Susanne's Running Blog Training for my first half marathon Fundraising for the fight against AIDS

Update: I did it! I finished the second half of the SF Marathon (13.1 miles or 21 kilometers) on July 30, 2006. And in my target time too :) I finished in 2 hours and 56 minutes - a 13:28 pace. (11:35 pace for the first 2 miles, 12:54 pace for the first 8 miles.) You can look up the official results yourself if you like - my bib # was 25855. The official photos from MarathonFoto are online too.

It surprised me that 11% of the 2059 people, and 15% of the 1191 women who did the second half marathon were actually slower than me. I'm not sure if race day adrenaline is my thing though - my average heart rate was 167! It was around 173 for the last few miles, and hit 186 during the final sprint. I didn't know it could do that... If you use the usual formula of 220 minus age 38, that's above 100% of the "maximum" ;-)

Another Update: I've now turned in the $2184.95 that I raised for the STOP AIDS Project. Many thanks to everyone who contributed :)

Fundraising History

But I decided to start training by myself, figuring that surely they'd let me do fundraising for AIDS at a later stage if I am able to do the running without needing their training program. But it turned out that there is no other official AIDS fundraising campaign for this event. Given that helping with the fight against AIDS was partly what kept me motivated since January, I instead did some independent fundraising for the STOP AIDS Project.

I just had people make out checks to "STOP AIDS Project". The donations are tax deductible, and people will receive a letter for their tax records, but won't be added to any mailing lists, and won't receive solicitations for future donations. (Do let me know if they don't stick to this promise!)

Training

I'm not very fast - I'd never run before, and my training got interrupted by various trips, including a 7 day backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon.

Here's a log of my longest training runs over time. I ran a lot in between these runs too (about 250 miles since January), working on speed rather than time, but these are the dates when I actually increased mileage, so I thought they would be the most interesting to write about.

Note that the maps are links ot the gmap pedometer site with which I made them, and that's based on Google Maps, so you can zoom in or switch to the satellite image view, etc.

#	Date	Distance	Time	Pace mins/mile	Average Heart Rate	Location
1	1/2	2.5 miles	36 mins	14:24 mins/mile	AVG HR 153	Along Stanford Ave
2	1/14	3.2 miles	42 mins	13:20 mins/mile	AVG HR 161	Junipero Serra - Page Mill
3	1/21	4.2 miles	58 mins	13:48 mins/mile	AVG HR 165	Peter Coutts
4	2/19	4.8 miles (600ft elevation gain)	63 mins	13:08 mins/mile	AVG HR 161	Arastradero loop
5	2/25	6.3 miles (800ft elevation gain)	1h 29mins	14:08 mins/mile	AVG HR 158	Arastradero - 2 loops
6	6/3	8 miles	1h 46mins	13:15 mins/mile	AVG HR 152	Shoreline - out & back
7	6/10	10.8 miles	2h 40mins	14:49 mins/mile	AVG HR 145	Shoreline - two loops
8	6/17	12 miles (400ft elevation gain)	3h	15:00 mins/mile	AVG HR 151	Alpine - Old Page Mill
9	7/2	13.1 miles (400ft elevation gain)	3h 20mins	15:16 mins/mile	AVG HR 150	Arastradero - Alpine
10	7/8	13.1 miles (400ft elevation gain)	3h 8mins	14:21 mins/mile	AVG HR 156	Arastradero - Alpine
11	7/15	13.8 miles (200ft elevation gain)	3h 8mins	13:37 mins/mile	AVG HR 162	San Francisco
Race	7/30	13.1 miles	2h 56mins	13:28 mins/mile	AVG HR 167	San Francisco

Details about the runs

	Number: 1 Date: 1/2/2006 Distance: 2.5 miles Time: 36 mins Pace: 14:24 mins/mile Average Heart Rate: 153 Location: Along Stanford Ave Comments: Running because the gym is closed over the break. Haven't done this in a long time (since 1991) and my knees and ankles are hurting, and it's raining. But I'm enjoying it.
	Number: 2 Date: 1/14/2006 Distance: 3.2 miles Time: 42 mins Pace: 13:20 mins/mile Average Heart Rate: 161 Location: Stanford Ave - Junipero Serra - Page Mill - California Comments: Got a flier from the AIDS Marathon Training Program in the mail, saying "we can train YOU to run a half marathon even if you have never run before". I'm very tempted, though worried about my knees and ankles, which I don't want to ruin, because I need them to carry a 50lbs pack backpacking!
	Number: 3 Date: 1/21/2006 Distance: 4.2 miles Time: 58 mins Pace: 13:48 mins/mile Average Heart Rate: 165 Location: Stanford Ave - Junipero Serra - Page Mill - Peter Coutts - California Comments: Went to the AIDS Marathon Training Program information session on Tuesday. Quite disappointed that that's not working out, but determined to try it by myself.
	Number: 4 Date: 2/19/2006 Distance: 4.8 miles Time: 63 mins (+600ft) Pace: 13:08 mins/mile Average Heart Rate: 161 Location: Arastradero Preserve - loop Comments: Having tried two other brands/models of running shoes, I'm now running with a new pair of "asics gel evolution" from "The Runner's High". Finally my knees and ankles aren't hurting! It feels like I'm running on clouds :) I'm also excited that I can now run for an hour on the treadmill at a 12:14 mins/mile pace.
	Number: 5 Date: 2/25/2006 Distance: 6.3 miles (+800ft) Time: 1h 29mins Pace: 14:08 mins/mile Average Heart Rate: 158 Location: Arastradero Preserve - 2 loops Comments: Running downhill towards the end of this run, I feel very euphoric. Is this what they call the "runner's high"?
	Number: 6 Date: 6/3/2006 Distance: 8 miles Time: 1h 46mins Pace: 13:15 mins/mile Average Heart Rate: 152 Location: Shoreline - out & back Comments: This is my 6th run at Shoreline. The first time I ran past the dump, the recycling center, the sewage plant, and HWY 101 - not very pleasant. My usual 5.4 mile loop (see run #7) is nice except for the noisy bit along HWY 101, but this is even better :) But after not having increased distance for such a long time, I'm worried whether there's enough time left to train.

