Alameda Runners – Get After It!

Runners are posting race reports, sharing pictures and videos with friends while the City of Oakland enjoys the positive impact of the Oakland Running Festival (ORF).

Last year’s event attracted around 6,300 participants and left Corrigan Sports Enterprises (CSE) owing money from the inaugural event. However, the company’s efforts in Oakland will follow the same successful blue print as its Baltimore event that successfully expanded to more than 25,000 runners.

Both the half and full marathon courses showed beautiful scenery and parts of the City that many of us wouldn’t run through otherwise. For one weekend in late March, the City of Oakland will have one more event to look forward to that shows the support from the people.

C SE picked up the $775,000 tab — including around $100,000 for Oakland Police overtime — and the City of Oakland is expected to collect more than $2 million in revenue.

As someone who has seen the good and bad sides of Oakland, it was great to see the city come out in support of runners. I know visitors from outside the Bay Area think of Oakland only as a magnet for crime and violence, though for just one weekend all was forgiven. The two ladies on Mandela Parkway in West Oakland cheering for runners  “You are in West Oakland, West Oakland, Run, Run, Run…” and their local neighborhood was well-received among runners.

There were fans lining the street throughout most of the half marathon course, cheering and supporting us the entire run.

The Oakland Half Marathon last year was my first distance race, I had a lot of fun then and I had a great time again this year, so I look forward to the Oakland Running Festival 2012.

A big shout out to the Brown Sugar Cafe on Mandela Parkway for the excellent custom brownies made just for us runners.

Kudos to the medical volunteers from the Alameda County Medical Center, as they were a great asset for anyone needing medical attention. Immediately after finishing the half marathon yesterday, I started to feel a rather uneasy feeling in my stomach … an unexpected, miserable feeling most athletes have occasionally suffered through.

Oakland Running Officials had medical stations at the start line, and at miles 4, 6, 11, 15.5, 19, and 23, along with a medical tent at the finish line. The course also had EMTs on bikes to offer needed assistance throughout the course.

The staff I encountered at the finish line tent were extremely courteous and efficient, and were quick to help any runners that needed help.

I ate a banana and some type of delicious brownie pastry during the run, which proved to be a relatively bad idea. I conveniently got sick next to the medical tent — which was located just a few feet away from the finish line — and was given some water and Gatorade. The added fluids and electrolytes helped perk me up and I felt fine just a couple of minutes later, and was able to slip out the door.

I took a few seconds to drink the added fluids and let my legs relax after what was supposed to be an easy, relaxing 13.1 miles. After reassuring the EMT that I was sick from my own foolish behavior, and just needed to rest, he moved on to help others looking in significantly more dire shape.

The Kaiser Half marathon gained media attention for all of the wrong reasons — a runner collapsed and died before EMTs were able to get to the helpless runner. It was an unfortunate incident that continually shows the importance of event planning, which is something CSE obviously took into consideration.

Big crowd

Photos from today’s race can be found on Picasa.com/ted@alamedarunners.com
I carried my 2:15 pace sign for the half marathon again today.  Our group was a bit smaller this year but everyone was just as happy.  I had a lot of people coming up to me after the race to thank me for setting the pace.  They were not hanging out with us but they were following for the whole race.  The course layout had some minor changes but they were all good.  The biggest and best change was finishing on the street rather than an alley.  There was a bit of a cattle shoot after the finish line that had everyone getting cozy while trying to make it past the photographers.

It was nice to see the Brazen racing crew and regulars at today’s race.  Sam completed the marathon then went to work on about 10 minutes rest.  He is a machine.
In an effort to get this post up quickly, I am cutting it short.  It was great seeing all of my old friends and great meeting all of my new friends.

Instructions for running a half marathon in two hours and fifteen minutes.

Alamedated, that’s me, will be running a pace group to complete the 2011 Oakland half marathon in 2:15.  To complete the run in 2:15 we will have to run an approximate 2:10 pace.  Here is a picture of me and my sign.  It is not fancy but it will work.  Last year we finished at 2:15:37.  I was told we ran a 10:03 minute per mile pace.  I had people lined up to pace other groups but the event organizers did not get back to me when I requested permission to set up pace groups for more times.  That is okay.  I will be back with my 2:15 sign again this year.  Maybe I will make a snazzier sign.  I had a lot of fun last year and I hope to see you back again this year.

I will be there 30-45 minutes early.

I will be standing around mid pack.

We will be running at approximately 10:00 per mile to make up for lost time in the crowds.

We will start out by standing with space around us. The space will close up and people will pack in ahead of us.

It will take time to get to the start line. Do not worry, we will make it up.

If you get pushed away by the crowd, just keep the sign in sight and slowly catch up. It will get easy after the first couple of miles when the crowds start to disperse.

We will be behind schedule until mile 10 or 11.  Do not worry, we will make it.  It does not matter if we are 2 minutes late as long as we finish.

I will walk approximately 15 seconds at every water station.

Do not worry about missing a station, there are plenty.

If it is hot or I notice fatigued runners, I will instruct people to drink and slow down to accommodate fluid intake at the aid stations.

I do not have a speedometer so the mile times may vary but I will try to maintain a constant pace.

