Beautiful Night for a Race

The corporate challenge 3.5 mile race was held last night at Chrissy Field. 41 Employees from my company participated, some of them coming all the way from Sacramento. The race was organized pretty well, they had busses assigned to pick up people from all over the downtown area and transport them to the start and then drop them off again after the race. Our bus picked us up at 5:45pm and we were supposed to arrive by 6pm. That should have been perfect and would have provided 45 minutes to warm up. Of course, nobody factored in rush hour traffic in downtown San Francisco! Well we ended up getting there at 6:30pm!!! Only 15 minutes before the race! Naturally the port-o-potty's all had line-ups, just like they normally do just before the start of the race. Anyway, I didn't have much time to warm up so I did what I could and then ran to find my spot in the starting corral. There were about 5000 people running/walking this race, so making my way up to the 7 minute pace marker was a challenge and I couldn't get too much closer than that so thats where I started. Unfortunately this race was not chip timed, so the closer to the front the better. On a side note, if I do this race next year I will run from the office to the start of the race since it is only about 2 miles! Anyway, as I was making my way closer to the front, I bumped into a co-worker who was going to run a similiar pace so we both headed to the front together. He then told me that last years front runner for our company was probably closer to the front. I was hopping to spot her and hang with her for the race, but couldn't find her and as I said, it was too crowded to try to get closer.

The race started and the first few minutes was spent jockeying for position and trying to avoid the slower runners who started to far ahead. The course was beautiful, it started at Chrissy Field, headed east then looped around heading west towards the Golden Gate bridge. Since the race started at 6:45, the sun was starting to dip over the horizon, glowing behind the bridge, what a beautiful sight!

The course is almost entirely flat which is also nice, they only negative about the course is that for the entire second mile (and a bit more), you are running on a loose crushed stone path which kind of slows you down. The race was a lot of fun, I wasn't expecting to run too fast and I didn't. I was the second finisher from my company, the first finisher also won the most senior women executive prize, good for her! I lucked out though and ended up winning a 50$ gift card which my company was offering up for the fastest finisher. Since our fastest finisher was an HR executive, she didn't take it so I was next in line - lucky me :D

Back to AM Running

This week I started running in the mornings. I used to do this all the time before I changed my hours at the bank to start at 7am. Since I start at 9am now, I found that when I got home at 6:30 or 7pm, I wasn't really too excited about going back out to run. Especially after cycling 6 miles up hill into the wind on the way home! I actually did that a few times and found that my legs felt pretty much like cement when I started the run - which makes me admire all you triathaletes out there who do that in a race! So this week I ran Monday through Thursday at 6:30am. It's nice running in the mornings, I head down to the park and there are lots of other runners out and people walking their dogs. I've also noticed that there are lots of fitness groups that get together in the morning and are usually doing things like stretching, lunges and various other excercises, they also do some running. Seems like a good way to get out and get some excercise and I'm sure the group motivation really helps.

Well, the corporate challenge is on Wednesday and I'm not sure how I'll do since I haven't really put in too many hard workouts, so we'll see what happens. Should be a fun event, there will be 41 people from my company running and over 6000 total runners!

7:30's ???

So today for some strange reason I had a faboulus run! I really shouldn't have since I cycled about 60 miles this week and my legs were dead on Thursday and Friday. Why did I cycle 60 miles? Well, Monday Jim and I explored the city on bike which was bout 15 miles including some good long climbs and Tuesday through Friday I took my bike to work each day which is almost 12 miles for the round trip. The trip home from work is also uphill and into the wind, so it is a little more challenging than the drive in. Anyway, Thursday after work I was planning on getting in a quick tempo before heading home but it just wasn't happening, my legs were yelling at me! So I aborted the run and headed home on the bike. So Friday I decided that I better run in the morning before work otherwise I wouldn't get it done at all. That was a average/good run, nothing special. Today I assumed my legs would still be tired, but after running the first mile, I looked at my watch and I was at about a 7:40 pace. This was weird because I felt like I was running 8:40! Anyway, I ended up running 6 of the 8 miles at 7:30 pace and it felt great! I don't know why since I haven't been running fast lately except for a weekly tempo/interval workout. I have been doing tons of hills, so maybe that is starting to pay off. Maybe the cycling is helping too. Well, about a week and a half until the Corporate Challenge race, hopefully I continue to have good workouts and a good race!

What a GrandView!

On Monday morning I headed out for a run with my Sirius radio and no plan! I guess I was just going to run around the neighborhood to get some miles in. Anyway, I decided I should check out this mysterious hill not too far from my apartment. It's mysterious because it is not very wide and it kind of juts out of the surrounding landscape plus, there are some trees up there but just a few. So I ran up (I mean UP the hill) the road in the direction of this hill and quite easily located the bottom of the huge staircase that goes right to the top. I continued on running up the stairs....had to slow down a bit though as the repetitiveness of the stair climbing was making me dizzy. Anyway, finally reached the top!! WOW, this is the best view yet! You can see everything from downtown to the ocean, as far as Daly city, maybe even further! It was a perfectly clear day as well, so I could see so far into the horizon. This hill is called Grand View Park. I didn't have my camera, but here is a great shot. There is not much on top except for a bench or two, sand and trees. On the other side of the hill, there is another staircase and this one is completely tiled in a wonderful mosiac, check out these amazing pictures.

