an e-Mail to the Ten30Pace Group

 

From: ten30pace@yahoogroups.com [mailto: ten30pace@yahoogroups.com ] On Behalf Of Charles Sayles
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 8:44 PM
To: ten30pace@yahoogroups.com ; ten30Leggers@yahoogroups.com
Cc: Albert Shum ; Joni Yung ; Bonnie Wright ; Dana Mosell ; Julie (the Flyer) Miller; Russ Cheney
Subject: [ten30pace] California Intenational Marathon

 

Jackie

It was fun to read your report on the City of Angles Half Marathon and it inspired me write about my running the California International Marathon.

While you were running the City of Angles on Sunday, Albert Shum and I were in Sacramento . We had driven up to Sacramento to run the California International Marathon. We had both run the CIM, I ran it in 2002 as my third marathon, and Albert had run it in 2000. We had left LA early
Saturday morning and got to the expo about noon. I had pre-registered, but Albert had not. I think they had a record number of entrants this the 24th year of the event. They had a nice expo and I did some Christmas shopping.


Albert and I also sat in on panel discussion on running and lifestyle changes.

I was lucky to have found us a room at the Capital Plaza Holiday Inn. We checked in and then went to a near by food court for lunch. We had spaghetti and meat balls. We returned to our room to watch the UCLA-USC football game. I guess I can take some satisfaction since I have certificate in Program Management and Control from the UCLA extension, and at one time that qualified me for membership in the UCLA Alumni Association. After the game we went to "Old Sacrament" which was within walking distance of the Holiday Inn. There were a few fancy restaurants there, but we opted for sandwiches from a Subway, which we took back to the hotel to eat and watch the Oklahoma-Nebraska football game. This was more interesting to me since my undergraduate degree is from Oklahoma .

Before we left for Sacramento we had thought the temperature at the start would be about 40F. However, when I checked on-line Saturday evening, it said the temperature would be 31F. This was somewhat colder, so we had to rethink what we would wear in the morning. We got up at 4 am. Fortunately it was not quite so cold in the morning. About 5 am we caught a shuttle bus from the Holiday Inn. On the bus I sat next to a woman from Corvallis , Oregon who was a statistician for Kaiser's research department. I found it more than a little surprising that a statistician did not know how many marathons she had run. On the ride I saw a temperature of 36F on a bank sign.

When the bus got to the start line, the time was a little before 6 am. We got off the bus and found it was not too cold. Albert hoped to get a cup coffee, but none was to be had. There was a convenience store near the start, but they was a line and they were only letting one person when another came out. With it being warmer inside than out, not too many were coming out. As we walked away from the store we saw Larry Macon walking to the store. Larry runs a lot of marathons. Last year he ran 79 marathons. On Saturday he had run the marathon in Memphis and then flew to Sacramento for this marathon. Albert and I decided to keep warm and went into one of the school buses that used to shuttle runners to the start. The bus driver had once run the CIM in the early 90's. About 15 minutes before the start we got out of the bus. I put all of my extra stuff in a gear bag and turned it into gear check. Then until the start I wore a garbage bag over my long sleeve running shirt. A few seconds before the start, I threw the garbage bag into the trash. When I ran the CIM in 2002 there the only chip reading was at the finish. This time, the chips were read at the beginning, half marathon point, as well as the finish.

It took me about 2 minutes to cross the start line. From 2002 I had remembered where there was a wooded section just after Mile 1 where a lot of runners (particularly, but not exclusively, the guys) made a pit stop. I guess in years past so many runners had stopped there, and now they had four porta-pottie there, and I took advantage of the opportunity. It was a nice sunny day for our run. I wore gloves for the first six or seven miles. I was never really cold, and only one point did I wish I did not have on long sleeves.

From time to time during the marathon I would run with Henry Rueden. Henry is from Wisconsin and is a member of the 50 States Marathon Club and the CIM was 476th marathon. Henry has run five marathons in each of the 50 States.  For comparison, this was only my 76th marathon, and I have only run one marathon in each of the 50 states. More than a few nearby runners were impressed as we talked about marathons and traveling to marathons.

My running plan had been to hold myself to 12 minutes miles for the first half and then pick up the pace to see how close I could come to my 2002 time, which is my marathon PR. Last weekend I had the stomach flu, and I think the residual affects must have still been with me. This caused more than the normal number of pit stops such that I could not maintain my goal pace. So I just cruised along a more leisurely pace. I did pickup the pace a little during the last two miles and finished about 25 minutes slower than 4 years. Hey, I am 4 years older and when you are in your late 60's four years can make a big differences.

Since the Holiday Inn is within walking distance of the finish, I promised to meet Albert back at the hotel about 1:30 pm. I finished about 5 minutes ahead of Henry. Henry had his car parked near the finish and offered me a ride to the Holiday Inn. I got the Holiday Inn at 1:20 pm and found Albert. Albert had planned to finish in 4:15 and he did. His 4:14:25 was
his fastest time this year. He, of course, back to the Holiday Inn before I did. He had showered and checked us out of the room. When I got back to the Holiday Inn we went to food court for a fish and chips lunch.

Our plan had been to stop on the way back for a steak dinner. But my stomach was feeling a little like it did the weekend before, and we elected to drive straight through.

Overall it was a good event and I had fun. I had taken along the latest Jeff Galloway book, "Running Until You're 100" figuring I read it on the trip. I did not get a chance as Albert and I talked marathons the whole (except when I took about 30 minute nap as we started back). Albert is quite a runner. About 2 years ago he was the second LA Legger to finish a
marathon in the 50 each of the 50 states. At the time, he said, that except for the LA Marathon, he was through running marathons. This spring I saw him at the Nashville Country Music Marathon. It was his 98th marathon and he said he was going to quit when he got to 100 marathons, which was to be the Silver State Marathon in a couple of months. In October I was him at the Silicon Valley Marathon . There he told me his goal was to run 26 marathons in 2006. The CIM was marathon 25 for 2006. The 26th will be the New Las Vegas Marathon the weekend after the CIM. He told me after that he will only run the Mardi Gras, the LA Marathon, and Las Vegas Marathon, where he wants to become a legacy runner.

While the marathon was a lot of fun, there were two disappointments. The biggest was my Nikon S9 camera. I bought it because I want a simple-to-use, point ,and shoot camera that I can carry in a Race Ready running shorts pocket. While the Nikon S9 can be used as a simple point and shoot camera, it also has some more advanced features. Something must have happened and it went into one of the advanced feature modes, and none of the pictures I took was save on SD card. This a real bummer as I won't have pictures for my www.csayles.com/run web site. The other disappointment was the lack of finishers medals when I finished. There were 540 more finishers in 2006 than 2005 and with the 16% increase in the number of finishers, they did not 16% more medals. Mine will be mailed to me.

Charles