Palo Alto Double 2024: something new for a change!

This Saturday I did something I've never done yet in my 26-year running journey: two back to back races in the same morning. To be honest, that format didn't exist when I started focusing in road and running speed. That format has been invented 15 years ago by renowned Bob Anderson, who had brought so much innovation to fuel the development of our sport. Bob founded Runner's World in 1966, yes, almost 60 years ago! Bob has even a Wikipedia page to his fame!

So, what is that Double format about? Two back to back road races, the first leg of 10K at 9 am and the second leg of 5K starting at 10:45. The faster you are on the 10K, the more rest you have in between, but more energy spent too. It has a dedicated website as I assume Bob is the only organizer of races in that format. There area actually 5K/break/3K versions of the Double as well. Also, Bob has the top finishers of the first leg/stage, male and female, to wear a yellow jersey, like in the Tour de France!

I had registered to do my first Double last December but I was still digesting a super loaded season culminating in 34 hours at Spartathlon -- 6 marathons at once, way more than a double! -- and DNSed (Did Not Start) due to a last-minute family trip to DC for the holidays. This year has been terrible after breaking a meniscus in March and having to spend almost 7 months off running. I still have so much muscle to rebuild, and the knee is still prone to pain, recovery is a long journey and I did't have very high expectations. Although I was encouraged by at least breaking 40 minutes at the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 10K, 4 days after running 100 kilometers at the American 24-hour Championships. I had looked at the top times for my age group and, for some reasons -- maybe aging! ;-) -- I remembered seeing the top mark set by a Kenyan at around 48 minutes. My dream goal was to break an hour, although that seemed not only ambitious given my lack of fitness as well as the weather conditions.

Waking up at 5:50 to get my breakfast 3 hours before the race I thought my post title would be: "Rain, not Shine!" The saying "Rain or Shine" seems not to apply too often in California as we get less and less rain, years after years so it's Shine 99% of the time. Agnès and I actually got both awaken at 3:30 am by the super unusual noise of thunderstorm here, and the rain was pouring. Upon picking my bib at 7:30 am, the rain was still going on steady, and wind gusts made the setup of the area super challenging for the organizers.

I was familiar with the 3.1-mile section used for the course as it is on my traditional Cupertino-Fremont-Cupertino 50-mile training ground. So I knew it included a dirt area which was going to turn to mud with so much rain. I didn't know how muddy it was going to become though, that was epic. Thankfully, only for a quarter of a mile, yet certainly impacting our performance for such a short and fast format.

An important detail to add: each of the legs could be run by other participants as a single race, meaning that not every participant was enlisted in the Double. 

As early bird, I had a great parking spot with direct view on the start/finish area. That helped maximizing the time I stayed dry and warm in the car. I get cold very easily so I had brought two sets of racing clothes plus two rain jackets and layers of polar fleece jackets, duh!

When I saw this rainbow forming thanks to the rain stopping 15 minutes before the start, I took it as a great sign for a good day and that it was time to get out to warm for 5 minutes. The asphalt was still very wet, it didn't take too many strides to tip my toes in the water... (Photo credit: Bob Anderson.)

The fast of the 10K was really fast, I got chicked right off the bat with two other gals passing me before the end of the first mile. The lead running was wearing a black singlet, I saw him coming back when I had just passed 2.5 miles (the 10K was a 3.1-mile out and back). The short dirt section wasn't too bad on the way out but already getting slippery. It got worse on the way back after 50 or so runners had gotten through it. Best was to run on the edge, in the grass or rather over native plants, which is still not ideal when going at full speed.

Speaking of speed, I had started at 6:14 min/mile like at the Turkey Trot but I wasn't able to hold the pace especially on this wet course. Also, I hadn't run or exercise for the past 2 weeks first because knee pain after the Turkey Trot and 24-hour Nationals, then because of a super bad bite of one of my fingers, by our cat, which got so infected that I was put on antibiotics, I'm going to lose a nail and it was still bleeding and super painful while running this Saturday, 10 days later... Between that, the weaker glutes, the headwind on the way back, some slippery mud, it was challenging to hold a 6:30 min/mile pace. I kept pushing as hard as possible, not thinking too much about the upcoming 5K, yet I wasn't able to break 40 minutes in that first leg, not even close: 40:36, good for 8th place in the double. The black singlet runner, Anthony Cortes, ended up in 2nd place actually in 34:26, behind Ethan Phelps in 33:30.

