Frederick Half Marathon Recap

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.

National Half Marathon Race Recap! Part II

The first five miles of the race went according to plan. But it was really disheartening to get to the five mile mark and see the clock already at over 56 minutes. I knew I started well after the gun, but as I said in my last post, I didn't see a clock at the starting line, so I had no idea what that time was, and I couldn't calculate what my pace was for the first five miles. I knew I had to get to the clock at 10 miles before I could get an accurate idea of my pace, which was hard to deal with mentally.

Miles 5-10 were a little more challenging. The course description on the website said that the course was relatively flat, but I thought it was quite hilly! I thought I remembered the description saying something about one hill or one section with hills, so each time I was going up a hill I thought to myself, "This must be the hill they were talking about. Get up this one and there will be no more hills." But the hills kept coming. They weren't very long hills, but after each one my butt was burning! From miles 5 to 10 I was calculating in my head what I needed the clock to say if I was keeping a 10 min/mile pace. I don't remember what the clock said, but I know that it was enough to stop worrying about the 56 minutes on the clock at mile 5.

Crowd support was awesome. My running group had shirts made, which turned out to be awesome because people would call out specifically to me yelling the words on my shirt. This is one of the main things that helped me have a great race. Stopping was not an option.

Miles 11 and 12 were really rough. I felt like I was crawling along at some points, and I couldn't get my legs to go any faster. My knee was acting up. Up until this point, I was enjoying the crowd and didn't listen to any music. But around mile 11 I needed Ke$ha or Bruce to energize me. Unfortunately I had some trouble finding the playlist on my mp3 player because I have never used the playlist function before, so I was going really slow while trying to figure that out...but still running. Finally I got it working and listened to Born to Run. It helped a lot.

Finishing was great. I was pleased with 2:17 and change. I ate a huge cookie and a soft pretzel at the finish line festival with lots of water. My group found me almost immediately and there were congratulations all around.

I've been obsessively stalking the website for official results and race pictures :)

National Half Race Recap! Part I

I finished 13.1! Official times haven't been posted yet, but when I crossed the finish line the clock said 2:17:something seconds. I didn't see a clock at the start line, so I don't know how much later than the gun I crossed the start, but it had to be at least 5 minutes. I gave it all I had and I did my best. There were a couple things that really made this race great for me, which I will share in my recaps.

I didn't sleep well at all the night before the race. I was nervous about getting up on time and making to the start line on time. And I was just nervous about the race in general. But I got up at 5am, got dressed quickly, ate a granola bar, and headed out the door. We made it to the metro with 2 minutes to spare to get the train we wanted/needed. The metro opened early on Saturday specifically for the marathon/half marathon, so it was kinda cool that nearly everyone on the train and in the station was a runner or a supporter. When we got to the Stadium/Armory, we were allowed in the Armory, which was great because it was dark outside and too cold to be just standing around in shorts and a t-shirt. I waited in line for the flushable bathrooms for about 30 minutes, and then it was time to go to the starting line!

As I was walking out of the Armory, I saw the Biggest Losers! That was pretty exciting. The corrals were pretty unorganized and not well marked. I think I started somewhere between the 9:46 sign and whatever the next slower sign was. Everyone in my running group decided to do their best, so we all ended up running on our own, which didn't bother me at all.

The next thing that happened really calmed me down. I saw a girl ahead of me in the corral wearing her bib on her back. The race was using special chip timing that was on the bib (B-tag I think) and they told us it had to be on your front on your outermost layer of clothing, or your time wouldn't be recorded. So I told this girl she needed to put her number on the front, and I felt like I had done my good deed for the day.

The music was pumping at the starting line. The sun was rising. The wheelchair entrant started, then the elites started, and then we mosied up to the starting line and began running. I felt great and was mentally keeping to my plan of using the first five miles as a warm up (and I really did actually need to first two miles to literally warm up!).

One of the coolest moments of the race was somewhere between miles 1 and 4. We must have been running down Constitution. We were at the top of a slight hill, the Washington Monument was to the left, and as I looked ahead, there were runners filling the street for as far as I could see. That was an awesome sight.

Stay tuned for Part II...