2015: San Francisco Half Marathon

As noted in my looking ahead post posted several weeks ago, I had registered for several running events in 2015. Unlike the 2014 edition of this event, I procrastinated much less and was far more disciplined in keeping up with eating, sleeping and working out routine — in spite of being somewhat sick during the first half of January. The decision to participate and do better in the 2015 edition of Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon, much like the 2014 edition of Madison Half Marathon, was finalized several strides before I had even finished the 2014 edition. All I knew then, as did I when I was approaching the finish line with clock ticking past 2:43:xx, was that I had to find ways to do better in 2015 edition — much much better than 2014, and that Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon, as it was in 2014, would be the first half marathon of 2015 calendar year.

Thanks in great part to the HPC Advisory Council, the Stanford Conference would, for the second year in a row, start a day after this half marathon event giving me an opportunity to redeem myself and get the new calendar year of running on a good footing, and experience the sunshine, a bit of freedom from the cold grips of winter and be disciplined and be a good ambassador for me, Michigan Tech and folks in computing in general. Having recently been ranked (or statistically elected) as the the #1 airport in the country for delays, I had to bid adieu to United Airlines and opt to fly out of either Minneapolis/St. Paul or Milwaukee via Southwest Airlines — depending on where in the country I was headed to.

Given that I was headed (sunny) California, choice was easy. It had the added benefit that I’d get to see/hang out with a number of dear friends I hadn’t seen in a while who live in Twin Cities, and pit stop in Black Cat Coffeehouse and Ashland Baking Company along the way. Some car trouble (very grateful to have found it the day before start of the journey than the day of) caused some unnecessary headache but my colleagues and kind folks in Michigan Tech Transportation did their magic and let me take a reliable automobile (with Michigan Tech decal too!). The drive to Twin Cities — thanks to students and participants in my UN5395 course that didn’t mind not having a class and were understanding of the weather related road closures, etc. — started early in the morning, and was smooth and uneventful. A short meeting with Mark and Linda south the cities soon led to hanging out and staying the night with Jess, Joe and Andrew north of the cities.

Being someone that likes to have a plan or at least some semblance of it, Southwest Airline’s choose your seat policy was something not very easy to become a fan of. I only needed to wait until the second leg of the journey from Denver, CO, to San Francisco, CA, to see the value in chance² (chance played a role even when I knew where I was sitting as I didn’t know who would sit next to me), and be the recipient of yet another unrewarded, unsolicited, undeserved act of kindness from a hitherto unknown person: the gentleman named Mike Sereda, hailing from Connecticut and working in Missouri while living in the Bay Area, that I struck up a conversation on my way into the plane offered to sit with me. Topics of conversation were quite all over the board and I ended up learning that he works with a recent graduate of Michigan Tech. When it turned to the purpose and duration of my visit and upon learning that I’d be running in this event, it took him no time — being a very prolific runner himself and a participant in this race for many many years — to offer me a ride to and from the race even though he lived midway between Palo Alto and Golden Gate Park.

Knowing the Bay Area and its transportation system fairly well and having reached SFO mid-morning, I chose to take public transportation from SFO to Palo Alto for a fraction of the cost instead of the usual and usually expensive cab ride. An easy check-in at the Cardinal Hotel was followed by a customary visit to Apple Store and a first meal in a diner once frequented by Steve Jobs and Bill Clinton. Scheduled meetings went on schedule for rest of the day, and the sunshine and warmth induced happiness in people’s face and that jump in their step turned out to be little too contagious. Deciding to give my plane legs a little jolt, and use the said warmth and sunshine (and the chance of not wearing more than a couple layers of clothing), I went for a short run — or at least I thought I was going on a short run.

Listening to the fantastic stories narrated in The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution — starting from, albeit with a short account of, Ada Lovelace — as I ran through the history-filled and familiar yet goosebumpy streets of Palo Alto, it was easy to lose track of space and time. And in doing so, the supposedly short run turned into approximately 10k at moderately decent pace. Dinner and hanging out with dear friends, Srichand and Anusha, in Redwood City was the other highlight of Friday evening proceedings. Waking up early on Saturday morning (in eastern time, thanks to jet lag or something like that) and having plenty of time before the meetings got underway, I decided to do one more short run. And just like the night before, I lost track of space and time yet again listening to the book and being wonderstruck through the aforementioned streets of Palo Alto and ended up running yet another ~10k at moderately decent pace. A valuable lesson came along the way (something that dear friend Andi ascertained a several days later): training in (difficult) conditions different than race area doesn’t necessarily translate to faster times in race, and neither does automatic shedding of extra layers of clothing.

