13.4 miles in 2:19:11 (10:23 avg), hilly and hot course! Great experience!!! A lot of hard work.
The Details
Met up with my friend Karen (from BT) for lunch the day before, that was great! Had a good dinner with the friends I was staying with, slept pretty good. Got up at 3:45 AM had a breakfast bar and some juice and part of a banana, and started drinking water. Got to the race site at just before 5AM. Probably visited the port-o-john a half a dozen times just before the gun went off!
The course was a lovely loop through some fancy subdivisions (some huge old estates) and wooded, winding country roads, many more hills than expected, then back around into town to the finish.
Staying hydrated was the biggest concern for everyone, so the course had aid stations every mile or so with water and Gatorade, thank God for that one! I drank at every station alternating water and go-juice. Sometimes a whole cup sometimes just a few sips as needed. I had a serving of shot blocks and one gel. Probably could have used more gels along the way.
I wanted to start with a 10:50/10:55 pace and be able to stay strong and have some negative splits at the end. When the horn blew at 6AM sharp the field went out fast, I hung back and ignored everyone passing me. I was shocked when I got to the one mile mark and saw I was at a 9:25 pace! I slowed down, but was still at under 10:00 when I got to miles 2 and 3. The hilly terrain and hot temps took care of some of the extra speed I had later on, although I did force myself to slow down even more. The nagging soreness in my groin muscle (started a week ago) got pretty bad at a few points, but I concentrated and pushed through, I had no plans on walking any of this race. Got through half of the aid stations running slow but later on decided walking a few steps would be OK while I drank my stuff. Miles 8 and 9 were the worst, they were the hilliest and I was hurting. Then along came mile 10 and at that point I was reminding myself it was only like doing a 5K, I pushed even harder. Before the race I had lowered my expectations to finishing the race in 2:30, but at mile 11 when I saw how well I was doing and realized I could come in before 2:20, I pushed harder. Nothing like pushing when you are completely spent; adrenalin is an amazing thing!
The emotions I went through went from one end to the other. Just a year ago I was not even a runner and would never dreamed of doing this, never mind making plans to do a full marathon. I ran as hard as I could the last hundred yards and cried the whole time. I was elated and extremely relieved. Within a few minutes I found my friend Ginny and realized I could barley walk! My groin muscle was screaming at me. Soon we found Audrey and some other Pacer runners (my local club) and then I ran into Karen from BT. Everyone had great races; it was good to see so many smiles! I am already looking forward to doing this again.
When I assess events leading up to the race I think I peaked in my training too early. I had a foot injury from biking and had to let that heal which cut short my serious training and made for an overly long taper. I would liked to have had an additional 13 mile training run before this race, as it was I only had a 12 miler and one 13 miler a few weeks ago. I could not have done anything differently under the circumstances as the foot injury would have made the race impossible. Also more hill training would be good!
The Future
I am pretty sure more half's will come soon. I want to do this until I feel pretty comfortable with the distance. I am officially registered for my first full marathon on February 28th, 2010 in New Orleans. I can't imagine running twice what I did yesterday, but I am sure I can work it out!
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Race Report by Karen Lott
http://theunsungrunner.blogspot.com/2009/06/survived-my-first-half-marathon.html
Survived my first half-marathon
I really need to pick up my speed a little more but I'm not sure that I can do this without some serious one on one coaching. I'm going to try to teach myself to pick up the speed and start the training at Thames track tomorrow night for the 5K's coming up in August and September. I also will be asking a lot of questions of my fellow pacers in the future to help with my training instead of being my stubborn mule headed self and just trying to figure it out on my own.
Here is my official time from the active.com race results site.
Karen Lott #309
Sumrall, MS, USAAge: 41 Gender: F
clockFromString("2:50:18");
Distance
HALF MARATHON
Clock Time: 2:50:42
Chip Time: 2:50:18
Overall Place: 735 / 1055
Gender Place: 350 / 601
Division Place: 57 / 97
Age Grade: 40.6%
5K Rank: 693
5K Time: 35:09
10K Rank: 716
10K Time: 1:15:27
Last 6 9M Rank: 747
Last 6 9M Time: 2:50:18
Seems like I was right on my usual times even though the course had a lot of hills.
Overall the experience was great and just before the start of the race I saw Ginny and Audrey. I was so excited to be there with Tonya and Will Lawrence and Delana and Shelly (who I had just met before the race started). And of course I can't forget my travel buddy Crystal who has promised she will get it in gear and do the next one with me. Just before the gun to start went off Ginny mouthed have fun and I truely did. At first I was disappointed in the time but then when I got to looking at my actual times (splits etc.) I had run my own race. I have pictures that will be posted on my facebook page tomorrow.