I went for a short jog to cool down then rushed to the car as the rain started resuming. How lucky were we to avoid rain during the 10K, what an incredibly timely lull! I changed entirely into dry clothes and put my multiple layers back on. 10K runners kept coming in for a while then there was a 1-mile kid race which was barely over when it was time for us to start the 5K. I did a few sprints to shake the legs off and had hard time getting close to the front line, with many kids at the front this time. With that confusion, the count down has already started when I realized I had forgotten to switch my two GPS watches on! (I run with a Coros which I bought last year for the battery life allowing to run Spartathlon without having to charge, but still use my former Garmin for overall mile logging. Coros also provides quite cool and useful fitness-related analytics.)

Similar aggressive early lead from Anthony again, plus the tricky slalom to pass the kids who started slowing down and gasping for air after a few hundreds yards. This time I wasn't even able to hold 6:15, yikes! As for the dirt section it had now disappeared under huge puddles covering the entire width of the trail. So much that, on my way back, I literally ran into a runner although I was already on the right edge of the trail. We ended up to a full stop, holding each other hands to avoid a frontal collision, fun! There was also this participant running with his dog and the dog on leash in the middle of the trail. Oh well, nothing critically important on the line.

The glutes were painful in the last mile as I was pushing again in the headwind and seeing the seconds passing as my time was getting dangerously close to 20 minutes with the finish line in sight... 20:08, that one was closer but still adding a few seconds above the one-hour mark. (Photo credit: Bob Anderson.)

A total of 1:00:44, good enough to keep the 8th place, and easily win my non-competitive age group.

Again, super lucky to mostly miss rain on that second leg as well, as rain resumed again on and off in the following hour we had to wait to get our age group awards. In the meantime I enjoyed a hot coffee, and winning a prize in Bob's generous draw.

Also ample time to meet and chat with new running connections. Here with Michael Collery, 70-year young!

Did I mention luck yet? Well, it didn't stop with that. On Sunday morning, Bob posted this on my Facebook timeline:

Good seeing you yesterday. Congrats on your performance yesterday. With 84% age-graded you were our overall winner. Your Double Victory Cup will be engraved with your name and sent to you. Happy holidays!

When there is a silver lining to aging... ;-) Thank you Bob and your race organization team: despite the interesting conditions, that was quite a cool introduction to that Do Double format. And always a pleasure and honor to meet you and your wife. Double kudos and fun!

PS: stopped by Sports Basement on my way back home to pick my Turkey Trot age group podium awards, thank you and great too see you again, Chris!

20th Silicon Valley Turkey Trot: sweet sixteen for me!

After running 100K last weekend, my first real ultra of the year after the 6-month hiatus due to the breaking of my meniscus, I was much apprehensive to get back to the speedy format and exigence of a road 10K. Last year I was still digesting my 152-mile Spartathlon and sub-par 105-mile mark at the 24-hour National 4 days earlier, good excuses for not breaking 40 minutes and not getting on my age group podium on the last year of the M55-59 bracket.

Less fatigue excuses at least this year, but I still decided on wearing my knee sleeve to protect from the inflammation. It was actually meant to be chilly so I opted for long sleeves, tights and gloves which felt comfortable while waiting at the start but way too much once at full speed. Because full speed that run was about.

Driving with Agnès and Anouchka, we were the second car to get to the City View parking at 6:50 am, talk about early... turkeys!

I jogged to the start to snap a few pictures then to the finish/festival area to get more water, then back to the car to take a few layers off. It was below 40F when we left home but, after last weekend's atmospheric river, not a cloud on the forecast for this Thanksgiving: perfect weather to host 20,000 runners on that 20th edition!

It was my 16th consecutive run including 2009 when I entered the USATF-sanctioned 5K and clocked a 16:36. This year, the elite 5K was back, starting 5 minutes before the popular races. The elites ready to fly, with Race Director, Chris Weiler, better get out of the way

A selfie with Carl and Leslie Guardino, the original founder of this amazing tradition which led to more than $20 millions raised for local charities.

I was 3 to 4 lines behind the start and the first 200 yards turned to be rather hectic, slaloming between rather slow participants. Before the first turn, about 1/3 of a mile in, I managed to have a glance to my GPS: 6:15 min/mile, oh my, I had never ran that fast this year! With so many people ahead, I thought I was running at 7 min/mile...