If you feel fatigued, slow down to an easy shuffle. Keep the sign in sight as long as possible.

If you are new to half marathons and want to speed up, stay with the group until mile 8 then slowly speed up.

Along with my sign, I will be carrying a camera. I will take some pictures along the way. I may hand the sign off to someone then dash ahead to take pictures.

I will post all pictures that are not blurry.

Good luck and have fun. I will post more instructions as I think of them.

alamedarunners.com
Mile    Time
0    0:00:00
1    0:10:15
2    0:20:30
3    0:30:45
4    0:41:00
5    0:51:15
6    1:01:30
7    1:11:45
8    1:22:00
9    1:32:15
10    1:42:30
11    1:52:45
12    2:03:00
13    2:13:15

The Oakland half marathon will take place March 27, 2011 at 9:00 am.  It is time to start training.  For those of you who are already running, keep doing so.  For those of you who have been procrastinating, now is the time to get started.

I will be carrying my 2:15 pace sign again this year.  Last year, we finished at 2:15:35.  The plan I am posting is for new runners who want to finish between 2-3 hours.  I will start out with some basics then get more detailed as we get closer to race day.

In my training plans, I usually increase for 3-4 weeks, take an easy week then repeat the cycle.  The December cycle is our strength cycle.  The first full week of December is easy, just get out and do it.  Get out for a 15-20 minute jog every day.  Take Friday off and run again on Saturday.  If you can’t jog the whole time, slow down to a shuffle or walk.  Try to jog but you want to go slowly.  You don’t want your lungs to burn at all during this phase.  If you feel pain from an injury, stop.  You may feel some pain from being tired but you should not feel foot, leg or knee pain.

Find something comfortable and get out and do it.  Your clothes do not need to be fancy, just comfortable.

Good luck to all of you runners in Sacramento this weekend.  I hope everyone is healthy and trained.  I am sitting at home envious of all the healthy people who are doing the run this year.

For the first timers, bring a throw away jacket for standing around in the start area.  Bring some gloves and a hat.  It is better to have and take it off than wish you had it.

Have fun all.

Today was another great event put on by Brazen Racing at Briones Park in the East Bay.  There were hills every where.  There were stunning views to go along with every hill.  I particularly enjoy running on the single track trails through the woods.  I hope I don’t get poison oak.  I thank the volunteers all through the course.  They were friendly and great.  Being from Alameda, I am not used to running in that heat.  The last two aid stations had sponges in a bucket of ice water that a friendly volunteer would happily squeeze on my head.  I took them up on the offer at both aid stations.

I had a good photo day today.  I wound up with two pages worth of pictures.  For those of you on the east coast and living in Europe, I highly recommend looking through the picture pages.  It gives you a good idea why we live in California in spite of the high cost of living and screwy politics.

I would like to give a shout out to Doctor Johanna Lelke from www.innersport.com for coming out to give out massages and treatment advice for our running injuries.  I am always amazed at how the trained professionals can find the sore spots just from getting general directions.  Thank you for being there.

If you’re looking to run for an extended period of time (in this case, six or 12 hours), this is the blog entry for you!  Our friends at Brazen Racing are hosting the Dirty Dozen Endurance Run at Point Pinole Regional Shoreline.

Runners can tackle the event solo, or have teams of two or three runners.  The event circles a 5K mile loop that is mainly dirt fire trails that is best described as a “gentle” course.  (Course info is available here).

If you’ve been thinking about participating in a similar event but don’t know if you can do it, I’d like to point you to this race tip from Brazen:

Few are expected to run without any break the whole time. Walk breaks are advised. Runners will also pass through the start/finish area with each loop and will have the chance to stock up on fuel, change shoes or clothing, visit friends, etc.

Here is a FAQ page for the event, and here is a link to the main page.

If you’ll have some friends and family close by, they can create an unofficial aid station just for you.

If you’re looking for a running race later this month, the Brazen Racing Bear Creek Half Marathon (10K/5K also available) event will take place on Saturday, June 26.

The event will take place in the East Bay Regional Park District’s Briones Regional Park.  I haven’t explored Briones before, but the course looks very challenging!  Alameda Runners will be represented by Ted, as I’ll be in the Sierra Nevada foothills for a wedding.

Brazen had this to say regarding its upcoming race:

The cut-off for regular registration is this Sunday (6/13).  This is also the deadline for guaranteed t-shirts, so if you want to be sure you get yours in the size you want, register before the end of Sunday.

Also, due to parking issues, the park has asked us to keep the number of participants more or less equal to our last race there (about 400).  Right now we are on track for that, but if we get a rush of sign-ups, we might have to shut down registration.  We’d hate to turn anyone away, so if you’re planning to run, we recommend signing up as soon as possible!

If you’re not quite ready for the course, Brazen still welcomes volunteers (my opinion about volunteers can be found here) for the race.

Brazen’s Bear Creek website is available here, with course info (looks like a tough day) available here.

The photo page is finally up.  I had a bit of a delay because I recently made the switch to Linux and I did not know how to use a photo editor that was really easy in the end.  This was a really fun event.  It was great to see all of the new people out on the trails this time around.  I am proud of you guys who just got out and did it.

I hope to see everyone at Bear creek in Briones on 6/26/10.