4 days before a marathon is, eternally, the day when I suddenly find myself questioning what the hell I'm doing with my life. Today, a coworker (who is also a runner/triathlete, so she does understand these things) asked me "So, are you going for a PR on Sunday?" My reaction must have been hilarious, because I honestly had not even thought about that question until she asked it. It's like I forgot that I've been training for a race or something. I think part of my hesitation is that my last PR took me 5 years and as many marathons to get. And it was SO big, so beyond my expectations - I think it's hard for my brain to fathom that I could not only run that fast again, but even run faster?
And yet...
Without putting a lot of thought into it, I've run some of my best ever long runs this training cycle. Not just some, but all of my 20 milers included 5-8 miles at or below goal marathon pace, all during the second half. I took far fewer casual rest breaks (running with friends definitely helps with that) which I feel like generally made my long runs a lot higher in quality. However, I also did them all on the same, consistent course (gradual uphill miles 1-8, downhill 8-10, uphill 10-13, gradual downhill the rest of the way). Clearly, running faster on a net downhill is easier...but Lakefront is also a net downhill course. So there's that. My track workouts this cycle have also been significantly stronger than any in the past, even with the atrocious heat and humidity we've had all summer. I know that I have pretty good leg speed and strength, because there's no way I would be getting through these types of workouts otherwise. The weather is also playing a part - I've done maybe a grand total of 5 runs in sub-70 degree weather (it was 85 and humid during yesterday's easy 5 miler...on September 29...like, are you kidding me?) Sunday's forecast calls for high 40s at the start, mid 50s at the finish...aka GLORIOUS, holy grail running weather for me. I'm definitely anticipating getting to run in cool weather after so long will put some extra snap into my legs. Finally, the Lakefront course is relatively mild in terms of hills and is actually a net downhill as well - essentially, very similar to what I've been training on. Reading back on this paragraph...that's a lot of strikes in the positive column. But even with all those positives, the idea of running 7:26 or even 7:30 miles for 26.2 miles? Still terrifying! In the negative column, of course, we have my dismal tune up race performance (which comes with its own asterisks, but still), lack of tempo runs, and failure to keep up with strength training this cycle - although regular dance I hope has made up for some of that.
Pro and con columns aside, my basic plan is to run this course similarly to Boston, but hopefully faster. They are actually similar in that they're both point to point and have a significant amount of downhill in the first half as well as downhill/flat in the last few miles, so I feel like a similar strategy (go out fairly relaxed/easy, and be able to turn on the afterburners at mile 20) makes sense. With my focus on fast finish long runs this cycle, I also feel like I'm physically prepared to execute a negative split sort of strategy. Cognitively, however, going INTO a race with the idea of even or negative splitting is scary. In Boston it sort of happened by accident; literally I just knew I couldn't go out like an idiot and whatever followed would follow. I didn't think about it in advance. Trying to execute that strategy again feels a little like asking lightening to strike twice. Still, I think it's the best strategy to try in terms of going for a PR. My best races have been those where I didn't blow up at the end, and that typically means NOT GOING OUT LIKE AN IDIOT (just putting that in all caps, for myself to read later). And with Boston, I was still able to negative split despite the inevitable slowdown in the Newton hills, which isn't a factor on this course. It's been ages (since 2010) since I ran a flat, non-trail marathon, so there's something to be said for that too.
So...what am I hoping to run? On a good day, I certainly think I can PR - whether it's by a little or a lot is unclear. Any PR would obviously make me happy; the closer to 3:15 the more thrilled I'd be. Under 3:20 and I certainly wouldn't be mad about it. I still feel this need to legitimize myself, to prove to myself that I can run a good race again. My best races come when I'm not dwelling on a specific time goal, and I think this race definitely falls into that category. I just want to go out there, run, and be awesome. I know that I'm capable of it, I just need to have the confidence to DO it. No crowds, no headwind, no pouring rain, no hills - I feel like this race is stripped down to the basics which, hopefully, will make it a great stage for me to be able to go out, me against the road in myself, and run my ass off. My favorite Journey lyrics pretty much sums it up...
Workin' hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
Paying anything to roll the dice, just one more time...
Looking forward to rolling that dice for the 9th time, knowing that I've done the homework (as Tom said) to hopefully sway those odds just a little bit further in my favor. 9 freaking marathons...if you'd told me when I graduated college that 6 years later I'd be working on marathon #9 there's absolutely no way that I would have believed you. To be capable of running 26.2 miles, and to be capable of trying to do it faster than I ever have before is something I hope I never stop feeling grateful for.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Thursday, September 24, 2015
All the things
Why do I always wait until I have 700 things to write about before actually sitting down to write about them? The past month since Falmouth has been a whirlwind, both in terms of training and life, which has been a good thing, but hasn't left much time to write about it. It's included a lot of running, some racing, some of the best track workouts I've ever done, and some hiking - all of which I meant to do full posts about, and then never got around to it. So, here's the Cliffs Notes version...
Franconia Notch Hiking
Andrew and I have made it our mission to hike at least one mountain every year, and this year's target was the Whites in New Hampshire. We've somehow never made it up to NH despite really enjoying the mountains and having lived here for over 6 years so we finally decided to take a couple of days and do a solid day hike. I picked one of the more popular loops that I could find on the internet: Falling Waters trail -> Franconia Ridge -> Old Bridle Path, which took us over 3 mountain summits and a significant amount of time above treeline. Truth be told, I spent the whole week leading up to the hike psyching myself up for spending so much time above tree line, because I've had some pretty significant issues with panicking due to height/exposure on previous hiking trips. Turns out, I had nothing to be worried about - I loved every single second of this hike. The trek up started off fairly easy and then turned into a seemingly endless boulder run up and up and up.
Our first summit, Little Haystack, was just a prelude to the absolutely amazing ~2 miles we spent hiking along the ridge to Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette. It was kind of a cloudy day which could have been a huge bummer, but we managed to strike a perfect balance between gorgeous views and hiking into the clouds, which I felt like was equally as cool.
It was definitely a challenging hike - the descent was a quad killer - and I was surprised to be pretty damn sore the following day. However, since the hike came on the tail of a near 60 mile week (with a 20 mile run the day before, hah) my legs really felt remarkably good throughout the whole thing, and more importantly I got to spend 8 hours on the trails just being totally present in the moment. Why don't I do this more often?
Training & Racing
This was one of those months where I sneakily had a really good month of training. The last 4 weeks I've run probably the best 4 track workouts of my life - any time my average pace for an interval workout is hovering anywhere close to 6:00-6:10 pace, I have to be in shape. Actually, as I type that, I realize that this month is the first time that's actually EVER happened...hah. My last sharpening workout before the marathon on Tuesday went significantly better than I expected going in, and I ran 4 x 800 at right around 3:00-3:01 and then 4 x 400 at a slightly faster pace. I really hope I never stop being amazed at what I'm capable of. When I go to GBTC practice I basically expect that I'm going to be off the back because most of these girls ran in college and no matter how long I run, I still have a little bit of an inferiority complex - like, oh, I could NEVER run with those girls. And yet doing this workout, right there with a pack of 5K runners on these 800s...it just felt absolutely amazing. It's the most empowering thing to be able to push yourself and do something better than you ever have before, and it's also a nice reminder to never assume that you can't go faster. Because probably, with time and with effort, you can. And also, to not be scared to run with people you perceive as "too fast" for you.
Besides the track workouts, I've been making my long runs workouts during this cycle as well. It's been kind of funny - the transition between being a newbie marathoner and just surviving long runs to being someone who doesn't think just running 22 miles easy is enough, we have to make it harder and add some GMP miles - happened so slowly I almost didn't notice. But I've done 4 20+ mile runs this cycle, each of which I've run a decent chunk of the last 10 miles around 7:30 pace. I also have done a couple of races this month, both of which I signed up for the day before and neither of which I felt deserved their own posts, but I guess I'll talk about them briefly here.
Cape Ann 25K - Holy shit, I raced like CRAP at this race. I was hoping for this to be a big confidence boost with a whole bunch of GMP miles, but I conveniently forgot that a) the Cape Ann course is probably one of the hardest courses in the Greater Boston area, b) Labor Day in Massachusetts is not not not cool, c) One of my talents as racing like an idiot. Let's just go ahead and let the splits tell the tale of this one...
Miles 1-4: 7:12, 7:10, 7:14, 7:20 (subtitle: Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb)
Wow! Life is great! This feels so easy! Wasn't this course supposed to be hilly? I mean sure there are some little rollers, but whatever, no big deal! Man, I'm almost feeling cold in my sports bra, this is awesome! I'm jamming out to some Ben Folds, I'm smiling, I'm enjoying life. Man, this is going to be a great race!
Miles 5-8: 7:52, 7:41, 7:46, 7:49
Hmm...well...alright, this got significantly less fun. Did these hills get bigger, or is it just me? There's a part in Finding Nemo I think where a little fish is swimming towards the tempting light of an anglerfish and has a thought like "Oh...so warm...so happy...so good...I love this...feeling so good..." and then suddenly gets close enough to see the predator lying beyond the light and goes "GOOD FEELING GONE" right before it gets eaten. Welp...that was me over the next few miles of this race. Crap crap crappity crap. I went from feeling pretty awesome to the polar opposite of awesome VERY rapidly. There are 2 huge hills just before mile 6 and just after mile 8 that just about destroyed my soul. By the top of the mile 8 hill, I straight up had to walk. Absolutely nothing left. Literally wondering if I would make it to the finish line.
