Flower City Half Marathon Recap

Sadly, I am not one of those people that takes pictures while running (maybe someday), so this will be a boring post for those of you not interested in running!

Half marathon day finally arrived yesterday.  It was a cool 35 degrees when we left our house, but it was sunny & we knew it would warm up pretty fast.

I've had the idea in my head for quite sometime that I wanted a sub 2:00 half.  The weeks leading up to the race I'd gone over in my head what I needed to do to reach my goal.... & I had very little confidence I could attain it.

I told Peter the night before that I hadn't figured out my racing strategy yet.  He told me, "Just run."  Well, easy for him to say.  I just kept thinking that finishing the race with a 9:09 pace (for my 2 hour goal) should be my strategy.... but I hadn't really trained for a 2 hour half.  I actually didn't know what I had really trained for, but it just didn't seem like 2 hours was realistic.  I was so scared that I would start with a 9:09 pace & then just die a few miles in & wind up with a crappy time.  I was scared.  Why?  Probably just because that's my personality.  When I was young and my parents would quiz me on homework or something I wouldn't give them an answer unless I was 100% sure it was right.  I don't like to be wrong.  I don't like to fail.... but enough about my childhood issues that have followed me into adulthood... onto the race.

Once Peter & I got to the start I decided to find the 2 hour pacer & just start there & see how I felt.  If worse came to worse then I would just pull back & go for a more reasonable PR.  I mean, the last time I ran this race 2 years ago I finished around 2:12 (10:11 pace).  As long as beat that time I would be content.... and that shouldn't be a problem.

So, the race began... I kept the pacer in my sights for the first couple miles, but she seemed to be going slow...

Mile 1:  9:16

and then fast...

Mile 2:  8:35

WTF?!

I decided that I needed to find my own groove & run where I felt comfortable.  So, I did.

Mile 3:  9:19
Mile 4:  9:12
Mile 5:  9:16

I felt pretty good.  Those were pretty fast splits for me.  I still was worried I'd hit a wall, so I conserved just enough energy to feel confident I wouldn't die.

Around this point is a gel station and then you get to the Goodman St hill.  This is right around the corner from where we live, so I know how long it lasts & what I need to do to make it through.

Mile 6:  9:25

I knew a quick downhill would follow, so I just paced myself & got ready to head into the cemetery portion of the race... and here's where I started to feel like I was actually running a half marathon.  There's some uphill at the beginning of the cemetery & then lots of turns & just miserable conditions... or maybe I was just tired.

Mile 7:  9:25
Mile 8:  9:17

Around this point I took the gel I brought with me.  I've never taken 2 gels in a run, but I had only drank water at the stations (no Gatorade), and I just felt like I needed something else to fuel me.  Plus, I knew there was caffeine in the gel I brought, maybe that would help too.  So, I decided to listen to my body & sucked down that gel like a champ and just prayed that we'd be exiting the cemetery portion soon.  I knew once we were out I'd only have a 5k to go & that comforted me.

Mile 9:  9:17
Mile 10:  9:14

Once I was out of the cemetery & had a 5k flat course left & checked my Garmin for the millionth time, I knew I'd need a miracle to finish in 2 hours.  A serious miracle.  I took a quick inventory of how my body felt & other than a sore right knee I felt pretty good.  I knew I could push it the last 3.1 miles.  I didn't think 2 hours was a realistic goal anymore, but damned if I was gonna throw in the towel & coast 'til the end.  I knew I had some kick left in me, so might as well give the race my all.

Mile 11:  8:58

Not too bad.  Mile 11 felt good, but I knew that 8:58 was not gonna get me to the finish line in 2 hours.

Mile 12:  8:40

Huh?  Looking again at my Garmin I knew this could be close.  At this point I remember having a conversation with myself after doing some quick calcs in my head.  2 hours still seemed pretty far off, but I needed to just push harder than I ever had & come as close as my body would let me.  I also started thinking at this point that I could imagine myself finishing with a time of 2:00:01 just because it would really piss me off!

During this point I started to observe the runners around me.  Maybe observe is a bad word... I actually started to pity them... okay, maybe that's not the best word to describe it either.  Basically what I was thinking at this point, is that it's a shame these people aren't going to get their 2 hour half.  2 hours is a big half marathon milestone... but I digress...

