T-minus 1 week: CIM in sight

And just beyond it, a break...

Channeling my two moods: sweaty and working hard in new shoes *and* sitting back in sweats with coffee.

I’ve been dealing with two seemingly contradictory thoughts. The first: I am so excited for next weekend’s race. As I’ve noted, I am running the relay with my former teammate (I actually prefer the term “teammate-for-life”), Lennie, but we will also be out there with numerous Owls of our vintage. The California International Marathon (CIM) has a decent amount of fanfare and I hope to use the crowd’s energy to pull me along to a fast time. I’m ready to run hard. This brings me to the second thought: I am looking forward to a break. I know that two weeks of good eats and good sleep — as well as alleviating schedule wrangling — is what I need. I’m going to give it my all on Sunday so that the break feels that much sweeter. 

As I promised in my last edition, this week I will share more details about the relay and CIM. I also have a few odds n’ ends.

📋 Total miles: 23.6

• Monday: Off 

• Tuesday: 4.2 miles (treadmill with Lever, interval ladder)

• Wednesday: 6.0 miles (included 4 x .5 mile HM pace, .5 mile easy)

• Thursday: 4.1 miles (easy)

• Friday: Off 

• Saturday: 9.3 miles (treadmill with Lever, easy)

• Sunday: Off

---

---

🤩 An incredible debut

One of my besties, Becky, crosses the finish line in 2013 to clinch victory in the California International Marathon. (📸: Sacramento Bee)

My first CIM experience wasn’t as a participant, but as a spectator. It was 2013 and my teammate-for-life, Becky Wade, was making her marathon debut in Sacramento. As it was a short-ish drive from the Bay Area, I was excited to be part of her cheer squad. I had the seemingly brilliant idea to bring my bike to Sacramento and ride streets parallel to the course, stopping every few miles to cheer for Becky along the way — I caveat because race day was absolutely freezing and my hands were so cold that I more or less lost the ability to brake. I still managed to see her at many points along the course.

Becky ran spectacularly. Despite it being her first marathon, she ran like a seasoned pro and won in the jaw-dropping time of 2:30.41. Lots of people took notice, especially because the result made her the third fastest American woman in the marathon under the age of 25 at the time, behind greats like Joan Benoit Samuelson. I was overwhelmingly proud of Becky — a feeling that persists to this day. I also promised myself that I would one day run the CIM, and I made good on it 4 years later.

Celebrating Becky’s victory alongside our coach, Jim Bevan. I have not yet thawed out in this photo.

---

⏩ A bit about CIM (& the relay)

People come to CIM to hit their goal times. The course starts in Folsom, winds its way through the Sacramento suburbs, and ends at the gorgeous State Capitol — all the while losing 366’ of net elevation. The downhill helps, but so does the concentration of people looking to run fast. Whereas I experienced the NYC Marathon as a party/parade from the jump, the CIM is about pace groups and hitting splits. This strive for time is especially important to the elites looking to qualify for the Olympic Trials; the CIM is a last-ditch effort for those yet to secure the time. Case in point, Bethany Sachtleben won the Richmond Marathon on November 11th and missed the OTQ standard by mere minutes, and then asked her followers if anyone could help her secure a bib for the CIM. Three weeks later, she’ll line up on Sunday — like so many others — with a goal time in mind.

Let’s talk a bit about the relay. As far as I know, relays within marathons aren’t that common. In fact, I only know of one other relay which is in the Pittsburgh Marathon – a race my dad participated in with his fellow Law Department colleagues as a team of 4 in 2002. The CIM transitioned from a 4-person relay in the last few years to 2, which means that both runners run roughly a half marathon. The actual split is 13.4 miles and 12.8 miles. I am delighted to be running the latter — and not just because it’s shorter. Because the relay runs concurrently with the marathon, Lennie will have the opportunity to start with the elites and join their pack. If I were to lead off, she would get the [proverbial] baton too far behind to catch up to that crew. Practically this means that I will start running surrounded by people blazing past me, and I want to be conscious about not getting sucked into a way-too-fast pace at the start.

Lennie’s leg features more net elevation loss, but also the deceptively challenging Fair Oak hills. I have the glory leg; not only am I getting a downhill boost much of the run, but the crowds pick up in Sacramento and cheer you home.

There are still quite a few things about the relay that I don’t know:

• How will I know that Lennie is approaching the exchange zone?

• Do we hand something physical off?

• Is there a way to identify other relay runners?

I figure I’ll have these questions answered (and more) at the Expo on Saturday.

Throwback to the last time I was at the CIM Expo. (📸: Bill Ferrell)

Speaking of the Expo, I’m excited to go on Saturday and spend the evening with friends. I have a solo hotel room in Sacramento and will wake up Sunday morning and take a bus to the relay zone. A theme for the whole weekend will be soaking up the focus and intensity of a big race while being somewhat chill about it myself. 

---

🧳 Odds n’ ends

Testing: The Coros Pod 2. You all know that I love the treadmill, especially now that I have the Lever. The Lever, however, limits my arm swing such that my mileage is way off from what I see on the treadmill if only using my watch. I got this foot pod to up the accuracy of my pace and mileage while running on the treadmill, and it’s certainly closer to the read out from the machine. Outside, though, it has made my GPS seem strangely less accurate. The jury is still out.

Disciplined about: Black Friday sales. My haul is relatively light. I bought one pair of Asics on deep sale; I know I’ll use them. On was running a “Buy One, Get One, Give One” sale, so I got two of the same sports bras for the price of one, and a donation was made alongside my order.

Thinking about: 2024 races. I’ve applied for two marathon lotteries — Berlin and Chicago — and I’ll hear back in the first week of December. Another race I have my eyes on is the Peachtree Road Race 10K in Atlanta on the 4th of July. I’m open to other suggestions — let me know what you’re racing in the comments.

---

One more week of effort until break, I am excited to make the most of it. And since I did this so recently, I know to give myself latitude as to when I’ll publish the next post. Expect something early next week.