So my Garmin is telling me that I did not actually run a half marathon, which is sort of sad...But the course is certified so idk, maybe the GPS is just wrong. In any case, I will present my Garmin data as if it were accurate and we can debate whether or not I'm 0.08 miles off some other time.
Yesterday's Race: Running from Cancer Half Marathon
Summary: 13.02 mi, 1:53:19, 8:42 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 8:02, 8:24, 8:38, 8:48, 8:45, 8:49, 8:42, 8:43, 8:46, 9:07, 9:01, 8:49, 8:37, 8:15.
Let's start by commenting on my finish time. I don't have an official finish time yet, although I will update this post when I do. As of right now, we'll go with my Garmin time, which says 1:53:19. This should be pretty close, I started the watch when the race started, I stopped the watch after I crossed the line. My time from Philly was 1:55:37, which makes this about a solid 2 minutes faster. Most of that I honestly think can be attributable to the fact that this course was as flat as physically possible (there was a total elevation gain of 16 ft, which is nothing) but I'm still generally pretty happy about hitting that time range since my training has felt on the slow side. I want to be under 1:50 by the St. Louis Rock 'n Roll Half though, so there's still work to be done for sure.
The day started with me waking up at 5:38 AM (just before my 5:40 AM alarm) and getting dressed and starting to hydrate with some water. Mom took me to Timmy's where I got two 12 grain bagels toasted with cream cheese. I ate most of one and then couldn't really eat any more. We arrived, I checked in and got my timing chip and sat around while drinking the first half of my Vitamin Water. (Up to this point, I had already drank a little more than half of a bottle of regular water.) I also scoped out the competition, which, because it was a running event, was intimidating seeing as it looked like everyone else was a real runner, and I feel really out of place amongst real runners. Some Ironman finishers were thrown in there as well, including one man who had a cocky attitude about him I really disliked. It was intimidating.
Mom left to go back home to Coen and I hung around while sort of warming up (really just loosening out my legs, doing some mobility movements, I didn't do any jogging like a lot of the other competitors did). At 6:45, I downed a single chocolate Clif Shot and washed it down with the remainder of my Vitamin Water and just chilled until the start.
It was interesting to note that up until this point I was very much so feeling unconfident and sort of freaked out by all the other runners and my comparative lack of running experience, but as soon as they announced "5 minutes to go" (we started at 7:05 instead of 7:00 because they had a bit of set up to do on course still) my brain like flipped a switch into race mode Jess and all of that fell to the wayside. It's funny how that happens, I guess the mental half is something that really does transfer across sports. Before races, I'm all business, and my brain is good at zeroing in on only worrying about making sure I execute the way I want to and I'm glad that instinct kicked in when it did yesterday morning.
I started out too fast, and I knew that as soon as I took off. One lady who passed me just after the one mile mark had commented to a friend/teammate of hers that it was an 8 min flat first mile and I was like, whoops. But the pace settled down pretty well for me over the course of the next few miles so I don't object to it too much, even post-race.
Around the 4-5 mile mark, my right foot started hurting and it was more of a bone ache than anything else and I knew it might develop into a problem further down the line but I didn't give it too much thought at the time. It didn't negatively affect my running yet and I was willing to let it go until it did start to bother me more. It never did, so that was good. (Although it was hurting all of yesterday and still hurts today so I'll probably have to give that some time to heal up.)
Also around this time, there was a man who had come up on me, pulled up beside me briefly, and then fell back and ran on my shoulder for most of the remainder of the race. On one hand, he was probably drafting off of me which was mildly annoying, but on the other hand having someone behind me pressuring me is exactly the kind of thing I need to keep me going. Usually people in front of me are less motivating because trying to catch up to someone is always a struggle, but trying to stay in front of someone or trying to drop someone are much easier for me to motivate myself to do. So it was sort of nice to have that kind of pressure on my back for most of the race.
The plan was to try and make sure that I only got passed in the first half of the race and only passed people in the second half. With the exception of the guy who sat on my shoulder most of the race and passed me in the last mile, no one else passed me and I passed a few people (including a girl who had passed me at the beginning of the race and pulled way ahead, I was very glad to have been able to real her in in the final parts of the race).
Overall, I was very very happy with that race. I had mentally given myself permission to look at my watch for splits starting with my mile 10 split, but I found myself not even wanting to know because I was running a well executed an well paced race (or at least that's what it felt like) and I was really enjoying my race experience and I didn't want to ruin it with pressures about pace or PBs. So I was happy to run in and determine my end pacing on feel alone and that worked pretty well for me. Also as the man behind me passed me, he ran side by side with me for a bit and encouraged me to get after trying to get in front of that girl who had been ahead of me the entire race and it was nice to have that encouragement near the end. The last time I raced this distance, the last 4-5 miles were just torture and I was mentally pushing myself really really hard just to try and hold onto the pace that I was going. This time, I felt like I moderated the effort much better throughout and it was just a very comfortable and enjoyable run. At no point did I feel like the distance was too much, it doesn't intimidate me anymore, and that's also really really nice. On top of that, I felt absolutely destroyed physically after my last half, but I felt much better after finishing this one. I mean my legs were super tight and I had to spend a lot of time walking it off and my ankles and hamstrings especially hurt a lot throughout the rest of the day, but I was able to stand and sit without feeling like my joints were going to explode open and was mostly in control of my ability to walk throughout the day, so it definitely took less of a physical toll on me than my first race had. Progress!
The only big things I want to be able to improve on are taking things out a little slower and trying to hold onto the pace without big external motivators. I had actually dropped guy on my shoulder briefly whilst passing someone else in front of me, but at that point I was mostly alone because the next person in front of my was quite far in front and I had no real motivation to keep pushing the pace. That was where the 9 minute mile drops came from I think so trying to hold onto that pace in the absence of pressure from competitors is something I have to work on. Also, as much as I am mostly very happy with how consistent the run was in terms of pacing, I would still like to be faster on the back end compared to the front end (and I would like to be able to do that by making the back half faster, not by making the front end slower), so that's something I will continue to work on.
Other things worth noting: The race, despite it being very small, was very well organized. Props to the organizers for hosting a great event! And there was plenty of water on the course, which I tried to get a little bit of at every station, and drinking while running is something I'm slowly improving at. Well organized small races are very impressive to me though, so I'm really glad I had a chance to be a part of that.
As far as recovery goes, it's been a day now, and I'm definitely more sore today than I was yesterday, especially in the quads (which I wasn't feeling at all yesterday), but I have less structural pain in my ankles and other joints, which is nice. I wanted to take a short recovery run this morning, but a few minutes out I knew that it wasn't going to happen because I just couldn't hold decent form on my tired limbs, so I turned around and came home. I will try to be active about walking and stretching today and we'll maybe give it another go tomorrow.
All in all, the race was a really great experience and I'm really glad that 13 days ago I randomly signed up! I'm excited for the rest of the adventures this season of racing will bring. (:
Much love,
Jess
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