Excuse me what, a race report for a HALF marathon that wasn't anywhere near a goal race? Hey, maybe blogging isn't dead after all! After not racing since November, I'm about to head into a season of a LOT of racing (and a lot of training....and a lot of working...and really just a lot of *everything*) and I just enjoy looking back on these race reports so much that I'm going to try to get back to doing them a little more. No need for a giant epic marathon style report, but just a little something to remember!
So the deal with this race is that Joy decided to do the marathon months ago, and immediately tried to get me and Brittany to come along. Brittany, I think, was immediately in, but I was being cagey mainly because Andrew and I had already planned a west coast trip in February, and I was like, well, I can't go to the west coast twice in 3 months, CAN I? Well, spoiler alert, the flights weren't as expensive as I thought, I got a little tipsy on Thanksgiving, annnnd next thing you know the wonders of peer pressure from my two best friends had talked me into a racecation on the other side of the country!
Now, something I learned from this whole endeavor is that you probably should sign up for the race before you book your flights. I went back and forth for a couple of weeks between the half and the full marathon before ultimately deciding (correctly) that I wasn't really interested in training for a full during the winter as I wanted to focus on building my tri base, and so I wanted to sign up for the half. Imagine my surprise when, in mid December, I went to sign up for the race....AND IT WAS SOLD OUT! Completely sold out...half, marathon, 10K, all of the above. I was totally shocked and definitely sad but threw myself on the 500-700 person waitlists for all of the distances and resigned myself to the fact that I'd just be playing cheerleader on this trip and it was still worth my while to go on a racecation with my friends.
Time passed, it was suddenly February, and I was winding down before bed after an absolutely batty day when I decided to check my email and discovered that I'd gotten off the waitlist....FOR THE MARATHON. Well needless to say I had not exactly been training for a marathon, lol. But, as ever, I figured I'd make it work - either I'd plan to drop out, or I'd run with Joy, or I'd just 'bandit' the half with a full bib...whatever. At least I was in the race! It took a couple of weeks before my dumb brain had the thought to just email the race director and see if it was possible to transfer distances, which it very much was, and thus all of my problems were solved in the end and I was ready and signed up for the half!
I won't recap the whole trip here but suffice it to say that any trip with these two is an absolute blast and this was no exception. We had a lovely airbnb in Trinidad and spent the two days before the race running trails in Sue-Meg State Park, hiking in Redwood National Park, seeing all kinds of birds and wildlife (banana slugs!!) and all in all just having a great time. I did a slightly aggressive trail run on Friday and when I woke up on Saturday to do my shakeout run my legs were feeling absolutely AWFUL, a feeling which kind of persisted all day long. All I could do was hope for the best, and worst case scenario it would be a long run in a beautiful place!
We had a bit of a drive to the race start but ended up arriving with plenty of time to get parked, get our bibs, and see Joy off to the start. There was a ridiculous marching band that played the national anthem with some horribly off key trumpet; Brittany and I couldn't decide if it was intentional or not but either way it set a great tone. I felt kind of nervous before the race but not from any sense of pressure or time goal, more of just the *concept* of attempting to run somewhat hard for 13 miles, something that I haven't actually done in well over a year. Sitting here now I'm trying to think of the last time I ran a half that wasn't a workout (even that last happened over a year ago...) and uhhh suffice it to say it's been awhile! I also didn't really train specifically for this race; my mileage has been lower with the focus on tri and while I've done some workouts and some long-ish runs everything has been looked at through a triathlon lens, not a road racing lens. I had the vague thought in my mind that I wanted to run 7:35s and run under 1:40, which I thought felt realistic, but otherwise I tried to just lean into the sense of curiosity of truly having NO idea where my fitness was and just see what happened!
The race started over a bridge and then we immediately dove onto "The Ave" and were shrouded in the darkness created by the shade of a corridor of massive redwoods. I actually had to pull out my phone and take a quick video which does not at all capture it but it was SO COOL. At the last second I had decided that what I wanted to listen to during the race was this random celtic battle music playlist that I find just gets me into such a groove while I'm running, and this was the CORRECT choice for running in this setting - I just kept imagining myself as a little forest fairy frolicking through these magical glades.
About half a mile in I glanced at my watch, which I had set on lap pace (although I then realized I was going to have to take manual laps because I actually turned off the auto mile splits on my watch a couple months ago lol) and saw I was running 7:22 pace, and I was like, you know what, that sounds grand, let's keep this effort as long as we can. And honestly, that's pretty much the whole story! I spent the entire race wondering when I was going to slow down and then continuing to be surprised when I wasn't slowing down (and in some cases would find that I was even speeding up), and would sort of be like huh, that's cool, I'm actually pacing myself really well! And by the time I actually did feel like my legs were out of gas, I was like 5 minutes out from the finish and at that point of course you can just muscle through it.
