Confluence of Events = Unlikely PR: Race Report for Cowtown Half Marathon

Saturday, February 27, 2010, I ran the Cowtown Half Marathon in Fort Worth, Texas.  I went into this race not feeling my best.  I had raced a half marathon 6 days prior and came within 3 minutes of a PR, and then, with an overwhelmingly busy and crazy week, I had not taken the time to get as good care of myself as I should of - not much icing, stretching, foam rolling, or resting going on!  I had pain in my left shin and my right hip was clicking with each step.  So practically, I knew I should go to this race and just enjoy the experience and not race it hard. 

Race morning I got there about 6:15 am for a 7:30 am start time and had no problem parking close.  It was about 36 degrees and it looked like it might warm up to about 42-43 by finish time, but the variable that was hard to gauge was the cold NW wind.  Fort Worth is known for being windy, and even a slight breeze would make you feel much colder.  So the front seat of my car had about half my closet sitting there as I went to choose items to form my complete outfit.  I ended up picking well it turned out - ear warmer, long sleeve shirt, throwaway gloves, sunglasses (it was a clear sky), tights with shorts over them.

Getting into the start corral was a bit of a mess.  With about 20,000 runners across the 5 events, it was chaotic.  I ended up jumping a bicycle barricade to get into the corral.  I crossed the start about 17 1/2 minutes after the gun, and I was NOT in the very back either.  I knew there were pace groups for the half marathon for 2:20 and 2:30 finishes.  I was getting the itch at the race start to really race it, so I didn't want to fall in with the 2:30 pace group, even though friend Marcie was the pace leader so that group was attractive with a familiar face.  And 2:20 was not even funny - I knew I couldn't hang with them long.  But ironically, shortly after the start, I saw the 4:50 marathon group come up.  Well, the marathon doesn't split off until mile 8, so half of 4:50 meant this was equivalent to a 2:25 finish time for the half marathon.  If I could keep with them to the split and then allow myself to slow down a little, I might barely make a new Personal Record.

I asked the pace leader some questions - he had on a vest that said Coach Joe and one of those full ski masks with sunglasses so I couldn't see his full face.  He told me they were going to do 7 minute run / 1 minute walk intervals.  The run intervals would be on an approx 10:54 pace to average out with the walk to the low 11's.  Now that's fast for me and I have not run intervals in a year or two.  I used to use intervals in all my half marathons, but I was at a point in my training that I had cut out all walk breaks.  So this was going to be interesting.  I then realized from the name and the voice, that this pace coach wasn't a stranger.  Coach Joe and I had met many times at the chiropractor's office! He's a pastor and a coach for Team in Training, and just a very motivational and positive person generally.  I knew I needed to stick with this group.  There were about 7 of us hanging with Coach Joe.

Sadly though Coach Joe ended up running us at 10-10:30 paces on the runs, so we were averaging out to about 10:45-10:55 as the miles piled on.  I questioned this and he said we were banking time for later in the race - you know, when I wouldn't be there since I was the sole half marathoner in the group. Argh.

Here's an illustration of how fast this pace was - my mile 4 split was 10:14. This is faster than my 5K PR pace of 10:20. Ack!

By mile 6, my heart rate was shooting up during each run segment and I was yelling about how stupid I was.  I shouted, "Why am I doing this? This is my speedwork pace.  I'm basically doing 7 minute speed repeats in a half marathon race! This is faster than my 15K PR pace, this is faster than my 15K PR pace!" A guy who happened to be running beside me said, "This is what happens when the adrenaline starts to wear off" and we laughed.  But I didn't want to lose this group - it was the only thing keeping that pace going.  I started leapfrogging more with the group, taking my walk breaks on the uphills and sprinting downhills to keep averaging out to their pace and catching back up to them.

