San Lorenzo River Half Marathon Trail Race (06/13/2010)

I know what you guys are going to say about this.
I really should blamed that Coastal Trail Running Club which made this race too attractive , the river crossing part was so tempting that I even changed the distance from 10k to half marathon.
How could I miss that! It's trail running + river crossing we are talking about here.
Even though I just finished a half marathon race last weekend 460 miles away. Haha..

 

San Lorenzo River, it was located in Harvey West Park, Santa Cruz. It took us 40 mins
to get here, not very far from where I lived. Another good place to visit in the future.
Because of this river-crossing, I was thinking
for days about how was I going to pass the river smoothly without getting my running shoes wet, and getting my feet injured in the water. Initially, I planned to  pass the river barefooted. But since I had my Nathan backpack, I should be able to carry a flip-flop.
However, the night before the race day, out of no where, I changed my mind again and decided to bring my Crocs with me by using my running belt.
As you could see in the picture, I had my Nathan running backpack plus the Crocs on my belt. As it turned out, I was over-concerned ! I was the only one who brought extra shoes for the race, kind of sissy ? 



Race started.

As soon as the race started, my legs gave me the sign of fatigue right away.
My calf were so tight that I ran only about 4 miles, I felt like I was going to cramp already.
Therefore I kept trying to distract myself and paid my attention to the girls in front of me...


The distraction trick was kind of working, but somehow she started to walk on the first
hill of the route, well, I had to say good-bye to my little helper.







I can hardly catch my breath , but running in the red wood forest was so amazing. It made
you feel like you were in a "Zan" state , forgot all the trouble and just blended yourself into the forest. But, still, my legs was hurting me ....


Finally, the first downhill was ahead of me, I could even smell the river .. within seconds,
I was on a small beach, and ready to crossed the river.

So, I chose a rock to sit on, and started to take off my shoes. Runner 1, 2 jumped into
the water non-stop.
Then, I took out my Crocs and tied my running shoes around my neck. Runner 3, 4
jumped in the water non-stop.
I took out my camera, and started to walked slowly into the river. Runner 5, 6
arrived and walked right behind me. They were still in their running shoes.
After I crossed the river, I took out my towel , wiped my feet clean, and changed
my running shoes back. Runner 5, 6 passed me, and runner 7, 8, 9 just crossed the river.
Anyway, I was finally ready to go, more people were coming ..


Crossed the river.


other river-crossing pics.

The river-crossing part was so..so..cool, thank God I didn't run the 10K, or I would be
too bored to death. The water was deeper than it was described on the website, I was all wet from waist down, include my ipod !! Because the music suddenly stopped when I was half way cross the river. But it felt very good ~~~~
I can't remember when was I last time in the river like this.

I finally made it to the turn around point and was not dare to stop, cause I didn't want to lose the momentum.
My legs were shaking and started to getting heavier as I tried to step forward...
Yi abandoned me after we crossed the river on our way back, somehow he just could climb the uphill
non-stop while I could only try to walk to keep up.  However, the big difference from my previous races was, I didn't let anyone pass me this time. Just kept pushing myself, ran if I could, walk while I still could but never stopped and rested. I believed I even passed one guy on my way to finish line !!
Anyway, another great and fun race was collected.


Finally, finished time : 2:31:00

Some great runners were worth mentioned and showed my respect.  A group of people who were
in their 50's ran the 50KM race and finished the race in 8:25:20 !!!  Wow ~~~~

San Diego Rock N Roll Half Marathon (06/06/2010)

New personal record: 1:46:45
Overall standing: 670/13573
Man Age Group(35-39) : 75/668
Man Age(38) : 16



First of all, I needed to say "thank you" to : Jason and Janice, Allen and Ellen
and especial thanks to Paul who woke up at 3:00am and came with us at 4:00am.
It took unusual courage and will to do that...

The decision of making this long trip seemed to a distant past. I couldn't hardly remember.
Well, we did it anyway.

The Rock N Roll race series was always my favorite, it had the best race service
among all the races I've ever joined. Yes, best service meant a lot of free food
and free beer for runner !!
So, here I was, 460 miles from home, and of course, I  always carried extra bag with me in the race, ready for the post-race snacks and drinks.

Unlike the Rock N Roll San Jose, the arrangement in San Diego was a little complicated. Everyone (runner and family) was encouraged to park the car in Qualcomm stadium, and runner would take the shuttle to the starting line. Family would take Trolley train first, then take another shuttle to the finish line. That's why we needed to get up at 3:00am....

