We drove up to Frederick on Saturday afternoon, picked up our race packets, checked into the hotel, and went to downtown Frederick. We had dinner reservations with our group at an Italian place, but we got there early, so we walked around town for a bit. I was pleasantly surprised with Frederick! It is a great little town with lots of shops, restaurants and bars, and history. I highly recommend Brewer's Alley. I got a tasting of 6 of their beers, and it was awesome.
Race day was hot and humid. At the start of the race it was already 71 degrees. I wasn't used to running in such heat or humidity. I wasn't feeling great, so I didn't eat my usual pre-run granola bar. Before the race started I knew I'd have to stop and use the porta-potty, which I wasn't happy about.
Miles 1-5 started out fine. I hit 5 miles at just under 50 mins, and I was okay with that. Somewhere around 6 miles I stopped to pee. I almost started walking after that, but somehow I found a spring in my step and started running again. In the second half the hills started getting to me. Between miles 8 and 9 I began walking, but there was a lady that I had been going back and forth with, and she caught up to me and encouraged me, so I started running again. Thank you, whoever you were. For the rest of the race I took longer walking breaks at the water stations and the end of mile 11/beginning of mile 12 probably had the most walking in it. I ran the last mile.
My time was 2:28:02.
That is over 20 minutes worse than my last half marathon 6 weeks ago. Total bummer. I'm happy that I finished. I'm not happy that I walked. I think I should have eaten my granola bar even though I wasn't feeling well. I should have kept the intensity in my training between the last half and this one. I had to fight harder in this race than in my first race, but I can't not blame that on my poor training for the last 6 weeks. It should have been easier, had I followed the training plan and not skipped runs.
Overall feelings: I'm proud of myself for doing it, and my time is nothing to be upset about. But I can't let this be the last half that I race - I want to do better.
I Missed Running
4 years ago
Awesome job on completing another half-marathon! Even if your time wasn't what it was in DC, you still completed another 13.1 race. That's an accomplishment. I didn't have a desire to run another half after my first, and it was almost one year to the day that I ran another one.
ReplyDeleteRaces, I've learned, are mostly a reflection of your training. If you've been on top of your training and doing things properly, then your race performance reflects that. If you're not getting in as many training runs or aren't training at the right distances, that will reflect on race day as well.
I hope you don't take this as a negative. Just take it as a learning experience and move on.
You can't beat yourself up over this one, as the weather was just too much to overcome for most of us who haven't had 70 degree/90% humidity mornings to do long runs in so far this year. My last two long training runs were both longer than 13.1 miles and I ran them both in under 1:54. I was shooting for an outside shot of breaking 1:50 in Frederick, but I ran it in 2:05. I also had to take walk breaks after I hit the mile 9 marker, which is something I haven't had to do at all while training for the last 12 weeks.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job soldiering through this one. It was brutal, and you weren't one of the at least 4 people I saw passed out on the side of the road. Good luck on your future races!