Soaring Wings Half Marathon Race Report

After the last week, it seems a bit odd to be writing up a report for a race that feels like it happened in another world; I honestly don't have much to say about anything right now, but I will try.

 

I prepared my clothes the night before, since I had to get up around 5 a.m. to have time to eat something and drive to Conway and have time to use the restroom. For you non-runners out there, this is a very important part of race day - almost any book or column about racing will have something to say about it. Anyway, I didn't want to forget anything important, so I laid out my clothes, pinned my bib on my shirt, packed my bag with extra clothes, a towel to sit on after the race, energy gels, water, and phone, and tried to go to bed early. I was less than successful at that - I was already having trouble falling asleep, and then Benjamin, on a business trip, called in a bit of a panic and needing help contacting his hotel, since his plane had landed very late. Of course I couldn't sleep until I knew he arrived safely, so I got to bed about an hour and half after I intended. 

Compared to the Little Rock Half in March, this race was quite a bit smaller and far less intimidating, at least as far as the number of people went. The course was quite a bit hillier than Little Rock though, and given my times while training, I was just hoping to stay close to my previous time. I also planned to run with my heart monitor on, to keep me from going out too fast or not pushing hard enough later, but when I tried to pair it with my watch, I got a message saying its battery was dead! Great timing! If only it had died on my last training run the day before! I had to stuff it in my waist pouch, along with my phone; in retrospect, I probably had time to run back to my car and drop it off, but I wasn't going to risk missing the start, or wasting my energy. I started out with a pace group that was right about where I thought I would be, and was able to stay with them for a while, but the leader was going a bit faster than his stated pace, and I quickly fell behind. After a couple of miles, I just tried to keep myself going at a steady pace even with the hills. I had to stop and use a toilet at mile 4 - something I managed to avoid in my previous half - and that dropped me even farther behind that pace group. After the pit stop though, I was more comfortable and was able to make up some of the time I lost. 

Around mile seven, my left leg started to ache in the knee and hip, something that was new - usually it is my right hip complaining. It wasn't so bad I couldn't run, but it was definitely an unwelcome distraction. Eventually, I decided it must be from the slant of the road - we were running on the right side of the road for much of the race, which had a slight but definite angle to it, and I think it was enough to throw off my alignment. I tried running a bit more towards the middle, but there were a lot of stretches where we were supposed to stay in a lane about the width of a sidewalk. 

When we reached the split for the marathoners to head off in another direction, I was once again grateful that I was not going with them. My hip and knee hurt, my stomach roiled at the thought of any more gels or sugary chews, and while I was having a certain amount of fun (if deliberately torturing oneself can be called fun), I was ready to be done. I had some kick left in me, and picked up my speed a bit in the last mile or two - I accidentally started my charge a little too soon when I got excited on a downhill that was a little farther away from the end than I thought and had to keep pushing when it leveled out. 

In the end, I finished only about two minutes behind my previous time, and given that my watch said I had run 13.4 miles, instead of 13.1, maybe I actually ran about the same. (Yes, I know, watches are not as accurate as whatever devices used to measure courses, but race directors have been known to make mistakes about length.) Anyway, not as slow as I feared I could be, and given the hills, quite good.

I have already signed up for the 2017 Little Rock Half Marathon, and am looking forward to running it again, but I am reconsidering my plans to run a full marathon next year. I'd like to say I have done it, and I know I can do it, but I am not sure I really want to right now. Two hours of running seems like enough, and given my (lack of) speed a marathon would take me around 4 1/2 hours. Maybe for my 40th birthday in a few years, or my 45th. 

Race Report: Little Rock Half-Marathon

So, as I may have mentioned a few (hundred) times, I have been training for a half-marathon since November. Yesterday, I finally ran that marathon, and not only did I survive it, I crushed my personal goals. I finished with a time of 2:08:53 - when I first started training, I was hoping just to break 2:30. As it became clear over the weeks that I would be able to make that time fairly easily, I began to wonder if 2:20 was realistic. Then, a few weeks ago, I ran around 2:15 on my one race-length long run, and repeating that time during the actual event became my goal. Well, I made that for sure!