At mile 8, they split off and I was on my own.  I didn't obsess over my Garmin much and just occasionally checked my average pace to make sure I was staying on track.  I would take short 30 second walk breaks when I felt like I really needed it.  There's a few miles late in the race on bricks/cobblestones.  This had been awful for me last year - bricks settle at different angles over time and slight changes can ripple from your feet through your ankles, knees, etc.  This year, I would hug the concrete curb or jump up on the sidewalk, and I gained a lot of time and passed quite a few people through these sections.

I had a decent kick at the end and finished with a 2:26:17! A new PR (previous PR was 2:29:23 set 6 weeks ago in Houston)!  I crossed the finish to see friends Sarah and Cruz waiting for me - it was great to celebrate that moment with friends!

Getting my official finish pic from the photographers.  Thanks, Cruz, for the picture!

For fun - here's my race report for this race in 2009...

Statistics:
All-Outdoor Running Streak: Day 54
6th Half Marathon in 2010
Third Half Marathon in 14 days
3 minute, 6 second improvement on my PR
16 minute, 23 second improvement over my finish time at this race last year (2:42:40)

Next Up:
Next weekend we have a Heels and Hills team participating in the Texas Independence Relay - a 12-person, 40 leg, 203.2 mile relay from Gonzalez, Texas to Houston, Texas.  I'll be driving one of the vans and running three of the relay legs.  Since I'm driving, I kept my mileage a little lower than the rest of the team, so my total is 14 miles over the whole weekend. 

Following weekend I'll be on vacation in Napa with my husband and our good friends.  And then my first double half marathons at Seabrook Lucky Trails Marathon on March 20-21 - run the half marathon on Saturday and then run the same course again on Sunday! Eek!

Splits:
Mile 1: 11:05
Mile 2: 11:09
Mile 3: 10:51
Mile 4: 10:14
Mile 5: 11:11
Mile 6: 10:44
Mile 7: 10:58
Mile 8: 11:27
Mile 9: 11:12
Mile 10: 11:15
Mile 11: 11:04
Mile 12: 11:51
Mile 13: 11:44
Mile 13.1 (last 0.16 per Garmin): 10:04

Stonebridge Ranch Half Marathon Race Report: Awful Start leads to Some Award Bling

Sunday morning was the Stonebridge Ranch Half Marathon in McKinney, Texas.  It was a new race put on by the triathlon producers Playtri.  There were only about 180 registered and it was run all over the streets of the Stonebridge neighborhoods. 

I went into this race not in a happy place.  Reasons?

1. I've been sporting a pretty bad cold, complete with total congestion and nasty cough and feeling so run down.
2. Steve and I went to a comedy show the night before (Gabriel Iglesias which was awesome!) so I was not in bed race eve until midnight. 
3. I knew this race would mean my highest mileage week (Mon. - Sun.) EVER! 32.6 miles.
4. Plenty of pre-race anxiety... I had a slow start when the alarm went off and unfortunately, my toddler daughter woke up too.  So dogs, hubby, and sleepy girl were now all up - fun.  I had maximized my sleep so didn't have a lot of wiggle room.  I was rushing around like a crazy person.  I went to put on my timing chip (Chronotrack D-tage) and couldn't see any metal RFID strip on the back.  Oh no!  I had this happen about a year before and it had turned out I was given a faulty chip that had no reader stuck in it.  Now I was really in a hurry to get to the race and get a new bib and chip assigned!
5. I forgot my Garmin at home.  First half marathon without a Garmin

So my thoughts were to go for an easy 12:00 min/mi pace, roughly 2:37-2:40 finish and save my energy for next weekend's half marathon.

I got to the race and headed to the registration area.  I ran into Natalie Merrill (who later went on to win 1st female overall) and told her about my chip.  Her chip looked just like mine - she was assuming that's how it was supposed to be.  We stopped another runner and his chip DID have the metal RFID strip on the back.  So now I had roped another person into thinking we had defective chips.  After some detailed discussions with race registration volunteers, we found a BUNCH didn't have the metal strip showing.  The new chips must have another layer of paper over the metal strip now, so the RFID metal isn't exposed and visible.  Crisis averted but I'm glad I was diligent to check just in case! Meantime, I had a new bib and chip and got all of it affixed and pinned. 

