Oakland Running Festival 2012

What's the one thing you don't want to do after a 2 week battle with a cold & flu? Easy, run a flipping half marathon!

Oakland Running Festival 2012

As a personal trainer I knew that it was dumb that I would even consider running a half. However, as a stubborn athlete who's already paid for registration, and missed a run last week... I was NOT about to miss another one. All I can say is that I'm an idiot for thinking I could PR after two weeks of non-training, I knew it was not possible, it'd be a miracle if I could. On the flip side, I am very happy that I went out there, ran my little heart out, and did my best.


Kelvin and I got there to watch the marathon start, and at 9:15 it was time for the approx. 4,000 half-marathoners to get to the start line. I was feeling adequate and mile 1, but I knew something wasn't right. I don't typically wheeze during runs, but this time I started wheezing at mile 3, so I knew I had to listen to my body and slow the pace down. I knew there was no way I was hitting 1:50, so I took a deep breath and told myself, "there will be more races in the future, do you really wanna  be stupid and run hard when you know you're still recovering?" Yes. I do talk to myself like that haha. Alas, as I struggled through the rest of my mileage, I ran into a man named John who was running his first half-marathon, he's such a great guy! He was cheering on the volunteers! Honestly, I think he could have ran much faster, but for some reason he stayed at my pace and encouraged me along the way. Sweet guy; I hope I see him again in the future. I finished my half-marathon and almost burst into tears because I was so upset that I finished in 2+ hours. Of course, my better half came along and made me feel better by putting my training in perspective. He has a great way of telling me how it is without being a jerk about it. He told me, "you want to redeem yourself? Sign up for another race and train for it. You know that you've been sick and had midterms, you know this, so why did you expect to PR today? You should look at the positive side and look that you even came out here.You're still a competitive athlete, but even the pros get sick." Man, what a guy. I let it go and accepted the fact that my training has been poor and I should take my own advice! I always tell my clients that it only take 1 week for your body to completely decondition, and my body gave me a lesson about that today! Now, I'm sitting with my feet up and waiting for our trip to Disneyland!! Don't worry though world, we're bringing our running shoes! :)

ORF 2012 Half Marathon Course & Vibes

Oakland never seems to fail! The organizers deserve a round of applause because for the 2 years that I have run this event, it is always smooth from registration to expo to race day. Even though I was pretty exhausted, I think it could have been much worse if it wasn't for the awesome volunteers out there! Aid stations were plentiful, and people were awesome! I saw many many volunteers cheering us on, and even people who walked out of their houses, or from the stores to cheer us on! A few people who were Raider fans came out to cheer us on! Raider Nation, you don't mess with those folks! Oakland PD weren't as nice and cheerful this year as they were last year, but the Oakland Fire Department were smiles all around and I'm pretty sure all of them were cheering as I chugged on by! The half-marathon course was fast flat and consisted of maybe 1 overpass, but that was pretty much it. However, the pot-holes of Oakland are still very prevalent. I could have easily broken an ankle or face planted had it not been for my eyes constantly looking ahead for pot holes. I love the vibe of Oakland during this race, and I knew I had some worries because of the Occupy Oakland Movement, but they did not disrupt the run or I didn't even have a run-in with them at all! After my run, there was still lots of oranges, apples, Chewy bars, kettle chips, etc.! Also, thanks to the volunteer who gave me my 13.1 medal! My only issue (I'm pretty sure the race organizers couldn't do much about this) was the location of the post-race expo. I don't like grass, I don't like wet grass, I don't like mud or anything that looks like poop hahah so I wasn't too ecstatic about the Snow Park location. I didn't hang around for much longer because my gross out level was rising exponentially as I saw dogs poop and the owners didn't clean it up, so Kelvin & I left. 

Overall, Oakland Running Festival... you can expect me back! Sick or not!!