{"id":1382,"date":"2012-11-11T08:54:13","date_gmt":"2012-11-11T16:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/o2fitness.net\/o2\/?p=1382"},"modified":"2012-11-11T08:54:13","modified_gmt":"2012-11-11T16:54:13","slug":"kathy-barnharts-healdsburg-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/kathy-barnharts-healdsburg-half\/","title":{"rendered":"Kathy Barnhart’s Healdsburg Half"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Healdsburg-Start\"<\/a><\/div>\n
There’s 2500 race participants in Geyserville waiting for the start of the Healdsburg Half Marathon the last weekend of October.\u00a0 The announcer is talking about the course, “there’s water at miles 2, 4,…and Accelerade at miles…and white wine at mile 10.\u00a0 This is a beautiful course, so everyone needs to take advantage of the rolling hills, vineyards and lovely scenery.\u00a0 Make sure you enjoy the race and have fun.”\u00a0 There are several of us dressed up in Halloween costumes creating a festive mood.\u00a0 Batman, Wonder Woman, 3 little pigs and a wolf, and several others are waiting for the start.\u00a0 The announcer continues, “even the elite competitors in the front\u00a0 should have fun and and take time to enjoy the course.”\u00a0 Does that mean I should enjoy the wine at mile 10?I’ve been taking Julie’s running clinic, met some awesome running buddies, and want to see if I can improve my half marathon time.\u00a0 I did the Seattle Rock and Roll Half in June with similar elevation gain and temperatures, so I should show some improvement.\u00a0 At least I hope to have improved.\u00a0 Maybe I should skip the wine.\u00a0 But then again, how often do we get to drink wine during a race?\u00a0 Well, let’s see how I feel at mile 10.<\/p>\n

Everyone is ready to go.\u00a0 Jimi Hendrix plays the national anthem.\u00a0 Ready, set, and we’re off.\u00a0 Around mile one, we’re running up a hill that’s about 1\/2 a mile long.\u00a0 We’ve been training on hills, so this should be a cinch.\u00a0 O.K., keep the pace steady and comfortable.\u00a0 I have 12 miles to go.\u00a0 The ladybug who’s been next to me since the beginning seems to pick up her pace.\u00a0 That’s OK, I can catch her in the downhill when gravity is my friend.\u00a0 Down hills have not been a favorite of mine, because the impact seemed to slam my body.\u00a0 Julie has taught me to embrace the downhill and has improved my form.\u00a0 There’s a little bit of a bend in the road, and I can’t tell if I’ve reached the top and should pick up my pace for the downhill.\u00a0 YEA, we’re at the top of our only big hill, and down I go.\u00a0 And yes, I caught the lady bug!\u00a0 I’m enjoying the downhill when a dog blows by everyone along the right shoulder of the road.\u00a0 This isn’t someone in costume.\u00a0 It’s a real dog who’s name is Willie.\u00a0 I saw him wondering around the start, and apparently he has decided to join the race.\u00a0 Is he looking for his owner?\u00a0 Hope they find each other.\u00a0 (More on Willie later).<\/p>\n

On I go, mile after mile.\u00a0 At mile 6 I look at my Garmin.\u00a0 I haven’t done a 10K for awhile, but I think I’m ahead of my personal best.\u00a0 I probably look at my watch every 1\/100th of a mile before I finally reach 6.2 miles.\u00a0 Cool, I’m about 1 1\/2 minutes ahead of my best 10K.\u00a0 Thanks Julie!!\u00a0 O.K., don’t get too excited, I’ve got 7 miles to go.\u00a0 Luckily Julie is in my head saying “Think about form.”\u00a0 Pelvis, check.\u00a0 Arms, check.\u00a0 Glutes, check.<\/p>\n

At mile 8, my calves are cramping a bit…focus on keeping my glutes activated.\u00a0 I think I am, but it’s not helping.\u00a0 What else can I do?\u00a0 Julie always talks about pedaling an imaginary bike spindle.\u00a0 I try this and am amazed the cramping seems to subside.\u00a0 This is the time in my 1\/2 when I typically have to deal with leg cramps and slow down a bit.\u00a0 I’m able to keep up with a butterfly that’s just passed me.\u00a0 Mile 9 comes up, and my calves are cramping again, and I”m no longer able to keep up with the butterfly.\u00a0 Julie pops back into my head, “focus on form.”\u00a0 It’s helping.\u00a0 Margaret Skillicorn, who also took Julie’s clinic has a motto.\u00a0 “I can do anything for 4 miles, I can do anything for 3 1\/2 miles.”\u00a0 Now I have both Julie and Margaret in my head.\u00a0 The company helps!\u00a0 Margaret is saying, “I can do anything for 3 miles.”\u00a0 But my calves are cramping again.\u00a0 Do I have some of the wine coming up and coast to the finish?\u00a0 No, I want to see how much I can improve my time.\u00a0 Julie pops in and says, “Focus on form, think about the bike spindle.”\u00a0 It’s working again!\u00a0 Shoot, there’s another hill.\u00a0 It’s short.\u00a0 Julie always says , “break the race course into segments and make that your race.”\u00a0 I can push a little bit to make it to the top of the hill.\u00a0 Focus on form.\u00a0 Pelvis, check.\u00a0 Glutes…arms…bike spindle, check.\u00a0 I’m so focused on form, the pain is more tolerable.\u00a0\u00a0 I see the butterfly up the road again.\u00a0 I can’t catch her, but at least I’m making progress.\u00a0 I can do anything for 2 1\/2 miles.\u00a0 Shoot, there’s another hill.\u00a0 Focus on form, get to the top.\u00a0 I turn a corner and it’s less than a mile to the finish.\u00a0 I start to pick up the pace.\u00a0 I can do anything for a mile.\u00a0 Well, maybe not.\u00a0 I’ll break the last mile into race segments.\u00a0 I pick up the pace for a block.\u00a0 That wasn’t so bad, I pick up the pace for another block, and another block.\u00a0 I can keep up the pace, and the finish is down a short hill and around the corner.\u00a0 I can do anything for a couple blocks.\u00a0 YEA, I am done!!<\/p>\n

All of Julie’s coaching and training with my new run buddies was such a help.\u00a0 I’ve been trying to improve my half marathon time for about 5 years and have only dropped 4 minutes.\u00a0 Today I’ve been able to take almost 10 minutes off of my time since June.\u00a0 Thank you Julie!\u00a0 Thank you run buddies!<\/p>\n

Willie the dog apparently won the race.\u00a0 He was digging around some shrubs when I finished.\u00a0 His owners were in Geyserville having no idea what mischief he had gotten into that morning.\u00a0 He was later arrested by local law enforcement but bailed out by his owners.<\/p>\n

Julie always talks about the recovery being so important.\u00a0 Well, we’re off to a local restaurant for lunch and mimosas!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s 2500 race participants in Geyserville waiting for the start of the Healdsburg Half Marathon the last weekend of October.\u00a0 The announcer is talking about the course, “there’s water at miles 2, 4,…and Accelerade at miles…and white wine at mile 10.\u00a0 This is a beautiful course, so everyone needs to take advantage of the rolling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[22],"class_list":["post-1382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletes-blog","tag-kathy-barnhart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/silversagecenter.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}