At first, I was really worried that my wife would need to take Allison to go all the trouble
by themselves to get to the finish line. Thank to Paul, who was willing to go with us
on the race day that I felt so relieved they could make it without any problem.
It made me feel a little bit guilty that we had to wake up the kid at 3:00am just for
her father's pleasure ...



Qualcomm Stadium, all the runners were lined up for shuttle


Just got off the bus


The starting line was in Balboa Park, there were more than 20,000 people for this race,
I could only say WOW, when I saw the countless people resting around the
starting line area, I had to be very careful not to step on the people on the ground!!


Starting Line rest area


people lined up waiting for massage

pre race massage ?? No kidding !! Wouldn't you fall asleep for that ?? I would, if I had one.
I preferred post race massage instead, but there was none.


People started to gather in the corral area. 




taking off!!The fun began, let's rock and roll....

The people-boost took effect again. Somehow, when a lot of people ran together,
there was a invisible force to push you faster.  My first 5 miles splits was around
7:45 min/mile, and I was not feeling too fast at all. Maybe it was the distraction or
something else. It was about 45 sec faster than my training speed.


Well, I had to admit, the speed was manageable, but couldn't say comfortable.
I could barely remember we ran into the downtown, and passed some museums, and parks.
All I remembered was I kept watching my speed, and controlled my running form.


The coolest part of this route was, we could actually run on the highway !!


We were running on high way


we were caught up by full marathoner lead group

The routes for full and half marathon were merged in here, this was the first time
I could personally see the lead elite runners this close !! Some crazy idea suddenly
came into my mind, I tried to catch up their speed, to see how fast they actually were.
Well ... as you could expect, it was very frustrated, it was like I was driving my Subaru and racing with a Lotus..
The Lotus kept going further, and I was still in the starting line, totally different league.



7 miles, still on the high way

After we got off the high way, around mile 10, I hit the "wall".  It was kind of feeling that
suddenly all my energy was drained away. Usually, my GU power should take effect, because
in the race, I took one around mile 4, and the second one around mile 9.
My legs were so heavy,  and I was panting heavily, feeling exhausted. The little devil started
to talk : You needed to stop, took a walk, no big deal ..
I hated this feeling, it was awful , but on the other hand, it was not a stranger to me.
Somehow, I just needed to let go my mind, and got it over with, and kept running, running.


Hey, where the hell was the beautiful view the official website promised me ?
It was mile 12 already, all I could see was gray sky, cars, and running people.


Mile 13, I was so exhausted and dragging myself. I didn't even notice my wife and Paul
were right beside me , taking this photo.




Springing to the finish line.



finish line looking back.



taking the trolley train back to stadium



on the train





Another Rock N Roll was collected !!!

Summary:
I found that my regular training distance was too short, it could carry me to the
finish line, but can't sustain my initial pace long enough. The speed after mile 10 was
terrible, it dropped to 8:50 ~ 9:00 min/mile.
I was a little disappointed about the race route, especially the half marathon, there was no beautiful view at all. It seemed all the best parts were in full marathon route.
In fact, they changed the route this year, last year's route was circling the mission bay
and passing two cross ocean bridges!!
Well, it gave me the reason to train for marathon again. Should I ?

Garmin GPS data:

Weekly Running Log -- Windy Hill Open Space Reserve -- 10 miles (05/30/2010)

Windy Hill Open Space was located in Portola Valley,
if you started from San Jose, took HWY 280 North, exit on Alpine Rd, headed south.
Turned right on Portola Rd, drived for about 1 miles, there was a small sign said :
"Windy Hill Open Space Reserve" , turned a shape left would be the parking log.


parking lot

It was a beautiful day when we arrived, unlike last time, pouring rain, dark cloud and we
were forced to retreate. As usual, we chose a biggest route to explore it. Here was our plan:

1. Ridge Trail
2. Eagle Trail
3. Razorback Ridge Trail
4. Lost Trail
5. Annerversity Trail
6. Spring Ridge Trail
7. Back to parking lot


starting point


On the Ridge Trail

The Ridge Trail was a slow asending dirt trail, very good for the warm up our legs and adjusted
the pace. However the sign was a little unclear, we didn't even know we were on the
Eagle Trail already, and the end of the Eagle Trail was the Alpine Rd. And we were totally
lost the direction, no sign, no people. On the left out of the Eagle Trail, there was an
entrance looked like a trail head. As far as I remembered, it was called Alpine Trail.
It was not even on the map !! All of sudden, I saw a lady jogging by, and I called her asap.
She said we should run along the Alpine Rd and turned right on a bridge. Wow..we were lucky,
it was really difficult to find for a first timer.