I ran back to my car and heard them calling for "Runners Start".  I hurried to the start, having never met up with the friends I had planned to, a couple Twitter friends (Greg Sisengrath, @asianstyleguy, and Suann Lundsberg, @smlundsberg), and not having done my usual pre-race Gu and Water.  It was only while waiting at the start that I even realized I didn't have my Garmin timing watch!  As it turned out, after the megaphone yells of impending start, we ended up starting the race late, about 8 minutes late. Grr, I hurried to the start for nothing!

All in all, it meant a stressful, high anxiety pre-race time for me.  I was able to connect with Silberia Garcia, a childhood friend who I had not seen in easily about 15 years.  She was running her first half marathon.  I also found Kelly Holmes, a neighbor who had trained with CK Sports and was doing her first half marathon.  Another neighbor, Bev Priutt, was there with her high school age son, Carl, who was running his first half marathon.  Then, Trish Wegren was right behind me in the starting line - a gal like me who loves to run lots of halfs.  The race starts and I feel naked, totally naked, without my Garmin for about the first 2 miles.  It was a small race so the field spread out quickly.  About a half mile in, I saw James Hague-Rogers walking back - I asked what was wrong and he pointed to his leg.  Disappointing, injury at the start. All runners can empathize.  I hear my name yelled and cheerleader-of-the-day Emily Wilemin is there cheering all her friends - awesome runner and supporter! Then I passed Lolita Johnson who does a lot of races and we're pretty similar paces - always has a smile when I see her! 

This was not a flat course as promised - in fact I would dare to say the hill on Virginia Parkway at Mile 4 rivaled anything the Austin Marathon would throw at you!  A few miles in it started to pour - a cold hard rain.  Big big rain drops.  I let out a big primal yell - an "oh yeah, bring it on" yell - to try to psych myself up about the awful conditions.  Rain just kept going and going and before we knew it, we're running smack down the middle of these neighborhood streets as both sides have become giant puddles.  When you pass by a storm drain, you hear the loud rushing of all the water.  Around mile 5, we see some lightning off and on for about a mile.  I'm told there was hail, but I must have narrowly missed it because people finishing before and after me talked about it.  So with all this pouring rain and running in and out of puddles at the numerous street intersections, it meant about 9 miles of soaked footwear and well, soaked everything.  But the soaked shoes were significant since it meant feeling like you were carrying an extra 20 pounds of weight on each foot.  Ugh.

So with no Garmin I came in towards the finish, opened up my stride and actually had a pretty good sprint the last tenth mile.  Crossed with a gun time of 2:32:37 (ended up being a chip time of 2:32:12, an 11:37 average pace).  And I'm shocked.  If I had my Garmin with me, my plan had been to run 12:00 min/mi pace to take it easy.  Oops.   

Meanwhile, friend Michael Henry will be proud of me.  At the Dallas Marathon expo, he had challenged me to run 2 of my 10+ planned half marathons of 2010 without my Garmin to "just see what happens".  Accidentally, I have now done one, and it's interesting to see how consistent my race pace is between when I have no watch and when I'm obsessing over every tenth-mile pace on my Garmin like I usually am.

I'm wet and cold and wait around for what feels like forever outside for the award ceremony.  Race results were not posted very clearly - athenas (women over 150 pounds) and clydesdales (men over 200 pounds) had their own award category, but we couldn't really tell how we had placed based on the overall finish list they were posting.  I knew there weren't many Athenas at the event.  I had seen the pre-reg list at packet pickup and knew only three pre-registered.  I'm glad I hung around because when they did the award ceremony, I was 1st place Athena!  Which means BLING- I brought home my first 1st place trophy - and only my fourth trophy ever!

