I’m writing this from San Francisco, where we are on vacation.  It’s a gorgeous day here, perfect running weather: temperature in the mid sixties, abundant sunshine, and an easy breeze. After a long flight and exploring the city all day, I took the opportunity to stretch my legs and get out for an early evening run.

We’re staying down by Fisherman’s Wharf close to San Francisco Bay.  I set out for the waterfront and headed east at the Embarcadero Promenade, the public walkway that runs the length of all the piers along the bay. It was an amazing run.

Running by the lakefront in Chicago is awesome – it’s one of the reasons we chose to live where we do – but as my normal route, it’s become routine. I have covered that trail so often that I mentally “check out ” without consciously being aware of it. So it was a different experience running in a new city along an unfamiliar route. Additionally the area down by the piers is a tourist hotspot and on a Friday afternoon it was teeming with vacationers and street-performers, along with a steady stream of runners, bikers and skateboarders. All of that resulted in the most present run I’ve had in a long time. I made my way along at a comfortable pace, taking it all in, rarely checking my watch.  It was wonderful.

The waterfront walkway follows San Francisco Bay south where it eventually meets up with AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.  The park would be a good turn around point, so I planned to run until the path meets the stadium before turning around. If you’re at all familiar with AT&T Park, you know that it is right on the bay and sluggers launch home-runs over the right field fence that splash into the water. Much to my surprise, the walkway continues behind the park and is directly at field level. This Giants are hosting the Texas Rangers tonight, and from the path I could look through the open gates and see the field.  So here I was out on my run, along the beautiful San Francisco Bay watching the Texas Rangers warming up right field. It was amazing.

A great run, and hopefully a start to a great vacation!

This week I’ve done…nothing! (Well almost nothing – I went for a short, easy lakefront run last night).

I came out of the Green Bay Half Marathon feeling no worse for wear. However, I was run down going in to the race and still feel a bit off my game now.

Looking back on it, I made a mistake in my pre-race training run last Wednesday. My intention was to determine a target pace for the half, by running mile repeats at a slightly faster pace with a 1 minute of rest in between. The run went great – 8 repeats, a total of 9.25 miles (with warm up and cool down) in 80 minutes. And I felt great! But later that day I was wiped out, and by Thursday I came to the realization that I had pushed too hard. The moral of the story is:

I have not figured out how to properly taper for a half marathon.

So this week my body has been telling me to take it easy, and I’ve listened with a week of rest.

Tomorrow I’m running the Soldier Field 10 Mile here in Chicago for the first time.  While this is a pretty popular race here, it’s not nearly a big deal as the Green Bay Marathon was last weekend.  And it’s as close to a “home game” as I can get: the starting line is literally a 5-minute walk from our condo, and the course is along the lake-shore path where I do most of my training.  So I’ll be well rested and ready for a logistically easy race.

Race report to follow!

Hello World!

Like many firsts, the first post is always a little awkward so I’ll just make it short and sweet, so we can get on to bigger and better things.

I am in Green Bay, WI for the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon and Half Marathon  (I’m running the half).

I’m resting today, before hitting the race expo and packet pickup tomorrow and the race on Sunday.  Updates to follow!