Miles 9-15: 8:15, 8:13, 7:45, 8:04, 8:24, 8:24, 7:59, 7:34 pace last 0.6
THIS IS THE WORST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME HOW AM I ACTUALLY STILL MOVING FORWARD?! My feelings over the remainder of this race fluctuated between embarassment, frustration over my idiotic race strategy, resignation, and an astonishingly strong desire to stop running. The fact that I was still moving forward was mysterious to me. There was no way I could be feeling as awful as I was and actually still be moving. I had dropped from 5th woman to 10th woman, and I vaguely hoped I could find my way into the top 10. The fact that I had to walk ~5 times over the last 5 miles and each time it became more and more difficult to convince myself to resume running made me feel like this was unlikely. Yet somehow...I actually came in 10th woman. I have no idea. The last couple of miles of the race were a giant clusterfuck; the roads weren't closed and there was tons of traffic headed to the beach, so we were weaving on and off of sidewalks and across streets. At mile 13 my ipod decided it was sick of having water dumped on it and died (in the middle of "Jungleland", which I was hoping would carry me through the next mile). It was really effing hot and I was really effing dehydrated - after the race, I drank a bottle and a half of water, a gatorade, a beer, a glass of water, and a nuun before I had to pee. Yup. At one point I came up on a guy who had passed me earlier and he was like 'nice comeback!' And I just wanted to laugh...or cry...or something. It was bad. I actually managed to finish SLOWER than I ran this race 5 years ago, which is pretty sad because that was literally my only goal. It's fascinating though, to look back on that race - 5 years ago, I was ECSTATIC to run 7:50 pace for this race. I felt like the queen of the universe. I ran less than a minute slower this time, and I felt like it was this horrific, embarrassing performance. So that, if nothing else, shows that I have definitely grown as a runner. Hilariously, I somehow still managed to get 2nd in my age group...for which the award was a nice paperweight...and entry to next year's race. HAHAHA. Congratulations...you just ran the hardest course ever! Wanna do it again next year?! I mean...we'll see. I like free stuff.
Fall Classic 5K - This is a perfect example of the sort of crap that happens when I'm bored and feel like doing something ridiculous. I wanted to incorporate some faster running into my last true long run, 17 miles. I also felt like if I went out on another 2 hour + run on the Minuteman Trail I was going to gouge my eyeballs out. Top that with the fact that the previous Sunday I had lain on the couch until 3 pm whining about how far I had to run, and I felt like it would be good motivation to have a specific time to do my long run...and you get me signing up for a 5K, which I planned to tempo in the middle of my long run. So...what happened was this. I woke up bright and early, slightly hungover and dehydrated which is pretty much the expected result from spending the evening at a beer tasting event at the zoo. Drank a bottle of nuun and ate a yogurt, then headed out for a 7.5 mile warmup to the race. Felt GREAT on the way there - was running nice and easy and I just felt super relaxed and smooth. I got to the race start, waited around for less than 10 minutes, and then...ran a 5K. Despite my plans to tempo I got caught up in the start and went screaming out of the gate. By the half mile I had already told myself I needed to slow the eff down, but mile 1 came in at 6:33 and slowing down was no longer a choice after that. I felt like crap and I had to keep reminding myself that most of the people surrounding me had a) not run an almost 8 mile warmup and b) did not have to run 7 more miles after this race. I slowed it down to more of a tempo effort, 7:04 and 7:11 to come in at 21:31 for a final time. Certainly not a super fast 5K for me, but really quite respectable especially considering the circumstances. I was also 18th woman out of 1400+ which was somewhat shocking - and again, if I ever need a reminder that in the grand scheme of people who run, I'm actually not too bad, doing something like this was it. I felt pretty awful after I finished so I ended up drinking some water (and...maybe half of a Jack's Abby beer that they were handing out...I paid $40 for this race, I needed to at least TRY to take advantage of the perks) and hung out for about 20 minutes before begrudgingly heading back out to run home. This part of the run was pretty hilarious. The first mile and a half or so I was running soooo slowly...like barely moving...and then all of a sudden, I felt AWESOME! Maybe it was the half beer? Or the fact that after a 5K 7:30 pace just doesn't feel so bad? But whatever it was, I ended up throwing in 2 random GMP miles which both felt extremely smooth and easy. By the time I got home (before noon! There is nothing better than being done with a long run BEFORE noon!) I was really happy with my choice to do the 5K...and I mean, the t-shirts are really nice. So there's that.
I was going to write more about my thoughts on this upcoming marathon (9 days! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!) but I think I'll save that for another day. As Tom told me Tuesday, I've "done my homework" so hopefully that will add up to a good performance on October 4...what I'm actually hoping for? Well, that's a question for another day.
Franconia Notch Hiking
Andrew and I have made it our mission to hike at least one mountain every year, and this year's target was the Whites in New Hampshire. We've somehow never made it up to NH despite really enjoying the mountains and having lived here for over 6 years so we finally decided to take a couple of days and do a solid day hike. I picked one of the more popular loops that I could find on the internet: Falling Waters trail -> Franconia Ridge -> Old Bridle Path, which took us over 3 mountain summits and a significant amount of time above treeline. Truth be told, I spent the whole week leading up to the hike psyching myself up for spending so much time above tree line, because I've had some pretty significant issues with panicking due to height/exposure on previous hiking trips. Turns out, I had nothing to be worried about - I loved every single second of this hike. The trek up started off fairly easy and then turned into a seemingly endless boulder run up and up and up.
They call it Falling Waters Trail for a reason
Our first summit, Little Haystack, was just a prelude to the absolutely amazing ~2 miles we spent hiking along the ridge to Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette. It was kind of a cloudy day which could have been a huge bummer, but we managed to strike a perfect balance between gorgeous views and hiking into the clouds, which I felt like was equally as cool.
Training & Racing
This was one of those months where I sneakily had a really good month of training. The last 4 weeks I've run probably the best 4 track workouts of my life - any time my average pace for an interval workout is hovering anywhere close to 6:00-6:10 pace, I have to be in shape. Actually, as I type that, I realize that this month is the first time that's actually EVER happened...hah. My last sharpening workout before the marathon on Tuesday went significantly better than I expected going in, and I ran 4 x 800 at right around 3:00-3:01 and then 4 x 400 at a slightly faster pace. I really hope I never stop being amazed at what I'm capable of. When I go to GBTC practice I basically expect that I'm going to be off the back because most of these girls ran in college and no matter how long I run, I still have a little bit of an inferiority complex - like, oh, I could NEVER run with those girls. And yet doing this workout, right there with a pack of 5K runners on these 800s...it just felt absolutely amazing. It's the most empowering thing to be able to push yourself and do something better than you ever have before, and it's also a nice reminder to never assume that you can't go faster. Because probably, with time and with effort, you can. And also, to not be scared to run with people you perceive as "too fast" for you.
Besides the track workouts, I've been making my long runs workouts during this cycle as well. It's been kind of funny - the transition between being a newbie marathoner and just surviving long runs to being someone who doesn't think just running 22 miles easy is enough, we have to make it harder and add some GMP miles - happened so slowly I almost didn't notice. But I've done 4 20+ mile runs this cycle, each of which I've run a decent chunk of the last 10 miles around 7:30 pace. I also have done a couple of races this month, both of which I signed up for the day before and neither of which I felt deserved their own posts, but I guess I'll talk about them briefly here.
Cape Ann 25K - Holy shit, I raced like CRAP at this race. I was hoping for this to be a big confidence boost with a whole bunch of GMP miles, but I conveniently forgot that a) the Cape Ann course is probably one of the hardest courses in the Greater Boston area, b) Labor Day in Massachusetts is not not not cool, c) One of my talents as racing like an idiot. Let's just go ahead and let the splits tell the tale of this one...
Miles 1-4: 7:12, 7:10, 7:14, 7:20 (subtitle: Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb)
Wow! Life is great! This feels so easy! Wasn't this course supposed to be hilly? I mean sure there are some little rollers, but whatever, no big deal! Man, I'm almost feeling cold in my sports bra, this is awesome! I'm jamming out to some Ben Folds, I'm smiling, I'm enjoying life. Man, this is going to be a great race!
Miles 5-8: 7:52, 7:41, 7:46, 7:49
Hmm...well...alright, this got significantly less fun. Did these hills get bigger, or is it just me? There's a part in Finding Nemo I think where a little fish is swimming towards the tempting light of an anglerfish and has a thought like "Oh...so warm...so happy...so good...I love this...feeling so good..." and then suddenly gets close enough to see the predator lying beyond the light and goes "GOOD FEELING GONE" right before it gets eaten. Welp...that was me over the next few miles of this race. Crap crap crappity crap. I went from feeling pretty awesome to the polar opposite of awesome VERY rapidly. There are 2 huge hills just before mile 6 and just after mile 8 that just about destroyed my soul. By the top of the mile 8 hill, I straight up had to walk. Absolutely nothing left. Literally wondering if I would make it to the finish line.
Miles 9-15: 8:15, 8:13, 7:45, 8:04, 8:24, 8:24, 7:59, 7:34 pace last 0.6
THIS IS THE WORST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME HOW AM I ACTUALLY STILL MOVING FORWARD?! My feelings over the remainder of this race fluctuated between embarassment, frustration over my idiotic race strategy, resignation, and an astonishingly strong desire to stop running. The fact that I was still moving forward was mysterious to me. There was no way I could be feeling as awful as I was and actually still be moving. I had dropped from 5th woman to 10th woman, and I vaguely hoped I could find my way into the top 10. The fact that I had to walk ~5 times over the last 5 miles and each time it became more and more difficult to convince myself to resume running made me feel like this was unlikely. Yet somehow...I actually came in 10th woman. I have no idea. The last couple of miles of the race were a giant clusterfuck; the roads weren't closed and there was tons of traffic headed to the beach, so we were weaving on and off of sidewalks and across streets. At mile 13 my ipod decided it was sick of having water dumped on it and died (in the middle of "Jungleland", which I was hoping would carry me through the next mile). It was really effing hot and I was really effing dehydrated - after the race, I drank a bottle and a half of water, a gatorade, a beer, a glass of water, and a nuun before I had to pee. Yup. At one point I came up on a guy who had passed me earlier and he was like 'nice comeback!' And I just wanted to laugh...or cry...or something. It was bad. I actually managed to finish SLOWER than I ran this race 5 years ago, which is pretty sad because that was literally my only goal. It's fascinating though, to look back on that race - 5 years ago, I was ECSTATIC to run 7:50 pace for this race. I felt like the queen of the universe. I ran less than a minute slower this time, and I felt like it was this horrific, embarrassing performance. So that, if nothing else, shows that I have definitely grown as a runner. Hilariously, I somehow still managed to get 2nd in my age group...for which the award was a nice paperweight...and entry to next year's race. HAHAHA. Congratulations...you just ran the hardest course ever! Wanna do it again next year?! I mean...we'll see. I like free stuff.
