The Final Workouts:
- 10/07 Wednesday: short trainer ride, sprint intervals, ~45 mins
- 10/08 Thursday: OFF
- 10/09 Friday: trainer ride, under/over threshold intervals and single leg drills, ~1:25
- 10/10 Saturday: long run, 10.47 mi, 1:35:16, 9:06 pace
- 10/11 Sunday: easy run w/ Henry, 4.08 mi, 38:17, 9:23 pace w/ two legs of fast pick ups in the middle
- 10/12-10/14: OFF (med school midterms)
- 10/15 Thursday: tempo run, 7.07 mi, 1:01:05, 8:38 pace
- 10/16 Friday: tempo run, 4.79 mi, 41:38, 8:42 pace
- 10/17 Saturday: OFF
- 10/18 Sunday: RACE DAY!
A couple thoughts about the lead up two weeks:
- I'm glad I did my longest run a little further out than I had originally planned. Getting comfortable with the distance more than a week out was pretty key.
- I'm not really sure why I was doing trainer rides, I think it was a matter of convenience more than anything because I was busy and trainer rides are quicker. Also there were some rough days thrown in there where I couldn't get a run in during the day and my only options after dark are indoors, so the trainer just ends up being a good default. I also had some knee pain in that time span so I thought maybe less impact would be helpful.
- The tempo runs I took just before the race blew my mind. I was feeling great because I was rested from not training during midterm studying and the weather had cooled down, which was super key. Between those things, I busted out some pretty quick runs and was feeling pretty good going into the race yesterday.
- As per usual, I had a ton of phantom pain the night before the race and I had a really hard time sleeping. Luckily I got a lot of good sleep two nights prior, so I definitely had the rest reserves I needed.
- I think I put quite a bit of pressure on myself to do well, because my running has been improving and I've been seeing it come through in the training, so I really wanted to come through in the race as well. It made me really anxious and it made the experience a little bit stressful, but on the other hand, "it hurts because it matters", right? Or at least that's what I told myself. I care. It's not bad to care, that's how we get to where we want to go.
Race report time!
5:10 AM - Woke up, ate breakfast (a breakfast sandwich, a banana, a bottle of water), got changed, headed out. Took a 6 am metro train down to the venue, consumed half a bottle of Vitamin Water in the process.
6:30 AM - Arrived at the venue, used the porta-potty, took off all the layers keeping me warm (it was 30 F out and I had made the decision to race in shorts and a t-shirt) and packed it away for bag check. I took a gel 15 minutes from the start w/ half a bottle of water and stayed warm with an old mylar blanket from the Philly Half Marathon. Got in my corral and waited for the start gun!
7:00 AM - The first corral was off! We were off about a minute after that. The pack I was in took off at a nice leisurely pace which I needed. I pinned my eyes on two guys who were running about the pace I wanted in front of me and just relaxed into that pace. I was getting passed by a fair number of people in the earlier miles, but those two stayed right on track in terms of how fast I wanted to be running so I calmed myself down that way. The first 4-5 miles felt really easy. According to my watch, the first set of splits were: 8:14, 8:19, 8:22, 8:00 (mostly downhill), and 8:28. I was enjoying some great cover bands and music from the 80s/90s every once in a while and just cruising along fairly happily. To be fair, I was hoping to start out in the 8:30s range in terms of opening pace, so I did genuinely take it out too fast, but the effort had felt smooth and I decided to take the risk of crashing in order to maybe be rewarded with a big PB. Who knows, I thought it was worth it and I went for it. I really don't regret that, despite the fact that there were tough times ahead in the rest of the race.
Then there came a stretch with a little bit more elevation variation (the entire course was super super super flat, I'm just saying there was a little bit more less flat in this section than in others) and the effort started feeling a bit harder. The guys I had kept my eyes on before ran away from me as I assume they started picking up the pace, as a lot of people around me had. I just kept my eye on my watch and tried to stay the course. The splits from miles 6 to 9 were: 8:08, 8:23, 8:36, 8:36. As you can see, the pace started slipping a bit on miles 8 and 9. It's also worth noting that my feet really started to hurt around this point. I guess I normally train on softer gravel and the combination of the pavement and my shoes being way past their shelf life was really wearing on my feet. I just ignored it for the rest of the race though because it wasn't a problem I could solve, so I just put it out of mind.
