CIM - 2011

I know it has been almost 2 months since this race but I needed to write this race report and I knew it would be emotional for me and kept putting it off...

I have dreams of running this race someday - I'm just a tad slower than I need to be though to stay in front of the rolling road openings so I have always been concerned about signing up. I'm going to do what I can this year and see if I can swing it in 2012! One great thing about it is race day falls very near my birthday! I signed up to run on a relay team and I was assigned to Leg #3 this year. Leg 3 is from right about the half way mark (mile 13ish to right after mile 20 - total mileage 7.1 miles). This year meant a lot to me to be out there - my son Matt was running his first full marathon and he has only been running about a year!

One challenge I had was I had never met the person that was doing leg 2 so I told her to look for me in my tutu and it's a good thing I did - I wasn't paying attention until she was standing right in front of me asking if I was Sabrina!

I started out running and I had been watching for Matt and was pretty sure he hadn't passed me so I thought he might pass me somewhere along my run and I was super excited! I would run some, walk some and keep looking behind me to see if I saw him coming! I saw my daughter in law at mile 15ish and she told me he was just behind me somewhere but I needed to keep moving so off I went! Our running group had an aid station at mile 17.5 and I stopped there to chit chat with my buddies and kept looking out for Matt. I was just getting ready to leave to aid station and told my friend to keep an eye out for him and tell him where I was when I saw his headed towards me! I was so excited! I started running with him not knowing if I was going to keep up or not since he is at least 1 1/2 minutes faster than me and was doing longer intervals than I'm used to but I figured I would give it a try! I ended up keeping up with him and ran 2 1/2 miles with him! We talked along the way and It was the greatest feeling in the world! I was all emotional anyway - I fought back tears when I first saw him because I knew he still had a long road ahead of him and of course being mom you kinda have to worry about him as well.

We passed the mile 20 marker and could see the relay point where I would leave Matt and stop and hand off to the person running leg 4 and Matt told me at that point "So you know - 703 days ago I almost died and here I am today running a marathon." I completely lost it and I handed off and knelt down in the road and cried. We are so lucky to have him still and he has such a great attitude about life. I hopped in my friends car and hightailed it to close to the start line - parked in the first spot I saw and ran almost a mile to get to about mile 25. His wife, Jess was running with him and he had hit a wall and had a couple of rough miles but when I saw him he looked better and only had a mile to go!

Mom and Son running in - this is right at mile 26 - the finish line is right around the corner!! - right after this he took off fast and I knelt down in the street and cried again!

My son Matt - Marathoner!!

Proud (and lucky!!) mom!!

Reflecting on racing in 2011

I looked back to see when my last post was and it's been a long time! - June 18th was the last race report I had posted!

There were a lot of races in 2011 - racing makes me happy as you can tell by this picture! (Either that or I need to cut back on the caffine before a race!)


July 2011 - Davis Moonlight Half Marathon - Great nighttime race with great volunteers and the upside of this one was my Brother and his family were in town so they got to see me race! My neice was at the finish line with flowers and it was so cool having them there! The nice thing about night running is when the crowd thins out you feel like you are the only one out there. it is just you and your thoughts.


August 2011 - Dirt Inspires Trail Half Marathon - The hardest race I have ever done (trails in the Santa Cruz mountains) - This raised the bar for me and introduced me to trail training and racing. A large group from our town went and stayed in a Hostel in Santa Cruz right by the boardwalk. We went to breakfast the next morning and found out the race was in the paper and this picture was there as well!
October was a month of races. I didn't plan for it to be that way - it just happened :)

First Half of October was Urban Cow - I had planned on trying for a person record (PR) and was on track to make that happen but then got calf cramps half way through (had been struggling with them for some time and hadn't figured out what was causing them) I missed my PR by 55 seconds. I had a great race though and even though I didn't make my goal I got to see lots of others PR!

My second half of October was Nike Woman's in San Francisco - This is the most amazing race and you don't just register for it. It is a lottery system so you are not guaranteed an entry. A friend of mine entered the lottery and wasn't choosen but wanted to do it SO bad! Her work had free entries and she didn't win those either. We went to a fun run with our local running store and they were giving away free entires and while her name wasn't choosen one of the ladies who was picked couldn't run the race and gave her entry to her! Before the run started we talked about how we would both win an entry and we would go together and have a BLAST. Well I left the empty handed - happy for my friend but sad I wouldn't be going. I had devised a plan though I was going to go and cheer her on! A week before the race the running store found they had one more entry to give away and they posted a contest on Faccebook. I had to go into the store and try on Nike gear (which I ended up buying a cute pair of shorts!) and you name went into a drawing. I'm pretty sure the poor guy that called me Saturday morning (a week before the race!) is now deaf in one ear! I was so excited - I couldn't wait to call my friend!
Here we are around mile 1 1/2 to 2! - She got me a Kaiser Thrive shirt to wear since they were one of the sponsors - they had a Kaiser Thrive mile and we got lots of cheers from the volunteers there!
Last half in October was Morgan Hill Half Marathon - The Hubster and I did this race last year as the full (His first - my second) we walked it and it was rainy and hilly! It was the inagural race so we have always talked about doing it every year so 5 years down the line we can say we have the medal from every year they have done it! This year we both did the half and in my mind I was still kinda mad about missing my PR by 56 seconds - but knew that PRing would be difficult because first my legs were tired from all the racing I had done the last month and secondly this course is very hilly! I decided to take it mile to mile and see how I feel! One other difference with the race was I ran without my Garmin. I had a watch so I knew how long I had been out there but if I wanted to figure out my average pace I would have to do the math. Turns out math is not something I can do in my head so I pretty much ran what felt comfortable, stuck with the intervals I was doing, power walked the uphills and took advantage of running the downhills. At mile marker 10 I realized I could possibly PR and the closer I got to the end I could tell I was definalty going to PR! I ended up beating my two year old PR by 3 minutes on a very hilly course!

My last Half Marathon was the Clarksburg Country Run in November - It was supposed to be a Half for me, I was doing the relay with a friend, but she couldn't do it so I did the half and enjoyed the scenery! It was beautiful!!

In addition to the Halves - there were 5K's, 10K's and other assorted races here and there - one in particular deserves its own post - so I will be back in the next couple of days to write that one!