 

Approximately 6:30 race morning. I have already been awake for 2.5 hours...

I used the "Finish It" plan from the Another Mother Runner book, Train Like a Mother, and I give a lot of credit to that excellent training plan for preparing me so well. Yes, I had to do the work, and trust me, I did! But it really helped to have such an organized and easy-to-follow plan.  I only missed or skipped a few workouts (although I do admit to using tennis as both a "fun workout" and as cross-training. What? It works!) In hindsight, more strength work might have been a good idea, but that is why you race again, right? To fix stuff and get better!

Anyway, the race itself. I woke up a number of times, exactly one hour apart, during the middle of the night, in anticipation. I wasn't worried that I would sleep through my alarm - I am far too light a sleeper for that to ever happen - but I was keyed up. The final time I woke up was around 3:50 - a full hour before my alarm. I lay in bed for a while, trying to will myself to get just a little more sleep, but gave up around 4:30. In the end, that was fine - it gave me time to do a few sun salutations to stretch out, make and eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, drink a cup of tea, use the bathroom, get dressed, and out the door by 5:20. I wanted to leave that early because I was worried about parking and getting to my proper corral on time. I really didn't need to worry. I found a good parking spot almost immediately and decided to walk over to the convention center to stay warm and find a bathroom until it was time to head to the starting area. 

This is when I started to wish that I had a running buddy. There were so many people there, and most of them were in pairs or groups, chatting and planning and finding ways to stave off nerves. I did see people I knew, and I said hi, but I didn't come with anyone, and wouldn't be running with anyone. I didn't even have my iPod, since the race instructions discouraged using them. I almost always run by myself, and I often turn off the iPod part way through a long run, so it wasn't as if this was a new experience, but a race is a different sort of event than a solo training run. It would have been nice to have someone there to share it with, this big new experience. As Winnie the Pooh says, "It's so much friendlier with two."

Eventually, everyone else at the convention center with the same ideas as me started heading for the doors, so I did too. We were divided up into starting corrals, to make it easier to actually start running, once we hit the starting line. I intended to try to stay with the pacers who were leading the 4:25/2:12 group, but that idea fell by the wayside as they got started at a faster pace than I was wanting to go right then. So I stuck with the pacer on my watch, trying to keep from going out too fast. Mostly, that was my whole strategy - stick with the pace I had on my last training run for the first half or 2/3s of the race, then try to pick up my pace near the end. 

Slightly crazed race smile, check. Photo by Charlee Hinton

And that is what I did. I am not going to bore anyone with my mile splits (although I will, if you ask), but basically, I kept a steady pace for the first half, and then started going just a little faster every mile after that. I was almost sprinting by the end. I was also incredibly happy that, when we reached the point around mile 12 where the marathon course split off from the half marathon course, I was not going to have to run another 13 miles! 

The weather this year was just about perfect - not too cold, not too hot, not windy, not rainy. I could have used sunglasses, but compared to past years when it has been sleeting or thundering, that is a pretty good complaint to have. 

Overall, a good race. There were lots of aid stations with water and Gatorade (and porta-potties). There were also quite a few informal aid stations handing out beer in tiny cups, and some with donuts or candy. I snagged a peppermint from a police officer somewhere around mile 7 or 8, but avoided the beer and donuts (the former with no pangs - even if I did like beer, 7 AM is too early for me - and the latter with a bit of regret, although I knew my stomach thanked me). Around mile 12 there was a gauntlet of people handing out beads and lipstick - in case you wanted to get fancied up before hitting the finish line. This, I didn't like. I was trying to pick up speed at this point, and I kept having to dodge people who really wanted me to have beads, not to mention the discarded tubes of lipstick. 

Now that I am done, I am already plotting out my next race. There are several 5K and 10K races that I have run in the past coming up, but I kind of want to do another half. Not really soon, but maybe in the fall. I want to see if I can get faster!

And I want another medal!