Summary of Race:
Good race but don't come expecting anything fancy.  Bareboned and with the weather, one or two aid stations were deserted, although the water cups were poured and set out.  Stonebridge has small rolling hills and this course has one monster hill at Mile 4.  Participant shirt is a tee, logo wasn't terribly pretty, but it's nice that you have the option for a dri-fit shirt, should you want it, for $10 more.  Not much in the way of post-race festivities.  Bagel, oranges, bananas, hooters wings, and bottled water.  Again, good race, but it's not about frills, and I know some people care a lot about frills at races. :-)

Congratulations go to...

• Natalie Merrill - female overall winner
• Lolita Johnson - first place Athena masters
• Mark Olateju - 9th overall male, 1st place age group
• Greg Sisengrath - PR and 3rd place age group
• Suann Lundsberg - met goal of sub-2 hour half, 5th place age group
• Kelly Holmes and Silberia Garcia - finished their first halfs

Stats for this Race and this Day:
I'm an analytical person so I love crunching the numbers...

• Day 48 of my all-outdoor running streak
• Half Marathon #5 of 2010 (towards goal of at least "10 halfs in '10")
• Chip time 2:32:12
• 11:37 min/mi
• 1st place Athena
• Highest weekly mileage ever, meaured Monday through Sunday: 32.6 miles
• Currently at 182.3 miles for the year on my goal to 500 miles by June 30th.

Next up:

Cowtown Half Marathon in 6 days in Fort Worth, Texas!  Cowtown will make my second month in a row of doing 3 halfs within 15 days - in January, I did Houston Half (1/17), 3M Half (1/24), and Texas Half (1/30).  In February, it will be Surfside Beach Half (2/13), Stonebridge Ranch Half (2/21), and Cowtown Half (2/27)

Happy Running All!

Live Tweeting to Enjoy a Race to its Fullest - Race Report for Surfside Beach Half Marathon, 2/13/10

On Saturday, I ran the Surfside Beach Half Marathon, about an hour outside Houston.  The race is limited to 900 and had sold out - about 650 in the half marathon and 250 in the full marathon. I had run Austin Half Marathon this weekend last year and thought it would be nice to try a new race.

Me at Mile 10 of the race - in my standard hot pink Heels and Hills gear.

Going into this race, race day was day 40 of my all-outdoor running streak.  Unfortunately, the chiropractor had noticed a little bit of rotation in my knee on Wednesday and he corrected it.  After running in the snow and playing with my daughter in it (record approx. 12" of snow in Dallas!) on Thursday and Friday, I was on the phone with the chiropractor race eve getting tips as I'd re-rotated the knee a little in the uneven snow. I drove 5 1/2 hours late Friday to arrive about 8:30 pm at the hotel.  A little stretching and icing on the knee and off to bed.

Race day morning, it's about 40 degrees with a light breeze, but I miscalculated that breeze, because it really made everything so much colder. I regretted leaving my gloves at the hotel when I thought, "Oh, it will be way too warm for that!" We all  park along the beach against the dune fence with beach houses on the other side.  A big tent is set up for pre- and post-race needs. 

The race starts on time at 8 am.

The course is literally, we run ~2.5 miles south, turn around and come back, pass by the start, go down another 6ish miles, turn around and come back to the finish.  It's a true out-and-back.  It's cloudy, but the ocean is still so pretty.  The sand is fairly packed, so it is somewhat like running on "soft asphalt" as another runner had described it.  But it's definitely a little odd with stones, debris, and shells to watch out for.  With the entire width of the beach to choose from, I know it's important not to run on a slightly sloped area or you'll feel it before the end of the race.  Those thinking like I am stick with high up near the dune fence or all the way down in the wetter sand near the waves rolling in.

