‘Chafing your dream’ — Berkeley Half Marathon

As I was coursing through the Berkeley Half track, I was struck by the congeniality of the local residents who had come out of their homes in droves cheering the runners. Some were holding placards with motivational quotes, some were giving us high-fives raring us to go, there was music blaring, drum thumping and a few breaking out in dance. The atmosphere was electrifying. I noticed a placard that read, ‘chafing your dream’ and the bearer was giving me a thumbs-up sign. The quote stuck with me !

I had signed up for Berkeley Half in Oct last year itself, following up to the SF run. I had done number of long distance races before and was prepping myself for quite a few Triathlons, so I thought the timing would be right to complete the Berkeley Half.

Up until December, I was mostly cross-training with swimming, cycling, gym and so on. Also my book release kept me occupied especially over last few months. In Jan., I picked up the tempo and started incorporating some short runs in my exercise regime.

I practiced up to 7–8 miles leading up to the race and didn’t get a chance to cross that distance during the practice, also I wasn’t feeling well for some time after Booster Covid shot, earlier in the month. Nevertheless, during the race week, I felt good and I was in a mindset to give it my best shot.

Finally, the race day was here and I found myself on the track. I ran pretty well for the first 6–7 miles, outpacing my earlier pace and timings. After 8–9 miles, my legs started feeling heavy and at mile 10–11, I seemed to have pulled my calf muscle on the left foot. I hadn’t anticipated this debacle and my pace slowed down considerably. Nevertheless, I completed the race.

Lessons learned —

• Answer your ‘why’ before you begin anything challenging. I had doubts cross multiple times in my mind before the race and thought of quitting or why do it, but it was my reason, ‘ why’ that kept me anchored to my goal.
• I did great until 6–7 miles as I had run that distance fairly good number of times. I was able to work with my heart rate well for the first half, outpacing my previous timings. But in the second leg of the race, i.e. beyond 8 miles, I was besieged by leg/calf issue that I hadn’t anticipated before. Making a mental note for myself, that long weekend runs with progressive long distance is good leg training, if nothing else.
• A challenge can be overcome by two things — not giving in to your doubts (there will lot of ifs and buts before the start, if you yield to it, you are done) and preparing well with prior planning. Half marathon or marathon is an essence of ambition and a worthy challenge to take a shot at!

I am already signed up for SF full marathon in July. It has a challenging finish time for medal, so preparing physically and mentally is required.

After this half-marathon and with the race experience in hindsight, I began reading through on what I could have done better to be better prepared next time and for longer distance than 13.1mi. I have come across Higdon’s, Hanson’s and Galloway’s method for marathon training and exploring them quite a bit. At this point, Galloway seems to be a better fit for beginner marathoner as well as a triathlete. Let’s see, I have also joined Silicon Valley Triathlon Club, SVTC and looking forward to further reading and training.