Following in Saturday’s footsteps, Sunday turned out to be a similarly fun and active day full of blogging friends and eating. A winning combination, in my book up. This morning was the SF Dolphin South End Runners’ 6-Hour Distance Classic, where runners complete as many 1-mile (slightly more, actually) loops around the lagoon at Crissy Field as they can in a six-hour time span. I had told myself that I HAD to do 18-20 miles today or my SF marathon chances were pretty shot. Due to injury, I hadn’t run more than 16 miles since Big Sur, which was… 10 weeks ago. Ouch. I think I was a little anxious about it (as I bonked on an 11.5-miler on Monday) and I woke up at 3am drenched in sweat. Oops. I might have not gotten up if I didn’t have a Great Harvest pre-run breakfast.
Cate picked me up and once we got there I felt better—minus the fact that I was freezing! This isn’t saying much at all, as I always seem to be freezing, but still. the clouds were heavy and the wind, while light, had a bite.
It was a really funny, anticlimactic start. This group is really casual and chill and does a lot of races for about a $3 entry fee, so it’s just a fun way to get running and racing. They said “GO!” and some people took off… but very few people are sprinting when they are planning on running six hours.
I walked the first loop to test out my leg. My last jog (Friday), I was pretty sure I was going to fall apart, so I wanted to be very careful.
After the first mile, I got jogging. And it ended up being a really fun day! I was really nervous about running one-mile loops, figuring it would be as monotonous and boring as hell, but not at all. It was nice scenery, Golden Gate Bridge on one half, and headed back towards the Marina on the other, and it was nice to basically think of it as just five minutes out, five minutes back, BAM! Another loop.
Here’s an extremely attractive photo of me courtesy of Aron at Runner’s Rambles. During my races, I usually look kind of freakishly happy in photos. Clearly here I was kind of hanging on for dear life. It happens 
The best part of all was the aid station. Sweet baby Jesus. They had tons of cookies, crackers, energy bars, fruit, chocolate-covered pretzels…
I had never taken in solid food (other than GU or gu chomps) during a long run, but I did this time because I was hungry and because why not, it’s not like I wasn’t taking walking breaks through the aid station anyways!
I also loved that I didn’t have to carry water. I think carrying a water bottle in my hand has been a huge problem on my runs.
During my run I managed to take in:
- several cups of Cytomax
- (tons of water)
- two mini ginger snaps
- two mini chocolate chip cookies
- two handfuls of peanut M&Ms
- a chunk of energy bar and a chunk of banana
- I actually felt really good, it was nice to have enough energy. I totally bonk during some of my long runs due to not having enough fuel, so this was interesting. AND most importantly, the loops flew by because I kept telling myself “in three more miles you get M&Ms.” “Two more miles and you get a cookie.” Strange, but it totally worked.
It’s funny how people’s fuel needs vary so much. Some people can run 20 on nothing. While I wish that was the case for me, I realize that I NEED calories—even though I often don’t feel like I need them, I feel so much better when I’m taking a lot in.
I was on the course for almost four hours including tons of stopping at the aid station, leaving the course to chat with friends, walking to the bathroom, etc. I was on the course for about 20 miles and ended up running just under 19 miles, which I was very happy with.
18.9 miles/9:55 pace
This was much better than I expected having not done a long run in a month and almost dying during an 11/12 miler last weekend! Nothing like Alyssa’s absolutely rocking 24-mile run but I’ll take what I can get at this point. 
I hung out with my new running and blogging friends for a bit afterwards and enjoyed perhaps the best post run snack I’ve ever had—a vegan donut courtesy of Alyssa from Pepples (Pebbles?) in the Ferry Building. It was to-die-for delicious. I am getting one the next chance I get.
But the real reward for making it through the run wasn’t the donut. Rather, I told myself if I made it through the run I could finally order…
A Garmin! I feel like a big girl now. I can’t wait for it to come and to test it out before San Francisco. At least I don’t have to worry about my stupid iPhone/nike GPS dying on me. I’ll still carry it, of course, to take pictures. Best excuse to walk in my book…
After the run, we headed over to Genki Ramen in the inner richmond. A bunch of bloggers came here last weekend and I was so sad to miss out. But I got my chance! I haven’t had ramen in YEARS (the whole Africa thing…) so I got to more than make up for it. Pretty much devoured the deliciousness.
And now I’m home procrastinating and continuing to devour everything in front of me. Clearly I have eaten enough to make up for my 19-miler today… and I’m still STARVING! My damn metabolism just kills me. Always. So. Hungry.
Anyways, I should probably do something productive now, like work OR (more likely) take a nap.
Have a great night everyone!
How was your Sunday?
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