There's no better way to get ready for a race than to join training runs.

Getting Ready to Race? Join These Training Runs

The Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon and 5K is less than six weeks away, but there’s still plenty of time to get ready for the race. (If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do so here. And you have until January 11th before prices increase!)

As the date nears, it’s a good idea to participate in training runs, which will help you up your speed and endurance and feel more confident in your readiness. Local training runs include:

1. Official training runs hosted by Sports Basement. The first one is this Saturday, January 9th, departing from Sports Basement Presidio. You can see event announcements for these runs by “liking” the Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon Facebook page.

2. Pamakid spot runs. Pamakid hosts weekly runs on the Panhandle bike path that depart from the corner of Fell and Cole every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Runs include shorter social runs and longer training and tempo runs. To keep up with announcements, join the Spot Run Google Group.

3. Informal Pamakid runs organized by members. Join the Yahoo groups for the Pamakid Racing Team or the Pamakid Runners Club to find out more.

4. Sports Basement Fun Runs. These informal runs depart every Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. from the Presidio store, and every Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. from the Bryant Street store. If you live in the east bay, the Berkeley store hosts Fun Runs every Thursday night, also at 6:30 p.m.

5. Future official training runs. Every Saturday between now and the race, Pamakid and Sports Basement will co-lead training events, followed by juice and bagels at the Sports Basement Presidio store.

  • Saturday, January 9th: 5-8 miles
  • Saturday, January 16th: 6-10 miles
  • Saturday, January 23rd: 8-12 miles
  • Saturday, January 30th: Tempo intervals at Crissy Field
  • Saturday, February 6th: 8-12 miles

Keep this flyer on hand for all the details.

Melanie Haiken writes about health, wellness and fitness for national magazines and websites. She specializes in discovering and reporting the latest research on diet, nutrition, fitness, weight loss and other health-related topics. Her award-winning stories have appeared in Fitness, Shape, Health, Forbes, and other respected magazines. She also contributes health stories to numerous Kaiser Permanente newsletters and other publications.

Related articles