Well, I did another half marathon. I think I have finally lost count. I mean, if I stop and think about it, I think
this was #6. Maybe #7, I feel like there
was another one last year. But
anyway. Not that that’s a ton, but it’s
just funny for it to seem so normal now.
In fact, it hardly felt like I had a race coming up, it was just another
long run that I guess I was going to have to wake up early to do.
Anyway! It was in
downtown Kirkland, which was nice—I love local events, so much easier! We picked up Mac and Kyle on the way (Kyle
decided to run it the day before, go figure), and drove to the start. One unique thing was that this was actually a
point-to-point race, which I guess is only the second time I’ve done one like
that (the other being the Vancouver marathon last year). So, Allen parked and hung out for us for a
while (including in line for the porta-potties…seriously, who only puts TEN
porta-potties at the start of a race?!?!) and then left to go park/meet us at
the finish.
We did a quick little jog, I was wearing new shoes so I was
obsessing over the lacing, we stood around and waited…then waited some more, because
they acutally delayed the start a bit to try to let the porta-potty line get a
little shorter. It was pretty chill, a
very nice, local feel, but a pretty big crowd actually. The start was at Northwest University, so
that was kind of neat—not in the middle of a city street, or anything.
Anyway, after a very quick count-down, we were off! Oh shoot.
Time to start running…
I wasn’t really feeling like running. I had planned for a long time to try to race
this race, but I just didn’t feel like it.
I knew it would be tough. I
certainly didn’t taper, much less rest for it, and I even ran hard on my “easy”
run the day before (Kyle and I are incapable of running together without egging
each other on and running faster and faster. Oops).
Needless to say, my legs were not exactly feeling the freshest they’ve
ever felt. Plus, I knew that I have not been training for that kind of running; I’ve been training to run far, and steady,
and fast obviously but the focus is on sustainability. Like 8:10-8:30/mile, most likely, if not slower.
For my goal of a 1:35 finish, I wanted a 7:10/mile average….for the full
13.1. Well, I needed like a 7:15 but
distance is always a little longer etc etc so I had 7:10 in my head.
Anyway, I knew very well that it would likely backfire, but
I needed to try. I needed to go for it,
and push myself, and see where I was. I
knew there was a hill about halfway, but they kept making sucha big deal about the “net downhill” of the course that I
was hoping I could just make up a little extra along the way.
Luckily, it started with lots of downhill. I took FULL advantage of it. I wanted to bank as much time as possible
right away. I think my first mile was a
6:47, second mile was up a bit, then third was down… I was keeping track of my
time deficit in my head and by around mile 5, I think I had like 1:23 in “spare”
time.
Then it all went downhill.
Not literally. Literally, it went
uphill. It was a long, slow, gradual
climb up to the actual hill, and I put me way over my target pace. Then the actual hill happened and seriously what the heck is it with me and
hills, lately?! I used to kill it on the
hills! They were my strength! I could pass everyone on hills! On the plus side, this hill was very
reminiscent of the CDA hill (very steep and just kept on going) so I sat there
telling myself to suck it up, keep my head down, quicken my cadence and just
get up the dumb thing. I did pass a
person or two, but I got passed by another guy with the m-dot tattoo and then
he just kept opening up the gap and got away, so I sat there fuming about how
if maybe I were a real ironman athlete,
I would be able to do that, too.
Anyway, I was hoping that once we got to the top, and back
onto the trail, things would all be downhill to the finish (this time
literally). Unfortantely, that trail
just never feels very fast, and I was spent.
I could not for the life of me maintain anything less than a 7:30 pace,
and honestly, a 7:40-7:50 was a struggle.
I started getting passed. A lot. I kept trying to hang on to people when they
passed me, and it would work for a good 30 second then..nope. Just not happening. I was “that girl,” who went out too hard and
was getting passed. Rookie move. Oh well.
I started to re-evaluate.
I finally gave up doing the math on how far I was behind at around mile 9 because I knew there
was no way I was making it up at that point.
Even hitting 7:15s wasn’t happening.
I was annoyed, but not destroyed.
