The Rock and Roll series basically bills itself as a "fun" race chock-ful of entertainment and music. In this, it did not disappoint. There was entertainment (either a live band or at least some speakers playing music) approximately every 2 miles, kind of alternating with the aid stations. The song choices were pretty decent, too. Nothing in particular stood out to me, but they were high-BPM songs that you could sync your pace to. I'm not one for external sources of "energy," but i thought it was nice and motivational.
Although this was essentially "just another long run," i was rather hoping to get in under 2:15. Such was unfortunately not to be. I knew this from the get-go, since i was already putting in a decent effort to maintain an average 10:40-ish run-walk-run pace. I didn't want to push too hard during a training run and end up hurting myself.
Speaking of hurt - even though i took a few weeks off after my last marathon, by the time i started running again, i developed debilitating low back and left leg pain. I self-diagnosed myself with a lumbar disc herniation and sciatica. With the help of an excellent PT (and good friend) from the east coast, i am now pain-free.
Like i said before, even though i'm nine marathons deep, i'm still learning new things. What i learned from this debacle is that i'm not stretching enough, and i'm not paying enough attention to strengthening my lower back and legs. I am now actively incorporating both into my regimen. I'm paying considerably more attention to my pain points; for example, my hamstrings were really sore after race... Therefore, i am doing more hamstring stretches and will be doing more glute/hamstring exercises in the future.
I feel that the hamstring issue is because i tried to speed up and do a decent finishing "kick" during this race. I'm not really sore anyplace else, so that's probably a potential trouble spot. Drawing from my Santa Rosa experience where my legs locked up at the end, i've been trying to insert some speed to the end of my long runs.
Race notes:
1. The expo seemed nice enough. It was held in a hangar-like part of the San Jose convention center. It seemed like they were ready for many more vendors, although there really weren't that many. It was kind of a bummer that they had no option for mailing out the bibs.
2. Bay area weather is always good... We started out around 58 degrees and ended at 61.
3. The race was REALLY well-organized. Aside from a late start (around 8:10 instead of the scheduled 8:00), everything seemed well-thought-out. I didn't really appreciate it at the time, but i now have to admit that the way they "waved" the starts (releasing a certain number of people every few minutes irrespective of corral assignments) ensured adequate spacing between racers and was the right thing to do.
4. Since San Jose is only one-and-a-half hours from where we live we didn't have to spend the night. We just drove in that same morning. There were plenty of hotels nearby, but i'm not a fan of spending money unnecessarily.
5. The course was mostly flat, except for one part when we had to go under the railroad. It seemed it like were some gentle up- and downhills, but not enough to really notice. I quite enjoyed the entertainment.
6. The post-race experience had a party vibe, with a live band on a good-sized stage. There were the usual bananas and water bottles. Although there was a beer tent, they were selling beers for FIVE DOLLARS. The race descriptions seemed to imply that beer would be free... Well, the non-alcoholic beers were free. Reuniting with my family was quick and easy. There was also ample parking all throughout the city. Since it was Sunday, street parking was free for a limited number of hours as well.
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| Free non-alcoholic beer |
Not bad. IMHO the entertainment was the best part. I could do it again.
Next, CIM.
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