Let me preface my report with this: I was not in the best emotional state this weekend, I had some personal issues (which I would love to get out on here, but I realize some things should stay personal.) I cried off and on all day Saturday and almost started bawling at the starting line (a few tears may have escaped). Saturday night I kept telling my self just to use the race as an emotional release and that maybe my feelings would help me dig deeper during it. Whether or not any of this effected my race, I have no clue, but I had to mention it because this stuff was on my mind through out the run and I couldn't imagine completely ignoring it in my write up.
Saturday night I barely slept, par for the course I suppose. Up at 4:30, english muffin w/ PB and coffee for breakfast, out the door by 6, my dad drove.
Originally my sister was supposed to run this with me, but she had a lot going on for work this weekend so she withdrew.
Goal going in: 1:45.
Game plan going in: Start out at 8 minute pace and [hopefully] finish strong with a few sub 8's at the end.
This all went out the window once the race started.
I have a really hard time slowing myself down when a certain pace feels "easy." And even though I knew I would most likely not be able to hold it, I couldn't help milking those first few miles when they were coming so easy to me.
Here are my splits, yea I crashed and burned at the end ;)
Official chip time: 1:43:40 7:56 pace
467/ 4065 oa 87/ 1892 sex 19/ 323 div
I have mixed feelings about my time/performance:
~ On the one hand I beat my goal time, on the other hand during the race I had thoughts that maybe I could go sub 1:40.
~ Going into the race and even now, I know that I did not specifically train to run my best half. I got in a few long runs so that I knew I could finish and wouldn't die, but overall my mileage was low and a few longer tempo runs would have been helpful. Being extra cautious when I was having knee pain stalled my training a bit. On the brightside, the knee issue seems to have subsided :D
~ At 8 miles I was at almost exactly 1 hour. At this point I knew that as long as I wasn't doing close to 9 min miles I had my 1:45. I also thought if I could do 8 or just below I'd be right near 1:40, but in the end I just wanted to get those last few miles done and didn't care so much about pace.
~ During the last few miles and for a while after I was swearing that I would stick to 5/10ks and that these longer races were not my thing. Of course now I am thinking about how I could improve my time and when my next half will be. Definitely no thoughts of a full mary though!
Some other issues during the race:
~ I always make myself so nervous before races and I was freaking out before this one. I tried to tell myself just finishing would be great, but in my heart I knew I wouldn't be happy with that. I had so much anxiety that I caused my stomach to be very acidic and was burping up acid during the first few miles, fun.
~ I didn't drink or eat anything during the race. I am used to skipping all the water stops in 5ks and I did the same in this race. I did take a cup at one stop and had maybe a drop or 2 of water and then just threw it aside. I also grabbed a GU at, actually I don't even remember what mile, held it for a while, finally decided to try it, struggled to open it, finally did, squeezed a drop into my mouth, threw the rest aside. I'm not sure I was too fond of the taste it left in my mouth for the rest of the race either.
After the race I hung out for a little, it was a gorgeous sunny day, drank a michelob, talked to some people I've met at recent races. There was one booth that set up a TRX, but I was to tired to do anything other then plop myself in the shade.
And then I had my cousins baby shower where I refueled with an amazing Italian buffet. Roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, tomato and mozz, eggplant, wine, it was amazing.
Now it is time to focus my training on that sub 20 in June :D and begin some tri training too!
I don't have any pictures from the race yet. Here is a family pic from my dad's retirement party Thursday night instead:
Ooopps almost forgot, thanks to all new followers who helped me get above and beyond 300 :) As I said I'm not so concerned with getting more and more followers, just that I write stuff that is at least semi interesting/ sometimes informative lol. But seeing 299 and then 298, and then 299 again. . . well it drove me a little crazy, sooo Thank You :D
