Pictures  |  Links  | Narratives: Training, Race Day Pictures My friend K.C., me, and my sister before the race.   The start of the longer races.  Some of these people are going 50K (31 miles) with four river crossings.   Sister and her son at the beach in Santa Cruz after the race.  Beautiful day.   Links Event website.  Includes a nice elevation graphic.   Training Walking:  I only walk in training and my intention is to continue with the walking focus until I lose a lot more weight.  I want to be able to run for the rest of my life, not to have destroyed my running career before it has even started.  My focus is long slow walks, 7 to 10 miles with a few shorter walks, and a weekly average of about 35 "miles" per week.  I count other activities (cardio equipment at the gym and swimming) as "virtual miles" based on a heart rate calculation that goes back to the energy I use on the average mile.  I tried to bump it up to 40 miles per week before this event and it didn't happen.  I haven't been doing any higher speed walking, but my recovery from this event proves that I could start fitting that in to my training schedule. Moving Stairs:  I started on the moving stairs thinking that it might help me with this event.  I didn't expect to make so much progress- I started doing six stories and within a few weeks got up to 25 stories.  It definitely helped me, both in strengthening and in giving me experience with climbing. Taper:  My last 9.5 mile walk was 12 days before the event.  Days -11, -10 and -9 were four mile walks.  I meant to do a few 2 mile walks the last week, but once I took some rest days it was difficult to get out there again so I only did one.  I increased my eating on day -2 and also on day -1, though the eating on both days was sporadic due to intense travel.  Day -2 food was primarily fat/protein and day -1 food was about an even mix.  While I'm losing weight I feel a lethargy in my large muscles that definitely turns around with eating.  I would definitely not have performed as well on the climb without these eating days.   Race Day Goals:  I wanted to be able to walk up the grade without having to stop or do the one-step-at-a-time thing.  I thought I would probably run downhill.  I figured I would be last, but I didn't want to be hours and hours behind everyone.  And then we couldn't get late check-out on our hotel so I REALLY wanted to finish with enough time left to go take a shower... motivation!!! Climb:  The race starts up a steep path wide enough for only one person.  I strategically placed myself at the very back of the line.  My friends were in front of me.  My legs felt very strong and my cardiovascular felt strong too.  However, my heart rate was 191 (the absolute maximum for the average person my age).  I held back a little bit because of lack of experience:  I didn't know what continuing to push would due to my ability to go the distance and I didn't have enough experience with climbing to be able to translate the elevation chart I had been provided into an actual understanding of how much climbing lay ahead. Traverse:  The rest of the course was essentially flat in comparison.  My strong feeling made me feel comfortable keeping my heart rate around 170 and I ran the downhill and into the flats.  At the turnaround I knew that things were going really well and on the return I ran everything that wasn't a climb and continued to press the heart rate around 170 and up to 180. Finish:  Right after coming down the steep grade, the course turned into the park and uphill slightly to the finish.  I was running down the grade and I almost wanted to stop and walk before anyone saw me, because I didn't want to have to drop into a walk to get up the hill to the finish line.  I have very little experience running, and it has only been 18 months since I started walking, so I still expect to be unable to perform.  But I easily and comfortably jogged across the finish line.  My friend and sister who did this with me thought that I was further back and were surprised to see me show up and show up running! Performance:  Finished in one hour and 45 minutes.  I am very pleased with the climbing, with my cardiovascular condition, and that I could run so much of the event.  I'm also completely shocked that I did it at better than an average pace of 3.0 mph, which has been a major plateau in progress in my training.   I'm just extremely pleased with this progress. Recovery:  I feel so much better than I did after the Miami Half-Marathon. Some soreness and some knee pain from the running for the first day.  Walked four miles the next morning and while there was some soreness and some lethargy, I am basically well.