Fall Classic 5K - This is a perfect example of the sort of crap that happens when I'm bored and feel like doing something ridiculous. I wanted to incorporate some faster running into my last true long run, 17 miles. I also felt like if I went out on another 2 hour + run on the Minuteman Trail I was going to gouge my eyeballs out. Top that with the fact that the previous Sunday I had lain on the couch until 3 pm whining about how far I had to run, and I felt like it would be good motivation to have a specific time to do my long run...and you get me signing up for a 5K, which I planned to tempo in the middle of my long run. So...what happened was this. I woke up bright and early, slightly hungover and dehydrated which is pretty much the expected result from spending the evening at a beer tasting event at the zoo. Drank a bottle of nuun and ate a yogurt, then headed out for a 7.5 mile warmup to the race. Felt GREAT on the way there - was running nice and easy and I just felt super relaxed and smooth. I got to the race start, waited around for less than 10 minutes, and then...ran a 5K. Despite my plans to tempo I got caught up in the start and went screaming out of the gate. By the half mile I had already told myself I needed to slow the eff down, but mile 1 came in at 6:33 and slowing down was no longer a choice after that. I felt like crap and I had to keep reminding myself that most of the people surrounding me had a) not run an almost 8 mile warmup and b) did not have to run 7 more miles after this race. I slowed it down to more of a tempo effort, 7:04 and 7:11 to come in at 21:31 for a final time. Certainly not a super fast 5K for me, but really quite respectable especially considering the circumstances. I was also 18th woman out of 1400+ which was somewhat shocking - and again, if I ever need a reminder that in the grand scheme of people who run, I'm actually not too bad, doing something like this was it. I felt pretty awful after I finished so I ended up drinking some water (and...maybe half of a Jack's Abby beer that they were handing out...I paid $40 for this race, I needed to at least TRY to take advantage of the perks) and hung out for about 20 minutes before begrudgingly heading back out to run home. This part of the run was pretty hilarious. The first mile and a half or so I was running soooo slowly...like barely moving...and then all of a sudden, I felt AWESOME! Maybe it was the half beer? Or the fact that after a 5K 7:30 pace just doesn't feel so bad? But whatever it was, I ended up throwing in 2 random GMP miles which both felt extremely smooth and easy. By the time I got home (before noon! There is nothing better than being done with a long run BEFORE noon!) I was really happy with my choice to do the 5K...and I mean, the t-shirts are really nice. So there's that.
I was going to write more about my thoughts on this upcoming marathon (9 days! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!) but I think I'll save that for another day. As Tom told me Tuesday, I've "done my homework" so hopefully that will add up to a good performance on October 4...what I'm actually hoping for? Well, that's a question for another day.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Falmouth Road Race 2015 Race Report
On Sunday I took my first crack at the Falmouth Road Race - a race which I vaguely knew about for the last couple of years as a New England "thing", but not something that had ever crossed my mind to do until, in the weird personal turmoil that was the couple weeks after Boston, I was on the Brain Injury Association of MA website for something to do with work and happened to notice that they were fielding a fundraising team for Falmouth. I waffled back and forth for a couple of days about whether I thought I would be able to raise the money, logistics, etc, but eventually I wound up signing up and shortly after found out that I was on the team! So now, several months later, it was finally time to actually run the race!
My mom came into town to join Andrew, Dayton, and I for the weekend at the Cape (aka - I was basically like, mom, will you drive me to the Cape so I can do this race and don't have to drive myself? And she was like, OK. My mom is great.) We headed down on Friday night in a surprisingly successful attempt to avoid the insanity that is Cape traffic and had a pretty low key evening Friday night.
The results also had a few fun stats that I kind of enjoyed...
My mom came into town to join Andrew, Dayton, and I for the weekend at the Cape (aka - I was basically like, mom, will you drive me to the Cape so I can do this race and don't have to drive myself? And she was like, OK. My mom is great.) We headed down on Friday night in a surprisingly successful attempt to avoid the insanity that is Cape traffic and had a pretty low key evening Friday night.
Dayton got an entire hotel bed to himself, hahaha
Saturday morning I woke up fairly early to get in a shakeout run, and was unpleasantly surprised when at 7:20 it was already uncomfortably hot and humid. This did not bode well for a 9 am race the following day with pretty much the same weather forecast. Still, I had a nice shakeout through West Yarmouth, including a stop midway at Seagull Beach for an impromptu photo shoot, because I'm the coolest human being ever.
Judge me all you want, but I very much enjoy this photo
Beach! Shakeout run! Let me take a selfie!
The beach minus obnoxious humans
We then headed to the expo - unfortunately almost an hour drive from our hotel - which was about as intense as I expected. Not nearly as crazy as Boston or even the NYC Half, but any time you send 12K plus people to number pick up and throw in some merchandise booths, things are bound to get at least a little bit crazy. I picked up my number, which is probably the coolest number I've ever had for a race - 777 for a 7 mile race, what what!
Requisite "I had to pick up my bib before the race, and they have a photo backdrop" shot
Post-expo, our goal was to attempt to find somewhere to hike and to check out Cape Cod Brewery. My mom had initially found a place in Falmouth that supposedly had trails or something, but after about 30 minutes of driving around and not being able to find any sort of entrance or trailhead, we gave up and decided to go back to the brewery (another ~45 min drive. There was a LOT of driving involved on this trip). The brewery itself was fantastic - super low key and dog friendly, they even had a brewery mascot dog! We did a tasting and bought some hot dogs and beer cheese dip from some 14 year olds running a food truck outside. It was an absolutely perfect way to spend an afternoon.
Dayton and brewery dog Buster
Beer tasting with mom!
We left the brewery and headed to Sandy Neck in Barnstable to take a stab at 'hiking'...an unfortunately ill fated decision on my part since after about 15 minutes of wandering through sand dunes we realized that we had made a huge mistake. It was 85+ degrees out, full sun, and we were walking with a black dog who was not enjoying his Saturday afternoon. Grumpy times were had by all, but we survived. After that adventure, I headed to the BIA team dinner at an Italian restaurant that happened to be right down the street from our hotel - random but extremely convenient! It was pretty cool meeting the other team members, all of whom had some connection to brain injury whether they were survivors themselves or had family members who had been affected. I left the dinner feeling really proud and happy that I had chosen to run this race for a cause instead of just for myself, and even more excited about the following day.
My 5:15 am alarm came pretty damn early on Sunday, and it was extremely confusing. My body was like WAIT! We're getting up super early and you already have a bib number and HOLY SHIT are we running a marathon today?! That's gotta be it, right? This only happens with marathons! And then my brain was like, hahaha no you know what's amazing? Is that you only have to run 7 MILES today! It was really strange having all of this pomp and circumstance leading up to just a 7 mile race, but in a way it was also extremely fun - all the excitement of a marathon, without, you know, actually having to RUN a marathon!
It is 5:30 am and I am exciteddddd
I met up with the rest of the BIA team around 6:30 and we headed over to the buses. Everything went really smoothly - the bus system was super organized and the volunteers were fantastic. The Porta Potty lines I saw before getting on the bus made me a little nervous about what the scene would look like in Wood's Hole, but to my absolute surprise and extreme pleasure, there were so many porta potties spread out throughout the staging area that the lines were 4-5 people long at most...Falmouth, you get ALL the props for this! The way the busing system works (last bus at 7:45 am) pretty much everyone gets to the start insanely early, and I wasn't really sure what to do with all that time. I stuck with the team until about 8:15 and then decided that I probably should go warm up. I jogged around for a couple of miles in weird circles and tried to pretend that I was a serious runner who deserved a seeded bib number. At one point I saw a couple of GBTC girls, including one who I kind of know...forgetting that I wasn't wearing a GBTC singlet and these people otherwise most likely have no clue who I am, I smiled and waved and got blank stares in return. Derp. Hahaha. By the end of my very easy warmup, I was already absolutely drenched in sweat - not even 8:30 am yet and it was already warm and wicked humid. Rut roh. Not good. I think by this point I was already managing my expectations pretty well, and I wasn't really nervous or anything, but I knew that the heat was going to impact me and that my time probably wasn't going to meet my "best case scenario" expectation. Oh well.
I decided to start working my way up through the crowds to the seeded corral at about 8:40, which seemed reasonable since the race started at 9. This did not turn out to be one of my better ideas - there was some sort of incident out on the course that prevented the wheelchairs from going off on time and that basically set everything back by about 10 minutes. As a result, I ended up standing in the full sun without any water for about half an hour before the race started, something which I don't think did me any favors once I started running. It was pretty neat getting to be in the seeded corral, where everyone was warming up and doing drills and generally appeared to be pretty legit. I told myself "well, YOU'RE legit too, or you wouldn't be up here" and tried to find anything that vaguely resembled shade. By the time the national anthem was playing, I was already very, very warm - a feeling which wasn't going to go away any time over the next hour.
Finally around 9:10, we were off! Despite being in the seeded corral, the start was still a pretty big clusterfuck. There were definitely still some people who had placed themselves higher than was maybe reasonable, and as soon as I crossed the line I found myself running at what could only be described as a light jog. Everywhere I looked - wall of people. I didn't want to waste too much energy zig zagging around, but I also really didn't want to spend an excessive amount of time behind a line of 3 men running 9:00 pace, so I did make a little bit of an effort over the first half mile or so to break out into a group that was running closer to my pace. Once that happened, I felt pretty good for about 3 minutes. After that, I started to realize that I was ALREADY noticing the heat. We weren't even at the mile mark, my legs felt like I was basically doing a tempo run, and yet the rest of my systems were already starting to send up red flags. Yup - this was not going to be pretty. Not that I ever really had a plan or specific goal for this race, but after about half a mile I had already realigned my expectations for "survival" vs. racing.