Race day morning came much later compared to a year ago and the gentleman I met on plane was right on time to pick me up from the Apple Store shortly after 6:30 am. An uneventful drive to the vicinity of Golden Gate Park and a brief but successful search for a suitable parking lot led to walking/jogging about a mile to the start line. For one of the only times I remember doing so and I was/am very ashamed of doing so, I didn’t stand still for the rendition of the National Anthem. Weather conditions, compared to a year ago, were a few orders of magnitude better and near ideal: sunshine, gentle breeze (3 mph winds) and a near ideal temperature to run (+50-55 F).

Once the gun went off, the first mile or so was spent in weaving through a plethora of fellow runners and find my pace that matched the training, my current capacity and the prevailing weather conditions. I thought I managed a decent pace, good enough to earn a PR, through the first 8-9 miles. I did consume enough water and electrolytes at set intervals but started feeling quite dizzy starting about the 9 mile mark along the Great Highway right next to the Pacific Ocean. Fearing that I wouldn’t be able to run if I stopped, I just kept running at a very unsatisfactory pace of 10+ min/min for the next three miles or so. With one of the goals for the event — to keep every mile under the 9:00 min/mile — quickly carried away by the gentle Pacific breeze, I tried focusing on keeping the overall time under the 2:00:00 mark. Dizziness slowly went away but that one last hill into the finish chute still turned out to be my nemesis for the second year in a row — costing me both a PR and sub 2:00:00 finish.

A quick hug and chat with Diane Kotta, the lady who had helped me quite a bit the year before with registration and such, I picked up my goodie bag and started the slow but contemplative 2+ mile walk back to the car. The walk felt very long once the satisfaction of improving course/event PR by 42+ minutes from a year ago was soon taken over by the realization that the primary reason for missing just about every goal I had for the event was my lack of discipline and inability to not yield to temptation. Though hindsight was/is 20-20 and though there was no guarantee of it, I quite possibly would have not felt dizzy, not lost steam, kept my pace and earned just about every goal I had for the event had I not run two 10k within 36 hours of the race time.

Another uneventful ride back from the Golden Gate Park area to Palo Alto with the aforementioned gentleman saved me a lot of time compared to last year’s delirious call to the cab, cab ride and public transportation. Analyzing the transferred log from my trusted Garmin Forerunner 620 to the Garmin Connect Portal, and more importantly, chatting/texting back and forth with dear friends in the Yoop to not take the earning a PR too seriously, there were a few positives to take away from event and seemingly indisciplined runs before the race (i.e., results of my experiments with life):

1. Spicy food a day or two before the race isn’t that good of an idea, and that I should keep the diet about as close to what I have trained with. It’ll probably require some more research especially races that are away from home turf.
2. The average heart rate for any race longer than 10k usually was in upwards of 175 and for this one, it stayed below 170.
3. The training effect parameter too has been maxing out at 5.0 for any race longer than 10k, and for this one, it stayed around 4.5.
4. Should I end up with 1000 miles on December 31, 2015 like I dream about doing — instead of 988, I will have these two indisciplined runs to be thankful for.
5. The goals for the 2015 running season will require a tiny bit modification: rather than keeping every half marathon under 2:00:00, attempt to keep the average time for all half marathons under 2:00:00.

The next event of similar distance will involve a lap at the ground level of the Holy Lambeau Field and is about 100 days away. Hopefully, it’s plenty enough time to recover from any ill-effects and/or sickness along the way, experiment a little more with my life, learn to be a little more disciplined (at least the week before the race), earn a PR to keep The Ambassador agreement with dear friends Chelsea and Nils, and do my people proud.

The week after the event turned out to be a very very memorable and a humbling one: my Patriots pulled off a Super Bowl win, the conference went well, made very many new friends and hung out with ole friends, ran quite a bit, ate plenty of good food, met few legends in computing that I have been worshipping anywhere between 2 to 12 years, visited (and cried in) Computer History Museum as well as Intel Museum, and more. The return journey home was equally uneventful: choose your seat led met sit next to Nate Young, who stood in my dear friend Adam Manty‘s wedding many a moons ago; a stop to see dear friend Mahesh, Vinita and their recently born baby daughter, Kavi, and a walk along the mostly frozen Mississippi … before heading back to the Yoop listening to The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution. Happy to be home, and amidst my people.

Thanks be to

the rejections and opportunities life has brought my way, event folks (organizers, sponsors, volunteers, timers, law enforcement officials, photographers, fellow participants and spectators) and my family of good friends, mentors and coaches in and outside of my community for all the unexpected, undeserved and unrewarded acts of kindness and constant encouragement as well as offerings of constructive criticism to improve myself as a human and an athlete. I am eternally grateful to all those who let me train with them, who shared their meals and experiences with me, who helped keep me in good health, who helped me stay the course, and who cheered me on from home or along the course.