I ran that last 1.1 miles as fast as I could.  My lungs burned.  My legs hurt.  I felt tears coming on... but the tear were actually tears of joy, because I felt like a runner that last 1.1 miles.  I felt like I was running the race of my life & I was going to win.

Mile  13:  8:17

I crossed the finish line with the clock at 2:00:17.  Peter found me right away & told me he thought I got it.  My Garmin said 1:59:51, but I didn't trust it.

We got to my car & I pulled out my phone.  The race organization is doing this new thing where they text you your race time.  My text said my time was 2:00:14.  Son of a bitch!  I showed Peter & he said that was definitely wrong.  We didn't cross the start for at least 20 seconds after the gun, and the clock definitely said 2:00:17 when I crossed, so he didn't know where this 2:00:14 came from.  I was concerned at this point that my chip never registered the time I crossed the start.

I resigned myself to failure... no, not really.  I had one final chance... the official results would be posted soon.

So, around 3 hours after I completed my race, the official results were uploaded to the race site.

My official time was 1:59:55

I could have cried tears of joy.

The Last 2 Months In Short...

I'm once again going to try to use the blog to keep a journal of my half marathon training (as well as various random daily activities), but before jumping to today, I will offer a brief recap of the last 2 months. Just to give you a quick idea of some of what I've been doing physically & personally. (Oh, and please don't judge me on my run-on sentences.... that's just how I roll.... don't hate!)

Back in the end of November I bought a Groupon for a series of 10 classes of Crossfit 101 at 585 Crossfit Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I've been dying to try crossfit & this seemed to be the perfect opportunity. Hopefully, I'll return to it someday & get more into the ins & outs of it & why I like & dislike it, but for now I'll just leave it as a memory of the end of 2011. I was training for a half marathon at the same time & found that my love of running far outweighed my interest in continuing crossfit.

Next was Christmas & Christmas parties...

Peter's company holiday party photobooth

Rogers cousins (at least most of them) on Christmas

Next was New Years... unfortunately Peter & I were both pretty sick & needed to make last second changes to our plans.... we celebrated locally instead of Niagara Falls as planned.

2012 brought the appearance of my VENEERS! Finally! Just the thing I've been waiting for all of my life to close that gap! I'll spare you the details, but this was not an easy feat! In the end all is going well now (knock of wood)!

I think I'll have to recap the next event in an entry all of it's own. I ran the Nike+ Women's Half Marathon on January 14th. I ran it in my house.... and I don't own a treadmill.... yeah, think about that for a few moments.

My friend Abbey & I made a quick 30 hour trip to Chicago in the middle of January. It was a friend's bachelorette party & lots of fun was had by all.

Let's not talk about these lemon drops.

At the Karaoke Lounge

I decided to commit myself to a new half marathon training plan for the Flower City Challenge on Sunday, April 29th. This is the half I ran 2 years ago and the half I was training for when I got injured last year. I figured a structured plan might be just what I need to avoid injury & finally reach that sub 2 hour goal I've had my eye on!

The end of January brought the celebration of the anniversary of my husband's birth. Once again we rented a house with friends in the Fingerlakes for the weekend to celebrate.

Awesome cookie cake. Courtesy of Wegmans.

Sadly, on Saturday, January 28th, 2012 my Grandpa Slowik passed away. He was 93 years old. He will be missed more than words can say.

On the Run.... again

So, last week I found myself bored. Since I really couldn't go anywhere there wasn't much I could find to occupy my time.... I won't tell you exactly where I was during this boredom, but it's very likely I was being paid to do not much of anything...... anyway.....

I found myself surfing the internet & came across some fun to read blogs. It once again inspired me to come back to my blog that I keep leaving behind. So, here I am.

Most of the blogs I read were about fitness, running, food, and motherhood. I can really only relate to the first three, but find the fourth to be educational at times. Since I'm prepping for my second half marathon I got to thinking that maybe I could blog about it to keep motivated. Not that I could ever strictly blog only about one thing, but it seemed like a good jumping off point to get back to writing. So, in keeping with my new favorite blog topic, I have added a mile counter via dailymile.com. I always keep track of my runs/workouts on a special calendar, but I thought this could hold me more accountable... maybe... or maybe I just thought it'd be kinda cool. The number will be the total miles I've run this year so far