Now that it’s almost been two weeks since my recent race and there’s another race this weekend, I am finally getting around to sharing my race recap. It was such a fun mini vacation with the family. We made a trip out of the race, enjoy the Tulip Festival and seeing Snoqualmie Falls, while getting out on Whidbey Island. We packed a lot into a few days.
I love having my family watch me race and being there to cheer me on. My own personal cheer squad. It helps to bring me more motivation and pumps me up for a few miles, which was needed in this hilly course. The half marathon start was a later start at 8:30. This made it a little easier with the kiddos and leaving the hotel. Since it was an out and back I started and finished in one place, unlike last year.
I was able to do my warm up and potty break with time to spare, which hasn’t been the case the past few races. Lincoln was well fed before I started and well fed right after my cool down. I hadn’t been feeling good the days leading up to the race or on race morning. I was just nauseous and had no appetite. I couldn’t get my oatmeal down, so I left it. Before my warm up, I tried eating a Honey Stinger waffle, but took one bite and about threw up. The only thing I could stomach was water and tart cherry juice. I was going to do a gel right before the start to get something in my stomach, but that made me nauseous just thinking about it.
It wasn’t pre-race nerves, because I know those jittery feelings and I can get food down with them. I don’t know what was up with my stomach. It was the first race I’ve ever done on empty and I still managed to PR. I felt fine running and warming up, but the thought of food left me queasy.
I fell into my groove after the first two miles and starting climbing within the first mile. Nothing to horrible. We had driven the course the night before, which was a mistake, because some of the hills were daunting. What was worse was knowing that for all the downhills it would be an uphill, because the course was an out and back. I enjoyed the scenery and was lead women the entire race. I was third place overall for most of the race. After mile 2 I took third and stayed there.
It was a perfect morning, and only breezy on the water. I enjoyed running along the water and then above the ocean as we climbed through neighborhoods. I felt great and comfortable and was excited to see the family at the halfway point and turn around. Body felt strong and even though I knew it wouldn’t be the goal time I wanted, because of the hills I was feeling better than expected and the hills weren’t as bad as I anticipated.
Mile 1: 6:12 Mile 2: 6:35 Mile 3: 6:28 Mile 4: 6:12 Mile 5: 5:50 Mile 6: 6:18
I hit the turn around and spotted Marc and the kids, threw my gloves and waved and said hi to the kiddos. I knew the nice decent was going to be a nice climb for the next 1.5 miles. I looked at my watch after the turn around and noticed that I was on par for a PR, and this surprised me. My pace stayed pretty steady even through the hills, or a lot more consistent that I thought it would. I climbed back up after mile 7, with a little decent, and then a massive climb. From mile 8 through 9 it was a gradual uphill, that wasn’t really that gradual and seemed to never end. You thought you crested the top, only to get there and see more hill to climb.
I was more than 1/2 mile ahead of the second female at the turn around point, so I didn’t feel I needed to push it. I felt like I was going at a snails pace up the hill. It was fun seeing all the runners on my way back and everyone was cheering, but as the crowd thickened, it was annoying. Why? Because I was running on the shoulder of the road and at times in the grass, because the other halfers weren’t staying on their side of the cones and weren’t paying attention. I knew they were working hard to, but I was expending a lot more energy than necessary up the hills trying to weave through the crowd. It was like this from mile 7ish to mile 10, and the crowd thickening as I got closer to the finish.
Mile 7: 6:10 Mile 8: 6:19 Mile 9: 7:00 Mile 10: 6:18
My legs were toast after the last climb and the last few miles seemed to be a struggle. At mile 10 I told myself a 5k left and I looked at my watch again to see that I was still going to PR. By this point the crowd was even thicker as I met up with the 10ker’s. Now I had people coming at me and people in front of me. I lost my biker at mile 10 because he couldn’t keep up with me on the hills. I didn’t see him again until post race when he apologized for not sticking with me. It was kind of funny. He would try to clear a path for me, and now I was stuck weaving through other runners. I just continued to smile and told myself, they are working just as hard as I am.
As I got closer to the finish and once we hit mile 11 it was a dirt train we were running on through a park, by the waterfront. It was pretty, but also even more annoying because it was only two people wide. I feel like I hit at wall at mile 11 and just wanted to finish at this point. I was sick of climbing hills and weaving through other runners, and just when I thought I was done, we would hit another hill just before the finish at about 1/2 a mile to go. When we finally hit pavement I was like “Yes!! More room to run.”
I knew I would PR and looked at my watch with .5 to go, and saw I could break 1:23 so I stepped it up a bit, which wasn’t much because it wasn’t near a one of my fastest miles.
Mile 11: 6:08 Mile 12: 6:14 Mile 13: 6:22 Total time: 1:22:48, a 6:19 avg, and an elevation gain of 1555.
“I surrender, just let me finish!!!!!” hahahahahaha
I will be honest and say I didn’t push it the last 4 miles because I knew I had the lead and I just didn’t feel motivated to. Still gets me when I do that. I need to push it through the finish. I still a PR’d on a hilly and one of the toughest courses I have done. It was a fun race though and I got prize money for the overall female win, $400. Woot Woot!!
Until Next Time Be Whole and Be Fit