I have been working my ass off the past seven weeks to run a sub-80 (under 1:20:00 for my non-runner folk) for a half marathon. Workouts were going well - really well - and I was feeling really good about racing. I had a nice taper this week and after my shake out run yesterday my legs were feeling really good.
Aside from the start being pushed back to 7:30 - at 6:55 meaning my warm up was already done- and then pushed back forward only to stand for 10 more minutes at the line, the day was looking great. So I thought. The gun goes off, we make the first turn and BOOM....head wind. SERIOUSLY!? Where was this all morning!? The course layout was essentially one giant box. The first 4 miles being run on the same long, straight road. (Want proof? Look here http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=115526 ) Four miles of a head wind? Not ideal. Head wind aside, the first mile was ridiculously slow from my own doing. I was trying to gauge my pace off the group of teenage guys who I assumed would be going balls to the wall from the start. They didn't go out hard and the pace felt somewhat "easy." After half a mile I had a suspicion that I was definitely going to be slow the first mile - better than too fast! I moved up to the back of that group and when we went through the mile I had two choices: Stay at this with the pack, draft, definitely miss my goal time OR battle the wind head on and hope for the best. So I decided to hope for the best. I moved around them - as they said " Man, we are going to get beat my a girl!" haha - and picked up the pace.
Now, from having done this racing thing multiple times in my life, I knew that trying to PR pace while fighting the wind would only come back to haunt me the last few miles of the race. So I dropped the pace to where I felt like I was working "comfortably hard" without over working. Knowing that the course was a box, I knew that I was going to get a nice tailwind the second half and so I decided that was going to be when I would start to put the hammer down. By mile five I was out of the wind enough to finally get on goal pace. I could tell the wind had done some damage on my legs, but I still felt like I would be able to hold strong until the end. Mile seven is where the race turned ugly. I took my GU - like I do EVERY time I race a half or longer - and my stomach decided it did NOT care for GU today. Now, I am not talking about the normal "side-stitch" stomach cramping. I am talking about the normal side-stitch + nausea + I might shit. F*CK. I was really hurting. I tried my best to maintain my pace but the harder I pushed, my intestines pushed back a little harder. By mile 10 I knew I had fallen off enough to miss my time. The last 3 miles turned into a suffer fest of trying not to lose it from either end and battling the wind. Not to mention that I had run completely alone, aside from one of the cyclists, since mile two. Makes you jealous that you aren't me, right?
Well if you don't envy me yet, you will now. I was able to hang on long enough to place 3rd overall and 1st female. You may be saying to yourself "big deal, you won." Well the winner, both male and female, win their weight in wine! BOOM. Jealous now!? However, as a very vino friend of mine pointed out (thanks, Shannon Elsemore!) I am not a big drinker. Aside from a bottle or two, the wine will be going to a wedding (sorry Shannon!) of two awesome runner friends of mine; you may know them: Michelle La Sala, CIM Race Director (no big deal & yes I totally just name dropped) and Kevin Pool, pretty much a marathon badass (PR 2:18:59).
To sum up: I didn't run a PR but got a win and a crap load of wine. Aren't you glad you read all that when you could have just read that last sentence? Love you, too. ;)
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| All the spectators on the course...sans the cows. |
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| Age Group Award |
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| Haha Ya, right! |
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| Saying you won your weight in wine sounds a lot better than it looks! ;) |