My chiropractor (who is also a past college cross-country athlete, university coach, and still gifted runner) and I had discussed taking it a little easy since I had tweaked my knee and didn't know if I could rotate any more in the sand.  With a current PR at 11:27 pace, I decide to plan on a 12:00 pace for this race.  I keep the first 5 miles right around an 11:45.  In fact, my consistent splits are just plain beautiful. :-)

Mile 1: 11:54

Mile 2: 11:44

Mile 3: 11:45

Mile 4: 11:48

Mile 5: 11:43

About mile 6, I'm really struggling with stiff / sore back/neck/chest.  Runners will understand, it's like I just couldn't get my torso to relax into my hips and let the legs do the work.  I'd try to shake off my upper body but it just stayed tense.  With a recent fibromyalgia flareup and a long drive the day before, I'm guessing neither of those things helped, although I don't know if they were the cause or if it was "just one of those days." 

By mile 8, I'm just struggling.  Definitely hurting in the back and neck.  So I pull out my phone that I carry in my Amphipod pocket attached to my shorts, and I tweet the following... "8.65 mi into the half - not havin fun. Never loosened up and back/neck r stiff". (If you want to follow me, just http://www.twitter.com/libbyruns) I get some encouraging responses from some awesome running tweeps ("twitter peeps" or twitter friends).

And I realize something - I didn't set out for a PR today anyway and if I continue pushing at the slower pace I'm at when I'm not feeling my finest, I will completely miss the entire point of this race! And as a simple out-and-back race up and down a beach with no major spectators or highly distinguishable scenery, it would be so easy to go home without a lot of memories.  I came to enjoy a unique race site, beautiful scenery on a long run, and have fun.  And I'm hitting a state of miserable where I'm losing the fun. 

So I decide to find the fun again.  And decide that I'll live tweet the remaining 5ish miles of the race.  It worked out great.  It would give me plenty of walk breaks to stretch out my back while I tweeted and then I would sprint a few tenths of a mile, and I found that my sprints were faster so I didn't slow down as much as I would have expected from tweeting and taking all the pics!  So the rest of the race report is a collection of the tweets and pics I took.

10:01 am - "Aid station at mile 9.5 - surprised the volunteer when I said to say CHEESE!"

10:05 am - "Mile 10 - gal offered 2 take my pic - too sweet of her!"  This was a funny moment where I had stopped to take a pic of the 10 mile marker sign, and on this out-and-back course, a gal run/walking on the out part (I was on the back part) said, "Hey, why don't I take your picture?" I said, "Are you sure? We're in the middle of the race!" And she said it wasn't a problem.  Very very sweet of this random runner!

10:14 am - "Dude has all his fishing poles set up at mile 10.6 - sadly he's caught 0 runners so far..."

10:19 am - "Aid station at 10.9 - look at all empty boxes. View from back o the pack"

10:25 am - "Aid station volunteer ( HS girl ) asked about my cell - and I found the generation whose reaction to my live tweeting made me cooler - lol"

10:27 am - "HEED the warning: this race serves Heed at aidstations, which I've never trained with, so no sports drink for me :-("

10:32 am - "Mile 12 - white dot in distance is tent by finish area, almost there"

10:36 am - ""Tonight's going to be a good good night..." Heard thru another runner's earbuds - TURN UR VOLUME DOWN! - mile 12.3"

10:39 am - "Birdies were the race spectators... Bunch of seagulls at mile12.5"

10:43 am - "Passing my car... At mile 12.85...ugh"

And then I was done.  2:44:58 on my Garmin.  A friend Cruz was there to cheer me into the finish - very nice of him. 

The post-race was fun with Maui Wowi making real fruit smoothies (I had strawberry) and an okay BBQ meal.  Each runner also received a race plate - sorry, but I don't see the point in a finisher plate - I'm not going to display it.  I'd rather have a tech shirt or race hat or something I will use if they are going to spend the money on a finisher item.  But that's just my opinion - and it is a pretty plate so I appreciate the effort, either way. :-)

Here's the race bib, finisher medal, and decorative plate for 2010 Surfside Beach Half Marathon!