One of our friends, Nathalie, was volunteering at the aid station after mile 1, in Japan Town, and snapped that picture of me wearing the hard working mask...

Typical of me, I had all sort of negatives thoughts in my mind, that this pace wasn't sustainable, the glutes felt tights, I was going to blow up sooner than later, I should have picked shorts, etc. Yet, I was stunned to clock a few more sub 6:30 miles so I kept going, being passed by some, and passing others.

At mile 1, Agnès looked much happier, didn't she?

Quite a few 5K runners turned off the left as we approached the end of the third mile but there were plenty ahead, on the 10K.

On the 4th mile, Thibault, the son of my friends Luc and Anne, caught up with me and we ran the next mile together, both pushing hard. He passed me but I passed him again around the 4.5-mile chip timing mat, and he stuck with me in the final long straight stretch.

With half a mile to go, we passed a runner who seemed he could be in my age group. He reached out after the finish, he was actually 56.

I kept the pedal to the metal until the very end and was really happy to break 40 minutes this time: far from my best but 39:27, good enough for 3rd in my new age group. What I'm the most proud of is to see my average stride back to a healthy 1.32m while keeping a cadence of close to 190. It looks like I didn't lose everything after all, yet I know I have to build back more muscle to avoid another injury at that speed.

I have to say that there was quite some healthy competition in our group: the winner was Thomas Tayeri in 36:09, wow! I'm blown away by his Athlinks stats showing amazing PRs all in his very late 50s.

I actually chatted with second place in our age group, Raymond (Ray) Rodriguez, who is 63 and clocked 37:39!

Big goals for next year, if my knee, and everything else, holds until then... For 25 years I thought I was invicible but not anymore!

Thibaut had started and finished behind me but got a better chip time of 39:22! There are gone my younger years! ;-) 

At the finish line, I was navigating between two groups: a francophone one with friends from Santa Cruz.

And IBM colleagues whom I was trying to gather on Slack as we had a team of about 65 this year!

It felt so great to run fast again, I had no idea I still had these 6-minute miles in me. Like still being able to run 100K last week after such an injury and losing so much leg muscle, that felt surreal too. And encouraging for the future. It was great to see and meet friends and make new connections. To be part of such a lasting and healthy tradition. To run in such wonderful weather. And to think that there should be more miles and Turkey Trot editions in the future!

And speaking of editions and as a bonus, my traditional collection picture, now at 4 by 4. See you next year, that event will be of age as we say!

-- Race #367 | 60th 10K

Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 2023: shorter doesn't mean easier!

As I posted on Facebook last night, I'm barely touching ground between all the racing this year and keeping up with the blogging, not to mention my first job of course! But trying hard... So, after recounting my epic albeit pathetic 3rd place at the 24-hour Nationals last weekend, after running the grueling Quad Dipsea this morning, after not being able to make the time yet to report on my Spartathlon, let's continue with Thursday's Turkey Trot.

Of course, it was only a 10K so that makes it much easier to blog about. But, on the athletic side, many people imagine that running 10K must be much easier than running 170K (last weekend) or 246K (Spartathlon). Well, it all depends on the intensity and pace you put into it. And for the ones who know me, they wouldn't expect I just stroll a 10K.

It was the 19th edition of this amazing local Thanksgiving tradition which Carl Guardino initiated in 2004 to raise funds for local charities. Surpassing 20,000 participants, it quickly became the largest Turkey Trot in North America. While it had to go virtual during the pandemic, it's now in full swing under the leadership of Race Director, Chris Weiler.

For me it was number 15, a nice and particular milestone, and streak. We ran quite a few as a family but the boys are now far away. Agnès is also a big fan, on the 5K, and we also have friends joining, as well as colleagues from IBM.

We have had a few rainy runs but the conditions were perfect again this year.  This makes a huge difference when dealing with such a huge crowd. We got at the parking lot on 3rd street around 7:15 when the city was still so quiet. Plenty of time to get prepared before the 8:30 am start of wave 1.

After running 106 miles last weekend, I was still sore on Wednesday when I went for a slow 10K run to get the blood flowing. That made me quite worried about how I'll fare this Thursday. With the focus on Spartathlon, I've done almost no speed work this year but I went for a track trial the week before the Nationals and was surprised I could still break 6 minutes. But, again, my legs were trashed after running in circles for 24 hours last weekend.