I shifted my mindset, and started thinking about just maybe a PR. I needed to be faster than 1:37:59, that’s
all. I started thinking about ironman a
lot, actually. I started taking
inventory of how I felt, of my mindset as well as my physical body. I realized that as dumb as it was, this was
actually a really awesome training opportunity.
I’m not going to fool myself into thinking the 26.2 at the end of on
ironman will feel good, and I knew this was about as close as I was going to
get to simulating that before race day.
It’s been a long time since I really pushed myself, and I don’t intend
to do so again until June 28, so I started focusing on that. Staying out of my head and not getting
negative, focusing on what I needed to do, etc etc. My body just did not want to move any faster,
no matter what I tried and no matter how much I wanted to. I “needed” to, but I just “couldn’t,” and I
am 100% positive I’ll be feeling that next month :) In hindsight, it was a really great training opportunity, and I can happily say that I took advantage of it, learned a lot, and am pleased with how I handled it.
Anyway, the course kept dragging on and on. I knew we had to be turning off the trail
soon. Finally we did. The road to the boardwalk took forever. Even running downhill, I was barely hitting
7:10! I got passed running
downhill. I was a mess. I also forgot to mention how much my stomach
was hurting—I literally spent the last few miles thinking about how excited I was
to see a porta-potty at the finish. No
one ever said this whole acing thing was glamorous, did they?
The funny thing is that the finish was (roughly) the same
finish as the Kirkland triathlon—which was my first triathlon, which I did
again last year, etc etc. So the very
end of the run course (~1 mile or less) was the same. Amazing the difference! The tri is a sprint, and despite how hard I
pushed myself last year, I was just not nearly as worn out as I was now. So I had all those feelings, knowing how it felt to be running that boardwalk to a finish line, and still couldn’t make myself move any
faster!
Rounding the corner, the last few blocks, I kept checking my
Garmin. It was going to be close. Really close.
I wans’t 100% sure where the finish line was, just knew roughly, and of
course it was around one last corner so I couldn’t see it until I was right on
it. I saw my watch hit 1:37:00 and
remember thinking “ok, where is that
finish line, I need to get to it like literally right now….” And there it was! Allen was at the finish and taking photos, it’s
funny I’m so smiley looking happy in them because I was not feeling it! But finally, I was done. Official time of 1:37:29, meaning I got a
whopping 30-second PR. :P (side note: my last PR was at Seattle, which is
very hilly and considered somewhat challenging, and I’m super proud of that
time. This was a MUCH easier course, so
yeah I was a few seconds faster, but I kind of feel like it’s not nearly as
good. Oh well. I guess I should just accept it!)
Found Allen and Kyle’s mom, who was there for Mac and
Kyle. Got a text from Mac saying someone
had collapsed and passed out on the course in front of her, and she and Kyle
(who caught up) were there helping him, etc. so they would be finishing later.
That is why you have your phone
with you when you race!! This was
Kyle’s first half marathon (and longest run) back since having open heart
surgery just 5 months ago, AND he just kind of decided to wing it the day
before. He “should” have been fine, but
if he had been 20 minutes late without any of us knowing, we would have all
been really, really worried that something had gone wrong. So that was really, really good that she was
able to let us know. Also, the guy who
collapsed had his phone with him, which was set up with all this MedicalID
information. That is just as important!
They were able to immediately (after calling 911) use his phone to find
out who his wife was to call her (who also happened to be running, and was a
couple miles behind).
Anyway, they finally made it to the finish, about 20 minutes
later than expected. The unexpected
break hurt them (cooling off for that long, then having to run again), Kyle was
bonking and Mac decided to just run him in.
Which was great, of course :) I
am so, so proud and happy that he did the half, regardless of anything else! I was so happy to have him there at the start
line with Mac and I, mostly just because it meant things are getting better and
he was able to.
Post-race, my stomach was not happy and got worse throughout
the day. But that’s whatever. It did remind me I need to figure out better
bike nutrition though, so am working on some new fueling plans for IM race day.
All in all, it was a good morning and fun with friends. Despite the fact that it was really, really
poorly executed, I guess I still did get 1st in my age group and 9th
female overall, so I guess I should quit complaining :) It was a “good race,” I
just know that I was not pretty, and definitely not the way I want to race
again.
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