Summer Running Streak, Day #77 (East Bay Half Marathon)

Super hot today with a heat index of 105. I had signed up for the East Bay Half Marathon, so I decided to tough it out anyway. The course is on roads I train on regularly, so I knew what to expect. I planned to finish in two hours, and to think of this as one of my training runs as I work to peak at the Jamestown half marathon (for the half marathon, anyway.)

Going out there was a fair amount of climbing so I dialed it back on the downhills in an attempt to even out my pace on the uphills. The pack ended up splitting apart wildly in those opening four miles, so I suspect there were a good number of runners from out of town. I ran from miles four-six with only a few people around, so I dialed in an easy pace. Passing the Looff Carousel, which is a historic landmark in my city, I was disappointed at the lack of band organ music usually pumping out of there at a good volume this time of year. The carousel volunteers were not impressed with my insistence that there should be band organ music. Oh well.

Heading into mile seven I decided I should walk a bit, as it was getting really hot. I took the opportunity to dump water on my hot spots as I ran-walked through these miles, focusing mainly on walking the bigger hills and easily jogging the rest.

Much of the time I spent along the course joking around and talking to other runners, which was really nice. My experience racing in New England is that people are generally not super friendly, unless you already know them. That wasn't really the case with this event, and I was very happy about that. I also found the course volunteers to be really supportive, and I was surprised that the race director was out on the course checking in with the runners as often as he could. I even saw him at water stations filling cups with water a portion of the time. I have had some reluctance about this race company's events before, because I don't know many folks who have run them, but I was really impressed. I'll definitely run some of these again.

I came into the chute at 1:58 (1:57:57 chip time) feeling warm, but strong. Overall it was a good race that left me spent for much of the rest of the day.

After I got home I watched the end of the women's marathon in Rio with my wife and daughter. In light of the heat my wife decided to stay home and cheer on Desiree Linden in the marathon. Post-marathon I rented Chariots of Fire and the 1997 Prefontaine, both of which I've never seen. Then in the evening we tuned back into the Olympics track and field, and gymnastics programming which was fun to watch as a family.

Heading into day #78 of the running streak tomorrow!