Sunday, September 29, 2019

Weekly Sweats: Half Marathon #2 is in the books

A couple of things happened yesterday:
1.  I ran my 2nd half marathon
2.  I fell in love with the half marathon
3.  Oh BTW, I completed my first marathon, with a finish time of 5 years and 2 days.  Confused?  Let me 'splain myself.


I'm linking up with the Weekly Run Down, please head over to Kim and Deborah to check it out. 

Yesterday was marathon day in my home town.  This race has a marathon, half marathon, and a 5 person relay team. 


Five years ago my work organized a team for the marathon relay, and no one wanted the first leg, so I took it.  The next year I was at a new job, and asked if the company would be interested in sponsoring a team...they went for it like wildfire with four teams and it's now embedded in our company culture. I picked up where I left off with the 2nd leg and continued to run the course in sequence. 

But things never go according to plan, do they?  The marathon completely redesigned the course and the length of the relay legs this year, so if I had stuck to the original plan of running the 5th leg, my "marathon" would have been 24 miles long.  On top of that, the first leg of the relay is now longer than most people want to run, so we had a shortage of volunteers.  The solution to both problems was for me to register for leg one of the relay and the half marathon.  By double dipping, I got the full marathon distance and I got to cross the finish line.  As a bonus, the end of the half marathon follows the end of the original marathon course, so it was truer to the race that I started five years ago. 

P.S. it's fairly common for folks to double register for this race and run leg one of the relay plus the half or the full...the marathon makes crazy bank off of the relay teams and the double registrations, which is a great thing because the marathon sponsors a very worthy cause.  If anyone cares, work paid the relay registration and I paid the half marathon registration.

I made the decision to run the half about six weeks ago.  I knew that it wasn't long enough to train, but I was running high 20's for weekly mileage with my longest weekly run being 8 miles, so I wasn't expecting any issues ramping up to half marathon condition.  From the beginning, I told myself that this would be a "for fun" effort, just a practice for my dream half marathon that I'm running in November.  Of course that's not how things played out.  I tried to run All The Miles but faster and wore myself out.  For my first half marathon, I had a number of 10 and 12 milers under my belt, but for this race, I only had one 10 miler.

The other cloud on the horizon was the weather.  My first half marathon was undone by hot weather, and I had every reason to suspect more of the same this time.  Heat is relative to everyone, but for me personally anything over 60 degrees is cause for concern.



With that background, let's take a look at my 26.2 miles of running this week...and no I didn't plan to hit that number;-)

Monday: 3 mile fast treadmill run, weights at lunch

Tuesday: 5 mile easy treadmill run

Wednesday: I started cutting back for Saturday's race.  I had a ton of energy that day and would have loved to run and lift heavy, but I did no running and just a light body weight workout.

Thursday: 5 mile treadmill run

Friday: off, apart from walking a million miles at the race expo.

Saturday: Half!  I didn't just finish, I fell in love.
  • I stayed true to my plan to run for fun.  
  • Yes it was hotter than I would have liked, but it was also cloudy and lower humidity, so the conditions were much better than my first half.
  • It was the first time I've seen a rainbow at the start line.




My race strategy was to take it easy, since I knew that I wasn't trained and that I might have issues with the heat.  There were seven water stops on the course, so mentally I wasn't there to run 13.1, I was just there to collect water stop visits.

Yesterday is all kind of a blur, but to the best of my memory, I didn't start feeling tired until around mile 9, and it just wasn't that bad.  I gave myself a couple of walking breaks on some uphills and then I got distracted by the magic of the race around me and went right back in to the zone.  I went balls to the wall once we got to the 13 mile mark and made it my mission to pass every runner within eyesight.  Given my training, I'm delighted with the 11:57 pace.  For context, I ran a 10 mile race last spring at an 11:00 minute pace, my best guess is that under good conditions and with proper training my half pace would be 11:15-11:30.