Number: 7 Date: 6/10/2006 Distance: 10.8 miles Time: 2h 40 mins Pace: 14:49 mins/mile Average Heart Rate: 145 Location: Shoreline - two loops Comments: I did two of these loops, which was less than optimal psychologically. But the surroundings are so beautiful that it didn't matter much.

	Number: 8 Date: 6/17/2006 Distance: 12 miles (+400ft) Time: 3h Pace: 15:00 mins/mile Average Heart Rate: 151 Location: Alpine - Arastradero - Old Page Mill Comments: This is my first run that is almost all on asphalt, and also getting close to the right distance. I'm amazed I made it, and didn't even feel particularly bad! I'm finally feeling reasonably confident that I can do it, and register for the SF Marathon. I'm still not sure about the time though, so I go for the second half, which stays open 1/2h longer than the first half.
	Number: 9 Date: 7/2/2006 Distance: 13.1 miles Time: 3h 20mins Pace: 15:16 mins/mile Average Heart Rate: 150 Location: Arastradero - Alpine Comments: I ran without my iPod just in case that's not allowed on race day. That worked out OK, though the "perceived exertion" was higher, and my pace probably lower than it would have been otherwise. I was thrilled that I could finish the whole distance within the amount of time the course will stay open in SF during the actual event. 13.1 miles - if I were to run along HWY 101, that would be all the way from University Ave in Palo Alto to the San Jose Airport!!!
	Number: 10 Date: 7/8/2006 Distance: 13.1 miles Time: 3h 8mins Pace: 14:21 mins/mile Average Heart Rate: 156 Location: Arastradero - Alpine Comments: I had the idea of speeding up some of my music to a stride frequency just a little faster than my usual, and to determine on a treadmill what my target is for a 3h half marathon. But I was varying stride length, not frequency - constant at about 140 strides/min from a 3h 15min (14:54 mins/mile) to a 2h 45min (12:45 mins/mile) pace. And I didn't have the right kind of music or software. But then I discovered the one hour Podrunner podcasts of fixed BPM music. I first tried 150 strides/min, figuring that was probably too fast, but it was too slow! I ended up running to the 160 strides/min "Trailblazer" podcast. Still didn't make my 3h goal, but got a great workout for my heart, and it's cool to know that I did 30000 strides!

Number: 11 Date: 7/15/2006 Distance: 13.8 miles (+200ft) Time: 3h 8mins Pace: 13:37 mins/mile Average Heart Rate: 162 Location: San Francisco Comments: This was a 2nd Half Marathon Preview Run with the San Francisco Road Runner's Club. I was quite worried about running with other people for the first time. I thought might start out way too fast and then collapse. But that turned out to be fine - I even managed to keep up a conversation while running at a 12:33 mins/mile pace with a heart rate of 166 for the first seven miles. Unfortunately noone in that pace group wanted to run the whole 13.1 miles, so I continued on by myself with the "Trailblazer" podcast. I'm not exactly sure what my final time/pace was. SFRRC had said that the 13.1 mile mark is just past the Giants Stadium, so that's where I stopped after 3 hours and 8 minutes, disappointed that in spite of the faster first half and the higher average heart rate, the total time was the same as last week. But according to gmap pedometer I actually ran 13.8 miles, and that tool is quite accurate for the actual 2nd half marathon route, and I thought it's best to be consistent with the rest of the information on this page, so that's the information I'm reporting. If accurate, it means that I did the half marathon distance in my target time of under 3 hours. Let's see how it goes on race day in two weeks!

Number: 12 Date: 7/23/2006 Distance: 3.7 miles (+550ft) Time: 50 mins Pace: 13:30 mins/mile Average Heart Rate: 160 Location: Stanford Dish Comments: This was supposed to be any easy "recovery run" during the "tapering" period. Trouble is, it was much hotter and more humid than during any of my other runs. A little over a mile from the end of the loop, I went from being really hot and sweaty to suddenly having chills and goosebumps. I didn't know what that meant, and kept running for another 15 minutes until I'd finished the loop, even though I wasn't feeling too good. At that point I noticed that I had a very flushed face and a heat rash on my neck and a headache - and found out that chills are an advanced symptom of heat exhaustion, and that I got close to collapsing from a heat stroke. Ooops! I hope I'll recover from my "recovery run" in time before next Sunday's event.

Distance chart