We headed up towards the 1 mile mark up the hill that heads towards the Nobscot Light. I am not kidding - this is possibly the most gorgeous view I've ever seen on a racecourse. It was absolutely breathtaking - the ocean and cliffs to your right, this incredible lighthouse straight ahead, and all along the road a sea of runners. Mile 1 was a 6:58 and my thought process was - neat! That pace is about to drop by about 20 seconds for the rest of the race. Get used to the idea. I already felt like I was dragging my body up that first major hill, and there were still 6 miles to go? Woof. During the second mile I think there was some shade and some downhill, and while I totally missed the mile marker it looks like I was able to sort of hang onto my pace for that mile (7:02). But oh dear, that was where the carnage began. I knew by the time I hit the second mile marker that I was already dehydrated and starting to overheat. I was feeling seriously rough for having only run 2 miles. Again, my legs really didn't feel like they were working that hard, but I could just tell that my heart rate was crazy high for the effort I was putting in, especially whenever I would go over even the slightest incline. I felt like I was already crawling. Somewhere around mile 2, we finally came up on a water stop and I immediately downed a cup, then took a second one and dumped it over my head. This helped for about 4 seconds, until I ran back into the sun. It was like Boston 2012 all over again, except I was kind of trying to run fast, and thankfully only had to run 7 miles. I thanked my lucky stars that this was NOT a marathon or even a half several times during the race.
I don't really know what to say about miles 3-5 from a running perspective. I was riding the suffer bus big time, though I was vaguely aware that everyone around me was as well. There were people walking, people who looked like they should be running a lot faster who...weren't...all the usual hallmarks of a race where everyone is getting stomped on by the elements. Mile 3 was a 7:28, I remember at some point during that mile there was this miniscule little hill that I just thought was going to break me. I couldn't believe how hard I was having to work just to continue to move forward. Despite how shitty I was feeling, I was desperately trying to cling on to reminding myself of WHY I was doing this race - for the people I work with every day. I reminded myself that I had all of their names written on the back of my bib, and that I was absolutely blessed to get to run 7 miles in the blazing sun for people who can't. As cheesy as it sounds, that did help me to keep fighting to move forward. I wanted to represent this team and this organization well, and to represent my patients as they deserve. So I kept trucking. Miles 4 and 5 were flat as flat could be, pretty amazing in a New England race. However, on this particular day there was a problem, which was that besides being flat they were also completely exposed on the coastline in full sun. Again, it was absolutely gorgeous and I tried to make myself look at the water, but I also couldn't help but imagine how absolutely GLORIOUS it would be to just stop racing and go jump in the water right this very second. Mile 4 I rallied a little bit on the flat despite the sun with a 7:16, but by mile 5 I was just straight up toast - 7:35, and I was WORKING for it.
Just after the 5 mile mark, a few things happened that helped me to believe that I was going to make it through the rest of the race. The first was the realization that I only had 2 miles to go - NBD, right? The second was that we turned onto a somewhat more shady section of the course, and as the pack had thinned out quite a bit the crowds (which were really, REALLY great by the way) were able to pick out more runners by name, and I was hearing a lot more "Go Audrey!"'s, which I tried to give a smile or a wave to each one. I high fived some kids. And then came the most glorious pack of spectators EVER - they were handing out full, ice cold water bottles. I took a couple of swigs and then dumped the rest over my head. How can I even explain how absolutely ridiculously AMAZING it felt to have ice cold water pouring over my body at that point in the race? I had been running through every sprinkler and hose that I saw and was egging kids on to spray me with their water guns, but to just be soaked in freezing cold water? I could not think of any better feeling at that moment. Despite the fact that my entire body was now soaked and my feet were squelching in my shoes, I began to feel my strength returning. It was around this point where I felt like I was starting to pass people. I was still suffering and overheating big time, sure. I just wanted to not be hot any more, yes. But the last 2 miles I really made an effort to run strong and attempt to enjoy myself. Mile 6 was a 7:20 (bringing it back, yeah!) and I finally was like, last mile, just GO. I knew there was an unpleasant hill just before the finish and it was about as unpleasant as advertised, but after that I tried my best to kick it in down the hill, past the gigantic American flag, and to give some sort of smile as I crossed the finish.
I was running behind that guy in the Moldova shirt for most of the last mile, and I just kept reading it over and over...proof of exhaustion hahaha
I was mildly disappointed to not have snuck under 51:00 (official time was 51:09), but primarily I was happy to be no longer running and to still be standing upright. I chugged a water bottle, dumped another one over my head, and then drank some sort of weird cranberry juice thing in the post finish area. After eating a celebratory hot dog, I figured I should attempt to find my way back to my family...unfortunately, the handy map I had drawn for myself had literally disintegrated in my pocket, so I had no clue where I was or where I was supposed to go. I ended up walking for a bit with a girl from Somerville Road Runners and we eventually found our way out of the finish area. My original plan was to do a 4 mile cooldown (HAHAHAHA LOL) but I figured that after all that managing 2 miles was still way better than nothing, so that's what I did.
So...that was Falmouth! I didn't have the greatest race, but I think I can mainly attribute that to the heat. All I heard after crossing the finish line from other runners was "holy shit, that sucked" or "man, I was way off my time" so I know I wasn't the only one who didn't hit the pace I wanted. The race itself is absolutely fantastic and I would absolutely love to do it again - don't think it will be an every year occurence like Boston, but definitely one to keep on the radar. The crowds are great and everyone is incredibly warm and welcoming - the town really embraces the race and it shows. I also think the course really has the potential to be fast if the weather cooperates - my legs felt good out there, and I wished that the rest of my body wasn't melting so I could go along with them!
Falmouth Road Race 2015
7 miles
51:09 (7:18 pace)
458/10782 OA, 117/5905 women, 86/3091 open women (19-39)
The results also had a few fun stats that I kind of enjoyed...
During the first 5K, I passed 182 runners and was passed by 87. At the 5K mark I was in 563rd place. From 5K to 10K, I passed 82 runners and was passed by 28. At the 10K I was in 465th place overall. Between 10K and the finish I passed 18 runners and 2 passed me. So I definitely passed WAY more people than passed me, and based on these stats I actually ran a fairly strong second half compared to people around me in the filed - moving up by over 100 places from 5K to the finish ain't too shabby! When I look at it that way, I'm pretty proud of the fact that I stuck with it and didn't get overly frustrated by how hot/uncomfortable I was - my goal was to just keep running and that's what I did. And now, back to your regularly scheduled marathon training....
Post race = a 3 hour drive over the Sagamore bridge, lots of fried seafood and a lobster roll in Phymouth, and beers at Mayflower Brewery. And also, going to bed at 9:30 pm.
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Marathon training begins, and a quick 5K race report
The transition from "not marathon training" to "marathon training" in the winter always happens so suddenly for me - I'm always training for Boston, so the timeline is the same, and the start of January = the start of marathon training. Done. Fall marathon training, on the other hand, tends to happen more gradually, and this training cycle is no exception. I've been racing a lot for fun this summer, which I think has been great in terms of forcing me to run hard once in awhile, but my weekly mileage hasn't exactly been stellar (an average of about 28 miles/week tends to be the comfy point that I revert to when out of marathon training season). But this week, when I added up my planned mileage and it came mighty close to 50, I realized - holy shit, I'm actually marathon training, AGAIN. Sadly, that means a lot less "racing for fun" type situations and a lot more of what passes for structured training in my book. But before I reverted back to marathon training, I decided it would be fun to run a random 4th of July 5K. It had actually been 2 years since I raced a 5K (unless you count 5K's with my dog, which I don't. My 25 lb pup's 5K PR is 21:56 though, so it's at least a tempo run) and the last 5K I ran was an extremely ill fated 4th of July race which involved 85 degree temps with ridiculous humidity at the start, along with an extremely hilly course. Needless to say, I picked a different race this time around. Joy and I headed over to Lynnfield, picked up our amazing cotton shirts (another $20 race with an amazingly hideous cotton shirt? Perfect!), warmed up a little, and headed to the start. I immediately picked out a couple of women who looked fast, including one woman who would turn out to be a professional runner for Puma and who went on to run a 17 minute 5K...I mean, whoa. The national anthem was sung (kind of can't get away without that on July 4th) and...we were off!
I can sum up this race pretty briefly in stream of consciousness style:
Mile 1 - "OK, this is kind of hard, but it's not SO bad. There are only like 4 women in front of me, hard to complain about that. Gah, I wish I could pass this woman. I wish it wasn't so humid. 6:20. Hey, keep that up, and you can run a PR!"
Mile 2 - "SWEET BABY JESUS WHY ARE WE RUNNING UPHILL?! Why do I feel like I just jumped in a swimming pool? Why is my breathing SO LOUD? I am going to dump that cup of water on my head. This humidity is stupid. I still can't pass that damn woman. I hate 5K's." 6:49...alright, I'll take that.
Mile 3 - "OH GOD WHY DID I DO A 5K WHAT IS THIS? I sound like I am actively dying! This guy in front of me must be ready to murder me! That woman in the purple shirt is long gone. Whatever, she looked out of my age group anyway. WHY IS IT SO HUMID? I think I'm going to throw up. Why am I still running, up a hill no less?! Wait, is that a downhill. We must be almost to the finish. GO FASTER LEGS! 6:53.
My finish time was 20:44, which I believe is my 2nd best road 5K ever. Yup, ever. I was super OK with that. And I am VERY happy to report that my Garmin measured the course as 3.1 miles, on the dot...nice work, Lynnfield. I like you. I also wound up 1st in my age group, after you took out 1st place future Olympian woman. This cemented this summer as my most winning race season of all time, as I took home some sort of award in all 5 races that I ran! Being able to crack the age group placings really will never get old for me, especially when it comes with a decent performance. But man, 5K's? That is a whole different kind of pain. In a longer race you have all kinds of time to play around with pace and solve your problems. In a 5K? It's go out, try to hold on, and see how little you can die. And given the complete lack of speedwork of any sort in my life recently, I think the amount of death I died after going out in 6:20 really wasn't too bad at all. In fact, this race got me thinking that maybe if I wanted to train specifically for it, I could actually run a 5K PR one of these days.
