SB - VW

Last night Janet and I raced up to SF in the SB-VW aka "Berry". We had a great time catching up about work, vacations, running, dogs and just life. This was Janet's first Tuesday practice since back in January when she injured her foot. We were both apprehensive of the sets of 1200 - 300 that were on the schedule BUT we had many teammates there to keep us motivated and distracted from the pain. We both were pleased with our workout then loaded the VW back up for a nice drive home. We look forward to having a full car next week in anticipation of G2 and others joining us.

The Graduate

Big news: Our dog Murphy just graduated from Canine College!  We are very proud of her.  We are bummed that we forgot to show off her high five when she was accepting her diploma, but we will have to save that for her graduation from the intermediate class.  

Race Report: Wharf to Wharf (101 is the loneliest number...)

It was nice to be "back in the saddle" again and racing with the Impalas today at the Wharf to Wharf in beautiful Santa Cruz. My pre-race highlight was wearing my Impala uniform which I received last year while I was pregnant. At the time, I could not even squeeze into it, but having it in my closet was a motivator to get into racing shape again after the baby was born.

It was a chilly beach morning with perfect race weather. High 50's at the start. It was also a rare occasion for Paul and I to run together, so we dropped the kids with my parents and enjoyed a morning coffee stop before heading down to Santa Cruz. We didn't anticipate race traffic and ended up parking on a side street ~2 miles from the start. We did our 2 mile warm-up jog, arriving at the start just about 5 minutes before the gun went off. Phew!

Having come off of a 22-minute 5k in April, I really wasn't sure what to expect. My strategy was to start near the front, settle into a 7:30 pace and then pick it up if I felt good after 3 miles. Since I was not a contender for awards or honors, my goal was to run conservatively and finish sub-45. Luckily, Paul was really flexible in his approach to racing and his strategy was to stick with me whatever pace I ended up running.

The first mile was predictably fast and I settled in to a 7:20-ish pace for the next two, coming through the half at 21:45. Comfortably ahead of my 45:00 goal pace! We picked it up a bit in the 2nd half, but I didn't really let myself go until the last mile and really picked it up the last 200 when I could finally see the finish line. As I sprinted across the finish line, I was thrilled with my negative split and my finish time of 42:20-ish. The last mile was 6:30 pace. Paul finished right next to me, stride for stride. Hooray!

It was almost the perfect ending to my race story. Until I was directed to the "women's" finish chute and handed a card. Not sure what this was. Looked down and it said "101" and my heart sank! I had no idea that I was so close to finishing in the Top 100...it was not even on my radar.

Still in a happy/frustrated/confused daze, I followed number 99 and 100 to the post-race table and the lady gave me a Top 100 jacket even though my card said 101. I must have had a look on my face that elicited her sympathy!

Anyway, the moral is to always give it your all, every place counts! (How could I forget this, which is practically the XC mantra, after 3 years as XC captain?)

SBP taking us to SF

G2 and I took a ride up in the SBP (south bay prius) to do the workout last night. We had great conversation both ways and completed a solid workout. The workout was up/down mile repeats. We each completed four and were pleased with the outcomes. Hopefully this is a sign that the SB impalas are back in action again!

Trans Tahoe Swim

On Saturday July 19th I swam on the "Happy Swimmers" relay group in the Trans Tahoe swim. My team included 6 swimmers consisting of my mom, myself and four of our friends. It was quite an event, consisting of 155 teams, many with past olympians. Each swimmer started by swimming 30 min a piece (a handoff took place in the water with a high five), then we each swan 15 min and finally each swan 10 min. We completed the 11.5 mile relay in 5.5 hours, a bit behind the winning team (who finished right around 3 hours with an all male powerhouse team), but we definetly had more fun and we did beat one of the teams from Australia. Attached is a team photo which includes all 6 "Happy Swimmers" and Captain Steve, plus a shot of my mom and I on the boat. Is an all Impala swim team in the works for next year?

Bank of the West Classic

Gowri, Erica, and Alex headed to the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford on Friday afternoon to see Serena Williams play some serious tennis against Patty Schnyder of Switzerland. We watched a doubles match first, and then Serena won in a game that lasted less than an hour. It was super exciting to be able to see world class tennis in person! Afterwards, we were able to go down to the court to get some close-up pictures of Serena. It was so cool!

Back in Action

After a hiatus of ~ 2 years (?), G2 was back in action at practice today. Hopefully by next week I can start getting some company for the rides. Workout was 8 x 400 UP Strawberry Hill. I must say that even with all of the hard training I've been doing on my own, this was the 1st hill repeat workout in a looong time. Tough stuff, but really energizing to see the other 'fast' groups and huge sense of accomplishment when my group finished.

SBV back in action

So good to see the blog back and running. Now we'll have to start taking a group up to SF on tues for practices. Go SBVers!

Lake Tahoe Relay

June 14, 2008


Ashley, Katie, Marisa, Megan, and Shal were all up north for the annual Lake Tahoe Relay. Ashley and Megan ran for the Impala team while Shal ran for the co-ed Runnin' Fish team. The Impalas were off to a nice start, but the Fish pulled ahead with only one runner to go. The Impala team won the women's division and set an Impala PR of 8:26:26.