Before sending the wheelchair competitors off, we had a short allocution from San Jose Mayor, Matt Mahan, then the National Anthem (click on 2nd image below to get to the video/recording).

I still started in front and decided to give it all my best. By the first turn, about 400 yards in, my GPS was showing a 6:15 min/mile pace, not too bad. And, yet, especially with a combined 5K and 10K start, there were so many youger runners ahead already. My first lap ended up at 6:25 and the second at 6:29. And I couldn't really go faster than that, this year. An anecdote from the third mile: I was following a runner who, all of sudden, picked his phone and started answer a call and having a conversation. At 6:30 min/mile, respect! Well, I ended up passing him but I think he caught up on mile 4.

I clocked 6:32 for that 3rd mile and the field got more sparse after many turned toward the 5K finish. The sunny areas of the course were getting warmer but there was still a lot of shade on the side, you could pick what you preferred. I was still on mile 4 when I saw the lead runners coming back toward the finish, wow! Yet, I couldn't get the needle to move much, it was challenging enough to maintain this pace which I've not run on for a long while after so many weeks this Summer logging between 100 to 200 miles. Mile 4 ended up being the slowest one at 6:38, followed by a mile at 6:33.

With only one mile left, I was more free to give it all or at least some of the all I didn't have in the tank. I clocked a 6:30 then started seeing the finish line with the clock showing 39 minutes already, yikes! I used to break 6:35 on this course but, again, the circumstances were very different. At that point I hear someone yelling my name on the right, it was ultra runner Chihping Fu. Needless to say, I kept sprinting and managed to break 40 minutes by 5 seconds, phew, that was close! 6:26 min/mile average.

Ranking wise I wasn't surprised in the evening to discover I had missed the age group podium for a change, falling in 7th place in the M55-59 (I'm 3 month off turning 60, not the right end of the spectrum! ;-) ). What baffled me though is that this ended up being the most competitive age group in the Masters: there were 6 runners below 40 minutes in the M40, 2 in the M45, 5 in the M50 and 2 in the M60. Excited to get into a new age group then for the 20th anniversary next year!

Despite the size of the crowd, I did see my former best speed work buddy Bob M, one IBM colleague, Shawn, and a few friends.

And I chatted with Bob Anderson, the founder of Runner's World who, today, at 75, broke 50 minutes to place 2nd in his age group.

As for Carl, he was hard to miss, doing an interview right in the middle of the finish area!

Now, the important stuff: while running is an amazing excuse to get people out for a healthy family activity on Thanksgiving morning, the real deal is that the event raised $11 millions for these local charities. Way to make an impact as a group, congratulations all!

See you next year for the 20th anniversary, this is going to be yet another huge party and opportunity to raise the bar of fund raising!

Turkey Trot 2022: so good to get back in the flock

For many, this appeared to be a come back after a 3-year hiatus. But, technically, our Silicon Valley Turkey Trot survived the pandemic and ran virtual events in the meantime, that is in 2020 and 2021. Still, it felt really good to get this incredible vibe of joining tens of thousands of participants on Thanksgiving morning this week!

A sliding puzzle magic rectangle?

This year marked the 18th edition, and my 14th consecutive participation. Definitely part of our family traditions although, this year, I had registered the three boys but none of them were in town to run with Agnès and I this time. We still managed to meet about 20 people we knew, in that Bay Area crowd.

Starting with The Man, Carl Guardino, who has initiated this outstanding initiative which managed to raise more than $10M for local charities since inception, and gather more than 275,000 runners to promote healthier life style on the way. Carl before and after his 18th participation in the CEO 5K Challenge (afterwards promoting the follow-on/companion Santa Run Silicon Valley on Sunday December 11).

Once more, the weather was perfect. While the persisting drought is a calamity for nature and our agriculture, the sunny sky makes this huge gathering way easier and the party more festive. Incidentally, having suffered from an injury which took more than 3.5 years to heal, after slipping on a road crossing stripe while running the 2018 edition, I don't miss the wet conditions (it wasn't raining that morning, but had rained during the night, making the course wet and slippery in several places). It was chilly before the sun rose, but, with extra layers, I got sweaty while warming up around 8 am. Again, perfect conditions for a fast race.