So now, back to the marathon training situation. I like to marathon train on a very 'general' plan - I plan out my long runs in advance and I have a general idea of the weekly mileage/days of running per week I want to shoot for, but other than that? It's kind of a free for all. I generally try to throw in something resembling a workout most weeks - a lot of times, I'll do the workout recommended by my club coaches, but I'll be the first to admit that that doesn't always happen. Sometimes, my legs just feel good and what was originally planned to be an easy run turns into a tempo. Sometimes I just have no desire to do a workout, and so I don't. It's a little bit haphazard and I'll admit that there are times that I wonder whether I couldn't be better if I had a little more structure to my training life, but this "the only thing planned is the long run" situation got me a 5 minute PR in craptastic weather in Boston a few months ago, so it can't be totally horrible. Every training cycle, I do add a couple of new things/goals into the mix to see if they work. For Boston, that was doing strength training 2x/week, which I hope to continue with throughout the summer. This cycle, I have a couple of goals in mind. The first is higher overall weekly mileage, which should be helped significantly by the fact that I really want to get in a midweek medium long run of 8-12 miles, everrrrry week. The other is that I live ~2 miles away from Fresh Pond, and every Saturday they host very informal races that are either 1 (2.5 miles) or 2 (5 miles) laps of the pond. I really have NO excuse for not going over there and doing some marathon pace running at least every other weekend.
So that's pretty much the situation here. My next race on the schedule is the Falmouth Road Race, which is kind of a big deal around these parts. After missing the deadline last year, I decided this year to apply to run for the Brain Injury Association of MA team (a cause that, as an outpatient physical therapist working mainly with people who have had a brain injury or stroke, is pretty near to my heart) and I got in! So, for the 2-3 people who read this blog, I will shamelessly plug my fundraising page: http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/AZaferos/FRR2015 . Falmouth will also be an insta-PR for me, since it's a totally weird distance of 7 miles. New England tradition + instant PR..can't argue with that!
I can sum up this race pretty briefly in stream of consciousness style:
Mile 1 - "OK, this is kind of hard, but it's not SO bad. There are only like 4 women in front of me, hard to complain about that. Gah, I wish I could pass this woman. I wish it wasn't so humid. 6:20. Hey, keep that up, and you can run a PR!"
Mile 2 - "SWEET BABY JESUS WHY ARE WE RUNNING UPHILL?! Why do I feel like I just jumped in a swimming pool? Why is my breathing SO LOUD? I am going to dump that cup of water on my head. This humidity is stupid. I still can't pass that damn woman. I hate 5K's." 6:49...alright, I'll take that.
Mile 3 - "OH GOD WHY DID I DO A 5K WHAT IS THIS? I sound like I am actively dying! This guy in front of me must be ready to murder me! That woman in the purple shirt is long gone. Whatever, she looked out of my age group anyway. WHY IS IT SO HUMID? I think I'm going to throw up. Why am I still running, up a hill no less?! Wait, is that a downhill. We must be almost to the finish. GO FASTER LEGS! 6:53.
My finish time was 20:44, which I believe is my 2nd best road 5K ever. Yup, ever. I was super OK with that. And I am VERY happy to report that my Garmin measured the course as 3.1 miles, on the dot...nice work, Lynnfield. I like you. I also wound up 1st in my age group, after you took out 1st place future Olympian woman. This cemented this summer as my most winning race season of all time, as I took home some sort of award in all 5 races that I ran! Being able to crack the age group placings really will never get old for me, especially when it comes with a decent performance. But man, 5K's? That is a whole different kind of pain. In a longer race you have all kinds of time to play around with pace and solve your problems. In a 5K? It's go out, try to hold on, and see how little you can die. And given the complete lack of speedwork of any sort in my life recently, I think the amount of death I died after going out in 6:20 really wasn't too bad at all. In fact, this race got me thinking that maybe if I wanted to train specifically for it, I could actually run a 5K PR one of these days.
Just livin' the dream
So now, back to the marathon training situation. I like to marathon train on a very 'general' plan - I plan out my long runs in advance and I have a general idea of the weekly mileage/days of running per week I want to shoot for, but other than that? It's kind of a free for all. I generally try to throw in something resembling a workout most weeks - a lot of times, I'll do the workout recommended by my club coaches, but I'll be the first to admit that that doesn't always happen. Sometimes, my legs just feel good and what was originally planned to be an easy run turns into a tempo. Sometimes I just have no desire to do a workout, and so I don't. It's a little bit haphazard and I'll admit that there are times that I wonder whether I couldn't be better if I had a little more structure to my training life, but this "the only thing planned is the long run" situation got me a 5 minute PR in craptastic weather in Boston a few months ago, so it can't be totally horrible. Every training cycle, I do add a couple of new things/goals into the mix to see if they work. For Boston, that was doing strength training 2x/week, which I hope to continue with throughout the summer. This cycle, I have a couple of goals in mind. The first is higher overall weekly mileage, which should be helped significantly by the fact that I really want to get in a midweek medium long run of 8-12 miles, everrrrry week. The other is that I live ~2 miles away from Fresh Pond, and every Saturday they host very informal races that are either 1 (2.5 miles) or 2 (5 miles) laps of the pond. I really have NO excuse for not going over there and doing some marathon pace running at least every other weekend.
So that's pretty much the situation here. My next race on the schedule is the Falmouth Road Race, which is kind of a big deal around these parts. After missing the deadline last year, I decided this year to apply to run for the Brain Injury Association of MA team (a cause that, as an outpatient physical therapist working mainly with people who have had a brain injury or stroke, is pretty near to my heart) and I got in! So, for the 2-3 people who read this blog, I will shamelessly plug my fundraising page: http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/AZaferos/FRR2015 . Falmouth will also be an insta-PR for me, since it's a totally weird distance of 7 miles. New England tradition + instant PR..can't argue with that!
Friday, July 03, 2015
Lazy Lobster 10 Mile Race Report
Well, the Summer of Racing is almost over (racing a 4th of July 5K tomorrow) and true marathon training is about to begin again. I've certainly been taking my sweet time writing these race reports, so before I run my next race let me tell you about my last one...quite possibly my favorite race of the summer, the Lazy Lobster 10 Mile. We had picked this race 100% due to the name and the fact that it was fairly inexpensive (I think $40 for the 10 mile)...and so, like half of the Sundays before it, I headed down with Joy to another random New England town. It was the same crew as Newport, only THIS time we all actually got to run the race! Fancy that! It poured all the way to Wareham and was supposed to continue throughout the day, which I was fine with - hey, I'd take rain over just humidity ANY day!
The race was an extremely low key sort of affair - the type of race that starts at a local elementary school and doesn't have chip timing - and we got our race packets and put on Louie the Lazy Lobster (yes, there's a mascot) tattoos with no problem. Pretty much immediately on heading out for a warmup we were completely soaked. The rain actually felt great - it was a muggy, high 70s day - and I kept thinking 'I don't mind this at all..as long as it keeps raining'. We made it back to the starting area where everyone was huddled under an awning, and after a few minutes the race got underway. The race was a fundraiser for MyTeam Triumph, which is a Team Hoyt style program where people with disabilities can participate in races with a guide using custom wheelchairs. Pretty cool program, and there were quite a few teams out despite the ridiculous weather! They headed off first and then it was time for the rest of the field. The 5 and 10 miler were starting at the same time, and I started scoping out the women around me who I would be running with (or not). Two of the faster looking girls up front were doing the 5 miler, and there was only 1 other woman doing the 10 mile lining up with us at the front. The horn sounds, and off we go!
After the dust of the initial 400 meters or so had settled, I found myself running in 3rd position, behind Joy and the woman in the sports bra who had been near the front at the start. I felt like I was running pretty comfortably, and my first mile hit at 6:55 which told me I had not gone out like an idiot! Great success! I wasn't feeling AWESOME but I wasn't feeling weird like last week either, so I guess that was a good sign. Somewhere after the first mile I passed Joy and was just bopping along when my freaking shoe came untied! I don't know if that's ever happened to me before...I always double knot my laces but I guess being wet meant that even that wasn't enough. I literally mumbled 'oh for fuck's sake' under my breath as I stopped and tied it, which seemed to take an hour and about 14 attempts (if my Strava graph is any indication, it actually took about 30 seconds). I kept envisioning a bunch of women passing me during this time period but luckily for me that actually didn't happen; one girl running the 5 mile passed me as well as an older dude, but that was it. Mile 2 was actually still a 7:10 despite the 30 second break; I have a suspicion that after I tied my shoe I took off like a sprinting idiot to try to 'catch up', or whatever. Ah well, what can you do.
Weirdly enough, miles 2-5 were the part of this race that sucked for me. Apparently Taylor had been gaining on me as I tied my shoe and soon after she came absolutely blasting past me. I tried to keep up for awhile but it quickly became apparent that she was not slowing down any time soon. Meanwhile, the rain had stopped and now instead of being cool, I felt like I was being suffocated in a blanket of humidity. I was hot, wet, and sticky (file that under the category of 'things that sound dirty but aren't') and I wasn't really enjoying myself. The 10 milers had to do a little lollipop out and back which is one of my least favorite race course features, not to mention there was a tow truck parked across the course whose driver seemed to have no concept/didn't care about the runners having to splash through a huge puddle in order to go around him. Nothing much of note happened in the next few miles. I was slowing down a little bit, but not as aggressively as at Newport - 7:19, 7:20, 7:27. I was very uncomfortable. During mile 4ish the 10 milers were running with slower 5 milers (because of the lollipop, we were ~1 mile ahead on our course) so I felt like I was passing people, which was nice. I missed a water stop because the guy in front of me got water and the volunteer wasn't quite quick enough (understandable, but at the time I was like c'mon, man!) But I wasn't going to go back for it, so I just kept moving forward.
