Alameda Runners – Get After It!

This is one of my favorite events.  I get excited every time I go out to Folsom to go prep for this race.  It may be because I have to go stay in a hotel for this one.  I am usually in good enough shape to run a half marathon at any time so I don’t know why I get excited about an event that is shorter than a training day.  I met SFMarathon from both Facebook and Dailymile.  It feels a bit awkward to chat with SFmarathon because she puts on such an awesome event.  I help out with some of the Brazen racing events so I have some idea what it takes to put on a race.  Small trail races with 600 runners and no road closures are hard to organize.  Putting on an event that closes major streets in a big city with 25,000 runners is another level.  She is probably working on permits for the next marathon before the current one even starts.

I showed up to the race early and got to watch a lot of people show up to the start area.  There were a lot of fit looking people showing up which is to be expected.  There were also a lot of people who looked like they were on the couch to half marathon in 4 months program.  I am sure a lot of them finished ahead of me but that is okay.  I was really excited for all of the people who were going to be stretched to their limits to finish this run.

The race used to start in two waves with the split at 2 hours.  I wanted to be in the tail end of wave one so I estimated 1:50.  When I got my bib, I found that I was in wave 2 of 3.  I went to the help table and had my wave changed to wave 1 which had a cutoff time of 1:45.  I know I can do a half in 1:45 so I started there.  When wave 1 was called to the start line, a bunch of people from waves 2 and 3 muscled their way up to the front.  They were all cleared out of the way by mile 3.  I did not have many people pass me and there was a big group of people running around the same pace for most of the race.

It is really odd to go out to the valley to run in 80 degree weather on October 30, 2011.  Since there is no fog the air is really dry.  Some of my buddies from the run club did the half marathon then added 7 more miles to the end of the run to get their long run in.  I added my miles yesterday to kid myself that I got the miles in for the week.  I hope I don’t pay for the short run next weekend.  My hope is that running a short run with little planning and no plan will help me in my quest for the marathon.

LN4B rating.  I really like running the LN4B.  It is not a big race but it is fun.  They do not have the amenities or family feel, like the Brazen races but it is still fun to get out for a run on a flat course every now and then.  They have great shirts and medals.  The shirt, I will wear.  The medal will wind up in a drawer unless something happens at the race to make it special.  Today was not a special day.