Lucky 7s - Platte Half Marathon race report

Today is my 7 month running anniversary.  Here's a link to what my very 1st run looked like back on Sept. 15, 2011.   A whooping 1.94 miles - I thought I was going to keel over at mile one and need someone to come recuse me...luckily I was able to shuffle back home on my own.

So, with that number 7 banging around in my head - I had to laugh when I saw my race bib.

seriously - who gets a number like that??

And I did totally luck out today.  The weather forecast had called for 10-14mph headwinds, snow and rain.   Luckily - there was no snow or rain during the race, just the wind - I consider that very lucky.

The quick and dirty:

Goals I was shooting for:
1. racing my heart out - I made a couple of mistakes and I really think I could have gone a little bit harder the last 3 miles - so I'm slightly disappointed in my mental toughness.
2. negative split - I was close.  First 6.55 miles was 1:00:40 - last 6:55 miles 1:00:58, a 18 second difference.
3. sub 2 hour - official time was 2:01:38 ( I made a couple of mistakes that at least cost me a minute) and then I don't think I dug deep enough on the last few miles.

So, I'm alternating from feeling like I let myself down and feeling proud of myself.  This is the longest distance I've ever run.  I feel I executed well for the most part and as a woman my age, racing this distance for this 1st time - that's not too shabby!

All the gory details(for those that are interested):

The plan to obtain the sub 2 hour goal was:  Run the miles 1 -4 very conservative in 9:10 - 9:15 range.  Crank it down for miles 5 - 10 run by PE and hopefully they would be in the 8:50 - 9:00 range and then run as hard as possible and hang on for dear life the last 3 miles.  This is what actually happened...

Miles 1 - 4.  It was crowded.  I started in the 1:55-2:10 wave about a third of the way into the pack. There are 7 turns in miles 1 and 2 - so that slowed things down. - those 2 miles were a little slower than I would have like.  Then at mile 2 we were routed on the multi-use path and it's fairly narrow - so it was better but still crowded.

Miles 5 - 10.  I was feeling pretty good during these miles.  It was windy but whenever I found myself in "no-man's" land, would scope out some guy ahead and then catch up to him and use him as a wind breaker.   I definitely think that helped me conserve energy.  Sadly, it never lasted for long - so I'd go on the hunt for another guy and repeat.  These miles ended up being at a pace I wanted and fairly consistent and I definitely felt I was running within my capacity.

I was carrying my water using a Fuel Belt - 2x7oz bottles and in my hand, carried a small 5oz ergo gel flask with 300 calories of watered-down gel.   Every 30 minutes I sucked down ~100 calories.  I'm a carb burning machine and when racing mtn bikes I take in 300 calories per hour - I was hoping 150 per hour while running would be enough.   I'm thinking I might need to up it to 200 calories per hour.

Miles 11 - 13.1.   I have a friend, that is a very talented and fast runner - I trust this person and really take their advice to heart.  This person has raced a lot - so they know what their talking about.  The advice was when i need something from a aid station to fast walk the aid station or if it's a steep hill, power walk the hill for a 20 or so seconds to recover a bit.

Here's where I made my first mistake.  Just after mile 10 clicked by -I could tell my legs were getting a tad bit cranky - so I pulled out another gel and walked the aid station while I took it in and drank water.   This was my 2nd slowest mile.

When I walked the aid station - I didn't feel like I "HAD" to walk to recover but I felt I "SHOULD" walk it.  Looking back,  I feel I could have keep a slower running pace but still faster than walking. 

I was getting tired but cranked out mile 12 at a 9:18.   After mile 12 is a hill - not super major but major enough.   Here again I took my friend's advice and power walked part of the hill.  Then I asked myself "should I be walking?  can I run this?" and the answer was "of course you can run this!"  So I started running again - this was my slowest mile at 9:47.

One thing I've learned to do very well from mtn biking is active recovery.   When I do a technical power move on a trail - I very often go anaerobic (i.e see stars) but I am able to recover by still riding but at a slower cadence.   Like if a trail has a lot of moves one after the other like this one - you gotta keep the momentum to ride them all...so I've had a lot of "active recovery" practice.


 I NEED to remember this while running.   I should query myself to see if I need to walk or just go into "running active recovery mode".   Lessons learned.  I definitely think I could have run faster on miles 11 & 13.

At 12.5 miles the wind really picked up and I took off my hat to keep it from being blown off...that last bit to the finished HURT.

DONE!  My garmin read 2:01:38 - official time 2:01:38.   I finished 15th out of 80 in my AG. 377 out of 1421 in gender.

Aftermath

I'm alternating between being slightly disappointed and being proud of myself.  I was SO close to my goal, but so far away at the same time.   There is no doubt - I can't wait until the Brooklyn half.

One thing I am VERY happy about is my "de-coupled" rate was 3.38%.   That means my aerobic capacity for this run is very good.  So that means - it's time to work on speed!!

I noticed my 2nd toe on my right foot was hurting.  When I took off my sock - I saw I had a black toenail!   Huh?   I thought that only happened to other people...welcome to the club, eh?

what happens now, will it fall off?

After an ice bath and a sit in the compression boots - I booked to over to Reuben's for a couple of beers and nice bowl of chili!   This place is Belgium beer heaven...yum!

Next weekend - I'll be racing a 25 mile mtn bike race. Using the word "race" loosely...I've been on my mtn bike for the grand total of ONCE this year.   But I am riding in honor of my friend, Kirk (Rocky) Derichsweiler, he supported me at this race last year - Voodoo Fire. I'm making it an annual event to ride in his memory from now on.  It makes me sad to type this...I miss him...

Organ donation saves lives!