Thursday, May 30, 2013

"And So, It Goes..."

Half Marathon #7 is in the books.


This was one of the smarter races I have ever ran. I didn't go out too fast, I didn't get sucked in to anything, I just ran my race. 
Saturday morning was cold. I think it was colder than Thunder Bay, though having the sun helped. Being the dorky loser that I am, as it is my first race not on a "racing team" since 2010, and in honor of it being 10 years since I graduated from TC West, I borrowed an old singlet from high school and wore that. I got a lot of funny looks at the start line, but after 2 years of showing up in the DRC get up I'm pretty used to that. Some of the funny looks probably were because of the socks I had on my arms as well. I don't own armwarmers, and I thought I wouldn't want sleeves the entire time, so we sacrificed a mis-matched pair of knee socks from my sister's drawer for the cause. In the end, I probably should have thrown on a long sleeve anyway because I never felt warm enough to lose the socks. Between that and the obnoxiousness that are my pink-checkerboard Elixirs, I had quite the look going on.

I had the 1:45 until about 10. Then, I started feeling horribly nauseated. I even threw up a couple times, which was really fun. However, I didn't stop running at any point (though I did slow down enough to fall pretty off pace.) The only thing that I can come up with that caused it would be my old friend, Gu. Of late, I have been bringing 3 gels with me to a half--one for before, one at roughly 4-5, then one for 9 and beyond. However, due to poor packing and trying to ration my existing stash of such product, I only brought 2. This meant I picked up a Gu from an aid station when I knew I was going to need something more. It perplexes me, because I trained for my first two halves almost exclusively on Gu, and while it upset my stomach a little it never bothered me to the point of vomiting. So, why all of a sudden did that change?
Either way, I still came through the line at 1:46:58. That is a PR by 1 minute and 43 seconds. Nothing to shake a stick at, and I am proud of it. Frustrated because I had the 1:45 and it was my own gaffe that lost it for me, but improvement is improvement.

Now, with 3 weeks and change until Grandma's, time to keep working on refining speed. Also, I'd like to get another 10+ miler in, depending on how the calendar shakes out. I know I'm past a point of being able to really build up a mileage base, but I think it would be good for my confidence to do it. Also, there's a little pressure in that a lot of my (incredibly, holy cow, WTF Fast) new coworkers will be there as well, so I'd do well to not embarrass myself there. While I'm keeping my pipe dream of sub 1:40 in the back of my mind, I'm going to be realistic about my goal, too:

The "I know I can do this" goal: beat my Bayshore time
The "If I work for it, I'd like to" goal: 1:44:anything
The "If the stars align and everything is perfect that day, I'd like to" goal: 1:42

Here goes...

1 comment:

  1. 1. kind of sad no drc kit anymore; i loved the colors in those.
    2. we neeeeeed to get you arm warmers. i love mine. so so so much.
    3. you've got this next one. you know you do; we know you do. now get it done.

    ReplyDelete

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