Goin' to Alaska

Three Long Runs

Tomorrow we have the first of the three very long runs that culminate our training season. We'll start at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz, run along scenic West Cliff Drive to the Wharf and Beach/Boardwalk, and then out to the town of Capitola before turning around and retracing our steps. That's 18 miles!

After this weekend's run, we'll have two more 20-mile runs to do. These distances scared me my first season. I'm still anxious about it, as it takes about three hours and who knows what will happen. But, I just have to be confident of my training and show up and take care of business. I read that phrase in Runner's World. :-)

Tomorrow looks like a beautify day along the coast. It'll be pretty warm, with little wind. I'll carpool with Kirk, who is from my Wave, and we'll take off with the rest of the Wave 6 crowd. I'd better go get everything laid out for tomorrow morning, mix up my special drink, and select the "Gu for the day". I think I'll try some CarbBoom this time.

Wish me luck!

Anchorage Marathon Topology

So, I was running next to a woman at TNT Track workout tonight, and she told me she had run the Anchorage marathon last year. After general pleasantries about it, I asked her how hard the course was, particularly the hills. She said "well, you know Rancho? [Rancho San Antonio County Park] The course is like that." To which, I think, "Oh My Gosh"! Rancho to me is a perfect challenge for a 7-9 mile run. It has beautiful trails, cool trees, a little creek, and some wonderfully challenging hills. But to run 26 miles like that -- no way!

So, as soon as I got home, I Googled the course elevation and found this. Marathon Elevation Profile and Course Description. The Interactive Course Tour is actually really cool -- I recommend a look. From looking at this, the course doesn't look too bad. It is welcome that the second half of the course is almost all downhill.

So, the net of this is, it doesn't look as bad as Rancho and my anxiety is averted. :-)

Boston Marathon

Tomorrow is the world-famous Boston Marathon. It is a dream of mine to run it some day. However, it has very demanding qualification requirements. For men my age, you have to run a marathon in less than 3 hours 20 minutes. That is exactly one hour faster than I ran my first marathon! OK, qualifying is more of a fantasy than a dream, but if I trained harder, maybe hired a personal trainer, and had a perfect course and day ... ?

• Boston Marathon facts and figures
• ESPN.com - Idiot's Guide to the Boston Marathon

Weighty Woodside

Well, Coach said today would be the toughest run of the season, and I believe it. We'll run longer in coming weeks, but this diabolical course starts with climbing switchbacks through Huddart Park, then a long rolling stretch along Canada Road, before plunging into Edgewood Park around mile 10 for more tough climbing! It was a good workout both physically and mentally. I was exhausted coming off the last hills, but this was when Coach said we should try to run at our marathon race pace to prove to ourselves we could do it. I did it! A strong finish. My legs are wasted, but no knee pain, which is a big relief. Much of the course was on trails rather than roads, and these softer surfaces are a godsend

Talkin' 'bout the weather

We had the full spectrum of elements to train in today as well. It was kind of cold and windy at the start, then it drizzled, then the sun came out and it was warm, and then it rained for the rest of the run. It's fun to run in the rain! It makes you feel like a kid again.

Welcome!

I've been meaning to create a blog all season. Well, finally, it's week #11, I just sent in my income taxes (with two hours to spare) and here's Blog 2004!

Today we had a relatively easy track workout, in consideration of this Saturday's run. We're going to run in Woodside, through Huddart and Edgewood parks.

I remember these parks as my favorite runs from 2002, and I'm looking forward to the chance to run them again.