Feel free to share, pin and instagram this photo!

Feel free to share, pin and instagram this photo!

Yes, I had a SUPER weekend, but we’ll get to that later in the post.

rockridge

First, let’s start with the Oakland Running Festival course preview run. Saturday morning, we all met up at the See Jane Run store in Rockridge. The Oakland Marathon had organized a 9 mile preview run of the course. It included the more “difficult” section of the full marathon that has most of the elevation. I wanted to get some extra miles in, so I arrived early and did a 5 mile run before and headed up towards the UC Berkeley campus.

The highest point of the Oakland Marathon – look at that view (and that steep decline!)

The highest point of the Oakland Marathon – look at that view (and that steep decline!)

Once the run started, I decided to run with the 9:15 pace group and managed to stay towards the front of the group. Yay for me. Well, I started in the absolute back to honest and moved my way towards the front as the miles went by. I’m familiar with the route, so I knew what to expect and the elevation gain we would be facing. The last few miles I knew were relatively flat so I kicked it into another gear and finished with a couple sub 9s.

OAKLAND

I left pretty quickly after the run because me and wifey were going to take the First Lady to the library. They have a infant and toddler reading circle. How cool is that? I made it with just enough time to shower, grab a Gatorade and head out the door. We all had a good time and went to the park afterwards for lunch and some fun in the grass. Gotta love California for time at the park in January.

Saturday night, I also decided to end the night, Cotter style. Cheers to that!

wine

On Sunday, I decided to go out for another 14 mile run. I was hoping to get 30+ over the weekend, but I think the two 14s were a smarter play. This route was closer to home and one I was also familiar with. It is mostly flat (don’t be fooled by the chart — it’s a couple 100 feet over 4 miles). My legs felt tight, but the miles went by pretty quickly with most being low 8 minutes. I got tired the last few miles and had to walk a bit, but I was ok with it.

The first 13.1 miles was only 2 minutes slower than my Half Marathon PR.

The first 13.1 miles was only 2 minutes slower than my Half Marathon PR.

As for the “SUPER” part of my weekend, the 49ers beat the Falcons and advanced to the Super Bowl. This is especially good since the #MilesOfShame wager was looking pretty dreadful when we were down 17-0. Michelle and I will also be hosting a Super Bowl Runner’s Wager (details to be announced this week), but I’ll also be coming up with “SOMETHING EPIC” with Amanda of MissZippy1.com since she reigns from the Baltimore area.

Did you see the final score of the Patriots/Ravens game? Everyone in BLUE on this list owes 15 miles! That’s (up to*) 465 miles. Yikes!

*Some runner’s “maxed out” at a lower distance.

Total miles for the week: 56.3 — my highest weekly total for the year.

 

How was your weekend?

Any ideas on what me and Mizz Zipster should wager?
Be creative!

 

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