After taking both Friday and Saturday completely off, I went into Sunday's half marathon with little expectations. Still feeling the effects from 2 days of lifting (out of shape!!), I wasn't sure what my legs would do for 13.1 miles or how my body would hold up, so I had decided to just run at a pace that felt comfortable. After a short warm up and a few trips to the bushes, I wiggled my way through masses of bodies to get closer to the front of the starting line. The weather was more than perfect, couldn't have asked for a better day for running a half! Despite the gun going off at the start, it was several seconds before I was actually able to "jog" and even longer before I was able to get into a comfortable rhythm. Once the crowd of runners thinned out enough to find elbow room, I found a pace that made sense to me. I had passed the 1:45 pacer before coming up to mile one, so I knew I was taking a risk by starting out faster than I am used to, but I also wasn't concerned about my finish time. The gentle rolling hills felt smooth and easy, I was pretty sure that running Ramblin' Rose half just two weeks prior proved to be beneficial. Since I had barely been able to eat anything that represented a quality pre-run breakfast, I opted to take a Honey Stinger gel at mile 6, it helped tremendously! The course was beautiful, my music was pumping, my legs felt great, my body just kept going....and going....like cruise control. First three miles clocking in at 7:38's, then two miles at 7:43, 7:40, 8:25 (water/gel stop), then a few miles at 7:55, lastly, 7:44 and 7:36 with the last .1 being an all out sprint at a 6:53 pace!! When I could finally see the finish line, a woman approached me from behind and began to run at an even pace with me. I glanced over at her and realized that she just might be in my age group, SO....with all the gusto I had left, we both sprinted neck and neck to the finish and ended with a fabulous photo finish that I hope someone captured! I nearly puked as I crossed that line, I couldn't even bend my neck to let the gentleman place the medal over my head, instead I just held out my hand. As I gasped for breath, I looked at my watch and pleasantly surprised myself with another brand new PR! 1:43:10 finish time.
My best friend from MN gave me a Christmas present last year, it was a tree ornament in the shape of a running shoe that said, "all I want for Christmas is a new PR." I've repeated that phrase many times in my head and with each track work I struggle through, it's slowly becoming reality! With a new marathon PR of 3:40:02, a 5K of 22:51, and a half at 1:43:10, I'm beginning to enjoy each race just a little bit more. This is the year for me to work on speed, give it 100% until Boston, then move on to other things.
When the final results of the race came in, I quickly scrolled through my age group to see if that lady I had sprinted with was even my age....YEP! Good thing I sprinted and stuck my neck out at the last second to beat her, we both had the same finish time and a 6th and 7th place age group finish out of 135 women. Of course, I've already begun to wonder if I could have gone a little bit faster, perhaps I should have gone for time rather than just on how I felt. Always second guessing...but it was a great race, a great day.
Now for a week of getting things done and letting the body recover.
This week I'll take it down a notch or two, no running for the week. I'll wipe the dust off my bike and hop on that, maybe brace myself and put on a suit and dive in the pool, but no running.
No comments:
Post a Comment