Hello everyone!
Blog and email and gchat and facebook silence this week. Sucks but I’m going to have a nice long post about that later this week. Wanted to get a post up about my run today.
Today was one of THOSE runs where you are just sort of miserable and they totally knock your confidence and make you wonder how you ever LIKED running anyways but then they also make you think and realize what you did wrong. I set out this morning with a goal of running the first 14 miles of the California International Marathon (CIM) course as I was home in Granite Bay for the weekend. I got a ride to the Folsom Dam road with my mom to start my trek.
The run started on Auburn-Folsom and headed a mile south towards Oak Avenue. It started off okay—nothing special. Had to run on shoulders of a busy road, which was a bit sketch. Photo below is where I started the run. Awesome.
Finally I got to Oak and headed west.
Note to anyone attempting to preview this course: sidewalks make up a small percentage of the roads you run on. Be prepared to choose between running on a tiny shoulder against fast-paced traffic OR on a slightly larger one in the same direction as the cars. Enjoy the sidewalks while you have them!
Other thing I learned: the scenery is ass boring. I got excited when I passed this High School because we competed against them and I never knew where it was. #lame
I felt good the first four miles and despite attempting to practice long-run pace (slower than 9 minute pace, for sure) my first four averaged about 8:50. Then the heat started to get to me. For a girl who sweats a LOT and who is also accustomed to SF fog, it was HOT! With no shade. I finished my water bottle (20 oz) by mile 5. I had low-calorie gatorade with me too thanks to my parents, but it tasted like cough syrup (ew) and didn’t help the problem.
Around mile 6, right before I would take a left onto Fair Oaks Boulevard, I passed a dog part that smelled like, well, dog doo but there was a semi-functioning water fountain that let me fill my bottle halfway.
I headed back out to the road and soon took a left on Fair Oaks, where the course heads four miles south before heading into Fair Oaks Village.
This is where I started to feel REALLY crappy. I was clearly dehydrated and out of water. I passed a place called Tempo Park at 7 or so miles, desperate for a water fountain.
And it didn’t work! Okay, some water came out but I would have had to literally suck on the nozzle to get any water. At this point I called my dad and asked if he could pick me up down by where Fair Oaks hits Winding Way, the 10 mile course marker. I continued the last three miles and alternately felt good and at other times felt the need to walk every 0.2 miles. My father in the white minivan was a welcome sight. I ended up running just over 10 miles at right around a 9-minute pace. The run is not flat. It IS a fast course, but it is rollers the whole way.
Now this run felt like a huge failure for a number of reasons: I was headed out to do more than 13.1 for the first time since SFM, to get me excited about signing up for CIM (which I haven’t done yet), to get into the groove and meditate on my first solo long run since the marathon. To build confidence and momentum. Today was none of those things—rather, I felt like total crap! “Really, you can’t even run 10 miles at half-marathon pace? How are you going to run 26.2 again? This was supposed to be fun and easy!”
But with that being said it was a good run anyways for other reasons. I got double-digits in, and of course I was tired. I woke up at 7am today still exhausted, after 7 straight days of 5:15-5:30AM wakeup calls. I haven’t slept much in over a week. My stress levels have been through the roof. I haven’t been eating well. My hamstrings have been weak for three days following my personal training. NO WONDER I didn’t have a great run!
Some of those things I can control, some I can’t. But all I can do is work on improving the ones that I can. And to buy a CamelBak type of thing so I stop almost passing out on my runs. 
Actually signing up for the marathon may help, too.
Hope to post a lot this week. Have a great day everyone!
What was one of your weekend highlights?
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Ugh. Hate those kinds of runs. All you can do is try to focus on your good ones.
I love that you wrote about the course, though — plenty of people have warned me that although it’s net downhill, it doesn’t always feel like it because of all the rollers. As for the ass-boring-ness, I guess that’s why they tout the “spectacular finish in front of the historic California State Capitol” (and maybe why they’ve booked all the entertainment along the course).
Even a crappy 10 mile run is still 10 miles! Not to be annoyingly optimistic or anything. The weather and lack of water can have such a huge effect on your performance, not to mention your mental state and how you feel. Definitely, definitely invest in a CamelBak. I hate carrying water bottles while running; I need my hands free, and my CamelBak was a total life saver. I’m not sure I would have made it through marathon training without it, and I definitely wore it for the marathon too.
Beth recently posted..Pickled Serrano Peppers
I hate bad runs…But I love the learning curve that comes with them…I feel the personal growth is profound…
public water fountains make me queazy….I only had to use one once during my training this summer. I think I just threw up in my mouth a bit
Katie@Real Food Katie’s Way recently posted..Kale & Butternut Squash Casserole
Hey ten miles is still a success I say
And we all have off and on days and perhaps yesterday was just one of those off ones? Looks like it was pretty warm down in CA 
Sara K recently posted..No Room for Lethargy
I hate when I have bad runs…But it does make the good one all the better.
Considering CIM also. Maybe. Great job out there in the heat! And will you get a Nathan hydration already. Mine is my bff on the course!!
ah, so happy to have read this! thanks for getting out there and doing a course preview for us!
I hate the bad days, but they happen to everyone. 10 miles is still great, especially in the heat and with no water. So despite everything that was wrong with the run you still did it. There is always the next one.
Jillian recently posted..Beautiful weather with a side of bloody knee
I got a camelbak and love it! In Florida it is really easy to get dehydrated and holding a water bottle while running sucks! I used it for the first time on a 13 mile run and it was great and I considered it a needed investment.
Grace recently posted..If you want to be happy….
good call. i promised myself I’d buy one this week before my next half on saturday.
I was meaning to comment on this post a while back, but things escaped me. That is cool you ran on part of the CIM course! Sounds like it was a hot one out there.
I’m assuming that you wear a fuel belt while you run? There are a lot of choices for fuel belts out there, but I like this one that I got:
Amphipod trail endurance – it has a big pouch for gus and gels, and 2 10 ounce water bottles. So as long as you run into a water fountain every 4-6 miles or so, you will never run out of water. It doesn’t bounce much at all I I think, and it allows your hands to be free, I don’t like having anything in my hands while I run.
http://www.amphipod.com/products/hydration/hydration-belts/runlite-hydration-belts/runlite-trail-endurance
And I don’t mean to question a comment above, but wearing a camelback while running might result in a fair amount of bouncing on your back. I know they have camelbacks that are basically worn almost like a vest, I could see this maybe being an option. I guess I don’t like any sort of camelback/backpack while I run, just too much bouncing (and my back gets sweaty from the backpack).
Awesome you got a 24 hour training session too! I would be curious to hear what exercises they had you do.
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