Somewhere between mile 5-6 I took my Gu in the hopes that it would make me feel better, and surely enough, IT DID! I guess I must have been in need of some salt, because within about 5 minutes I went from "please kill me" to "hey, this pace is fine! Nice and relaxed! How lovely!" And - ta da - I actually started picking it up a little bit as well. Nothing dramatic, but 7:19 was an improvement. Taylor was waaaaay up ahead on the road and I knew I had no chance of catching her, but over the next couple of miles I slowly started reeling in sports bra lady, finally passing here somewhere between mile 6 and 7. By this point it had also started raining again, and that was pretty much all I needed to try to keep the gas on for the next few miles. Winning the race was obviously out of my reach, but I wasn't going to argue with second woman, and right now I was in a position to make that happen. I really didn't want to squander that chance by being afraid to be uncomfortable. Now, really, I didn't have a choice because pretty much the entirety of mile 8 was an extremely gradual but nevertheless present incline. That took my confidence down a notch with a 7:31 mile - c'mon man, marathon pace? What are you doing? With only 2 miles to go I knew that I had to try a little harder. Luckily, at that point the skies COMPLETELY opened up and the steady rain turned into an absolute downpour. In one of my favorite moments of any race ever, a shirtless guy about 50 feet in front of me threw his arms out to the sides and his head up to the sky, just basking in it. It was just one of those things - like, 100 people showed up for this race, not many people are willing to run in this kind of crap, but here we are, the lucky ones, to get to be here and to do this - it was great. The rain kept getting heavier and heavier - to the point where I couldn't see the next runner in front of me and giant puddles were forming in the road. I was definitely ready to be done but at the same time I was having a blast running in this ridiculousness. I hadn't even looked at the net time on my watch in ages, and I'm not good enough at math to be able to figure out what kind of time I was aiming for. I was pleasantly surprised to see 1:12 up on the clock as I headed up the last hill and towards the finish chute. At that particular moment, a giant pack of 5 milers wearing tutus were also turning into the chute. Never mind that they had run half the distance, I was not losing any precious seconds to a pack of people. I SPRINTED around them and into the 10 mile chute, finishing in 1:12:41 and second woman overall.
The race was an extremely low key sort of affair - the type of race that starts at a local elementary school and doesn't have chip timing - and we got our race packets and put on Louie the Lazy Lobster (yes, there's a mascot) tattoos with no problem. Pretty much immediately on heading out for a warmup we were completely soaked. The rain actually felt great - it was a muggy, high 70s day - and I kept thinking 'I don't mind this at all..as long as it keeps raining'. We made it back to the starting area where everyone was huddled under an awning, and after a few minutes the race got underway. The race was a fundraiser for MyTeam Triumph, which is a Team Hoyt style program where people with disabilities can participate in races with a guide using custom wheelchairs. Pretty cool program, and there were quite a few teams out despite the ridiculous weather! They headed off first and then it was time for the rest of the field. The 5 and 10 miler were starting at the same time, and I started scoping out the women around me who I would be running with (or not). Two of the faster looking girls up front were doing the 5 miler, and there was only 1 other woman doing the 10 mile lining up with us at the front. The horn sounds, and off we go!
After the dust of the initial 400 meters or so had settled, I found myself running in 3rd position, behind Joy and the woman in the sports bra who had been near the front at the start. I felt like I was running pretty comfortably, and my first mile hit at 6:55 which told me I had not gone out like an idiot! Great success! I wasn't feeling AWESOME but I wasn't feeling weird like last week either, so I guess that was a good sign. Somewhere after the first mile I passed Joy and was just bopping along when my freaking shoe came untied! I don't know if that's ever happened to me before...I always double knot my laces but I guess being wet meant that even that wasn't enough. I literally mumbled 'oh for fuck's sake' under my breath as I stopped and tied it, which seemed to take an hour and about 14 attempts (if my Strava graph is any indication, it actually took about 30 seconds). I kept envisioning a bunch of women passing me during this time period but luckily for me that actually didn't happen; one girl running the 5 mile passed me as well as an older dude, but that was it. Mile 2 was actually still a 7:10 despite the 30 second break; I have a suspicion that after I tied my shoe I took off like a sprinting idiot to try to 'catch up', or whatever. Ah well, what can you do.
Weirdly enough, miles 2-5 were the part of this race that sucked for me. Apparently Taylor had been gaining on me as I tied my shoe and soon after she came absolutely blasting past me. I tried to keep up for awhile but it quickly became apparent that she was not slowing down any time soon. Meanwhile, the rain had stopped and now instead of being cool, I felt like I was being suffocated in a blanket of humidity. I was hot, wet, and sticky (file that under the category of 'things that sound dirty but aren't') and I wasn't really enjoying myself. The 10 milers had to do a little lollipop out and back which is one of my least favorite race course features, not to mention there was a tow truck parked across the course whose driver seemed to have no concept/didn't care about the runners having to splash through a huge puddle in order to go around him. Nothing much of note happened in the next few miles. I was slowing down a little bit, but not as aggressively as at Newport - 7:19, 7:20, 7:27. I was very uncomfortable. During mile 4ish the 10 milers were running with slower 5 milers (because of the lollipop, we were ~1 mile ahead on our course) so I felt like I was passing people, which was nice. I missed a water stop because the guy in front of me got water and the volunteer wasn't quite quick enough (understandable, but at the time I was like c'mon, man!) But I wasn't going to go back for it, so I just kept moving forward.
Somewhere between mile 5-6 I took my Gu in the hopes that it would make me feel better, and surely enough, IT DID! I guess I must have been in need of some salt, because within about 5 minutes I went from "please kill me" to "hey, this pace is fine! Nice and relaxed! How lovely!" And - ta da - I actually started picking it up a little bit as well. Nothing dramatic, but 7:19 was an improvement. Taylor was waaaaay up ahead on the road and I knew I had no chance of catching her, but over the next couple of miles I slowly started reeling in sports bra lady, finally passing here somewhere between mile 6 and 7. By this point it had also started raining again, and that was pretty much all I needed to try to keep the gas on for the next few miles. Winning the race was obviously out of my reach, but I wasn't going to argue with second woman, and right now I was in a position to make that happen. I really didn't want to squander that chance by being afraid to be uncomfortable. Now, really, I didn't have a choice because pretty much the entirety of mile 8 was an extremely gradual but nevertheless present incline. That took my confidence down a notch with a 7:31 mile - c'mon man, marathon pace? What are you doing? With only 2 miles to go I knew that I had to try a little harder. Luckily, at that point the skies COMPLETELY opened up and the steady rain turned into an absolute downpour. In one of my favorite moments of any race ever, a shirtless guy about 50 feet in front of me threw his arms out to the sides and his head up to the sky, just basking in it. It was just one of those things - like, 100 people showed up for this race, not many people are willing to run in this kind of crap, but here we are, the lucky ones, to get to be here and to do this - it was great. The rain kept getting heavier and heavier - to the point where I couldn't see the next runner in front of me and giant puddles were forming in the road. I was definitely ready to be done but at the same time I was having a blast running in this ridiculousness. I hadn't even looked at the net time on my watch in ages, and I'm not good enough at math to be able to figure out what kind of time I was aiming for. I was pleasantly surprised to see 1:12 up on the clock as I headed up the last hill and towards the finish chute. At that particular moment, a giant pack of 5 milers wearing tutus were also turning into the chute. Never mind that they had run half the distance, I was not losing any precious seconds to a pack of people. I SPRINTED around them and into the 10 mile chute, finishing in 1:12:41 and second woman overall.
Not me, but this is how hard it was raining about 5 minutes before I finished
I congratulated Taylor, who had come in about a minute ahead of me, and then turned to see Dana coming in - she had passed sports bra lady, and GBTC went 1-2-3...woo! Since we are typically the "b-team" of our squad when it comes to Grand Prix races it was kind of exciting to be able to get some top prizes. Sports bra lady was next, followed shortly by Joy - all in all, a pretty impressive showing! We headed out to cooldown and cheer on a new member of our crew before heading back to FINALLY change into dry clothes. I also drank a bottle of apple/cranberry juice that pretty much tasted like it had been sent straight down from heaven...good call on the juice, race management, good call.
GBTC FTW!
Essential post race selfie with Joy, with our Louie tattoos hahaha
After drying off we headed back outside (into yet more rain) and huddled under the food tent waiting for awards - because we ALL won awards! I was completely shocked to get not only a medal, but a GPS watch for being 2nd overall woman (top 3 M/F got them). I mean, guys! This is not a big race - I was beyond pumped. For me, the excitement of managing to place in the top 3 women overall isn't diminished at all by the fact that the race was smaller. It's all about who shows up! Being able to be in a position where it's possible to take home some awards, even if it's only in smaller races, is such a cool thing, and I never want to make that less meaningful by thinking "oh, well if it were a bigger race, I wouldn't have won anything".
Favorites with our winnings
The one and ONLY disappointing thing about the day was that after the race, we went to this random little BBQ place in Carver (which was completely amazing - I got a hot dog WITH PULLED PORK ON IT. What is my life.) But the sad part that was I was somehow so tired and distracted and not thinking that I left my favorite running had (pictured above) at the restaurant! Wahhhhh! What's funny is I got that hat from pretty much the worst race of my life, a 6K in which I sprained my ankle, fell, and ran a completely embarassing time. But you know what, I LOVED that hat! Oh well - at least it got some redemption during today's race. As a sidenote, I just looked up the race and discovered IT DOESN'T EVEN EXIST ANYMORE! So I will never be able to find another 6K hat. Oh well. Anyway, the BBQ was delicious, and Joy and I finished off the day after getting back to Boston with a flight at Aeronaut Brewery...because really, what is summer racing without beer afterward?