Chris, the Race Director, had the courage to stand in front of the few thousand runners in the first wave, containing it all by himself and a few volunteers while waiting for the clearance of the city officials (we cross the light rail right off the bat, it's critical that one of the 5 waves doesn't hit a car...). There was so much excitement at the front of the wave with the joint 5 and 10K starts, I settled for the 3rd or 4th line, behind some kids. Waiving to Agnès:

Ready, set, go!

With my focus on slower ultras again this year, I have to admit it had been a long time I didn't run that fast. Half a mile in, my GPS was still indicating a 5:47 min/mile average, phew! Pretty cool to realize that there are hundreds who can run a mile under 5:45! It took some effort to keep that pace but I didn't have anything to lose, I wanted to see how long I could. I have to say that it's better to train for that, this certainly didn't feel as easy as it used to before the injury, 5 years ago.

Half way, we get to a section where the 5K turns to the left toward the finish line, and 10K runners go on the right. Some runners miss that split because we have the bright and low sun right in our eyes. The field had cleared a lot after that split, and I had no idea about who was in the lead, it was just me against the clock. I crossed the lead runners on their way back on Alameda, before our turn on Emory. 2 runners in front, so fast and smooth. Almost a mile ahead already!

A traded a few places but was mostly able to hold the pace around 6:10-6:14 in the last 3 miles, glad with that speed given the lack of speed work the past 4 years. Just before the end of mile 6 though, one mature-looking runner passed me and I couldn't respond. Right after crossing the finish line, I asked him: "50 or 60?" He replied with a 60, that was Raymond Rodriguez, of Los Baños. Really impressive time of 37:39 at 61. I got credited with a time of 37:45, 6:06 min/mile pace and that got me a 2nd place in M55-59 (or M50-59 as a matter of fact), 58th overall, 6th in the Masters. And I got chicked twice this year, the first women finishing a mere second apart, Elise Chu, 24, in 37:16 and Emily Haggerty, 27, in 37:17!

I've known this race with 10-year-deep age groups and, being on the end of the M50 spectrum, was pleased to learn that they were going with 5 years this time. Well, our age group division was won by Tom Tayeri of Palo Alto in a blazing 35:12. In 20th overall, he was also the second Master (40+) behind Andrew Liao, 48, in 35:05. So much competition! Live results.

Granted, maybe I won't see them at the grueling Quad Dipsea this Saturday morning, I had to keep some and, more importantly, avoid getting injured again. To that point, I'm glad to report that I didn't feel any pain at all: finally, 4 years are what it took to get this fissured hamstring tendon to heal!

My friends from Santa Cruz, Luc and Tanguy, ran together and took 5th and 6th in our age group. In this same group was an IBM colleague, Shawn, in 8th place, and Derrick, a former training buddy, in 9th: small world! With Shawn, at the Cityview Plaza parking lot before the start:

At 8 I stopped by the CEO Challenge private tent to hand Simone Winkler her Age Group Mountain, Ultra, Trail 2021 Grand Prix plaque. Simone would end up winning that CEO Challenge, taking 1st overall (Men/Women) in 19:16, blazing fast!

I also met Jose Piña at the start and the finish. I've raced with him and his father for 15 years and could beat him when he was 10, but not anymore... Jose finished 6th overall this Thursday in 32:56, wow!

Post race, I ran into Andrew, our USATF Pacific Association LDR Chair who ran 5K today. Then we had a little friend reunion next to the main stage, remembering the times when IBM was leading stretching routines on stage as we were sponsoring the event.

With Ron:

And the French connection!

That was my 58th 10K race in my running log, among a total of 346 races: time flies and keeps going! My calves were the most sore on Thursday evening so I went for a 10K run on Friday morning to untie the knots before Quad Dipsea tomorrow. That will be my 7th Quad and 5th Trot/Quad double, that should be a good fitness test to see how far I'm back.

35:05, 35:20, 35:06, 36:09, 35:41, 35:49, 36:10, 34:57, 35:51 (injury day!), 41:34, 40:17, 38:51, 37:45, it's good to get the injury bump behind and keeping dreaming that age is just a number and that I could run sub 37 again! ;-)

To conclude on the Turkey Trot, I heard that it was a successful one with more than $1M raised and close to 20K registrants, almost back to our pre-pandemic levels! Looking forward to perpetuating this great tradition then, with the big Silicon Valley flock! So glad to see the crowd forming again for such a great cause: way to do good, Silicon Valley!