Posts Tagged ‘1/2 Marathon’

My posts will be a bit sporadic this week due to some long (actually all week) nights at work. 

 

What’s a girl to do after all this training?  How do I move on yet continue to grow?

 

Well, I want to work on my week-day running schedule.  I desperately want to be back running as I was “before”… this time, in a different way.  When I was running outside in the beginning, I couldn’t do the hill route once, let alone as much as I had been.  I am going to take the next few weeks to change that up.  I will get to the point where I can run that route twice.  That is something I will work on.

In addition, I instantly loved my weekend long-runs.  This was something I never did before training for the half.  I love those two-ish hours with just me and the road.  Weekend long-runs are a must.

Still, the thought of running a full marathon frightens me, so I may pull a crazy woman and just keep trying to lengthen my long-runs.  No, I am not training for a marathon.  At least, not right now.  I want to give myself a break from the training mentality, for a few weeks and see how I do post-half marathon.

 

So, in short, my post-half-marathon focus will be:

a.) Training for my shorter distances during the work week.

b.) Training for my long runs, mentally, on the weekend

 

Sorta like I was doing, eh?

 

Also, here is what I felt like physically both Saturday and Sunday:

Immediately after the race, I stretched, drank a bunch of water, but as soon as I sat in my parents car, I had charliehorses in both of my calves.  They weren’t bad, as soon as I adjusted my legs, I was fine.

Jared and I took the dog for a walk later in the day, about 1 mile total.  It helped loosen me up, but I definitely was tight & sore…

 

On Sunday, I thought I would go for my normal “recovery run” of some distance at a vey slow pace to help loosen me up.  I definitely procrastinated on this one, but I walked to my “starting line”, stretched, and took off.  I got about 1/10th of a mile and felt pain in my left knee and my back (what the) hurt.  My back hurt more than my knee.  I stopped running, and walked back home.  My back hurt the most of anything which is strange, but whatever.  I want to make sure I recover before I start running again.

 

So today, Monday, I slept in.  I will attempt a short run this morning.  Any sign of pain though, especially from my knee, will make me do exactly what I did yesterday.  Go home.  I haven’t given myself much time with the foam roller,  I am just expecting the pain to go away. 

 

And the work week looks something like:

Monday-Council meeting (home at 9pm)

Tuesday&Thursday- Grant workshop (home at 9-10pm)

Wednesday- Meeting with the CDC (home at 8pm)

 

Happy Monday!

Okay ladies and gentleman, I crossed the finish line at 2:19. 45 seconds.  My chip time was 2 hours, 27 minutes, and 54 seconds (I believe).  So the bad news is that I was finished 4 minutes after what I aimed to, but overall, pace wise I was 15 seconds faster than I anticipated. How that works, I don’t know. 

 

The Ikea-Montour Trail 1/2 Marathon was a good “starter” half marathon, and just have to go through the experience…

When I left this morning I felt fine.  Sure, I was a little nervous, but I just kept saying to myself, “this is the normal Satruday long run you have gotten used to”.  And, “you worked for this, it will be okay”. 

 

Sorry about the next three blurry pictures, but it was my nerves and the Blackberry (I left the camera at home so Jared could snap pictures)

I was raining on the drive there, but stopped or hadn’t rained at Ikea.

I was thinking I’d be early, but I got there around 7:30 which was enough time to pick up my chip, pee, and warm-up.

 I was feeling pretty nervous at this point and while standing in line for the johns, I chatted with another girl about wondering if we should take our hydrabelts. 

 

I went on a quick warm-up run, with my hydrabelt.  Loosened up, and got ready to go.   I changed my mind and put the hyrdabelt back.  Big mistake.  I will get into that later…

 

Mile 1 was easy, I was running fast, though it was downhill.  Everyone was running fast, and this was a good time to either (a) burnout or (b) cut down on your time.  It was all downhill, or the majority of it was.  Total time: 8.53. 

Miles 2 and 3 were a little slower than the first.  I really wanted to slow myself down, but I was scared that if I did, I would stop which was something I didn’t want to do (at all & at this point).

Water was available sporadically from here on. 

 

Mile 4 which, I honestly cannot remember was run in 9:46.02 which I was happy about but still too fast for the pace I wanted going up-grade.

After mile 4, I was ready for water, but it was nowhere in sight.  At this point, I began regretting leaving my belt in the car.  I also took some jelly beans between mile 4 and 5.  I was thristy, and now extra thirsty. 

 

Miles 5 and 6 I took a big gulp of water, and it did not agree with me.  Side stitch.  Not as bad as the run around the square, so i ran with my arm pressed into my side for sometime. I ran both of those around 10:30 pace.  Around this time, I took off my long sleeved tee, felt better, and started to watch the other runners coming back who had already turned around.  I stashed my shirt along the trail.  As soon as I saw the others coming back, I kept waiting and waiting for the halfway mark.  It wasn’t anywhere in sight and I started to get a little frustrated…  The side stitch, the lack of water, others going back, so I took a walk break.  In my mind, I was pretty much at the halfway point (lol) so I could stand for a break.  I was running on 10:00/mi pace, so I felt okay.