Yi was on the Eagle Trail


Alpine Rd was pretty narrow here


The bridge we made a right turn

After we crossed the bridge, the trail head for the Razorback Ridge Trail was on the right
hand side of the road, still, no sign, we just wild guessed, and we were right !!


Yi lead the run


Now, the fun part begain , it was a continuous 2.5 miles uphill, just like its name,
the trail was single track, zig-zagging into the oak forest, we were like two mountain lions,
quietly cruising through our territory. The only sounds was the sound of our gasping,
and crashing of the fallen leaf under our foot.


Some unknown blue flowers on the trail side.


A big log


We could have made it to the top, if I didn't call Yi to take the picture.


top of the Razorback Ridge Trail, it was HWY 35

Somehow we missed the sign of the Lost Trail, and continued another 0.4 mile to the
entrance on the HWY 35. So we had to turn back and found the Lost Trail.
On the Lost Trail, the trail started to break out of the wood, we could see the whole
valley on the right side of the trail.


On the Lost Trail


Valley view

Gradually, the high grass replaced the oak trees on the trial, I guessed we must have reached the tree line. The scene started to change, everything was so clear out here. We almost forgot
the pain and tireness on the Razorback Ridge Trail, and caught some breath while enjoying the view. The grass was so tall that we could totally disappear while running into the trail.
It's another hightlight to me in this place. Very special experience...






Yi was disappeared in the trail


The tall grass

Then, we reached another entrance on the HWY35 of the reserve.


Another HWY35 entrace

We didn't know there was a summit view until we got here, just a little detour from
Annerversity Trail, there was a summit view waiting for us.How could we missed this..
No second thought, we headed to the summit to collect another good moment.


The summit was ahead.


Yi and some hikers


The summit view


Another peak of the park.


We were taking the Spring Ridge Trail down.

The Spring Ridge Trail was a fast and wide open downhill. By the time of our desending, the sun was up high and big. We saw a lot of hikers taking uphill from here, it's good we made a right choice not to climb from here. However, it was just beautiful, nothing more...




Summary:
Distance: 10.6 miles
Time: 1:57:27
Elevation Gain : 2027 ft



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So far, I think it's the top 3 open space reserves we've ever been. Hopefully, we could
come back here soon..but wait, there are still a lot more for us to explore !!

Allison 又耍寶了

Allison跟媽媽去買菜，看到一個阿姨從超市走出來，
Allison說：媽媽，你看，有個 uncle 從超市走出來耶
媽媽說： 那個是阿姨，不是 uncle
Allison說： 是阿姨，不是uncle
媽媽：恩， Allison說對了，好乖。

結果，當媽媽帶著Allison跟這位阿姨擦身而過的時候，
Allison 突然用手指著阿姨說：媽媽，你看，這是一個阿姨，不是uncle啦。

BTW, 他們去的是

---- 華人超市

Allison 的瘋言瘋行

你如果問Allison 你是 "青番"(台語) 還是 "紅番" 她會跟你說她是紅番....


Allison 只要看到天氣好，就會要求去公園玩，所以每次媽媽去保母家接她的時候，
都會先去公園，然後再回來，但是，每次只要一去，就很難把她帶回家，
一開始，媽媽會說，你看，別的小朋友都回家了，所以我們也要回家了，
她都會說：我不要，我還要玩，（因為沒人跟她搶溜滑梯，可以玩得更起勁)

後來，媽媽會說，你看太陽快下山了，天黑的路燈就會開了，所以我們要趕快回家，
（因為Allison很怕路燈，別問我為什麼，我們沒人知道)
這招有點用，但是現在可不行，因為太陽8：30PM以後才會下山，所以媽媽只好用更理性的方法
想要跟Allison講道理
於是，媽媽說，Allsion媽媽再給你玩三次，然後我們就得回家囉，
Allison就說，好....

於是溜了兩次之後，媽媽正高興得等著她去溜第三次，沒想到這時候她說，

我要先去玩沙子，等一下再來溜.....

