Half Marathon Race
Let me start off by saying that I took the opportunity to eat WAY too much candy corn on my rest days this week. Why? Because I'm an idiot and I bought them and once they're in the cabinet they whisper to me all.day. I have no will power when it comes to candy corn.
I also spent my two rest days hammering the water. I drank 5-8 16oz glasses each day and I still felt dehydrated. But I kept pushing through, knowing that I would need it for the race. I need to continue that kind of water consumption now that the race is over.
We got to my mom and dad's around 8:30 MI time and immediately place an order for spaghetti and meatballs. I also was adamant that I go to bed on time - which is sometimes a problem when we're here. I went to sleep just before midnight MI time. And promptly woke up at 2am because... No clue. And I wasn't happy about it because I was AWAKE - WIDE AWAKE. And ticked:) Got back to sleep, though, and slept pretty poorly until the alarm went off at 5:30 (MI time - 4:30 IL time yikes!). We ended up having way too much time to get ready, but that was fine. We got to the starting line around 7:15 - race started at 8:30. Waiting time, I've determined is not a good thing for me. I panic. I threaten to bolt. I get nervous. Today we were lucky enough to have a lot of wind to send me into a panic, with many pleas to do just the 5k. There was much moaning, groaning and complaining during the wait time - I like getting to my run and just going... not having time to really think about what I'm going to do other than the planning of the route. I do not like a bunch of time to contemplate the enormity of the task ahead of me.
Jason showed up around 8 and we caught up for a bit, which was AWESOME! Totally one of my favorite people from high school and I'm so glad we're back in touch.
Anyway, he said he was going to stick with us for the first few miles, hoping that our slower pace would save his energy for the middle-end. He took off around mile 2.
Early on, I was worried that I wouldn't make it through the entire race without stopping to walk - which was my goal. At 4 miles, I had no idea how I was going to get through the next 9 miles without walking. I wasn't feeling bad or laboring, I had started thinking about the overwhelming number of miles I STILL had to run. But I kept on.
The route was beautiful - along Lake Macatawa it was through a tree-lined street with really nice houses. Although, I didn't really look around a whole lot, just straight ahead, focusing on my music.
At mile 7, I was pleasantly surprised because I thought we were only at mile 6:) At 7 1/2, Dave needed to hit the port-o-potty and told me to go ahead and he'd catch up. I felt bad leaving him, but I knew that he could and would catch up to me. Right after that we hit Holland State Park, which was fully exposed. We were running straight into the gusting wind and the sand was whipping us. As soon as we turned to go back up Ottawa Beach road, though, we were running with the wind and went right back into blocked streets and it was fine. Right at that point I hit mile 8 and decided that the only way I'd get through would be to count songs. I knew I had about 13 songs to go. I also expected Dave to catch me around mile 10.
At mile 9 I hit some nice fast, dance music and started passing people. I was surprised at the amount of energy I had in order to kick it in to go faster. I was also hoping that Dave would catch me soon so I could eat my gu. He never caught me.
Around mile 10 1/2 I passed 4 people that I had been following for a while - and I had given up on Dave catching me. At that water station, though, they caught me and passed me by quite a bit. I took the water station slow because I figured if Dave wasn't going to get to me so I could have my gu, I'd better make sure I drank the gatorade at the water station - so the 4 people I had passed got quite a distance ahead right there.
Mile 11-12 1/2 I slowly gained ground on the one lady that I was following (out of the 4). I was surprised to have a lot of energy left at that point and surprised that I could gain ground. At Indy, I was pretty spent at this point. At 12 1/2 Jason started running with me, after having finished (1:56). I told him I wanted to catch that lady, but I couldn't see the finish line... once I saw it, I'd catch her. She was still pretty far ahead of me. Right at mile 13, I started full-blown sprinting. Long strides, fast, good running. I overtook her right as we entered the parking lot and I sprinted the rest of the way. I was standing there at the end of the finish line and she came up and hit me with her shirt and said, Nice run! I told her I had been chasing her - she knew and congratulated me.
I headed back to find Dave and ran in with him.
It was awesome. I felt, going in, that it wouldn't live up to Indy, but it most definitely did. It may not have had all of the hype and stuff that Indy did, but it was just as fun and I think it was because we were there with Jason.
Anyway, I still feel great. No digestive issues during or afterward. I'm a little tired and sore, but its good. We're going to drive home tonight.
Stats:
Time - 2:04:55
Pace: 9:31/mile
Awesome!
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