Race recap for Presque Isle half marathon (7/21/13)
This was my first half marathon, and I've only seriously trained for it for 2 months. It was a bit of a last minute decision, I guess. I wanted to push myself, and after reading all positive reviews of the course in my hometown, I signed up.
The day before the run I carbed up. I had a bagel, some bread, and pasta. I set up my playlist and laid out all my gear. My plan was to keep a 10 minute mile for the first 6 miles or so, then gradually step it up, ending at 9:25 or 9:30. Whenever I run, I naturally get a little faster with each mile.
The morning of the race I had some toast for breakfast. The run started at 6:45 a.m, so I got down to the peninsula at quarter after 6. My dad was there to see me off. There were about 1200-1300 runners signed up. Signs were posted behind the starting line according to paces (6 min/mile, 8 min/mile, etc.). I stood at the 10 minute pace. I didn't put my headphones in right away because I was hoping to find someone with a similar pace to talk to. I use the Runkeeper app (which tells you your pace over your music), so I didn't realize until about mile 4 that I was keeping a 9:30 min/mile pace instead, which is pretty fast for me on a distance run. I tried to slow down, but it didn't happen until I couldn't keep the pace anymore. I remember thinking to myself at mile 3, 'hey, only a little over 10 miles left.' hahahaha.
I started to feel my knees about 6 miles in, and I learned that you can't exactly drink a cup of water (from the water stops) while running. My playlist somehow got messed up and didn't play the songs in the order I wanted. At mile 7 I begin thinking that the finish line was closer than if I was to turn around and stop. Somewhere towards the beginning of the race I fist bumped this girl, and then sometime between mile 7 and 9 she saw me while I was walking and having a tough time, so she fist bumped me and we started running together. We ran together, off and on, for the remainder of the race. She was heaven sent.
The furthest distance I had ran previously was 10 miles. Although the training plan I was going off of and everything that I had read said that it would be an easy conversion to 13.1, it was hard as hell. By this point, I'm at about a 10:30 pace. My calves and thighs hurt, and felt pretty tight. I just wanted to finish so badly, but it was so tough getting there. Twice during the race I was in or near tears, which made my look insane, i'm sure. After mile 12 I told myself and tried to take no more rests and to give it all I had, but I ended up walking again at about 12.6. I sprinted (well, what was left of my sprint) from where the spectators started lining up and (FINALLY) crossed the finish line to my mom and my close friend waiting for me. I found the lady who I had ran with earlier, and hugged her and thanked her tremendously. My friend had made me a sign, and my mom was waiting with a bottle of water and a towel for sweat. After hugging them and talking for a few minutes, I jumped into the lake to cool down. My legs were super sore and stiff by this point.
At home I sat in an ice bath for a while, and made myself some chocolate chip pancakes. My sister had bought me a Muscle Milk granola bar and some Powerade so I had that too. After taking some extra strength tylenol for my knees and taking a nap, I didn't feel too horrendous. The race results showed my time as 2:24.30, which means an 11:02 min pace. My knees are still sore today, but I have very little muscle soreness.
Overall, I am damn proud of myself and I know everyone else close to me is too. I ran a good race, made some rookie mistakes (as to be expected). The course is almost completely flat, and I would recommend this race. It was hosted and ran very well by the Erie Runners Club. I have already been asked three separate times what my next race is, and if I could go for the full marathon. I think I might like to do this same race every year to see if I can improve.