Unfortunately the camera is now broken due to a little mishap yesterday, but we are actively searching for a replacement and then Jim and I plan on heading up the hill to get some nice sunrise or sunset shots of our own!

The Polo Field

Today I went running through Golden Gate Park with Jim. We headed up to Stow Lake and ran around it before heading back. We split up and 7th and Lincoln and I headed back to the park. I made my way over to JFK drive which is closed to traffic on Sundays and ran West until Spreckles Lake. I heard a lot of cheering going on close by and decided to check out what was going on. I followed the noise over to the polo field which I had not been to before and was pleasantly surprised to find a nice dirt path surrounding it. The path is about 3/4 of a mile. This path is also elevated, if you make your way down to the field, there is a paved path surrounding the field. This was interesting as there were several people roller blading and cycling around it. Apparently it is a good spot to go to get some speed work in for cyclists. I think I will be going back there for some speed workouts.

Yesterday's run didn't work out so well...note to self: do not eat pizza 2 hours before running!

Spectacular!

On Saturday I headed out for a long run, I had mapped out a new route the night before. I planned on heading east, going around the panhandle then heading north to run around some neighborhoods that I haven't seen yet and then head back through Richmond then to the park to see what was going on at the Land's End concert.

The morning started out foggy but as I turned the corner to head east, the sky was a beautiful shade of blue! It was a perfect day for a run, sunny and about 60 or so.

I love these long weekend runs because it gives me a chance to do some exploring while getting in some running as well.


I ran up Broderick St. and then Divisidero St. to Vallejo St. and when I mapped out the route, I had no idea what I was in for. First of all, it was pretty hilly ... I didn't mind too much though since I am getting quite accustomed to running hills around here. The final block from Broadway to Vallejo was REALLY steep, almost unrunnable. When I reached the top though, the views were unbelievable!

You can see the Golden Gate bridge, Presidio, Alcatraz and the San Francisco Bay from there! The housing in that area is also beautiful, lots of mansions and really nice homes .. you know that kind with the perfectly manicured lawns! Anyway, I had planned on continuing all the way to the bay before turning around, but the downhill portion of the road I was on was REALLY steep and I would have probably had to walk down a good portion of it until it flattened out a bit. Instead, I ran around the neighborhood a bit and found this amazing park called Alta Plaza. This park has stunning views of the entire city and is definately a place that Jim and I will have to visit often!


I then headed back towards Golden Gate Park running through the Richmond area. This is not the best place to run because the streets are crowded in some areas and there is a lot of traffic. Eventually I made it back into the park and headed towards the polo fields to see what was going on since this weekend they were holding the largest concert ever held in the park lasting 3 days with tons of bands. The concert is called Outside Lands Fest, some of the bands included Radio Head, Tom Petty, Steve Winwood and Beck. What was really nice was that you could enjoy the music from outside the enclosed concert areas which alot of people were doing.

I finally headed back home and topped off the run with a stop at the smoothie place! Yum!

Cliff House

On Saturday I ran a little over twelve miles, I started at my place of course, then headed west on Irving. Irving is an interesting street, you can find great coffee shops, restaurants with all kinds of different foods like Sushi, Mexican, Korean, Chinese, Viatnamese, Italian, basically anything you have a taste for you will find. There are also many small grocery stores with fresh produce, some fun and wacky stores and many bargain shops. So running down Irving street is usually not boring. About 3/4 of a mile from the beach, bustling Irving turns into a quieter residential area with only a few restaurants around and a few other places like a surf shop and bicycle shop. I got to the beach and continued running north towards the Cliff House. Wow, what a beautiful view from up there! Well worth the climb! Just because I was running, I did not hesitate to stop and take in the beautiful views for a few mintues.

Continuing along, I then headed down the Lands End trail which runs along the coast and has beautiful sweeping views of the ocean and Golden Gate bridge. The trail is about 1.5 miles long and has a few obstacles like stairs going up and stairs going down as well as a couple of areas with sand on the trail. The trail comes out at El Camino Del Mar which runs into Sea Cliff Ave where China Beach is located. So I ran down to the beach, stopped to admire the view then headed back up the hill where I continued down 'Millionaire Row'. I guess that's the nick name for the homes on Sea Cliff and I can see why! Wow, they are all mansions with spectacular views of Golden Gate bridge! Apparently Robin Williams is supposed to live there...I didn't see him.

The rest of the run was nothing out of the ordinary, I just ran through the Richmond district, looped around the Panhandle then headed up the hill towards home. Overall a good run.