Race Length: Half Marathon (13.1 miles)
Location: Lake Chabot, (Castro Valley, CA)
Finish Time: 2:06:08
Kevin and I are kicking off the New Year with a half marathon in the Bay Area, at Lake Chabot. We have spent the last five consecutive days snowboarding at my current spot of residence, Bear Valley. The plan was to take the day before the race off from snowboarding to recover and rest a little. The snow was so ridiculously good though, we ended up boarding a decent amount yesterday. Bear Valley received something like 150 inches of new snow over these past 10 days, a staggering amount. Long story short, I’m telling myself this race is more of a tune up and a good way to bring in the New Year as opposed to some ultra-competitive event. Which is good, because I still feel slightly shell shocked from how brutal the last half marathon at Mt. Tamalpais was.
Kevin and I leave our Airbnb in Fremont at the early hour of 6:00 am on January 1st. We welcome the New Year in with coffee and food at Starbucks on the way to the race. A better breakfast would have been more ideal, but nothing else is open this early and on New Year’s Day. The temperature outside is in the lows 30s and after pulling in the parking lot, we crank the heater in the car as start time gets closer. Finally it’s time to go and with a light-long sleeved hoodie and running gloves on, we jog to the start line.
The race begins and we fall into a comfortable pace, talking as we go along. Kevin’s ankle has been bugging him and while all the snowboarding was a blast, it probably wasn’t the best. We take the downhills easy, run the flats at a solid pace, and take an easy jog on the uphills. It’s a trail run, which has made up a majority of my runs up to this point. It’s a beautiful spot as the course essentially takes you around Lake Chabot, giving you views of the water for most of the way. The dirt trail is wide and roomy, allowing us to pass and be passed by other runners at ease.
As often seems to happen in these events, Kevin and I settle running next to two others, one darker-skinned man wearing a Brazil shirt and a lady who is probably in her late thirties/early forties. The man at various times has let out a couple of whooping noises to push the pace on downhills, only for us to catch him walking or shuffling along 5 minutes later. I think it’s cool though- he seems to be having a good time.
I see a marker that says mile 8 and I feel very, very good. I’ve been taking it a little easier than I would if I were running by myself and it feels exactly like what I needed. To remember that these events are fun and can just be taken as a way to run new courses with new people. The last two miles or so of my last race at Mt. Tamalpais were flat out gnarly. While I think those experiences can be beneficial, to push through when it’s really challenging, I don’t necessarily need every race to be like that.
After a good climb, Kevin and I hit an aid station at Mile 10. I grab a bar and a few cups of water to fuel me through the end of the race. The lady volunteering at the stations tells us “it’s pretty much all downhill from here”, which is always a dangerous proclamation to hear. I take it with a grain of salt but she is essentially right, albeit extremely muddy and steep downhill. At this point, I put in headphones and crank some tunes as I run down. The music helps me think less and feel the trail more, which I think is essential when running down technical terrain. You don’t have time to think “okay, avoid the mud to the left, hop over that root, now start moving to the right….” You only have time to react.
Kevin and I crank up the pace over the last mile and a half, and I’m running at what feels like the maximum effort I can maintain over these next 15 minutes. The splits reflect that as our last two miles, mile 12 and mile 13, clock in at 7:55 and 7:49 respectively. It’s great to have negative splits, in which your fastest mile times come at the end of the race as opposed to the beginning. Maybe I wasn’t holding back in the beginning and middle of the race, but rather allowing myself to have the energy to make a strong finish.
After crossing the finish line, we find the nearest unoccupied picnic table and take a seat. As is custom, I cheer people finishing right after me. I see the man in the Brazilian shirt who raises his arms in triumph as he crosses the line. Then there is the woman who rounded out our group of 4 that ran for several miles in close proximity. We exchange a few words and she tells me it was great to run together for a bit.
Finally, as less and less runners seem to be trickling in, there is nothing left to do but head back to the car and begin driving to SFO to drop Kevin off at the airport. We talk about how this event was the perfect challenge to kick off the New Year. I’m already thinking to 2022, and making repeat appearances at all the races I participated in 2021 (Napa, Klassen Klassic, Mt. Tamalpais, & Lake Chabot). And definetly tack on some more events. I plan on taking on a full marathon sometime in the Spring and then look at running an ultra-marathon event in the summer (an ultra is defined as any distance over a marathon). But we’ll see how things break- to good health and a happy New Year!
