Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon
What a successful day it was for me. Although the Kaiser was not an “A” race, it was still a big day on my calendar because for 2 years I have been trying to become strong enough to be able to run a sub 2 hour Half Marathon. Running is not easy for me, so to accomplish this goal would mean a lot to me. My last half Marathon had a time of 2:20:xx.
Allow me to share with you this picture of my journal entry leading up to the race.
For weeks leading up to 2/1/15 I would talk about “time and pace.” I had planned to write 1:59:59 on my hand. Then the day prior, I realized that I needed to focus on process and not outcome, especially since my leg was not in a happy place.
The official clock has me at 1:52:12 and my Garmin shows an average 8:30min/mile pace.
Allow the process to produce a good outcome. The Half Marathon experience is going down as a breakthrough race for me. Not just physically and performance wise, but also mental.
I am becoming more intelligent as an athlete and simultaneously more gracious with myself without giving up the ambitious drive to succeed.
The leg is doing great. I saw my friend and business partner Ken Look (Athletic Trainer) for treatment and getting me race ready: it worked! I taped up my legs with both Kinesiotape (vertically up the posterior tibialis) and white athletic tape horizontally around the top of the ankle and right before the calf muscle (Soleus) and put a compression sleeve around both legs.
I crossed the finish line with tears in my eyes due to the joy and pride I was experiencing. I felt and feel very proud of my accomplishment because I have put in a ton of hard work. This feels really good! Here a post race picture:-)
My legs are definitely still on fire, so there is much more adaptation that needs to occur.
What comes next:
Plan is to ride in Oceanside in a way that I can copy this run performance fairly close off of the bike. This means my bike will have to be slower, almost boring, but the focus will be to run strong with good form and foot speed.
These running legs need to catch up to my cycling legs!
Onward!