 

Mile 7 was the halfway point, and I never felt happier.  I sped up a little, but still wanted water.  I dove into my clif bloks and had two. Since I was so thirsty, they were hard to swallow.  I spit out the majority of them.  When I did get to water, I wasn’t able to coordinate enough to take a blok then drink water.  Oh well.

 

I knew mile 10 was near the tunnel, and the tunnel was only three miles before the finish line, so I attempted to power

 

Between miles 8, 9, 10 the run was starting to feel long.  I would slow my pace, then speed up, then slow again.  It helped me get through it.  That part of the trail isn’t as exciting as the rest of the trail, so when I did get water, I would walk through the drinking point which I was observing others doing the same.

 

Finally, the tunnel came.  I walked through the tunnel to cool down a bit, and regain some strength.  I had just run 10 miles, and I needed to mentally get to the finish line.  Physically, I felt fine.  But I let my crankiness about not having water at my disposal get to me.  Sure, I was probably dehydrated a little, but I wasn’t going to give up.  I just kept thinking about the new job, my weight loss, my training, and my parents and Jared waiting for me at the finish line.  My only regret is that it took me six years of running to run a half marathon.

Three more miles to go after the tunnel.  I got some water, jogged through that station slowly.

 

Mile 11 and 12 were hard.  I was so close.  I thought about doing another 13.1 miles for a marathon and felt overwhelmed.  I was exhausted, I was soaked with sweat (though had only realized it toward the end).  My shirt was pulled down because of all the sweat, my shorts were sticking to my legs.  I turned off my iPod and muscled through it. 

 

Mile 12.3-13 I was so close.  I started seeing everyone near the finish.  Someone had a sign that said “I love you” and would show it to every runner as they passed.  That was cool.  Strange but cool.  I saw a guy walking and I said, “let’s finish together”.  And he said “i’m a smoker, i’m on a roadtrip with friends, and we just decided to run without any training”. 

Mile 13.  There was Jared…

 

Snapping pictures (I must not be shy to keep posting these super-flattering pictures). 

Note to self: keep trying to find running clothes that don’t make you look horrible.  Then again, six months ago, and six years ago, I wouldn’t have worn a sleeveless shirt to run in.  More on that later in life. 

Mile 13-13.1  I took all of what I had left in me, and sprinted to the finish. 

 

 

And only at one point did I want to cry.  I’m a pretty emotional gal.  I won’t say when I wanted to cry, or why, but the overwhelming emotion is there.

Last night, I made a good attempt at getting everything ready.  I wanted to have all of my “stuff” set out should I sleep in and need to grab & go…  The only thing that wasn’t ready was my sports bra which needed a round in the dryer because I fell asleep before the whites were done =)

 

As promised, here’s a close-up of the shirt.  Fun, huh?

 

I carbo-loaded last night on pizza bagels.  I was just going to do regular bagels & pnut butter, but Jared had to eat, too

 

They were just okay.  They did the job of getting some dough into my system, so I can’t complain

Holy stuff!

From top: Bag to put post-race breakfast change of clothes into.  My Philadelphia runner shirt which I will wear along with comfy pants and other necessities.

Body glide.  Peanut Toffee Buzz Clif Bar (a pre-race must).  These will obliviously not be taken with me.

My race bib.  I don’t know yet if I am going to take my hydrabelt, so I have the bottles in the freezer.  My running clothes (Nike-tempo track shorts in navy & orange (the $10 pair that I got in an attempt to hide my sweat).  A blue racer back shirt.  Forget hiding the sweat in that.  Socks, shoes, hair band.  These will all be on me, obliviously.

I am bringing my fuel in the form of ClifBloks and jelly beans. 

 

I would love to say I didn’t fall asleep before my electronics were charged, but I did =).  The iPod is on its last leg, so I am just praying it turns on for the race.  Otherwise, I will chat away at everyone and hope they listen.

I also wasn’t sure if I was going to bring my Garmin or not, but I want to keep an 11 minute/mile pace so I don’t have to stop and walk and this will help me gauge that, especially if there aren’t corrals. 

 

Along with the Clifbar, I enjoyed my morning coffee.  I wanted to wake-up at 5:30 to give myself enough time to have my coffee, finish up some to-do’s from last night.  Unfortunately, Jared’s snoring had me up at 4:45 so I was a little disappointed in that.  In fact, I walked around in a daze for about 15 minutes before I even started the coffee.  Usually, it’s a beeline right to the coffee.

I will be leaving here around 7:00-7:15 to make it to the starting line in enough time for the 8:00 start.  I should be done around 10:00-10:15 which seems late  because I was out there earlier for my training runs. 

Also, the parents, Jared, and one of my mothers childhood friends should be meeting me at the finish!