Kaiser Half Marathon - Feb 1, 2009

I had fond memories of the Kaiser half. This was the race where I broke the 2 hour barrier in 2008 and had decided to use it as a checkpoint/pace run with a month to go for Napa. I was also experimenting with a different taper strategy this time. I had run a 24 miler on Jan 24th (5 weeks to Napa), and would do 13.1 at Kaiser on Feb 1. This would be followed by a 18 miler on Feb 7th and then 13 and 6.

I had decided not to run Kaiser too hard (i.e. go for a PR) but instead run a consistent pace at marathon goal pace. Ram from the Rancho Rockers was also running this race (after his on-off hibernation in the winter). So, the three of us (Ram, Shyamala his wife, and me) left around 6 am to get to the start.

After a fairly uneventful ride up, we arrived at Great Highway (having decided to park near the finish line). We took the shuttle bus to the start and arrived around 7:15 or so (start was at 8 am). Ran into some other Asha runners there including Coach Tony who gave us a quick pep talk. It was pretty chilly and I had decided to keep 2 layers on and also thankfully had my gloves. We did a short warm up run and some quick stretching. Then we moved towards the start and I lined up between the 8 min/mile and 9 min/mile groups. After the national anthem, the gun sounded and we were off.

This was my first race with the Garmin 305 and I had set it on auto-lap every 1 mile (and also to show current, last lap, and average lap pace). I tried my best to rein in the adrenaline and kept to a 8:30 pace the first few miles. It took a while to get warmed up so I made sure I did not run too fast. After a few miles, Rajeev and Raj passed me and were looking strong (and turns out had really good runs). We went around the Golden Gate park and looped back to the start. Legs felt ok but a little tired.

We crossed the start area again around mile 6 or so and then ran towards the Great highway (which we reached around mile 7/8). I was still keeping an 8:35ish pace overall. We reached the Great Highway and I remembered last year's race where the rain and wind played havoc. Thankfully, this year had sunny skies and it was warming up nicely. I was making sure I took electrolytes at most water stops but I could feel myself starting to tire a bit. The 24 miler the previous weekend (Jan 24) had taken a toll, and I decided to pull back to around a 8:40-8:45 pace.

Reached the turnaround point on the Great Highway and headed back - 3 miles or so to go. The one thing I had noticed consistently was that the Garmin was off by around 0.1-0.2 miles by now (10.2 instead of 10 at the 10 mile marker). I kept plugging along, passing some people, and being passed by others :-) Finally passed mile 12 and tried to pick up the pace a bit. I was still averaging around 8:38 or so per mile.

We turned onto Fulton and up the small hill and finally within sight of the finish. Picked up the pace to around 7:30 and went past the finish line in 1:53:02 (PR was 1:51:30). The Garmin showed 13.32 miles! (off by 0.22 miles!). Turns out that several other people observed the same thing. So, this was either a mass co-ordinated Garmin malfunction, or the race organizers messing up!

Anyhoo, kept walking to the food area and picked up some Cliff Bars and water. Met up with Rajeev, Raj and others and chatted for a bit. Waited for Ram to finish and he did so in a new personal best! Picked up our sweat bags and walked back towards the parking area where Shyamala was waitng patiently - many thanks to her!

All in all, a good race and met my goal of treating this as a fast long run. The T-shirt this year was black (better than last year), but I guess the medal fell victim to the recession (no medal this year!).