All in all, I'm glad I slowed down and let myself have some fun and soak in the beautiful scenery.  It was a race I enjoyed and would recommend to others if you aren't a runner who needs a lot of bells and whistles and frills.

Times/Splits
Finish Time on Garmin: 2:44:58
Distance measured by Garmin as 13.23
Mile 1: 11:54
Mile 2: 11:44
Mile 3: 11:45
Mile 4: 11:48
Mile 5: 11:43
Mile 6: 12:36 (walked through aid station and took Gu slowly)
Mile 7: 12:16
Mile 8: 12:40 (tweeting begins)
Mile 9: 12:54
Mile 10: 13:08
Mile 11: 13:47
Mile 12: 13:10
Mile 13: 12:58
Mile 13.1: 11:15 (pace for last 0.23 miles per Garmin)

Next Up
Thinking about doing the new Stonebridge Half Marathon in McKinney (10 minutes from my house) that Playtri organization is putting on next Sunday, just to keep the miles up.  Then, Cowtown Half Marathon on 2/27.

Ready to Complete One New Year's Resolution...But This Weather!

So I've been training hard the last few weeks. My big goal is to break 2 1/2 hours in the half marathon (11:30 pace, for a gal who currently runs a half at a 12:30 pace... eek!). Today the training schedule had me doing 3 miles at around a 10:45 pace. Before the run, I'm not convinced I can sustain that. I take it back - I'm definitely thinking I can't do that! My training partner for the night has a minor injury so calls me and has to cancel her participation. Great. Now I really won't have the motivation to push myself to keep the pace on target...

I head out the door at 7:30. It's around 95 degrees outside. Uck!
I nail the first mile and I actually feel really good. 10:38 on the first mile.

Halfway through the first mile, I start having that brain spasm that says "Just walk, you know you want to." This was part of the reason I could never get faster before. Because I would let myself periodically give up and walk.

I push on and hit the main big hill in my neighborhood. Up up up the hill. I finish the mile. 10:38 for the second mile. Awesome. Spot on.

Third mile I'm really wanting to give up and walk. The slight breeze that kept me feeling pretty good has completely disappeared.

I always hear other runners talk about how they feel like they can't breathe in this heat. Instead, I feel this intense heat building inside my head and feel like my whole brain is catching on fire ... but I can breathe just fine. :-)

I never take a walk break on this third and last mile, but I allow myself to slow down and trudge on. I've been trying so hard not to shuffle my feet like I tend to if I'm a little tired, but I'm occasionally hearing that whissh whissh ... whissh whissh of my soles skimming the ground. I pick up my legs and manage to stop the shuffling each time I start. I finish the third mile with an 11:11.

So 10:38, 10:38, 11:11 - total of 32:27 or a 10:49 average. While that wasn't 3 miles right around 10:45, it works out pretty close in the end.

The bigger news is the confidence boost this gives me. Another New Year's Resolution, besides breaking 2:30 on the half marathon, is to break 32 minutes at the 5K distance. I started the year with a PR of 35 1/2. I had an amazing, can't-understand-how-I-did-that 5K in February where I took more than 3 minutes off my PR and brought it down to 32:19. But it was a nice temp out (February) and an evening race (which appears to be a faster time for me than morning). Until the last couple weeks, I've consistently run 12-13 min/mi with occasional 11:30s so I have no clue where that February 5K time came from and really felt like it was a fluke... or a lucky day.

But now I'm feeling like I'm not having a fluke now. I'm actually getting faster and feeling stronger. And if I can run 3.0 in 32:27 in 95 degree heat, what can I run in 50 degree weather?

So here are my options...

1. I have to work another month and a half and get much much faster to manage to break 32 minutes in the Texas summer heat,
2. I can hold on to this speed level and the 32 minute time goal will probably happen on its own in the fall,
3. Where's the coolest place we can get to within a day's drive and has a Sunday 5K coming up soon? Who's up for a roadtrip in the next few weeks? :-)

Big Girl Panties - Learning to Suck It Up

Today I learned what "putting on my big girl panties" and gettin' it done is all about.

