What an awesome day!!
I’ve been wondering if my week of sickness in early February was going to kill my chances at attacking my original goal of 1:45 (one hour and forty five minutes) for the half marathon (13.1 miles). I didn’t think I had it in me. The weekend after I was sick I ran a 10k and was literally at peak speed (8:03 min/mile) and max heart rate toward the very end! So I didn’t think there was anyway I could acheive a 8 min/mile pace for 13.1 miles. I mean, I like it when I prove myself wrong, I just wasn’t very confident. My end time was 1:43:11.
Let’s begin with last night – the preparation. I had to eat some good carbs. I read somewhere that was a good thing to do. 😉 Lisa had grilled chicken on the menu…so I added a 1/4 cup of whole wheat macaroni to that dish. I also ate some BBQ beans and a slice of bread. Water was my beverage of choice. After dinner, I was still hungry. So I had two chocolate chip cookies (Kroger brand) and a handful of Vanilla wafers with milk. Just what the Dr. ordered. All this occurred before 6 pm.
I went to bed around 930 pm with butterflys in my stomach…planning my strategy for the race. Needless to say – I did not sleep great. I was actually afraid of sleeping right past the race time. I had my alarm set for 520 am. The first time I woke up was around 230 am and I had to go the bathroom. Getting closer!
My alarm went off at 52o am as expected. I got out of bed at 528 am and went the bathroom again! Went to the freezer and popped in 3 waffles into the toaster and made about cups of coffee. I didn’t want to drink too much and pee all morning or have to pee. I also drank a little water to wash down my daily multi-vitamin. The waffles were delicious and the coffee was pretty good too. While the waffles were cooking I cut my cheat sheet split times for completing the half marathon in 1:53:09. (This would serve as the worst case scenario so I could know my times if push came to shove.) Trying to tape it on my wrist with one hand was humorous…even to me! Everyone else was sleeping…so asking for help for this would get me no where.
I finished breakfast and checked the temperature outside. It was 50 degrees and foggy. I knew the temp would stay nearly stationary which meant that I could wear short sleeves and shorts. That’s good news. I taped up my nipples…’cause as any runner knows…raw nipples are no fun! In addition to the tape and just in case the tape fell off, I greased those suckers with some Body Glide. Can never be too carful! Time was ticking…it was 640 am. I wanted to leave no later than 645 am.
I finished putting on my shoes, socks and remaining areas that needed Body Glide…as well as my footpod and heart rate monitor. I needed these to make sure I stayed on pace…plus I wanted a record of my heart rate so I could see what I was doing during a race. I rarely looked at my heart rate during the race. No kidding!
So I parked without any problems where the old library was located. I then walked over to the GPAC center. Thank goodness the doors were open because I was feeling excited and needed to pee. So I found the bathrooms and came back into the gathering area to do some last minute stretching. Then I went outside to do a very easy warm up jogging around. Before you know it, I made it to the starting line with about 11 minutes to spare before the start of the race. I got in the zone where 8:01 to 9:00 milers were supposed to be. My goal pace (originally was 8:00 minutes/mile) was about 8:37. I was about 30 or so seconds from the starting line when the race did begin.
We were off. I felt pretty good and almost right away…got into my pace around 8:10 min/mile or so. I felt good so I just kept that pace. The other thing that helps me is that there are feet pounding all around me. So they sort of “push” me along. Mile one came up pretty quick…and the timer said 7:45 or so. Remember, I started about 30 seconds later…so I was pretty pumped that I felt so good and felt like I was at a 8:45 pace…at least during my practice runs. At the 1 1/2 mile marker was a water station. I passed. I felt like I had to pee again anyway.
Mile 2 came and I felt fine. Wasn’t looking forward to the next mile uphill. I knew this course…not that I’ve run it before, I just knew these roads. I used to mow yards in this neighborhood many years ago. During the hill and even after…I was thinking this wasn’t near as bad as I thought. I just kept my stride. Heading downhill (down Dogwood) I overheard a woman in front of me chatting with a friend of hers. She wanted to finish in 1:44 and so did he. Heck! So did I! I passed him shortly after… She stayed ahead of me (until mile 8 or so).
The run through mile 8 was pretty easy. I ate my Gu around mile 6 and made sure a water station was close at hand. Just in case I had a 5 oz water bottle in my handy-dandy waist pouch. This is also where I kept my Gu – Vanilla Bean with Caffeine. Yummy! I felt awesome and actually carried on a brief conversation with a nice fella about how great the weather was and how lucky we were. He ran ahead of me shortly after the halfway point.
At mile 9 or so, I got a really bad shoulder/upper back cramp. That lasted about 2 minutes or so before going away or at least not being noticeable. I began passing people at this time too. More and more people seemed to slow down after mile 11. I caught up and passed the fella I spoke with at the halfway point shortly after mile 12. When I saw mile 13…I knew I was in the final stretch. I picked up my pace to around 6:30 and finished. I felt really good, especially when they called my name as I came in to finish.[kaltura-widget wid=”u6qokyna1g” width=”328″ height=”291″ style=”margin: 0px 18px 8px 0px; float:right;” addpermission=”3″ editpermission=”3″ /]
This run was way easier than the St. Jude Half Marathon in December. That could be because there weren’t near as many people…and/or the G’town half was much flatter (I think). The real test will be when I run the St. Jude half again later this year. We’ll see if my time improves again. I’m looking forward to knocking more time off, if possible.
I am not abnormally sore which is very nice. I feel like I did when I ran 12 miles or so during training. Man! I’m doing something right!! 🙂
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