A Great Weekend and Half Marathon

Since my buddy Saba blogged about it, I thought I would give another running perspective from my Silicon Valley Half Marathon experience. High school buddy, Alison, flew in from Iowa to join in the experience. I was super glad to have two of my best girlfriends (and one of their fantastic hubbies) there on an excellent day. YAY! As the two of you who read my blog know, this was my second 13.1 mile race. The first I ran in Iowa with Alison in June.

It was very interesting starting out in the dark at 7:00 am. Unfortunately they didn't find someone to sing the national anthem and blared the over-played Whitney Houston one from the loud speaker. I even know the race organizer, but didn't think that they wouldn't find a suitable high school student, otherwise, I would have offered my services or the services of another find Silicon Valley musician or musicians. (He's getting an email from me.)

I was amazed that I wasn't having my usual ankle/shin-splint trouble during the first 4 miles, like I usually do. When I got to Willow Glen without pain, I got pretty excited that maybe those "sportlegs" pills I took did the trick. It could have also been the stretching, but I'm not sure.

Like Saba, I was thrilled to run on the Los Gatos Creek Trail (WORD to the LGCT!) because it's also my usual training grounds. It was fantastic to know exactly how many miles I had until such-n-such a landmark. I try to people watch when running because it makes the time go faster. There was a girl dressed up like a banana, and another with her butt completely hanging out of her spandex running shorts. I decided I felt pretty good, so I passed banana girl and butt crack girl. (If someone's butt crack isn't enough to make you want to speed up or slow down, I don't know what is.)

I saw SaBa's hubby and the CoDo at Campbell Park. I was very excited to see them!

I was already aware of the first, short, but very steep hill on the trail. As we got to the hill I clapped my hands and shouted, "Yes! I love this hill." I looked behind me briefly to see that others had a look of pain (or perhaps disgust) at this comment, and I felt a little silly about it, but I trudged on. It's not the hills I mind so much as finishing the hill. There is that slowing down period after the hill where you are catching your breath that is really uncomfortable.

At Los Gatos Creek Park I noticed a couple of people using the port-o-potties and I was really glad that I didn't need to use them too. Onward! At mile 6 I felt like a champion and I thought to myself "I could keep up this pace for the next hour, no problem..."

I think mile 8, 9 and 10 were difficult for me because I pushed through 6 and 7, but now I wasn't feeling too hot. I honestly don't remember much from the Vasona dam until the end of the park except thinking that Christmas lights in green grass still looks really strange to me.

There was a really cute guy in blue shorts who I kept passing, then being passed by. It was a fun game, but he really started to take off after mile 10, and I thought, "Oh well, he's probably married," as he went by for the last time. I had a little day dream about us finishing together and it showing up in our finish line picture, but I didn't want to kill myself. He probably would have just been pissed if he was beat by a girl. I just let him win. (Ha ha ha I slay me.)

The bridge over 17 to Los Gatos High School almost ruined my knees. That was the worst surface of the entire race.

I enjoyed that they made you circle the track before heading to the finish line. Not only is the track a boingy, fantastic running surface, it also makes you kind of feel like a champion. This is also the place where the full marathon runners turn around, and I remembered thinking how glad I was that I didn't have to turn around and go back.

I would also like to compliment the announcer who said almost everyone's name at the finish line. That was special.

After the race I got to eat eggs benedict with two of my best girlfriends, and best girfriend hubby, and it was awesome. Here's to our next race, ladies!