Let me back up just a little... At the beginning of the year, one of my New Year's Resolution was to break 2 1/2 hours in a half marathon by the end of the 2009. That would mean a 24 minute improvement over 2008's White Rock Half. I've since taken 12 minutes off my time, so I'm halfway there. My PR as of Big D in April is now 2:42, so a 12:30 pace.

My training to break 2 1/2 hours (an 11:30 pace) this fall formally began yesterday. I met up with friend Paula in the morning and did 5 miles, 4.5 miles at 11:30 pace and a half mile walk in the middle. It brought the average pace to 12:00. It was hard to keep the even pace, especially the last mile. But I was happy when I was finished.

Tonight I really learned to "put on my big girl panties" and make it happen. It's a favorite phrase of my good friend and fellow Heels and Hills co-race director Paula Robertson, usually said with her Mississippi drawl. She's also coaching me towards this goal. And I'm in good hands. Paula used to help with the women's training clinic with Dallas Running Club "back in the day" when it was Cross Country Club of Dallas (CCCD), spent a couple years as the Dallas Galloway Training Program Director and led a training program the first two years of Heels and Hills for participants. I needed help because I recognize that on my own, training myself, I'll push too hard and get injured or not enough and not meet the goal - it's just a reality that I kinda turn stupid when it comes to my own running. :-)

I thought I had already toughened up and moved from training pants into big kid underoos this spring. I had accomplished the following:

• Shaved a little over 3 minutes off my 5K PR, throwing up at the finish line
• Ran the Austin Half Marathon with stomach problems the whole way and PRed
• Enjoyed the company of 12 lovely ladies for about 40 hours on almost no sleep as we completed a 200 mile relay race
• Dealt with nasty weather conditions and feelings of dehydration during the Oklahoma City Half Marathon
• Completed 5 half marathons between Feb. 14 and May 17

So I thought I'd had some toughening-up experiences already this year. Nope. Tonight I learned the difference between running and training.

This new training schedule had two time goals for today's run. The paces I would have to run looked so absurd, I never run that fast. I made several plans of how to amend that night's run if I was as unprepared as I feared I was. Amazingly, to me, I met both of the time goals!

Goal 1 - first mile between 9:52 and 10:13. Ran 10:06.
Goal 2 - second mile between 10:42 and 11:05. Ran 10:59.

So I met the plan in the training schedule for the night but learned a lot more about sucking it up in the meantime. I thought I was going to die this evening but managed to run way faster than I ever thought I could. The 10:06 mile was a new PR!

I hope I can keep this up, because man, I would love to hit this half marathon time goal! 18 more weeks...

Happy Running, and thanks for letting me vent!

What was I thinking?

At the last minute, I decided to do North Trail Half Marathon in Dallas yesterday morning.

I saw a lot of people I knew before the race while I was registering and getting set. My friend Sarah and I were decked out in our hot pink 2009 Heels and Hills shirts. We saw lots of others in Heels and Hills shirts and more Heels and Hills registrants that were there in other clothes.

At the start of the race, we found out that there was flooding on the North Trail so we would be doing an out-and-back along the west side of White Rock Lake (and down around the south end, turning around before we hit Winfrey Point). I had never run on the North Trail so I had been excited about this - so I was disappointed but completely understood why they had to change the route.

So, on the theme of "What was I thinking?":

Tried something new for this race. I had bought a Bondiband (thick women's fabric headband) but not tried it out. I was tired of all the fly-a-way hairs and my bangs in my face at OKC Half Marathon so I decided to wear it for this race. Never try any changes to your running routine on race day! What was I thinking?

I went out too fast. I was just going along with the crowd and not worrying about the pace I was going. What was I thinking?

