Stoked

This is the trail we were on. In my case, for hours!

Stoked means the fire is well fueled and can burn for a while. Right now, that's me. Here's what happened yesterday:

I went to the weekly ORF training run, where I'm volunteering through my running club as a pacer. I, along with my good and talented friend L, am signed up to pace the 12-minute-mile half marathon group. Because I'm not training for the Oakland Half Marathon but in fact am training for the LA Marathon, in March, I need to run a longer distance than my pace group (which--oh wonderful circumstance--is an inspired and inspiring group of blossoming women runners). This means after I run with the group each week, I need to keep moving on my own for considerably more distance.

The run started at the Richmond Marina and headed south for 5 miles, at which point the the gals (along with L, who is recovering from an injury) turned around and headed back. I kept my face pointed south, and stayed on the Bay Trail. The 5 miles I ran/walked with the group were definitely a at a doable pace--Garmin says overall (which included about 5 minutes spent at the club's water stop), our pace was a leisurely 13:17.

After I went on my own, I did some moderate stepping it up--between mile 5 and mile 18, Garmin says I schlepped along at a 12:34 pace. Not headline worthy--no. But it told me that I can cover a fairly long piece of ground at a sustainable pace and do that without feeling much pain. The idea is to do training runs 30 to 45 seconds slower per mile than your projected race pace, so I feel I was right on target.

Seen along the trail. The Bay was like a lake--a sign of the eery precipitation-free winter we're having. That's Mount Tam on the horizon to the right--shrouded in a blanket of haze.

I haven't run a marathon since 2011, and when I did that one, it was a painful experience. So I'll take yesterday, when the sun was shining and I was running (and run/walking) along, generating endorphins and thanking the powers that be for my blessed luck at being alive and in motion. You could say I was stoked.


Part of the urge to write this rather pedestrian (hmm--appropriate word) description of this training run stems from my recently finding a log I kept back in 1996 when I was preparing for my very first marathon. It's great fun to read about the many runs I did as I increased my mileage and tested my self more and more. Here's what I wrote the day before the race: "Even if I have to drop out, I'm determined to take from the whole experience as much that is positive as I can.... Truly I need have no limits. Yahoo."

Yahoo indeed!