All in all, it was a really fabulous day. I ran fairly well; I am clearly not in racing shape and I think these 10 milers have been a really good kick in the pants to be like 'hey...you know...you can't just do easy 5 milers every day and expect to run well..." Despite that, it wasn't a BAD performance at all - hey, it's a PR - and while I think that in peak shape I could definitely run a 10 miler in sub-7 pace, I can't complain too much about 7:16. Also, the race itself was just SO GREAT - what a breath of fresh air after the clusterfuck of two weeks ago. I seriously think small races are the way to go - they care about the runners, not about having some gigantic event. The course was actually the right distance (THANK YOU), we got men/women specific tech shirts as well as finisher pint glasses, medals with glitter and a bottle opener on them, and then wooden medals for AG awards as well as the GPS watches for top 3. I think that's the most swag I've taken home from any race, EVER, let alone a tiny little 10 miler. The proceeds all went to a good cause, and it was really just a great experience. My only negative would possibly be the traffic control out on the course - there wasn't really signage saying "hey, race going on!" or a lane of cones or anything, so I don't feel like cars had a great awareness of the fact that they might have to move over for a second. That being said, the roads where the race was run were REALLY quiet, so there wasn't necessarily enough traffic to warrant closing the roads or anything. The course was pretty enjoyable - basically your quintessential rural New England race through quiet roads and trees, rolling hills, but nothing too insane. I definitely plan to make this one a yearly summer tradition!
Lazy Lobster 10M
1:12:41 (7:16 pace) actual PR
8/118 OA, 2/68 F
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Newport 10 Mile Race Report
A couple of weeks ago I ran the Newport 10 Mile race with a few friends in Rhode Island. While it was a great day in the end and a decent race for me all things considered, this race was a lesson in several ways:
-why bigger races are NOT always better
-why double digit races in the off season are no joke
-Rhode Island isn't flat
-short courses are the bane of my existence
-why having a good race director really really matters
The race was in Newport (aka a ~1:20 drive) and started at 8 am, which meant an EXTREMELY early start on race morning. I stayed the night at Joy's and we were on the road by 5:30. Things were going smoothly and we were WAY ahead of schedule until we got about 2.5 miles out from the race start...at which point we ran headfirst into a wall of stopped traffic. All of which were people trying to navigate the bottleneck of roads that lead into the race parking lot. We encountered this wall of traffic at maybe 7:10 or so and didn't park until 7:40. It was a hot. freaking. mess. Taylor and Dana had called to let us know they were about 20 minutes back from us, and given the traffic nightmare it was looking less and less likely that they were going to make it to the start line. Joy and I literally had time to hit a porta potty, grab our numbers and shirts (cotton, and the wrong size...seriously races, what's the point of asking people what shirt size they want if you're not going to honor it?! I signed up over a month in advance, so there's really no excuse...) and go to the line. With zero fanfare we were off at 8 am on the dot, with Taylor and Dana nowhere in sight. Shit.
Regardless, I started running and immediately felt like total trash. My legs felt shaky and weak, my breathing was all off, and I felt like I had way too much adrenaline running through me wondering if my teammates were going to make it to the start of the race. About 3 minutes in, I saw Taylor on the side of the road waving and yelling "WE'RE NOT GONNA MAKE IT, SORRY!" I felt terrible - I mean, to drive all the way down there and then miss the start by a few minutes because of poorly organized parking? Kind of unacceptable. It was too late to worry about them too much, however, because I now had my own problems to worry about, like how I was going to survive a 10 mile race that was already looking hotter and hillier than I would have liked. My first mile was 6:44, too fast, but not completely outside the realm of sanity. It wasn't so much my split that worried me as how I felt - TERRIBLE. The shaky feeling hadn't worn off and I was already starting to feel the classic dehydrated dead leg feeling, which at 1 mile in is obviously a bad sign.
-why bigger races are NOT always better
-why double digit races in the off season are no joke
-Rhode Island isn't flat
-short courses are the bane of my existence
-why having a good race director really really matters
The race was in Newport (aka a ~1:20 drive) and started at 8 am, which meant an EXTREMELY early start on race morning. I stayed the night at Joy's and we were on the road by 5:30. Things were going smoothly and we were WAY ahead of schedule until we got about 2.5 miles out from the race start...at which point we ran headfirst into a wall of stopped traffic. All of which were people trying to navigate the bottleneck of roads that lead into the race parking lot. We encountered this wall of traffic at maybe 7:10 or so and didn't park until 7:40. It was a hot. freaking. mess. Taylor and Dana had called to let us know they were about 20 minutes back from us, and given the traffic nightmare it was looking less and less likely that they were going to make it to the start line. Joy and I literally had time to hit a porta potty, grab our numbers and shirts (cotton, and the wrong size...seriously races, what's the point of asking people what shirt size they want if you're not going to honor it?! I signed up over a month in advance, so there's really no excuse...) and go to the line. With zero fanfare we were off at 8 am on the dot, with Taylor and Dana nowhere in sight. Shit.
Regardless, I started running and immediately felt like total trash. My legs felt shaky and weak, my breathing was all off, and I felt like I had way too much adrenaline running through me wondering if my teammates were going to make it to the start of the race. About 3 minutes in, I saw Taylor on the side of the road waving and yelling "WE'RE NOT GONNA MAKE IT, SORRY!" I felt terrible - I mean, to drive all the way down there and then miss the start by a few minutes because of poorly organized parking? Kind of unacceptable. It was too late to worry about them too much, however, because I now had my own problems to worry about, like how I was going to survive a 10 mile race that was already looking hotter and hillier than I would have liked. My first mile was 6:44, too fast, but not completely outside the realm of sanity. It wasn't so much my split that worried me as how I felt - TERRIBLE. The shaky feeling hadn't worn off and I was already starting to feel the classic dehydrated dead leg feeling, which at 1 mile in is obviously a bad sign.
Way too early in the race to be feeling as uncomfortable as I am.
We continued on, and I tried to get myself to just chill the eff out. Relax! Look at the ocean! Something, anything, to distract myself from the blazing sunshine and how crappy I was already feeling. Admittedly the first part of the course was lovely - we were up on a road looking out over the ocean and with the sun shining it was really beautiful. My second mile was a 7:08, and I didn't really feel like I had slowed down all that much. Aw, damn. It's going to be one of those days, isn't it? I passed Joy just after mile 2, and she yelled something at me and pointed at the ocean. I'm pretty sure I just yelled something like "THIS SUCKS!" I'm such a nice person when I'm struggling in races...hahaha. She told me later that at that point in the race she was thinking "oh shit" because she had run a half marathon on this part of the route, and she knew that the next 4 miles were pretty much nonstop hills. I am VERY thankful that I didn't know that information at the time, because if I had I would have seriously considered turning around and going back to the start. The next 4 miles were absolutely horrible. It's been awhile since I've had a race where I really felt bad early, and admittedly I deserved this one because my training since Boston has been pretty lacking in any distance over 6 miles. Still, though, knowing that you're not in distance racing shape is one thing and actually experiencing it is another. Every single mile marker I had to talk myself into getting to the next one, and I continued to slow down. 7:08, 7:21, 7:29....woof.
"I do not like what is happening right now"
I knew I was dehydrated, and the water stations were way too far apart for me to remedy that situation. I was having all sorts of strange sensations; at one point my knees all of a sudden felt cold, at another I felt like I was hyperventilating - it was just a hot mess. On top of that was the ongoing sensation of my legs feeling like they were about .1 seconds from collapse, and the relentless hills certainly weren't helping that situation. Looking at the course map from my GPS, it's not like we ever gained a TON of elevation - most of the miles were net uphill only 10-30 ft - but it wasn't so much that we were continuously climbing as the rollers just never seemed to stop. Despite my body's protests, I kept running. I kept slowing down - 7:38 for mile 6. I didn't particularly care about running fast anymore, I just cared about survival. Finally just after mile 6 we turned onto a slight downhill/flat on a residential street that was SHADED for the first time on the entire course. I had just grabbed some water, Shake It Off came on my ipod (perks of summer/non-goal racing = I can bring my jams if I feel like it) and I started to feel just a tiny bit better. Not really better enough to speed up by much, but better enough to feel like I was actually moving forward instead of dragging my withered carcass down the road. 7:31 - better. I saw Taylor and Dana at mile 7, and they yelled at me "all downhill from here!". Um. LIES. The next mile saw 3 steep spiky hills in a row which brought me down a notch from my nice shady street. At this point we were finally close enough that I wasn't too worried about slowing down any further, but I was a little sick of insult being added to injury with the neverending hills. That mile was back up to a 7:37, but the following mile had more downhill and I was finally able to pick it back up a little bit with a 7:23. The finish was nearly in sight, and in the last mile of the race I finally, randomly, got it together and decided to race. I passed one girl heading up the (evil) hill back into the state park, and then gradually hunted down another between 9 and 9.5. The last mile seemed to take an ETERNITY...which made it all the worse when I snuck a peek at my watch as I approached the finish and saw that it was only at 9.7x. Meaning that the last, eternal mile...wasn't even a full mile?! [I can't figure out how to copy my finish photo from RaceWire in here, but it's hilarious - I look SO. ANNOYED.]
The distance that I wound up with on my GPS was 9.86 miles - and I get it, GPS error is a thing - but if everyone on Strava who linked to the race got something between 9.7-9.9 miles, and the error is THAT big? I'm pretty sure the course was short. And that irritated me, because if you're hosting a race I feel like you really have ONE job, and that's to provide a course that is the distance you say it is, that's safe and is timed properly. Bare bones of a race, that's it. This was a large (2000+), well advertised, fairly expensive race - and you're telling me you couldn't be bothered to check the distance of the course and move your finish line back 200 m (which, with the setup they had, would have been really easy to do) accordingly? Maybe this is just me being a grouchy elitist semi-competitive runner, but that just irked me big time.
Joy came in a couple minutes after me, and we wandered off to change and go cool down. My left high hamstring that tends to flare up when I'm riding the struggle bus (I think weird things happen to my form when I'm fatigued, particularly when I'm also hot) was really bothering me, and I was still dehydrated, hungry, and in a grumpy mood regarding the course. My mood took a turn for the better when on our cooldown we passed a farm full of LLAMAS, and then ran into Taylor and Dana so we could all bitch about the organizational problem that the morning had been together.
