This past Saturday, I ran the marathon distance of the ZombieRunner Bay Trail Run – MY FIRST FULL MARATHON!!! This was the third edition of this event, put on by Zoom Running Events. The run had three distances: a full marathon, a half, and a five mile and drew a field of 82, 365, and 116 finishers respectively. This was my second Zoom event and simply stated: they know how to put on a fantastic run! (Zoom is a sister org to Coastal Trail Runs, which also does an awesome job on their events – I’ve run one of their events.)
The weather was perfect for a run: cool and partly cloudy. Rain was forecast for about 1200, but I planned to be done by then. I still wore shorts though, but sported my long sleeve tech shirt from the San Francisco Half Marathon and my lite Lululemon running gloves for warmth. There were quite a few runners in long pants and layers. I thought about donning layers, but knew that I’d shed them pretty quickly after the start.
The course was flat and a mix of paved and dirt trails (27 and 73% respectively) that traveled around the Bayland park areas in Palo Alto. Okay, one could say that there was one “hill”, but nothing really to speak of in the scheme of things – it was more of an incline. Those running the marathon simply ran the half route twice. I had never been to this park area before, but do drive by a one mile stretch of the course that parallels Highway 101 every day on the way to work (more on that later.) I tend to zone out while I run, but it did seem like a nice place to go for a run or hike and see the waterfowl and baylands.
This was my “Plan B” race, as I was supposed to have run the Honolulu Marathon for my first full on December 9th. If you’re a regular visitor here, you know that we had to cancel the trip. As I looked for options, this race worked best with my schedule and 2013 training plans (read: gotta get ready for Big Sur in April.) After 18 weeks of training, I was anxious to Giddy Up! At first, I was bummed to be running my first marathon on a small event; but, in the long run, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I’m a low-key person and this was just right – it would have been interesting to run my first with ~30,000 people; but, in the end, 82 was better.
My Race
Results:
- Garmin time: 4:05:05 at an 9:19/mile pace
- Official time: 4:05:05 at an 9:21/mile pace
New “Personal Records” on the Garmin Dash!!!
Since my Garmin measured 26.3, does that make me an ultra-marathoner? HA!
Recap:
Fair warning: This is my first marathon so this is a verbose post. You only get one “first” and I want to capture everything!
[Recap Soundtrack] Part of my pre-race routine is to listen to my Unbreakable playlist as I drive to the race. This is track one (Outro, by M83), a favorite, and is one of the few songs I hear in my head while I run… I just imagine myself running in slow motion to this music…on the road or on a trail! Click play and read on…
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