we ran out to the 2 mile point and turned back, running another half a mile past our starting to point to get additional 5 miles. Then started again to get the rest of the 15 miles. I broke the cardinal rule of getting good rest the night before a long run. For whatever reason, I didn't go to bed until 1:30am and got up at 5:30am to drive down to Redwood Shores from El Cerrito. Yikes!! I was tired but once we got started running, it wasn't too bad. Sure, the usual aches and pains surfaced after mile 12 but having other runners encourage you and push you along, really helped. The bad thing about this trail is that there is hardly any water stops or restrooms. There was one at the starting point and where we turned around 7.5 mile mark at the Bay Side Park. I think I ran the 20 miles a little under 3 hours and 15 minutes. The trail was marked for the runners who were doing 11 miles that day so we had gauge by time and how fast we were running. overall, my guess is that I ran about 9:30 min/mile. Which really isn't bad at all.

Most of the trail is paved but there are some dirt trails along the way. But the view is great once the trail goes out to the edge of the Bay. Running under the San Mateo bridge was pretty cool, I have to say. Overall, it was a really good run. I did limp a little after from sheer exhaustion but other than that, recovery was quick.

My bachelorette party was the same night and as much as I was wiped out from the run, I gave it 100% on partying to the fullest.