Shamrock Half Marathon Race Report

Finishing my first half-marathon last Sunday was amazing. Last October, when I signed up, running 13 whole miles, all in a row, felt like such a stretch goal, I was actually scared to tell people what I was training for.

My longest training run to that point was 5 miles, which meant that I had a ways to go. I can't remember exactly what was keeping me from running, but when I look back at my calendar there are a lot more workouts crossed out then checked off through October and November, but the training was ramping up with or without me, so I jumped back in to it.

The training successes were awesome: I ran my first 10k (a new longest run) in December with the team, then had a PR at the 5K in January. I *enjoyed* a "double digit run" running 10 miles (in the snow) and I was ecstatic when my main running buddy and I completed the full 13 miles training run in February.

The tough training days were also important. If Sunday had gone poorly, I'd like to think I could've drawn on the experience and used a bad training day to help talk myself through it somehow. I also learned the most when my body was mad about a workout: I learned that a steady diet of Domino's Pizza is not the fuel my body needs to run a happy 10 miles. On a different run, I ended up 3 miles from home completely bonked and walking it, so I learned to be better about carrying drinks and snacks. I learned that an extra rest week won't kill you when it was too icy to run and I "only" did 5 treadmill miles instead of 12.

None of the training prepared me completely for how little extra "umph" I would have after 12 miles of Zone 2-3 running. My brain was ready to run in Zone 4 like I'd been practicing at track, but my legs were totally not into that idea. I did manage to increase the pace, and Garmin tells me I had a lovely negative split, but my idea of how the race would happen at the end was pretty different from how it actually did. Learning to "race" something is pretty different from learning to cover the same distance.

After finishing this run, I respect the Marathon, Half-Iron and Iron distance races So Much More! I'd always thought they were extreme and admired the dedication the training requires, but now the magnitude of the challenge of actually racing such a distance is more real to me.

Overall, I'm thrilled with my training and result. Looking back at my calendar sheets for the winter, seeing the workouts I did and remembering how each "new longest" had seemed unrealistic a few months earlier, it's impossible not to smile.

I'm also terribly excited by the pace I was able to keep for the race. The 13 mile training run was done at a pace of almost 18 min/mile. The 1 hour taper run a week before the race was a pace of around 16:30 min/mile, so I'd been planning to try to keep a 16 min/mile pace and speed up at the end. In the race itself, it felt easy to maintain a pace in the 15 min/mile range until the 11th mile or so. After that, I managed to speed up slightly, but it was no longer as easy. My goal had been to finish around 3:30, so when I realized it was going to be more like 3:15, it gave me extra motivation to maintain form and to try to take longer steps for that last (impossibly long) 1.1 miles.

1/2 Marathon PR: 3:16:24

Half Marathon, Check!

A few weeks ago, I finished a 13 mile training run in 4 hours and felt pretty good. Yesterday I finished a half marathon in 3:16 and feel mentally awesome and muscularly shot. My goal for the day was to finish around 3:30 with a pace of 16 min/mile, so feeling good going 15 min/mile for the first part was an unexpected benefit.

I ran the first few miles with some teammates who were dressed up for the event, and when one of them decided to de-boa, I happily took it, wearing it like a pagent sash for a few miles, and then as a belt for the rest. Running with a green boa belt made the day even better. I hope the photos turn out :)

At the end I saw a training partner and pushed it to try to catch up, which was sort of a dumb idea, but since I didn't actually faint or throw up after the finish line I think it was worth it to finish with him.

Here's the data from the Garmin:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/27689636
I thought it was going to do auto laps every mile, but forgot to check that before starting. Oh well. At least it picked up heart rate reliably and helped me not go too fast in the beginning when I was so excited.