Goin' to Alaska

Last Saturday was the pinnacle of our marathon training, the 20-mile run. Actually, for those of us training for Anchorage, it was our second 20-miler, since our season is a bit longer than our teammates'.

We ran from Coyote Hills Park in Fremont, then up the trail along Alameda Creek and back. Of course this is physically challenging, but the course is also more mentally challenging than nicer routes like Lovers Point along the coast. Alameda Creek is out and back and monotonous.

I really didn't want to run alone for three hours! As we started off with Wave 6, there were only 6-8 of us starting together. Two guys took off like rabbits right from the beginning. I looked around for who was running at about my pace, and saw Mike, from the Peninsula team. I'd met Mike on some of our long regional runs and we usually ended up running together for a time and finishing within a few minutes of each other.

For Saturday's run, we stayed together for the whole three hours, talking about our race plans, running in general, and our families and work. It was a very pleasant way to pass the miles! I'll be looking for him to see if we can run together in the marathon.

We ran "negative splits", as our coach asked us to do. That means we started at a slower pace (over 9 minutes/mile) and finished strong (a little under 8 minutes/mile). This is "smart running" and much preferable to going out to fast and suffering at the end!

I didn't feel too badly afterwards. My family drove up to Murphys to stay at a friend's new home and I did a lot of stretching and yoga over the weekend. I feel pretty good. It's time to get prepared for the big show.