留下媽媽一個人在溜滑梯旁邊苦思，等下怎麼辦才好。.....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

因為Allison 不聽話，
媽媽叫Allison去罰站，結果， Allison就站在牆壁前，扭來扭去不站好，
接著開始摳牆壁上的小洞，
不准摳，妳給我站好，妳現在是在罰站，知道嗎？
罰站是什麼？
罰站就是妳不聽話，要給妳懲罰，
懲罰是什麼？
懲罰就是罰站？
那罰站是什麼？
總之，妳給我站好，不准摳牆壁
等了一會兒，
媽媽，妳幹嗎那麼生氣哩？
媽媽已經氣得說不出話來了，
10分鐘之後，
媽媽說，好了Allison來洗澡，
可是，我在罰站耶，我不能洗澡。
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

講到洗澡，有一次， Allison就是不肯去洗澡，
因為前一天已經沒有洗了，所以今天絕對不能妥協，
結果光是要進浴室，就得五花大綁，
進了浴室，為了不讓我們脫他的衣服，他整個人像一隻無尾熊一樣，緊緊地抓住地板上的地毯，
一直尖叫，不要，不要
兩個大人花了好一番功夫才把他跟地毯分開，然後把衣服脫下來，
直接抓到浴缸裡沖水
根本還沒碰到水，他就一直叫，好燙好燙，我不要洗澡
水都還沒開哩，叫什麼叫
好不容易在一陣混亂中洗完澡了，
我就說，好啦，洗好啦，不是很舒服嗎？
你可以出去玩了，
他居然說，他不要出去，他還沒洗好，
我說洗好了，可以出去了，
結果居然又開始尖叫，我還要洗，我還要洗，
所以這次又抓著蓮蓬頭不放，光著身體全身濕濕的，又很難抓住,水也到處亂噴...
到最後，還得要又幫他洗一次澡，這下子他才甘願說，他洗好了，他是乖寶貝，可以出去了。
我們兩個大人已經都不知道該說什麼才好，整間浴室都是水....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Allison 每次看到是大太陽的日子，他就一定要戴太陽眼鏡，
有一次忘了帶，到了保母家門口才發現，居然在車上吵著要媽媽把車子開回家拿，
抓著car seat的安全帶，不肯讓媽媽把她抱下來...
媽媽只好來硬的，硬是把他抓下車，好不容易才把車門關上，
這小鬼居然就抓著車子的門把，整個人貼在車門上不肯離開，
然後繼續他的絕招，尖叫，
我要太陽眼鏡，我要太陽眼鏡，
到最後媽媽受不了了，
只好說：妳看，阿姨在吃什麼好吃的阿，妳要不要去看看，
他安靜了幾秒鐘，想了想，馬上放開手說，好，我要吃，
直接跑到保母家，大叫
阿姨，妳在吃什麼，我要吃，我也要吃

Horseshoe Lake half marathon race report (05/23/2010)

Tim, Me, and Yi.

Another great trail race I joined this weekend.
The race was actually located in Skyline Ridge Open Space Reserve
I was kind of worry about the weather. By far, it was totally unpredictable.
Two days before the race, we were still have a lot of rain, and it was almost June!!
Not to mention the temperature was around 40F at night. It seemed like we have 100 days in Feb this year.
Fortunately, the cloud went away on Saturday, and we had a no cloud clear sky Sunday.

In order to get a 10% off group discount, we invited our old friend, Tim,, to join us. Tim usually focused on road running, he liked to run marathon on the road. It's good he decided to join us this time for some trail running, it did help on his training as well.

More than 200 people joined this race, it was a sold out race. The trail running did getting more and more popular. I was really glad to see that.




people were checking in.

8:20am, people started to gather around. The route was a little bit different from before.
it had 9 miles route, and a 5 miles route. For people who ran 5 miles, they would start at
the other direction, for the rest of the people, they would start at the 9 miles route first.
Then continue the 5 miles loop, if you were running half/full marathon. Or came back to starting point if you were running 9 miles race.


everyone was gathering

At 8:30am, the race started, the trick of trail running was, if you wanna run fast, you had to get ahead of the crowded people before the group entering the trail. Because usually the trail was single track and there was limited space to pass the person in front of you, not to mention to adjust your own pace with some laggers ahead. Well, unless it happened to be a hot girl, it was another story.



Tim said, "hey man, it's half marathon, we should run slower in the beginning".
My experience was, if you ran slower, it would be difficult to catch up, somehow your mind and strength would wear out, especially your mind would start to tell you to slow down or even to walk.
So I just keep my pace steady and stayed close to the person in front of me. Right after we entered the trail,
it was so narrow and the group was forced to become single entry mode, and when we hit the first hill, the traffic started to jam. Tim started to walk right away, but I felt I could still breath smoothly, I had to leave him behind.
What I liked about this trail was, it was not terribly steep, and all the hills were runnable to me.
 It was also a perfect weather for a race, a lot of sunshine, but cold wind, low temperature. All the good factors added some points to this race and made it very enjoyable. At some point I almost forgot I was in a race.



