13 kilometers to the finish line

I am not exactly there yet. I have to complete a few more runs before the actual race and, of course, the race itself. But last Saturday's 18 mile run got me even closer to the marathon distance. I felt a little beaten up, the balls of my feet hurt and I was very tired for the rest of the day. But otherwise I'm fine. No knee or ankle pain. Lower back is silent. And I haven't heard from Achilles in a while. But I still don't like getting up at 5am on a Saturday. Although, this time I didn't really sleep that well so I had been awake for an hour before I had to get up. The upside of that was, once more, that I got to see the city like I don't see her very often. Thanks to daylight saving time, it was still dark, almost an hour before the sun was supposed to rise. As I was a little early, I stopped to take some pictures.

It took us some time until we got started. By that time my fingers and toes felt like icicles. But I have enough winter running experience to know that this won't last long once you got going. And so it was. Mile 2 to 4 ensured that we got warm quickly. Uphill on Tennessee Valley Road. And, if we needed a proof for how early it was, we met a Turkey in the middle of that road. He wasn't really sure what to do and kept running from one side of the road to the other. Which, in turn, made us run from one side of the road to the other as he seemed upset, spreading his feathers out and cocking his head back and forth. But, he was as silent as a you would expect a Turkey bird to be... Eventually, we managed to pass him and he calmed down and vanished into the bushes. Poor thing.


Further we went. Downhill towards Tennessee Beach. It was such a lovely morning. The sun already reached through the gaps in the hills, the grass and leaves were covered by a light mist and the downhill trail to the beach helped to recover from the previous hill. However, once we reached the beach we had to turn around and it was all uphill again.

The beach trail was the nicest part of the run. Once we got back to Sausalito, we ran back and forth on the flat sidewalk and bike/pedestrian path that runs from Sausalito to Tiburon and is frequented by cyclists, runners, and tourists. Fortunately, at this time of day, not that many tourists. Only athlete cyclists, not the "Bike the Bridge" dudes, who have never ridden a bicycle in their whole life but think that it's a good idea to start doing it in San Francisco. Only to post pictures of them crossing the Golden Gate bridge on a rented bicycle. I hope that the sum of their pleasure offsets the sum of annoyance they cause for all runners, bikers, car and motorcycle drivers as well as pedestrians.

Anyway, back to the run. From mile 9 it was mostly flat and hardly any shade. Hence, every water stop was more than welcome and I was, once again, happy to have my racerback shirt. Even though my roommate makes fun of me when I leave the house with it. "It's astonishing, what you are able to accomplish, considering your condition." is what he said when he saw me with the "hunchback" caused by the two liters of water on my back. I don't care. Being able to drink anytime I want to makes it worth it.

At mile 12 I spotted two of my friends on their bicycles. I knew that they wanted to go on a ride so I had been screening the passing cyclists. But with their jerseys, helmets, and sunglasses, they all look the same. So when I did recognize them and they managed to stop to give me a sweaty hug it gave me the boost that I needed at that rather boring but nevertheless exhausting part of the run. I'm really looking forward to the actual run. Having all those Team in Training members and maybe some friends, and Tracey who will be coaching runners on the course, should hopefully give me the energy I need to run the last painful miles.

Back at our starting point at mile 13, I got rid of superfluous clothing and fluids, had half a banana, and started the last 5 miles of my run. Initially, I thought I could just pretend that this was a short 5 mile run like I hadn't done the 13 miles before. This worked out pretty well. Until the first incline. Your body knows bloody well that you did not just start running but rather two hours ago and he does make sure that you do, too. (At this point I need to explain why I refer to my body as "him". Body in German is masculine. And, while this is certainly not true for mine, that's what I'm used to. And, honestly, he's a strong dude who can deal with some serious stuff :-)). Faced with that kind of resistance, I referred to one of my "How to get up that hill when your legs hurt like hell and the only thing you want to do is stop running, go home and sleep?" strategies. I turned up my music and started singing. What do I sing? Well, this strategy works with a wide range of music from The Carpenters to Foo Fighters. Singing while running not only distracts you from the effort but, more importantly, it helps you get all the oxygen you need. You focus on the lyrics and breathing becomes automatic. And, before you know it, you're on top of the hill (or "the Top of the World looking, down at creation...").

This time I had the opposite experience than during the last miles of my previous long run. My body was fine, nothing hurt really bad but I just could not get myself to run faster in order to increase my average speed. I also noticed, that I had relied on my own water supply too much and drank too much, too early. And, to make matters worse, I had to skip the second last water stop because it got pulled over by the police for not letting pedestrians crossing the street on a cross walk. Ha, those pedestrians were fine and far from being in any danger whatsoever. But this poor thirsty runner had to run another 1.5 miles before she was able to replenish with half a liter from very tiny cups... But that's very good to know for the race day, the real marathon.

And, finally, I made it. And thanks to a sprint on the last 200 meters, even managed to cut off a couple of seconds off my average speed but not enough to break the speed record in my running app. Broke all other possible records with that run, though :-).

26.2...kilometers

Last Saturday I got two miles closer to marathon distance! And closer to the marathon. 49 days is what the newly activated countdown in my running app tells me. It's a little disconcerting, seeing the seconds, minutes, hours, and days counting down. It's really coming up!