After passing the mile 9 marker, I started picking it up knowing there were only a handful of miles left. At mile 10, there was a clock showing a little after 1:25 (gun time) and I knew that it would take a big push to get under 1:50. Honestly any PB was my goal, but a sub-1:50 would have been amazing, so I really tried to step down on it and push hard. The next round of paces (miles 10 to 13.1): 8:13, 8:23, 8:02, 8:02. I was really hurting all those miles. I got through it by just repeating to myself "Who do you want to be? What are you willing to fight?" and I knew I was willing to fight through it to get to my goals so I just kept pushing. My face must have looked terrible but that's just a part of racing for me: I can't keep what I'm feeling off of my face ever. My effort is probably better expended on trying to run faster.
I could usually tell when I was slowing down because my posture got more and more upright and my head tended to lean back. Every time I noticed that I would just reset and look down and lean forward a bit and focus on just driving and I would feel the pace come back up. It sucked, but it was getting me closer to where I needed to go so I went for it. I tried really hard to do the thing where I kept my eyes on someone ahead in those last miles and would reel them in and pass them. I got a couple girls that way, although one fought her way back and ended up crossing the finish line just seconds before me.
The finish involved a rather long uphill into a turn into a quarter mile "home stretch". My brain was so ready to quit by that turn and my pace was definitely slowing down. Then I hit my Garmin and switched it over from giving me lap paces/times (I wanted to focus on one mile at a time while I was racing) to giving me the cumulative time and I saw that it was around 1:48. I didn't want to miss that sub-1:50 so I really busted it out and ran hard into the finish and managed to make it under! I was insanely proud of that.
All in all, I think the pacing and the racing went of as smoothly as I could've asked for it. I didn't wear gloves, which was a mistake, because my hands were going to freeze off, but otherwise I'm glad I went the t-shirt/shorts route because the weather was perfect for it in my opinion. I do best in cold weather races anyways, so I'm glad the cold front came blowing through. And now I have a huge PB to show for it!
Here are the official race result details:
8:50 AM and onwards - This was around when I finished. I picked up my bag, bundled up, found a med school friend randomly and went and watched my M2 big finish his first race! (He killed it, it was awesome.) Then I headed home (and ran into an M1 friend who had just finished his first race) and proceeded to spend most of the rest of the day lamenting the physical condition my body was in. I was lucky enough to not feel super terrible after my half at home this summer, probably because my mom drove me home (I didn't have to walk) and immediately put me in a bathtub full of ice for 20 minutes. I had no such luxuries yesterday, I was really hurting the entire day. When I got home, I took a bath/shower, ate lunch, and just laid in bed for a while (eventually I fell asleep and took a nap). The nap helped give me some energy back but my body was still pretty wrecked. I did end up taking a shopping trip in the afternoon (got new running shoes and socks and swim suits at Sports Authority because I had a coupon from the race and then groceries) and that helped shake out my legs a little bit which was nice. The rest of the day was just dinner and errands and PATRIOTS FOOTBALL and then bed!
This morning I woke up way more sore than I was expecting to be, which, again, is a bummer (the surprising parts of that include how sore my obliques and my forearms are...) but I'll get by. Next up on the calendar is the Hot Chocolate 15k in mid-December! I'll be back with an update on what the training plan will be for that soon hopefully and hopefully that will help keep me accountable these upcoming months. Yay!
Other comments on the race:
- The course here is super flat, aka super fast, which is really awesome.
- Rock 'n' Roll events are really well organized. Most big races are, and it's fantastic because everything runs so smoothly.
- There were so many photographers on course! I hope there are some good photos of me. Although I sort of doubt it because I was definitely riding the struggle bus.
- Cold weather races = ace. T-shirt and shorts is fine, but wear gloves.
- St. Louis is definitely a smaller city. There was nothing like the crowds of the Philly Marathon Weekend, but I guess you can't expect that kind of turnout for every race. The people who did come out to cheer were awesome though. As were a lot of the volunteers and staff and safety personnel who were so positive and amazing.
- I am so insanely proud of myself: I wanted to think that I had a sub-1:50 in me but I really didn't know and the fact that I've come so far in the past year or two of running just really blows my mind. It also gives me so much hope and motivation towards continuing to get better and I can't wait to chase getting faster and improving as a runner and as an athlete.
- I can't wait to do this again next year! Woot woot!
That's all for now! Time to grab noms and go to anatomy. (:
Much love,
Jess
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