Saturday, Day Before
The day before the race my mom and I went to the expo to get my stuff. The good: I snagged a pair of Cascadia 6s for 20% and a new sports skirt Lotta Breeze Capri for a discount. My mom bought me a race gift of a really nice Brooks hoodie with the sleeves that turn into fingerless gloves and a thermal hood with a hole for my ponytail. The bad: going to any sort of expo with my mother is bad for my pocketbook :). The second bad: The sizing on the shirts was off. Way off. I ordered a medium (for a 34" chest according to the size chart. FYI I have closer to a 39" chest in the bust, but fit a 32-34 elsewhere (shoulders, etc). It has probably 6 inches of negative ease (extra fabric). You could fit two of me in there. So I'm going to have to do some taking in. I tried to exchange it (me and a bunch of other women in the same "too big" boat), but they told me no can do.
We went for a walk the night before the race and I finished with a light dinner of pasta and a salad.
I had a hard time sleeping, and before I knew it it was 5:30 am and time to get up.
The Race
I woke up at 5:30 and snagged a banana with almond butter and some licorice tea. My mom, kind heart that she is, got up with me and dropped me off at the start line. My stomach was nervous so I grabbed a last minute pit stop before lining up. (a shout out on the porta johns - the race had 75 porta johns lined up for over 3K runners. The lines weren't too long and moved fast. Good job.)
The start was cold. 43 degrees cold. That's cold no matter where you live but when you're used to running in the mid 80s, 43 is really cold. Fortunately I had checked the weather and decided to buy a pair of arm warmers at the expo. After trying a lot of $25 and $30 pairs (seriously? for sleeves?) I settled on a pair of asics $8 el cheapos. El cheapos for the win! Great wicking, didn't overheat, no chafing, and no ugly arm pinching.
The gun goes and of course, b/c I'm i the 3rd corral, it's a slow walk to the starting line. The course started through downtown scottsdale which meant snaking our way through city streets. As with most races, getting through the participants was a slow going pain. I've said it before an dI'll say it again: I love no problem with walkers. I'm a walker. But, if you plan on walking a race, it's just rude to force your way to the front and then walk 4 abreast, refusing to let faster walkers and runners pass. The first mile was like a frustrating, real life game of frogger: trying to get around women walking an 18 minute mile with giant water belts and backpacks.
The plan? Run 10 min, walk 1 min, walk water breaks, aim for a 10 min pace.
Reality? yeah, not so much. My first mile I was running a comfortable 9:21 pace, even with the walker-frogger game I was stuck in. By the time my first walk break hit I was just getting into some open running space. So I kept going. Pretty soon I realized that I was going to be better taking my walk breaks at every 2 mile water stop.
The first 6 miles were beautiful. My average pace went from 9:21 to 9:12. I felt great, the air was cool, and I was happily flying along to the dance party in my head. The only interruption was the crappy race band playing the same damn Elvis song. Dude, I had Rhiana telling me to "shut up and drive". Elvis totally squelched my juju. I planned to take a gel at mile 4.5 or 45 min. W/ my pace, that meant I actually ended up taking my Hammer gel espresso around the 5.5 water break. Totally easy, no stomach problems. Yay!
Mile 7 we hit an incline. It slowed me but not too bad. I started to feel some stitches that could lead to cramping and decided to channel... I have no idea what. But I realized that if I slowly raise my arms out to the side and above my head (for dancers: basically a porte de bras from second to high fifth and back; for everyone else: I'm flapping my arms like a bizarre bird), it stopped the cramp. So I'm running up this incline, slowly flapping my arms and bopping around to the music. I see a number of woemn around me struggling and then i glance at the ground to see a shadow behind me doing exactly the same thing :)
By the time I hit mile 7-8 my average pace was 9:09. Yup, I'm running negative splits on my first half marathon. 7-8 goes great and I take 1/2 of my second gel at the start of mile 9. In the 9-10 mile I'm getting tired. But I kept channeling my friend KT's guide to Chi Running: Relax, fall forward, and run from bent ankles. As soon as I reminded my body into the posture running was effortless. I fully credit her input as the reason I can run as fast as I can.
Mile 10, I'm ready to be done but I'm still feeling great. Tired, but great. I'm flapping around a bit, but also avoiding all cramping. My calves are sore and tired, but what do I expect? I've just run 10 miles at one of my fastest paces.