The course was a straight up out and back which I LOVED; especially flowing like I was it was so nice not to have to consider turns or anything and simply being able to go out, turn around, come back. I kept looking around and taking my sunglasses on and off to look at the trees; at one point I "high fived" a tree which felt silly but also made me giggle, and really when else are you going to get the chance to high five a redwood during a race? The entire out segment I was convinced that I was running downhill, and while I was delighted to be clicking off very consistent, very smooth splits I had the little thought in the back of my mind that we might be turning and running back uphill, and perhaps that would not feel so easy. But I also kept telling myself that if that was the case, I should just enjoy this flow while it lasted! I hadn't run this fast for this long and feeling this good in FOREVER!
The women's pack spread out pretty quickly but I did pass a couple of women after about 2-3 miles. There was one girl in super shoes that were just so incredibly LOUD when she hit the ground that I could hear them over my music - we actually stuck together for a bit but I was sort of motivated to get past her because I was annoyed by her slapping feet. You just never know where you're going to find motivation...lol. I started counting women as we got close to the turnaround and realized I was in the top 10, which was a wild and delightful thing to realize. I wasn't totally confident in my ability to hold the pace I was running for another 6 miles, but I figured if people were already dropping back then then likelihood of them holding a faster pace and passing me wasn't huge either. The name of the game continued to be just maintaining the effort as long as I could.
I did some stupid math and was excited to eat my gel at 8 because I was like "then you only have 4 miles to run!" but turns out 13-8 is actually 5 which seems way longer than 4! LOL. But at some point in here I found another woman to reel in, which I eventually did, and we gave each other some nice encouragement. The other fabulous thing about the out and back was that I got to see Brittany and Joy! My favorite was Joy veering to the center of the road to give me a high five and then screaming "I EARNED A BANANA!!!" - she had a goal of running a certain number of miles at a certain pace to allow herself to buy a stuffed banana slug, lol, so I knew the fact that she'd already done it at 16 or whatever meant she was having herself a good race!
Meanwhile, as I dropped my pace to 7:15s for miles 9/10/11, I began to consider that I myself was having quite a good race as well! It was a funny internal monologue, because I knew that in the context of time this wasn't going to be anything special, but all I could keep thinking was "holy shit, you are executing this so well. I think this is the best you've ever executed a half?! How are you running such even splits??" And the fact that I was executing well drove me to keep executing well - it lit the fire to stay on the gas even as I could tell that I wasn't enjoying the scenery quite as much and my legs weren't feeling quite the same level of frolic. Things definitely got a little gritty in the last 2 miles, having to dodge large packs of 10K walkers started to get old, and the one actual hill on the course shows up at like 12.2 miles which is exactly where you do NOT need it. I really had a hard time recovering from that one, and I was a little mad to drop off my perfect pace for the last mile, but hey, when your goal is running 7:35s and your slowest mile is a 7:31 mile 13, I think we can call that a pretty good day. I also summoned a decent finishing kick, although I would have realized if I'd looked at my watch that it needed to be just a touch *more* decent, because I ended up finishing in 1:37:00 which is just silly! But also awesome! So much faster than I expected, so much better FEELING than I expected! Thank goodness I was able to get off the waitlist and into this race!
I also got to go back out and cheer for Joy and Brittany and many other runners on the mean hill, which was so great - given the remote nature of the race there weren't exactly a ton of spectators, and everyone seemed to get a kick out of my clapping like a seal and randomly dancing and shouting words of encouragement. Wherever I go, the hype train follows, ya know! Plus I got to run Joy into the finish of her excellent marathon, which is always special. I'm so lucky to have these incredible friends who love this crazy athletic life as much as I do.
When I think about this race, the word that just keeps coming to mind is "execution". There were definitely things that made it easier to execute and run consistent splits - the weather was PERFECT (high 40s, negligible wind, sunny but the entire course was shaded by the trees) and the course was the most gently rolling course I've experienced in all of my days. But I am also really proud of the way I found the right level of effort and just sustained it - something I think I was only able to accomplish because I ACTUALLY did not have a time goal. Maybe this is growing up - truly learning how to run by feel and effort and realizing that THAT - the execution and performance within whatever your fitness and conditions give you on the day - actually is the victory. It certainly felt that way! I also am just kind of shocked at actually being able to run as fast as I did - I clearly didn't guess my fitness was there, but I'm glad I didn't get caught up in thinking about it too much and just kind of let things unfold. I'm in my "no fucks given" era, and I think I like it here. :)
Avenue of the Giants Half Marathon - 1:37:00, 1/186 F30-39, 7/514 F, 32/845 OA