Cows and llamas!
It's OK, only 2 of us actually got to run the race, but we still love eachother (and llamas)
By the time we had made our way back to the parking lot my hamstring had loosened up and I was generally in better spirits about life. I happened to get the email that "results are up, woo!" on my phone and looked to find out that I had gotten 4TH in my age group -ugggh, the worst place! Joy had gotten 2nd in her AG, so we headed back to see if awards were still going on. Of course, given the way things had been going that morning, we had just missed her age group, but it gets even better - she went up to let the people at the table know that she had just missed the announcement...and they told her that they had LOST the awards for her age group. [Come to find out a week later, they had actually just given it out to the wrong person...which is cool...]. By this point we had had enough of the ridiculousness and it was time for a beer. While enjoying my Harpoon UFO I happened to look at the results again and they had been corrected - I was 3rd in my age group after all, and 11th overall woman. This was a SHOCK - after such a crappy race, I couldn't believe that I had still placed in the top 1% of women. I was still annoyed about the short course and all of the other logistical errors, but the fact that I had managed to be fairly competitive in the field did help to make up for it a little bit. Although supposedly my award was mailed out 10 days ago...so we shall see if it ever actually finds its way to me.
The rest of the day made everything worth it - relaxing on the water, going to brunch in Newport, and checking out Newport Storm brewery with Joy. It's a new biweekly summer tradition - race + food + brewery!
Things I am OK with.
All in all, it was a good day. Honestly, I don't think I would do this race again - it was just too expensive and far away for the number of problems that there were. I'm actually really sad that I feel that way, because it's a GORGEOUS destination at a good time in the summer for a 'fun' 10 miler, and the course was really beautiful despite being tough. The company that puts it on is a "marketing" company, not a strictly race management company, and I think that really showed. I've run races big and small that were much better managed, and while I would have given them some leeway if this were a first year race, to not have parking/logistics figured out by year 3 isn't really OK. This might be a fun race for someone to do as their very first 10 mile, but as a race for a competitive runner I didn't think it quite stacked up. It seemed like there was more time put into designing a flashy logo and website than actually doing the basic tasks that in my opinion, need to be there in a race of this size (accurate course, awards given out accurately, a setup that allows runners to get to the start line on time, and an accurately sized shirt wouldn't hurt). The course itself was great - traffic was well managed, the volunteers were fantastic, and I have nothing bad to say about anyone who helped out at the event - it just wasn't as professionally run as I was expecting it to be given how cool the website looked and the way the race was advertised. Anyway, I'm running yet another 10 miler this weekend (apparently 2015 is the year of making multiple attempts at random distances) so maybe I'll get a chance to legitimize this PR!
Newport 10M
1:12:18 (7:13 pace, 7:19 pace per Garmin)
63/2110 overall, 11/1522 women, 3/252 F25-29
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Harpoon 5M Race Report
A couple weeks ago now (as I write this in an airport in Indy on my way home from a conference) I ran what I will now refer to as the BEST RACE EVER - the Harpoon 5 Miler. There’s a lottery to get into the race, and my friends and I finally caught on to the fact that your odds of getting in are significantly increased if you register as a “6-Pack” team - so the “Pool-Noodles” were born, and we did indeed get in! I’ve been excited about this race ever since we found out, not because I anticipated running a really stellar 5 miler (doubtful) but because It looked like a super fun race with a beerfest at the brewery afterwards - yes please! This is my kind of race! Add to that the fact that it raises money for ALS research, and I was 100% sold. I headed over to the brewery bright and early on Sunday morning, and it was already WARM - maybe not hot, but 70+ and sunny is definitely the warmest weather I’ve run in so far this year. Since the race draws 4500 runners, I was a little bit concerned about packet pickup/bag drop/etc being a little bit of a clusterfuck, and was very pleasantly surprised when I managed to pick up my bib, hit the porta potty, and drop my bag in about 15 minutes...Harpoon volunteers were on point! I met up with the rest of the team: Joy, Alyse, Dana, Allison, and Jen - and then headed off to warm up for a few minutes with Dana. I felt decent on the warmup but still had no outstanding expectations about my ability to race well. And in all seriousness, I really didn’t care about individually racing well in this race, as long as I was able to be a contributor for our team. Because, you see, after looking at the results from past years, we realized that we had a solid chance to take a top 3 team spot, and I did NOT want to be the one to blow that for us!
By far the most stressful part of the morning was trying to make our way to the start. Out of the 4500 runners at this race, only maybe 500 or so are really competitive, so the 6 of us knew we needed to get to the front, STAT. This meant bobbing and weaving awkwardly through a crowd of people that did not seem to be moving at all...as it turned out, that was because they hadn’t actually opened the gates for everyone to get to the start yet, but how were we supposed to know that? Eventually we managed to make our way through the crowds and to about the 5th row back from the start, near a crew of Cambridge Running Club girls who we were immediately eying up as competition. We bopped around the starting line for a few minutes and then...we were off!
So...the race. I did not run the smartest race of my life here. I went out in what seemed to be a totally reasonable pace but which actually turned out to be a 6:23 mile. And yeah, I was feeling it. I totally got caught up in the crowd mentality and the idea of “I WANT TO COMPETE TODAY!” which I suppose in a way is good, but I could already tell when I hit the 1 mile mark that I was working wayyyyy too hard to sustain. Add to that the fact that I was already extremely warm, and I was already a little bit concerned that I was going to have an unpleasant next 4 miles. “Damn it, Zaferos”, I thought as I headed into the second mile, “why did you have to go and be an idiot?” It was actually sort of interesting - when I ran the 10K last week, I know I said I forgot how to run hard and have gotten way too used to going out “relaxed”. At this race I DEFINITELY did not go out relaxed and I’m not sure if it was the right choice either. There’s gotta be a happy medium somewhere! If 6:55 is ‘relaxed’ and 6:23 is ‘hard’...maybe I should be going out in like, 6:40? Hah.
Almost immediately into mile 2 I started feeling baaaad. I thought at the time that I hadn’t dropped too far off pace (I had), but I was no longer enjoying myself. I tried to use some mind voodoo to convince myself that I was relaxed, but the combination of the heat and my fast start weren’t allowing those tricks to work. Things were not improved when a few minutes later Dana and Allison passed me, both looking really strong….and here I was, riding the pain train at like mile 1.5. Argh. I kept trucking. We headed over a bridge and down a long straight away, and I tried to keep the red singlets of my teammates in my sights. I was conscious of the fact that I was slowing down, and I actually missed the 2-mile split on my Garmin, but I was closing in on 13:30 by the 2 mile clock and I knew that could only mean one thing - I was back in 7:xx range, and at mile 2 of the race, that was definitely not a good thing (this split was a 6:59).
I tried to pull it together, but my mental monologue at this point of the race was unfortunately going down a path of self-destruction. Ugh, you suck. It’s so hot. Why did you go out so fast, you idiot? People are passing you. If you’re already slowing down at mile 2, there’s no way this is getting any better. It was the polar opposite of the 10K, where I felt like I was a little TOO comfortable but I really couldn’t convince myself to go any faster. Here, I was nowhere NEAR comfortable, and I felt like for the pace I was running, I should feel like I could speed up...and I couldn’t. (Newsflash: that’s what happens when you haven’t done speedwork in 6 weeks and have been only running 25 miles per week since your marathon a month ago! Derp!) We headed into a park which I took to be the turnaround point, and thankfully also ran into a bit of shade. Now that I knew I was halfway, I tried to shift my mindset - OK, so you slowed down. Well, don’t slow down any MORE. Maintain, maintain, maintain got me through the park, and as we turned back towards home I realized just how many people I was ahead of. The pack in my area was pretty sparse on the side of the road heading back; meanwhile it looked like a stampede heading out into the loop. I allowed myself a moment to appreciate and be grateful for the fact that despite feeling like hell, I was able to still be ahead of all of those people!
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| Everything is hard |
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| Dana is in my sights |
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| So glad that's over
Joy and Jen came cruising into the finish not long after Dana and I, and with that our entire team was done! Alyse had come in 2nd overall with Allison not too far back from her, and we had a good feeling about our chances at winning the women's team award, which had been exactly what we set out to do in this race. We grabbed a beer and hung out in the sun for a bit before heading over to the awards ceremony. The awards for this race are amazing ceramic steins, and we all REALLY wanted those steins (you also won free beer, but that was secondary compared to the steins). I felt like I was back at a dance competition waiting for the results to be announced. They read off the 3rd and 2nd place teams and finally announced first place - we had indeed won! The 6 of us screamed ridiculously which also brought me right back to dance competition times, and we went up to get our awards with huge grins on our faces.
Pool noodles, victorious!
The rest of the day was extremely enjoyable - since the race was held at a brewery, there was obviously a beer festival afterwards, and there are few things better than enjoying a few cold ones with great friends after running to victory on a gorgeous sunny day. Joy, Dana and I wound up heading over to Lawn on D to grab some food truck food for lunch and lay out in the sun for a bit before finally heading home. All in all, it was a fantastic day, and one that I came home from just feeling fulfilled and happy. This race definitely reminded me of how enjoyable it is to run for a TEAM - for your own personal time to be less important that your place, and the team winning making up for any problems in your own performance. I was proud of myself for pulling it together in the last mile of the race to get back up with Dana, and even though that wasn't the difference between us winning and getting second (we won by several minutes), it COULD have been, and the fact that I was able to mentally step up because of that made me feel good. It's also something that I've been realizing over and over this summer - how lucky we are to be able to do this! And to be fast enough to go into a race as a team and think, 'you know, guys, I think we can win the team competition', and then do it! To have friends who are passionate about running and training, but just as passionate about enjoying a beer afterwards. These are my people, and I'm so lucky to have them and to have this sport that I love doing, and am not too bad at doing either.
Harpoon 5 mile
33:39
180/4313 OA, 34/2489 F, 21/1053 F20-29
1/68 female teams
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