DC Rock n Roll Half Marathon

Like I said in my last post, I went into this race with no real goal, no real expectations. After this race and others in the past where I’ve had the same mindset, I’ve determined that’s the way to go…

I met up with another teammate, Erin, who had my packet. I hung out with her and her husband until the race started. This included the usual standing around, waiting in long bathroom line, running out of time for a proper warm up so half assing it and heading to my corral where we finally split up. Her husband helped me out big time by holding onto all my crap so I didn’t have to do a bag check. I had packed every upper body clothing option I could because I couldn’t decide what I’d want to race in. I ended up in my team singlet and arm warmers.

Race started and I decided the first mile I wasn’t  going to push it too much so I’d give my body a chance to warm up a bit more and then I’d find a pace to settle into. First mile I hit 9 minute pace and then I picked it up a tiny bit to be at the top of my goal pace range. I hung towards the top of my range for a few miles and was feeling really good at that pace. The weather was PERFECT for racing. Seriously could not have been any better. Around 50F and overcast. However, my arm warmers were too much for me after about half a mile. Luckily I saw Katie about 3 miles in and was able to toss them to her.

I knew from looking at the elevation map that it looked like I had to run up a wall around mile 6. I didn’t feel any better about this from talking to Erin before the race and her explaining to me that when she did this race two years ago she had to walk up the hill and she’s a faster runner than me. Holy hell was that a hill. My pace dropped back into the 9s and then the 10s and my heartrate was spiking to almost as high as it was at the finish. At the top my legs were burning pretty bad. I knew that hill would kill that mile split and that I had work to do to make up for it. That ended up being my slowest mile just over 9 minutes.

After that I decided it was time to start slowly picking it up and see how fast I could go and still hold on. Before I knew it I was in the low 8s and I was determined to hold it and see if I could push a bit harder. When 4 miles out I was in the upper 7s I was worried I would blow up. This was around my 5K PR pace from two months ago. But I told myself I could not back down. I held in the upper 7s for those last 4 miles, my last full mile was mid 7s and the last 0.3 miles (because I ran an extra 0.2?) in the low 7s. Those last few miles were hard. My legs were tired, my breathing was getting harder, I could feel the pains in my foot and legs. I’m pretty sure a few drops of pee came up towards the end because I really had to go the bathroom and I was pushing myself so hard (to which I’ve now realized I’m pretty sure I could completely pee myself while running if needed…not a skill I want to use  but could come in handy during IM).

There were a few things that kept me going in the end. The rush of passing that many people late in the race is awesome. I don’t normally experience that so it was a huge boost to keep going. I also spent pretty much the entire race behind someone dressed as a pizza. After hearing people yell “YEA PIZZAAAA” mile and mile I decided I had enough and it was time to pass him and put enough distance between us that I wouldn’t hear it anymore. Thanks pizza man!

So obviously based on all of that I had a PR. Major PR for an open half by 10 minutes which is huge and I’m sooo happy with that! To think that last February I raced my first half marathon in 2:15. Now a little over a year later I raced a half marathon in 1:52. I also apparently have an awesome skill of crossing the finish line at exact minutes with :00 seconds. I’m sure I could have had a bit of a better race if I had been a  bit more consistent in pace instead of my first mile and last miles being 1.5 minute difference in pace. My pace is still in flux too much for me to have a good sense of what I’m capable of so I’m ok with the fact that it varied so much. In the end I ended up breaking every PR I have from half marathon to 5K to even 1 mile somewhere within the race. That’s pretty damn awesome.

Of course my one hope was that I wouldn’t be limping after the race. I felt ok rest of the day given the fact that I raced a hard half marathon. That night I woke up with pains all over my legs so bad I had a hard time falling back asleep because no matter how I laid, it hurt. By the morning it felt better though. Now my leg pains are pretty much back to where they were before the race with a slight limp on one side. Still have plenty of recovery time for my legs though this week so I’m not worried about it and certainly not stressing about it (for once). I normally don’t like training this little but right now I’m happy about it because I know my body needs it.

It was a great day all in all. Erin was awesome enough to let me shower at their hotel before we met up with Katie and our other teammate who ran (and totally rocked) the full marathon. We had a good lunch before I headed back to spend rest of the weekend with my family. As always I’m so thankful for Katie for getting me where I am today. Not only is she an amazing coach but she did an awesome job running all over DC (literally) to see her athletes racing and help us out. It was nice to spend time with her and some other teammates. These women inspire me.

Normally after I race I go straight into reward eating. This time I decided to hold out for a day to be nice to my body by eating anti-inflammatory foods when it needed it the most. The following day I ate a healthy lunch paired with a chocolate peanut butter milkshake and half a cookie. Good paired with bad. And I might have done the same thing the next evening for dinner. Chicken and veggies paired with melted chocolate and peanut butter. The milk shake I’m happy I ate. My melted concoction was a mistake. I’m remembering how different my body can feel depending on what I’m eating. I’m also realizing that dairy (milk) makes me fart and remembering that eating chocolate right before bed makes me lay awake for over an hour. So in the end, not worth it. But I do think it’s good to reward yourself even if only a little.