Race day started early with my alarm going off at 4:30 a.m. My first
thought was, "I need COFFEE!" I drank my Community Cafe Special and played on
the computer for a while so that I could wake up. I like having extra
time to slowly come alive in the mornings. Then it was time for my
pre-race meal. I ate scrambled eggs with olive oil, yellow bell pepper
& scallions, avocado, blackberries, banana, and strawberries. Since I was up so early I had plenty of time for my food to digest.
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| Pre-race meal |
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| Pretty peppy for 5 a.m. |
Then it was time to get dressed. The weather forecast was 44 degrees warming to about 49 degrees, overcast, winds up to 10 mph, humidity around 55%, with a 10% chance of rain. I really had a hard time deciding what I was going to wear. I didn't want to be cold but I also didn't want to be too hot. I ended up deciding on capri running tights, long sleeved tech shirt, ear warmers, a vest, and light gloves.
I headed out to the race at 6 a.m. I arrived at the race site an hour and a half early, doh! I didn't want to be late and I sure wasn't. I had plenty of time to drink my 20 oz bottle of water, visit the facilities (twice) and take a few photos. However, I spent most of my time sitting in my car where it was nice and warm. I went over and over my race plan in my head. My plan was to take a gel 10 minutes before race start and then one every 45 minutes and to just take in water on the course. Plan for pace was to start out at a 10:30 pace and work up to a 10:00 pace through the race. Ultimate plan was to run my race and not worry about what everyone else was doing.
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| Hiding out in my car until race start. I was SO COLD!!! |
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| My inspirational photo of the morning. I was going to cross that finish line and hopefully with a PR! |
Finally it was 8:00 a.m. and I lined up in the starting chute with 873 other women. I positioned myself in the back of the 10:00 pace group. It was a sea of pinks, purples, and other vibrant colors. There was a quiet excitement hovering over the crowd. And then we were off!
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| In the starting chute |
It took a couple of seconds to get going but then I was moving! I looked down at my Garmin and I was going at a sub 10:00 pace, not the plan. I tried to slow it down but with the adrenaline and all the runners around me I just kept going at that pace. I was feeling great! At the 10k point I had run my fastest 10k ever! Again I said to myself, "You've got to slow down. You're going to burn out!" but I kept going.
Around mile 7 or 8 my left knee and right calf started to bug me. The knee is a long standing issue so I just tried to ignore it. The calf is a more recent injury that I'm pretty sure I got while doing speed work which was way too fast for me. The pain wasn't so bad that I thought I might really injure myself so I kept on trucking!
Sometime during mile 9 or 10 I decided that I was going to drop the hammer the last two miles. I knew I was set up to PR but I wanted to do the best I possibly could. I wanted to put every ounce of effort my body contained out there on the course. Those last two miles were painful and I remember grimacing and grunting quite a bit. Then I saw the finish line and I sprinted the last tenth of a mile.
I had done it a new PR! I finished in 2:08:36. That is 22:30 faster than my previous PR! I ranked 51 out of 161 in my age group and 254 out of 874 overall. My splits according to my Garmin: 9:49, 9:53, 9:58, 10:02, 10:09, 9:40, 9:38, 9:59, 10:03, 9:50, 9:52, 9:13, 9:09, 7:39 (.19 mile).
I stuck to my nutrition plan which worked and even though I didn't stick to my pace plan things worked out in my favor. Perhaps I got lucky or maybe I underestimated myself. I guess I'll find out the next time I race a half marathon. But for now I'm just stoked about my new PR!
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| My awesome post race pic provided for FREE by RunGirl 13.1! |
After the race I headed over to the post race festivities and ate almost everything in sight. Paleo went out the window and I had this rice and meat concoction from My Fit Foods, an egg and bacon burrito from Juan's Big Burrito, a banana, hot chocolate and my favorite a mini lemon bundt cake with cream cheese frosting from Nothing Bundt Cakes. Then I took advantage of the free photo at the Flashbox booth, so cute! Finally I had a massage provided by Koala Health & Wellness. That massage hurt so good!
Once my belly was full and I'd perused all the goodies I decided to head home. When I got there my husband came outside and gave me a round of applause. He is so sweet. My boys congratulated me too, although I'm not sure they understood how excited I was about my PR. They did comment on what an awesome medal I received.
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| RunGirl 13.1 finisher's medal with removable charm |
After all the congratulations it was time for the dreaded ice bath. I prepared a steaming hot mug of cinnamon spice tea and headed to the tub. I sat in the ice bath for about 10 minutes then took a hot shower and got into some sweats.
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