Over LDW, I ran my second half marathon ever! The whole experience was surreal. Here's a little too much detail just a little late ;)
TWO WEEKS BEFORE RACE DAY, I signed up. I feel like that's pretty late as far as half marathon signups go, but I knew I wouldn't feel comfortable going into the full marathon without seeing what I could do in a race half its distance.
Upon signing up for the half, nothing really changed about my training.
ONE WEEK BEFORE THE RACE, I even ran 22 miles for the first time (because marathon training stops for nothing... or something like that).
THE WEEK OF THE RACE, I skipped running on Sunday and Monday, but went to the NRC speed run on Tuesday. As I said above, marathon training stops for no one. To keep myself from going out too hard in this workout though, I dropped back one group slower. Somehow I still struggled through the workout anyway. It was humid, the intervals were long (2 miles at tempo, 1 mile at 10K, 2 x .5 miles @ 5K), and during those last two reps my throat started to hurt with the first signs of a cold.
After that workout (besides for freaking out), I spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday eating healthy (aka: the same as usual, but with no alcohol or dessert which I happen to lovee), majorly catching up on sleep, and not running. In my downtime, I even made myself Excel sheets with the paces I'd have to run per mile to run my reach goal time of 1:54:00 plotting out even pacing, fast starts, fast finishes, and everything in between.
THE NIGHT OF THE RACE was the first night of LDW. Friends were in town,
six of us went out to dinner... I abstained from beer and ice cream, but ate a veggie burger and fries, and didn't go to bed until 11:00 pm for a 6:45 am race. Could've done better. Could've done worse?
THE MORNING OF THE RACE I woke up
at 4:45 am and was still full from my burger and fries the night before. Aah. Cue more freaking out. I couldn't get myself to eat anything, but had a strong cup of black tea. The caffeine on an empty stomach made me nauseous and I started freaking out that much more. I don't have anxiety in my day-to-day life, but racing definitely brings it out in me. Like it always surprises me how much my heart rate rises and how much I sweat hours or even a few days before I even start a race. I continued my pre-race routine by getting dressed in the outfit I'd laid out the night before. I then made myself some Gatorade and left to go to the race, running my warm up on the way there.
My stomach wasn't bothering me that much as I ran the warm up, but yikes. The 2.5ish miles I ran were slow. Like 10:20 min/mile slow. I could imagine running faster for the race, but not more than 1 minute per mile faster, which wasn't going to get me too far in meeting my minimum goal of running a sub-2 hour half marathon.
I got to the parking lot where race check in was and started to feel a bit more energized at least. I drank water, dropped my belongings off at the gear check, went to the bathroom, and started going through all my NRC stretches and warm ups.
Soon, all the women started moving toward the start on the lakefront path and I was surprised to see how far towards the front I was. The race seemed to be about 200 women, but I felt like I was in the first quarter of women.
This race had pacers, but unfortunately there was a 1:50:00 and a 2:00:00, but no 1:55:00. That being said, to avoid going out too fast, I loosely planned my first two miles as sticking with the 2:00:00 group and then slowly breaking away after. That didn't happen though...
MILE 1
Through some sort of miracle, once the gun went off, I felt way better than I thought I would. I hung with the 2:00:00 group for about a quarter mile and then slowly inched forward. I wondered if I was making a mistake, but when we hit the Mile 1 marker, my watch read 8:50 and I was surprised how good I felt.
MILE 2 - 4
In preparation for this race, I Googled "half marathon pacing strategies". Most basically said the same thing... you should be able to get in full sentences in the first 5 miles, a few words at a time throughout Miles 6 -10 and then Miles 11-13.1 should be one word or less. To keep myself in check, every so often I'd mutter the chorus of
this song under my breath, which Joe and I had been singing during the week leading up to the race.
After a comfortable first mile, I wasn't looking to push the pace too hard yet, but in the second mile, I found myself sticking right with a group of three other ladies. We didn't really talk much, but all kind of paced each other. Yeah women solidarity! After 2.5 miles, one ended up having to go to the bathroom so we ended up disbanding over the next half mile. One woman dropped back, I hung with another for another half mile and then I pulled ahead.
MILES 5-6.55
At that point, I was on my own but got to pass a few other ladies, which was a bit exciting, although one looked like she was in her mid 60's and was totally killing it. #goals
One of my coworkers (whom I absolutely love) was running the race and I saw her around Mile 6 on her way back. She's in her 40's and sooo fast! (And happens to be my work fashion inspiration haha). I also saw 2 NRC acquaintances – one who's literally the fastest guy at NRC these days and another who happened to be the race marshall for this race and was positioned at the turnaround point!
MILES 6.55-9
These were the miles where I was tired, but hanging in there. There weren't too many other women near me anymore since it was a small race and we were mostly spread out, but a 50ish year old woman in a funny tutu passed me and was in such good spirits cheering on all the slower marathoners still on their way out. Also #goals.
MILE 10-12
These were hard. Like hard enough where I left a nice passerby hanging when he tried giving me a highfive :x. These were the miles where I was on my own since it was a small race... I started doing math in my head... counting out my strides... 1, 2, 3, 4... 2, 2, 3, 4. These were the miles where I tried to relax my usually non-relaxed arms. I started looking at my watch more. I told myself that even if I started running 10 minute miles, I'd still finish around 1:56:00 which seemed great compared to my first half marathon time (2:13:00), and I was tempted to slow down, but I kept going. I couldn't get in any words in at this point besides a quick "On your left/right" upon passing women running the 10K, but I replayed "I want something just like this" in my head, and you know what? It helped infinitely.
MILE 13
This mile was so hard. It was whole body tired gard. It almost feels like an out of body experience thinking back on it. I was in my own head and in the best way possible. I thought about how I wasn't able to do this for over 3 years. I thought about how I would PR by over 15 minutes. I thought about how I'd see Joe soon (and I did!). I thought about seeing all my friends for brunch after the run. I thought about how good it would feel to stop. But I didn't.
THE FINISH (.1 & AFTER)
This was so epic. I realize that sounds so lame to say about yourself (does anyone remember
this crazy Bachelorette?), but I really think it was epic compared to all of the races I've ever run.
Even though it was a women's only race, the finish of the race was on the lakefront path so anyone could go through it – men, children, bikers, rollerbladers, etc. Around Mile 13, a guy came up on my right and at first I was annoyed since he was a guy and this was supposed to be my finish, but he turned to me and said "You've got this!" and started picking up his pace a bit so I could match it. The clock came into sight reading 1:51:25. I was shocked. So so shocked. It was so far ahead of the reach goal I'd set for myself. I kicked my pace into overdrive and finished strong – the clock at 1:51:55 as I went under. I stepped off to the side so I could catch my breath...
And then I started throwing up. Yup. I never thought I'd do that, but if that's not a sign I reached some potential, then I don't know what is. It wasn't a lot, but it all looked like Gatorade. It was right outside the medical tent and because the race was small, I'm pretty sure I was the first person they saw. It was funny how much attention I got. There was a 5K and a 10K happening too and for some reason they didn't realize I'd run the half marathon and kept asking me if I was used to running this distance. Ha.
They got me some water and tissues and I sat for a minute. I spotted Joe across the finish line a few minutes later after I emerged from the medical tent. He made a "What?" sign and one of the medical staffers made a throwing up gesture. Lol. I grabbed another cup of water and then met up with Joe.
We picked up my stuff from the gear check, grabbed some drinks, chocolates, and pretzels and watched the 5K take off before heading home to meet up with our friends for brunch.
