Kaiser SF 10K

Waiting for the Start in Golden Gate Park

The Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon is a great local bay area race.  I'd loved running it in 2014, 2015, 2016, and then DNF'd last year but still enjoyed the post-race brunch.  This year, I hadn't registered, but they'd added a 10K, which, realistically speaking, given my 2019 running goals and my current fitness, was exactly the length of race I should be considering for February.

The weather forecast called for rain and wind (both of which can be brutal on the out-and-back on the Great Highway for the half).  I wasn't remotely interested, but then I realized two of my favorite bay area running friends (Angela and Jen) were participating, *and* that Angela was down to host a post-race brunch, *and* that the 10K's last 2 miles were downhill to the finish, but avoided the exposed Great Highway section.  Whelp, that was enough for me.  I registered on Thursday, even though it still looked like rain, and then, the weather gods smiled upon me (thanks fam!) and updated the forecast to foggy/cloudy for the 4 hour window of the race.

Last year's shuttles from the parking to the start were fancy tech buses, 

but this year they were back to the yellow school buses, 

which always remind me of my long-lost friend Cat.

In the two weeks since my decade 5K PR, I hadn't done much that was impressive, workout wise.  But, I had stayed healthy and pain free, so there was that.

Last week was 16.08 miles on my feet, 6 miles of biking, and a couple of nights of strap leg mobility & shoulder/core work.  Those 16.08 miles included 2 miles walking in a Suburban sprawl with friends and their children to lunch as what passed for a "workout" after a very late and celebratory birthday party (the Lyft driver who took us back was incredulous... "You *WALKED* Here?").  Despite the low mileage, the week did include 3 actual, if super short, workouts with warmup and cooldown around 5X200/200, 1 mile @ target 5K pace, and a *long* run of 6 miles).

Beyond Meat Crumble stuffed bell pepper (prepared as if it was ground beef):

mirepoix, brown rice, canned garden tomato sauce, crumbles, spices & mozzarella

A very easy on the digestive system pre-race meal.

This week, including the 10K, the mileage totaled 23.75.  Woo hoo! First 20+ mile week of 2019!  Key workouts?  4 sub-tempo @ 11:11; 3.5 miles total at medium average pace including 1 mile w/E at sub 10K pace (9:47) and 6 X 1 min 10K pace/ 1 min jog; the 10K race.

Obviously, my mileage is low.  But I'm making more time for mobility and ART/massage and core/shoulders than normal.  Also, I'm opting for shorter workouts of quality over longer workouts of "meh".  Right now, this feels like the right trade off for me.  My short quality seems to be improving, whereas, I haven't seen great improvements in the longer distances in the limited amount of time I've had to invest over the last 1.5years+.

Going in to today's 10K, I felt that shooting for sub 1h05 for the 10K was reasonable, but would still be a challenge.

Map and Elevation profile of the 10K.  The scale on the elevation profile is deceiving.

I went out easy and was thrilled to hit mile 1 at 10:02.  I tried to keep myself reined in and did so, which I was very happy about when I hit mile 4.  Mile 4 (always the toughest mile in a 10K for me) felt like it had (and visually appeared to have) a significant climb.  But then, when it was done, because I'd kept it comfortable, I could lean forward and speed up through the drops over miles 5 and 6.  It was so much fun!

Hey, hey!  First negative split in a *long* time.  

It is *so* much more pleasant to be speeding up on the backend instead of slowing down.

Also, I was very happy to realize I closed the last 0.26 of this race *faster* than I closed the 5K at Crissy Field.

Overall, I'm obviously improving in my running fitness versus the last few years of my life, and I'm very much enjoying it.

Here's to a new 10K decade PR (faster than any 10K I've run since 2014).