Race Recap: Monumental Half Marathon

Ok - first things first: 1:53:31!! A new PR (by A LOT) and an awesome race overall.

The first cold snap of the season hit on Friday night; snow flurries were sighted, sleet came down and the winds gusted. Mostly I just tried to ignore the complaints over the weather; I had trained 15 weeks for this race and I'd be damned if 'bad weather' was going to detract from it. Cold temperatures are advantageous for so many runners anyways. This did force me to re-plan my race outfit though and I settled on a tank, arm warmers, long sleeve over that and mid-calf capris. I also opted for gloves and a headband which were essential for the moments waiting before hand. Overheating was not a problem at all during this race - I was actually really comfortable the whole way through but the second I stopped I though I'd get frostbite.

Scott and I arrived about 1 hour ahead of the 8 am start; it was still dark and we had a ~1 mile walk from the car to downtown. I was NOT enjoying the weather at this point. It was blustery and freezing. We mostly huddled in a corner and tried to maintain some heat while waiting. I eventually made my way to the start corrals; they were loosely seeded and not too many people really adhered to their seeding anyways. I tried to make it to the back where us non-seeded folks were relegated but I eventually gave up and just discreetly squeezed into corral 4.

After little fanfare we were off! There was much congestion in the first mile and I was really concerned about my pace but it eventually evened out.

Miles 1-3
These went by really fast; they had so many twists and turns through down town and the crowd was still considerably large at this point. Scott had given me pacing of 9:05 for the first 3 miles, 8:55 for the next 5 and 8:40 for the last 5. I noticed I was above pace for these miles and I tried to slow it down some, but I wasn't too successful.

Miles 4-6
I was still feeling really comfortable in the 8:45 range here at these miles so I decided to just stick with it. The course had taken us out of the thick of downtown by now and we were running through the neighborhoods which were full of nice support.

Miles 7-9
By this point we'd split from the full marathon and were going through some more turns that I couldn't really place in my head. I was still feeling strong and confident with my consistent 8:42-8:45 miles.

Miles 10-13.1
I had it in my head to try to pick up the pace at mile 10 but I wasn't able to do it. Part of it was a small incline over a bridge but mostly I think I was still concerned about blowing up. By the time I'd reached mile 12 I really stepped up my pace (I guess I knew I wasn't going to blow up then) and realized I could've probably done this a few miles back. Oh well. Before the start of this year I'd never had a race tactic at all so what can you say?

I can't believe I ran such even splits. I never achieve this in training. You can see the first 3 miles I was still dealing with crowds and my last mile is WAY faster than the others. So I didn't really follow Scott's pace suggestions but either way I am super proud of my finish! I kept thinking during the race how hard my first half was (2:17, average pace 10:30) that I had to walk a bunch and how far I've come. I felt strong the whole way and never had any really tough parts.

My knees and hips were sore for the rest of the day but I feel fine after a good night's sleep. Again compare this to last year where I could barely walk up and down stairs for days after. We celebrated with Ethiopian food, vegan cupcakes and my first beer post-training.

Now I have to set my sights on more races because I can't get enough. Most likely next spring I will run the Mini Marathon and again try to take down my half PR. But for now... I'm going to enjoy a few days off from running.

The start

I officially started my half marathon training today. This gives me about 15 weeks - which is probably more than necessary but I already feel like it won't be enough. 

I let a lot of negative thoughts flood in while I ran around the canal today after work. "It's hot." "My hamstring feels sore." "My foot too." "I look so weird in that store window." "I don't look like a runner." "I'm never going to run 13.1 miles, these 4 are hard."

And then I got a really bad stitch in my side and had to walk for a bit. Womp womp. So I realized that if I am EVER going to even come considerably close to improving on my half marathon time I am going to have to take this training day by day. As in, just focus on the miles for the day and nothing else. I'd really like to not psyche myself out of this. If I focus too much on 13.1 miles, especially at the beginning here, I'm going to panic. 

I'm following a plan that is provided on the race's website (by Scott's same coach) for a 'pacer' or someone that already is running 4-5 times a week distances of 4-8 miles. Ok, check. I already am not just a 'finisher'. That's something. 

This negativity might just be a product of my exhausted emotional state of late. Life is busy here. If I was smart, I'd use running as a release but no - I must add running to the list of things I need to stress about. 

However, I have (somewhat) allowed myself to stop worrying about other trivial things. For instance constructing a specific personal style, or eating. Stress about food has actual gone down considerably since I've increased my running. I've found that I need to be eating a high amount of fruits and vegetables to keep my digestion running and that eating tons of processed carbs (pretzels, tortilla chips, etc.) just doesn't help. Otherwise though I'm able to eat say... a cupcake, or a peanut butter chocolate chip bar and not have a panic attack. Progress!

Here we go...

I did it. I signed up for the Monumental Half Marathon for November 1st.

Scott won this in '08. NBD. Ok, no just look. Look at my boyfriend.

And speaking of people that are amazing at running.... I picked up a copy of Ultrarunner over the weekend and I know not one but TWO people in it. Duran's (of enDURANce) 5th place Umstead 100 results and Alex (of baristing) make an appearance. 

Eeek now I'm excited for training.