And again, when my alarm clock rang at 5am I did not feel like getting up and running for a couple of hours. I'd rather turned to the other side and slept for at least 5 more hours. But, but because it "hilft ja nix", is what we say in German, I got up and made myself a bowl of oatmeal. It was a particularly sad day which did not make getting up early any easier. My roommate had decided to euthanize his cat, Boris, who had been sick for a while and got recently diagnosed with cancer. I thought I had seen him for the last time the night before, because he tends to sleep in my roommate's room and his door was closed (because, as any reasonable person at that time on a Saturday he was still asleep). But when I looked up I saw Boris come into the kitchen and looking at me. So I gave him his last meal and said good bye forever. Which is such a hard thing to do. But that's another story.

And off I went to the meeting point, looking forward to running two and a half hours along San Francisco's waterfront. At first, though, I ran half a mile in the wrong direction. I'm really not good at following a marked trail. But then, we were supposed to add a one mile loop at the end of the run in order to get to 16 miles. Why not do it at the beginning. I noticed that I had not set my running app back to "miles" before I took off and now it was counting in kilometers. Which is so much more satisfying! By the time I got back to the start for the first water stop I was at 3.5km already. And when I started the ascend into Presidio Park, I had run 5km which used to be when I was done running. But now I was barely warmed up. The first hill is usually when I think that it was not a good idea to do this marathon thing. Your breath becomes faster, your legs remember their last workout and make sure you do, too, and you start repeating your mantra "I can do it, I can do it, I can do it" and keep running. But don't forget to look up and around you. Presidio Park received the first warmth of the recently risen sun. The sun beams were crawling through the branches and stems of the big Reds, keen on drying the morning mist and removing the pre sun rise cold to make room for a very lovely early spring day. The trees seem to look at you with a slightly amused raised eyebrow, not fully understanding why anyone would do this to themselves instead of just remain in the same place for all their lives, only moving vertically, never horizontally.

On the other side of the hill, the ocean appeared. Similar to last time, the pink-blue surface got more foggy towards the horizon but you could tell that it was just a matter of time until the sun would chase away the mist and clear up the sky to a perfect blue. Thinking these thoughts, and taking in those views, I didn't even realize that I had reached the peak and highest elevation of today's run and I happily descended back down, resting a little bit before the long flat part along the waterfront.

Back at the water stop I had reached the 10km mark. And it still felt great. It's amazing what happens to your body with the right amount of training. A previously daunting run like 10km feels like warm up, nothing hurts (yet) and your body wants more. And it got more. 16.2 kilometers more. Although, when I reached the Aquatic Park, I was tempted to ask one of the swimmers if they wanted to run my remaining miles while I'd swim for them. I did not feel like doing this when I returned the same way.

Further I ran along Fisherman's Wharf. I usually avoid that area but at that time of day, there were only a few tourists and Alcatraz visitors so it was less of an obstacle course than usual. The turning point was right under the Bay Bridge. You can see the bridge relatively early when you run along the Embarcardero. The fact that it is so huge makes it seem very close. But it's not. It was quite a lot of running until I spotted the arrow that told me to turn around. At that point, 18km, my legs, hips, and my lower back were hurting a little bit. My toes and feet, too. Breathing was fine and I felt like running for many more hours. But at this point, you notice how strong you really are. How strong the muscles are that lift your legs and support the areas of your body that feel most of the impact.

And, on top of everything, you notice how much your mind is able to convince your body that running such long distance is a good idea. You can practically hear them arguing...

Body: "Dude, can you explain to me again why I'm not in bed right now, sleeping in, relaxing from last night's party that I should have gone to?"
Mind: "We're here for a good cause. And look at this amazing view across the Bay and the Ocean. It's so much more beautiful at this time of day."
Body: "Nah, I can't see it. Feet, Hips, Lower Back, and Thighs would like to stop this nonsense right now and go for a beer and breakfast at that diner over there."
Mind: "Bud, it's only 8 more kilometers and it's for a good cause. And you will feel amazing once you're done. Think of everything you've accomplished so far! And remember how good you look in the mirror!"
Body: "True that, but right now I really don't want to do this anymore. Who cares if there are love handles and the pants are too tight. I can live with that. Can we stop running now and do what normal people do on Saturday mornings?"
Mind: "Shut up and keep running or I make you do Bar Method 7 times a week."
Body: "Okay, okay. No need for violence. Just 8 kilometers, I can do that. I can do that faster!"

And it does. It keeps running. Despite the pain. Somehow it finds some more resources, taps into them and actually begins to run faster. Until the next hill. Hills should be banned from the last 5 miles before the finish line. Or let's say 10. At last year's half marathon, there even was an overpass, read: STAIRS! on the last mile of the race. That's when Body says: "I don't care how many miles we've run so far. I'm done. Finish. Over and out. Mind, why don't you do the last mile?"

But this time, it was just 26.2 kilometers (16.3 miles), not miles. So Mind didn't have to do too much convicing work to get body to run the last few. I actually managed to run a little faster and decrease my minutes/mile ratio. And, finally, I was done! 9.34am on a Saturday and done with working out until Monday evening! Time to start crying about Boris, who had passed a way 4 minutes earlier.