About halfway into Mile 2, I saw a guy running along the lake coming from the other direction. As he approached, I yelled "Hi, Chris!" It was a friend I hadn't seen in a long time. He had that look of "wait, what was that? who is that?" I couldn't blame him with the running sunglasses and Bondiband. About thirty seconds later, I heard someone behind me yell my name. It was Chris, he had realized who had yelled out the greeting. I slowed down until he caught up and we chatted away for about 3/4 mile. His youngest is 6 months older than 18-month old Marissa so we had a lot to talk about. Silly me, Christopher is one of those super fast runners who does like 6-7 minute/miles and Boston-qualifies at every marathon he's ever run. He is so fast! So even with him trying to run super slow so we could talk, I was pushing hard to keep up with him. I finally told him I just couldn't keep up the pace and to go on with his run, so he headed back in the other direction. Averaged 11:40 on miles 2-3, and I know I was going slower when not running with Chris, so I seem to recall I was running 10:30-11 with him - bad idea. So running way too fast in miles 2-3 - what was I thinking?

I spent miles 4-6.5 going along at a comfortable pace, even though I knew it was faster than I had been going in any previous half marathon. The weather was so pretty, and I was enjoying the scenery. It just felt comfortable so I ignored what the Garmin was telling me, and the fact that I knew in my heart I was probably setting myself up to completely run out of energy before the end of the race. What was I thinking?

Around mile 4.5 I started seeing the fast runners coming back on the course. I cheered on the top people, then I cheered on all the runners I knew. Exchanged a lot of high-fives. Meanwhile, I normally would have taken a Gu at this point. But I was distracted, enjoying the cheer, loving the atmosphere, and said, "Oh, I'll do that later." What was I thinking?

I took a Gu right before the halfway point turnaround. After the turnaround, it was all slowly downhill - my energy level, not the course. Took another Gu at 10.5 to try to get a boost from the caffeine. I had done sub-12:30 for miles 1-6 (including several sub-12:00s), and I should have been doing about 12:30 each mile. Oops. Miles 7 on, I just got slower and slower. Dragging along those last 3 miles.

I approach the last half mile and see a guy in the distance yelling "Go Libby!" Who is that? It's EW! He's having some knee problems and running 9 that night with his wife, so he came out to cheer. He runs me in the last 0.5 mile, where I go from 14+ min/miles with mostly walking to a good last half mile run at 10:30 pace. Having that help in the last half mile was invaluable. It also gave me someone to vent every thought from the last 5 miles of badness. So poor EW spent half a mile hearing, "I want to die. I want to die. I'll just lay down here, no one will notice. What was I thinking? I did everything wrong today." etc etc etc You get the idea.

Finished in 2:48:07. 6 minutes worse than my PR set at the beginning of April at Big D. But 7 minutes faster than Oklahoma City Half 3 weeks before. And most importantly, still 12 minutes faster than I was running half marathons a year ago this time.

But learned some lessons - I either need to start training (hmmm) so that the comfortable pace of half a minute to a full minute faster is sustainable for longer than 6 miles, or I need to listen to my Garmin and slow it down a little to get through the whole half marathon distance without sputtering out.

Oh, and the Bondiband: aside from getting used to the feeling and readjusting a couple times, it was a success. And although I hate the look when I'm wearing one, I think it's going to stay part of my race day attire!

It was great to see everyone. Thanks for the hi's and cheers and just the familiar faces of: Jean Maria H., Shana R., Greg D., David R., Wendy R., Pam P., Alise C., Christopher J., Danny H., Janice S., Tuan N., Frances H., Peggy M., Ken S., Don and Teresa R., Dave and Claudia Z., and EW. Hope everyone had a great run yesterday in that gorgeous weather!

Splits:
Mile 1: 11:58
Mile 2: 11:38
Mile 3: 11:40
Mile 4: 12:15
Mile 5: 11:50
Mile 6: 12:00
Mile 7: 12:46
Mile 8: 12:34
Mile 9: 12:47
Mile 10: 13:20
Mile 11: 13:42
Mile 12: 14:30
Mile 13: 14:36
Last 0.1: 10:31