Because the two routes are all go-and-return, it was not easy to get lost and you could always see a lot of people on the trail. Personally, I liked this arrangement better than
a loop route. At least, I had a chance to see people's face, not just their butts.



people I met on my way back.

The first aid station was also the returning point, this was the only place I saw Yi, then he was out of my sight again. He was running 9 miles only, but I still had another hill to climb. I had to control my pace. I took a breath here and saw more people coming behind me, okay, pressure on..
got to take off again.





I started to feel tired on my way back, it seemed the GU hadn't taken effect, this was the critical moment for me, my brain started to tell me to stop, take a break. In fact, this was not true, I could still run, just I needed to hang on a little bit longer. Then, out of nowhere, I could feel the energy to keep on running again. I called it GU magic.

 It took me about 1:23:47 to finish the first loop. the second loop was even steeper. Now I already got used to the 150/min heart beat and switched to another gear. Thanks to the cold weather, the last 4.8 miles was almost under the sun. The view was fabulous, single track climb into the forest, down to a lake side. After entering a small tunnel, it was another open space called: Russian Ridge.



The trail became wider here, but a little bit rocky. With some beautiful wild flowers on the side
, rolling green hill, and blue sky. I couldn't ask for more in this race. The return point was around 2/3 of the hill, to tell the truth, I was relief when I saw the turn around sign. If it was on the hill top, I would have started to walk. I met Tim on my way down the hill. He was still smiling.....haha..
good spirit.




on my way down.

Down hill was not all that easy, I used a lot of energy to break and my legs started to shake.
A little cramping on my right calf forced me to slow down, and this costed me a lot.
I was passed by 3-4 people. And finally, i saw the parking lot, the last down hill, I just let the gravity took me to the finish line.

Final time: 2:15:57 . Number 5 in my age group.


me running to the finish line.

The trail was located in Sky Ridge Open Space Reserve. I definitely will come back here to run again.




--
Sent from my mobile device

Allison 的童言童語

剛買腳踏車回來的幾個禮拜，Allison還在蜜月期,有一次她又吵著要去騎腳踏車，
老婆之前把腳踏車放在後院的落地窗旁邊，而沒有放在車庫，
Allison剛出去的時候沒找到她的愛車，
就很著急的樣子，後來老婆才指著牆角說，你的車車在這裡啦，
她居然一副看到情人的樣子，衝上去抱著她的車子用一種很噁心的口氣說：
公主（他都叫她的車子公主）
你怎麼在這裡呢？（意思就是怪她媽媽沒把車子收好），
我找你找好久都找不到耶（根本就只有10秒鐘）
我好想你喔，公主。

最近呢，我問她，你要不要去後院騎你的公主阿？
她都說，我不想要騎耶，我已經不想公主了，我現在要玩黏土....
看來她的公主已經被打入冷宮了。

Allison 很喜歡一個節目，就是有一隻紫色的恐龍叫做Barney
我們去圖書館借了CD回來給她聽，她每次都會很高興地跟著一起唱歌跳舞
而且她很厲害的就是每一首歌都記得，連順序都記得很清楚，
以前她會等著CD唱完，然後要我們再放一次，
最近不知道是哪根筋不對，
每次到了最後一首的時候，她就會跑去打音響，說：
Barney 你不要走啦，你還要再唱一次，我還要聽啦。

Allison越來越不喜歡吃菜，每次吃飯的時候，都是碗裡一堆菜沒吃，
然後拼命夾盤子裡的肉吃，所以每次都惹得我們很生氣。
有一次，她看到我的碗裡有很多菜，她突然問，爸爸，你的碗裡怎麼那麼多菜菜呢？
平常，我們的回答都是，你要多吃菜菜，賽賽的時候，屁股才不會痛痛。
結果那天我就稍微作弄她一下，我就說，
因為爸爸姓蔡阿，所以喜歡吃菜，你也姓蔡，所以你也要多吃菜菜喔，
結果Allison說，可是，我不想要姓蔡耶，
這時候她媽聽了大喜，跟著插嘴說，喔，那你想跟媽媽姓許囉？
挖哩，
沒想到Allison想了想， 小聲地說，可是我想要姓 Pizza ...