2014 Berkeley Half Marathon

I ran the 2013 inaugural Berkeley Half Marathon last year, so naturally, I signed up for the 2014 one when they sent out their e-mail about hosting their second one on Nov. 9. I decided that I would run the Berkeley Half Marathon every year until I graduate. I ran it in 2 hours 16 minutes last year and knew I could’ve done much better, considering the most I’d run before the half marathon was 7.5 miles, and my last few miles during the half marathon were the fastest of all 13 miles. I was dead set on PRing this year.

2013 Berkeley Half Marathon

But… life happened. The longest I’d run since coming back to California in late August was probably 3 miles. Soooo: I probably shouldn’t have signed up for a half marathon over half a year before the race and I most definitely should’ve trained… But I decided to run it anyway, despite reading this article (among many others): http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/running-a-half-marathon-without-training

Here’s some background on me:

1.     I never ran long distance (nor was I very active) before college. 3 years ago, I would’ve been out of breath from just running a mile…

2.     I didn’t train that much for the 2013 Berkeley Half because I fell on cement on my left knee with a 30 pound pack  2.5 months before the half marathon, so my left knee was swollen for a while.  When I did train, I put a lot of pressure on my right knee, so then both of my knees were slightly injured. I took a lot of time off after the Berkeley Half Marathon.

3.   I bike uphill everyday and go on short runs once in a while. This summer, I spent 2 months 5-7 hours/day walking on soft sand, so my legs got much stronger from that. Unfortunately, I had leg cramps after I came back to the states so I made that an excuse to not run (even though I recovered in like 3 days).

first turtle nest of the season! It's quite challenging to walk here hahaha

Here’s everything that's happened since the Friday before the Berkeley Half Marathon

·      I stayed away from any drinks that could dehydrate me 

·      Tried to carbo-load but really just ended up eating a lot. A lot of unhealthy and fattening food 

This was my lunch - the only relatively healthy thing I ate all day. I had enchiladas for dinner :P 

·      At 4AM on Sunday, 4 hours before the Berkeley Half, our apartment complex’s elevator caught on fire so we all left the building. I got around 5 hours of sleep... 

·      Had pre-race problems… (My friends commented “tmi” so I probably shouldn’t share this)

·      Put a brace on my right knee and a band on my left knee. Can’t let the knees suffer tooooo much.

ARRIVE AT START LINE:

·      Mile 1: Felt like I didn’t have enough water and I thought I was going to die before even starting the race. Lots of regrets. I walked after the second minute because of how crowded it was. 

·      Mile 2: Started experiencing knee pains already… Uh oh. Ran on Telegraph Ave. and through campus – marching band, cheerleaders, jazz band, singing people etc. Pretttty cool.

·      Mile 3: LOOK IT’S A WATER STATION! Did somebody once say “don’t try anything new on race day?” Nahhh I’ll take some electrolytes anyway. I took electrolytes at all 6 aid stations, and had GU Energy Gels and Clif Bars during the race. I’m hopeless anyway – might as well have happy taste buds when suffering
·      Mile 4: SAW THE FINISH LINE! Oh wait, it’s the 5K finish line… Okay 10 more miles to go. Smile for the camera!

Campus! This is the entrance near the circle outside Mulford. 

·      Mile 5: Running through the amazing neighborhoods in Berkeley! Saw two guys pulling a girl in a cart and talked to them. They will be doing this all 13 miles… They were still so enthusiastic and positive even when they're pulling at least 150 pounds behind them. Took off my left knee band. 

·      Mile 8: Ran on 4^th street! Then we ran across the bridge to the Berkeley Marina - there are loads of people running back already and I’m seriously considering going to their side so I wouldn’t have to run those miles.

                                                

Wouldn't be so hard to casually switch to the other side, right?! 

·      Mile 10: Some lady is passed out on the sidewalk with her eyes wide open. A volunteer is feeding her water. Thoughts: “oh god I promise I’ll train next time. Please don’t let this happen to me.” I stop to stretch for the 3^rd time this race and adjust the knee brace for the 10^th time. I start feeling soreness in my thighs.

·      Mile 12: I think I’ve hit the wall. I walk for a minute or two but then am forced to start running because there are people encouraging me on the sidelines…

·      Mile 13: Started it by walking. But then I had a sudden adrenaline rush, so I sprinted the last part (I definitely can't run a 6 minute mile; according to my iPhone strava app, I ran the last half mile around a 9:21 minute/mile pace, so I think I ran the last part at an 8:30 min/mile pace). Here are my split times:

Pretty obvious which miles I walked the most in. Also, these online stats seem to be a bit different from my iPhone stats... 

I PRed for slowest half marathon I've run. Oops! At least it was an incredibly fun and beautiful route :) 

I gulfed down coconut juice and a banana immediately after I hit the finish line, and just sat for 20 minutes. This reminded of the lady I saw with a sign that said “this is an awful lot of work for a free banana!” 

Post-race: iced my knees with frozen peas and ate a box of tomatos, 3 cucumbers, some ravioli, 1/3 of a pineapple, a handful of banana chips, and a big croissant. I also decided that running is really fun, and that I should go running more often. :)