To put the difference between this race and my first half marathon in perspective, at the first half marathon, the medical tents were crammed full and I would say by the time I saw the third ambulance pull away from the course, the race stopped being fun.  Yesterday I saw a total of one person in a medical tent, getting salve for a blister.  That's how running is supposed to be.

I have a ton more to say about this race, so look for a dedicated recap coming soon.

Sunday: got 11 hours of sleep last night and will not be straying far from the couch today. 

Next week's plan: I'll start running again once my body feels like it, probably Weds or Thurs.



21 comments:

  1. Congrats on your 2d half! I smiled when I read that you've fallen in love with the half. I remember feeling that way. Now not so much. I miss running long but my body just isn't feeling it right now.

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    1. The race really was that good. I've been doing a lot of thinking about quality and quantity in running, partly b/c of my train wreck experiences the past few weeks and partly b/c of your experiences and this week Renee's injury...running is very precious and it's given us all so much, but there are times when it isn't available to us and no getting around it...that just sucks.

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  2. Congrats on a great race! I totally hear ya on being in love with the 13.1. That's why I have done 45 (?) of them...the distance is long enough to be a challenge, but not so long (ahem, like 26.2) that the training takes up too much time or effort. I'd love to hear more about your experience, so I'll be checking back for the recap ;-)

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    1. There was a runner yesterday who was running her 100th half! I feel like a kindergartner for the half, there is just so much to learn about this distance.

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  3. Congrats on a great race experience!! I know what you mean - our local race also has a marathon relay and a lot of people run the first relay leg and then usually the half marathon, but you could also run the full also. Double the entries! But so true, the charities do benefit so it's all good. Looking forward to your race recap!

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    1. The other thing I love about the relay is that it gives newer runners a taste for longer races. This year two of the people on our teams ran it as their first race, and it was so cool to catch up with them at the finish line right after they lost their race virginity.

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  4. Congrats! Sounds like a wonderful race experience and I'll be waiting for the full report.

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    1. It was just so awesome, especially given that my first half was so awful. I just feel like that cloud has been lifted.

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  5. Congrats on completing your 2nd half marathon! 13.1 is my favorite race distance too - its just long enough to really push yourself but the training doesn't take over your life.

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    1. Right now I'm at the "just finish" level, but I can't wait to run more half's and to get more racing strategy down.

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  6. Congrats on your 2nd half!!! It is a great distance but then other times I say that 10 mile races are the best ones. Rest up as long as you need to. Definitely no rush to get out there running again.

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    1. Oh I hear you! I ran a 10 miler last spring only to test how ready I was for the half and if I had to pick a favorite race, that would be the one.

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  7. I love that you fell in love with the half after your race! Huge congrats. That is one of my fave races as well and I am looking forward to training for mine in February.

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    1. That's another thing I'm looking forward to, which is learning how to really train for a half. Right now my strategy is just to run a lot.

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  8. Congratulations on your second half marathon! The rainbow at the start line was a good omen :)

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  9. Yay for your 2nd half! Congratulations! You know I really hated my first half and it took me 2 years to attempt the distance again. Similar to your experience, it was exceptionally hot that day (late in april, so NOT normal) and people were dropping like flies all over the course. It was NOT fun. They even ran out of water at the water stops. WHAT?? So I thought "never again". Luckily i did try again 2 years later, almost to the date, but it was the perfect location, the perfect weather... I LOVED it. And since then I was hooked!

    The rainbow at the start would have given me so many positive vibes - how awesome :)

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    1. Oh Renee, I cannot imagine what the race would have been like without water...how miserable.

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  10. Congrats, sounds like a great race! That's pretty cool that it's set up so that people can do both the relay and the half or full.

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  11. Congrats on your race! Thats pretty cool that you were able to run the marathon course over a few years. And I love that you got to see a rainbow!

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  12. Congrats on both races - your half and your relay. I hope you're recovering well!

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