8:30 PM, March 1
I'm checking the weather, as snow falls outside. The high at 9 am is supposed to be 18 degrees. I cringe. I start texting my friend Cookie to make sure she is really going to do it. She is. I set out my clothes.
6:00 AM, March 2
I wake up, it's sunny. 7 degrees outside. I look at the weather. Race start is 10 am and it is supposed to be 25 degrees. I decide this isn't bad. I eat breakfast.
8:00 AM
I'm getting dressed. It hasn't gotten warmer out - it's still 7 degrees. I walk the dog.
8:30 AM
I grab an extra wind breaker, just in case. It is now 8 degrees. I leave to drive there.
9:02 AM
I arrive at the race site. I have a text from Cookie. I call her while I'm parking the car. She's there. We meet up and go get our race packets. It is 9 degrees.
9:15 AM
We walk around the race site, trying to see if we can go in the high school next door to use the bathroom. It's locked. We miserably shiver back to Cookie's car.
9:20 AM
We sit in Cookie's car drinking water, staring at the thermometer and waiting for it to go up. It doesn't. It still says 10 degrees. I put on the new dry fit they gave us under my other clothes so I have another layer on.
9:45 AM
Amanda has joined us by now. We resolve we have to get out of the car to go to the bathroom and get on the race line. We shiver over to the porto-potties.
While waiting for the porto-potties it gets to be 10 am - race start. The race leaves when we are at the front of the line. It's chip-timed so we figure "eh, it's ok, we'll get there in a minute."
10:01 AM
Cookie is still in the porto-potty when they announced "Oh, btw, half marathoners need to start right now, we are switching mats for the 5k!" SWITCHING MATS? WHO DOES THAT?!
10:02 AM
Cookie comes out of the bathroom and we bolt through a sea of 5k'ers to get to the start. We tell the announcer we're half marathoners and he says "good luck." We're not sure if our chips will go off. Yes, it's still 10 degrees.
Cookie and Amanda and I all started running out together. Cookie insisted Amanda and I were faster and we should take off. Neither of us really had a desire to. We liked this 10 min/mile pace. We all chatted. My hands, despite how cold it was, heated up before mile 2 as usual so I handed my gloves to Amanda whose hands were FREEZING.
We kept talking and it was nice - I'm not usually one to talk during my races, but I didn't want to get too crazy on this one. It was a nice distraction really. But by mile 8, once I started to hurt a little, I knew I needed some focus so I told Cookie and Amanda I wanted to pop my music on and tune out. They seemed understanding. I know it can be rude, but we had a little over 5-miles left and I needed some focus in to make it through.
I started feeling pretty good - not that I hadn't but I was surprised to be an mile 8 and not so focused on counting down the miles to the end. We started hitting some uphills that definitely burned, one brought me to a walk, but all doable. Cookie and Amanda were always nearby, then they passed me on the uphills, but I caught up before mile 10 on the flat. On the last hill, Amanda and I lost Cookie. I could tell she was getting really tired and so far she had performed really well - better than she thought she would.
Amanda took off though, and Cookie told me she was strong and pretty fast. But soon enough, I found her again at the mile 11 water stop. I too took some water but then we started running together. She was getting tired, but I felt pretty good. I told her to just "cruise" which she later told me after the race was exactly what she needed to hear. A little while down she started walking and I came up and pushed her and told her she couldn't because we had to finish!
At the very end, there was another woman in front of us. I ran up behind her to suck her energy so I would have some kick. I brought my mile pace down around 9:30s for the last few miles and I was feeling it. She started to go though and it was hard - she felt me not come with her and she turned around and said "come on!" and we ran it in hard together.
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| This is the end. I look like I'm actually having fun :) But that arm crossover...oops :) |
I was really proud of my time, even if it wasn't my best, it was a big stride in a good direction. My goal was under a 10 min/mile which I achieved on both my Garmin and chip time.
I was really proud of Amanda for finishing shortly behind me - her first half EVER! And then proud of Cookie for her finish shortly after that. She exceeded her expectations for herself and that is always a good feeling!
Overall a great race for all three of us and a step in the right direction.
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