I knew my race didn't start until 8:30 but I found myself still stressing out on my drive up. I'd calculated it so I'd arrive just before 8, but I started getting anxious - what if they closed packet pick up at 8?
As usual, I arrived on time, 2 minutes before they started the half marathon and it was packed. I'm just really impressed by people who are fit enough to run a half marathon in the middle of the winter. As you can see, it was more than just a "few" people banging out 13.1 this AM. Well, go them.
My marathon training said I was supposed to run 8 this weekend for my long run, but it's been a slow off-season and I signed up for this to get in a hard 10k to get things started.
I saw a handful of RMTC women lining up the starting area. Knowing they were probably faster than I am right now, I let them sort of break off. I knew my head would want me to try to keep up which would just be...bad news bears.
I told myself when I started to just relax - everyone has a tendency to go hard out of the gate. I tried to hold myself back. I'm glad I did, because coming through the first mile I was at 9:10 by the marker and 9:17 by my watch which is a little fast for me right now. To give you context, I was aiming for 9:40s for this race given what I've been running during workouts (9:45-50).
Still, the first 3 miles felt pretty great. I had to keep telling myself not to ramp it up. Sit back, don't over do it. I came through the 3rd mile-marker (which at that point was pretty in-sync with my watch) at 28 mins - so 9:20s. I thought "well, maybe the race atmosphere really does make a difference." Plus, I took yesterday off, even though that wasn't really the plan and I was feeling pretty ok this morning.
The turn around was a little far into the course which usually throws people off so I made the loop at 3.3 miles (by my watch, but seemed like by the markers too). Unfortunately it was then I noticed I'd been running on a slight downhill with my back to the wind and guess what I got to do now? Go all the way back up that hill in the wind. Great. Glad I saved up some of that energy.
It was a little tough but nothing seriously brutal on the way back. I got concerned when I couldn't find the 4-mile marker, but as I closed in on 5 I just gave up, deciding there were no more mile markers and I just had to keep going. Good thing I did, or I would've been worrying about the mile markers until the finish line.
So we forged through the wind, with a few turns of relief until we were right back head-on into it. I looked down at my watch at 5.9 thinking "ok, .3 to go" and we made a right turn looking at a straight-away to the finish line. I mean, talk about a beautiful design for the end of the course! .3 miles is a great kick, flat, not into the wind. THANK YOU RACE DESIGNERS.
Unfortunately, it was so windy that the finish line sign BLEW OVER as I was about 15 secs away from crossing the mat, and I had to run around it to a little open piece of mat that wasn't obstructed by the fallen sign and tripped crossing the second mat. I managed to regain my balance (and not fall over) and run over to where I'd dropped my water bottle.
Soon thereafter I saw the super-fast woman whom I'd bought my tt bike from, and we stuck up a conversation. She too was lamenting the wind (though she had 13.1 miles to deal with it - yuck!) but we agreed it was a beautiful day and I set off to grab another mile since technically my run today was supposed to be 8. As I started to breach 7 I knew I didn't have it in my legs to go much further (which is understandable, having just "raced" a 10k) and cleaned up at 7.2. I figure with my warm up run/drills I'm probably at least over 7.5 logged for the day so - not too shabby.
Oh, and in the end I crossed the line, by my watch, at 59:03 which averages at a 9:30. While not exactly a PR, I'm pretty happy with that since I was aiming for 9:40s. Glad to be in decent enough shape to knock out 7.2 miles in the middle of January.
4 more months until I attempt 26.2...
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