Half way through mile 10, I see the 2 hour pace team leader exit the porta john. The 2 hour pace team is not just w/in my sight, but w/in reach. I make it my goal to keep him in eyesight through the finish. Considering I thought I'd take 2 hours and 30 min to run the 1/2, revised to maybe 2 hours and 15 min during my training, this was an unthinkable goal a week ago.
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| Luke snapped this one of me .1 miles from the finish |
We were given our finisher medals by uniformed air force service men. Here's my issue with this. Yes, they are well dressed young men (like the firemen at the end of the Nike Woman's 1/2 marathon), but this is a woman's empowerment race - how about a female air force service person? Aside from the problematic gender-stertyping assumption that all women like men in uniform, it seems a bit silly to 1) assume that all women also like men and 2) is patronizing to get a "good job girl" pat on the head from a dude. I'd have rather had a female servicewoman or a female marathon finisher welcome me to the finish line. Because I run for myself and to run with other athletes, not to get a gift from a dude.
Anyway... Post race I grabbed an orange and a banana and found Luke and my mom by the cookie cafe. Cookie Cafe: great idea for non runners, the last thing in the world you want after running a long distance. I got lots of hugs and a dry shirt.
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| Probably one of the most memorable kisses since our wedding :) |
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| So excited... can't... stop... talking... long... enough... to... eat... |
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| Me and mom. |
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| Cookies, medal, and nice, dry shirt |
Gear:
I felt really good until about an hour or so after the run, then I started getting sore. Fortunately my mom's place has a really nice community hot tub and we headed over for a soak.
Then runner's stomach hit. I definitely pushed myself. I shaved 13 or so min off my training times, and my stomach paid the price. Not as bad as after some of the wharf to wharfs, but I had the hungover stomach/GI problems until about 2:30/3pm. In retrospect, I think that I didn't get enough water after taking the gels and I made the mistake of drinking 2 cups of gatorade instead of water after taking the gels. Too much sugar combined with really pushing myself. Oh well, it happens, and it was totally worth it.
Today my quads are sore and parts of my calves are stiff, but not too bad. I'm going to try to get in either a light jog or walk .
The next challenge: recover while still preparing for another 1/2 marathon on Dec 11th. The added challenge: figuring out how to run for a week in November when visiting my new nephew in MT in near freezing temps. Till then, I've got this:
- I wore my el cheap arm warmers (awesome),
- my on-sale el cheapo RoadRunner tech T ( also awesome, need more...),
- my black Gym Girl Ultra skirt (a bday gift from mom),
- my pink bday sunglasses (from Luke) a sweaty bands head band (new from expo, also reflective so I don't get hit by cars when running at night),
- running socks... addidas I think, and
- what I have now discovered are Brooks Cascadia 5s. I picked up the 5s at the RoadRunner sports outlet in San Diego. They are stiffer and not as comfortable as the 6s, but my old pair of 6s are tread-worn and my new pair hadn't been run in. Plus, even though not as light, they are still great shoes.
- Moving comfort Fiona sports bra
- Target up&up sunscreen spf 50
- Body Glide
- spf 30 Blistec 5 star protection chapstick ( a must in the low humidity)
- Pre-race: banana, 1/2 packed jelly belly sports beans, almond butter
- Water or gatorade during the race
- 1 hammer gel espresso at mile 5.5 (needed more post-gel water)
- .5 hammer gel espresso at mile 9 (needed more post-gel water)
- orange, banana, and nuun electrolyte drink post-run
I felt really good until about an hour or so after the run, then I started getting sore. Fortunately my mom's place has a really nice community hot tub and we headed over for a soak.
Then runner's stomach hit. I definitely pushed myself. I shaved 13 or so min off my training times, and my stomach paid the price. Not as bad as after some of the wharf to wharfs, but I had the hungover stomach/GI problems until about 2:30/3pm. In retrospect, I think that I didn't get enough water after taking the gels and I made the mistake of drinking 2 cups of gatorade instead of water after taking the gels. Too much sugar combined with really pushing myself. Oh well, it happens, and it was totally worth it.
Today my quads are sore and parts of my calves are stiff, but not too bad. I'm going to try to get in either a light jog or walk .
The next challenge: recover while still preparing for another 1/2 marathon on Dec 11th. The added challenge: figuring out how to run for a week in November when visiting my new nephew in MT in near freezing temps. Till then, I've got this:
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