1.25 miles warmup, 8:24/mi, HR 135. 13.1 race in 1:28:28, 8:41/mi, HR 176. Splits: 6:16, 6:30, 6:13, 6:29, 7:55, 6:48, 6:03, 6:57, 6:57, 6:38, 6:26, 6:57, 6:57, 1:20.
*** Fair warning.....this is a long read! ***
Today's story begins yesterday when I had to drive the ~300 miles round-trip to attend the "expo" and pickup my race packet (no day of race registration). A gorgeous day (70+ degrees) equaled horrendous traffic ~ 8.5 hours total and put me into a foul mood. I flirted with the idea of completely bagging the race at some points in the drive but I'd already paid the race fees and, well, I'm cheap. When I arrived to packet pickup, I found the expo to be relatively small (took about 2 minutes to walk through the entire ordeal) and wondered why the race director could not have setup a day-of-race packet pickup? Then I made it home just in time to tackle some lawn mowing before the rains returned and the grass in our backyard became taller than I was. So race morning started at 3:30 am, about 2.5 hours earlier than I like to wake up. Normal race day jitters + being home alone (Dianna was at Mom's Weekend visiting Ashley) = about 5 hours sleep...not good. But managed to prep the dogs for their day home alone and got out the door by 4 am. Traffic was not nearly as bad at 4 am and I made it to the race location by around 6:45am. Better early than late. I considered driving the course since I was early but decided not to for two reasons....first, I was enmeshed in race day parking and needed to find a restroom and second, I wasn't sure I wanted to know about all of the hills. I'd specifically selected this race for it's hilly course to better prepare myself mentally and physically for the marathon next month. So I wound up mistiming some things and only wound up with 1.25 miles warmup but found myself lined up and ready for the 8:30 am start. Unfortunately, it didn'r start until around 8:38 am for some "course maintenance" which turned into "allowing people to get lined up". Evidently no one read the memo to race directors indicating that putting the porta-potties downstream from the start was a bad idea? Oh well. My pre-race goal was to run a 1:24. I'd no idea how completely stupid this was until later but this meant I was aiming for a 6:25/mi pace. In the back of my mind, I was thinking to run between 6:20 and 6:25 miles, adjusted for the terrain. I figured I'd open things up on the downhills and pay the price on the uphills. Boy, was I right on the second part. So finally the start. After a short downhill section, we were headed back uphill and this is probably where I made my first mistake. I was trying to keep the lead pack, escorted by a motorcycle and police car, in sight, so after cresting the hill at about 0.5 and heading back down on the gradual downhill, I found myself running at a sub-6 minute pace. No warning bells were ringing yet....I figured I was making up time from the uphill stretch. The lead group hit the first turn ahead at a T intersection.....the police car turned left while the motorcycle went right. The group minus one runner followed to the left and I watched with some distracted amusement as the other runner took several steps towards the left turn, then backtracked to catch the lead group running right. The importance of this minor event would become clear later. So mile 1in 6:16 (still no alarm bells), mile 2 in 6:30, mile 3 in 6:13. We're headed down towards the water so much of this is now downhill. I'm wondering the mile markers are all on the left hand side of the road and I can't read them? And why is the aid station setup on the other side of the road? They call out that they'll see us again in a while. This section of the race isn't on closed roads so that makes no sense. Maybe there's a loop that runs us past here I don't remember? Hmmm.....But I continue trying to keep my pace on the flats around the 6:20-6:25 mark. Unfortunately, we're picking up some nasty head/cross-winds coming off the water. Mile 4 in 6:29. A definite headwind component now feels like it's standing me up at times and this part is hard. The runners trailing the lead pack (which is now a few minute ahead) are strung out in a line and there's no one to work with. It's somewhere along this stretch that I realize we're running the wrong course....the ocean is supposed to be off our left side, not our right. Our route isn't matching up in my mind with the one I downloaded from the race website. Most tellingly, I watch the lead motorcycle do a 180, drive back several hundred feet (the lead pack keeps going thankfully), stop, turn around again, and resume the lead. At this point, several curse words I rarely use are running through my mind as I ask myself how the heck this could happen. Which is what I'm doing until we hit the big hill. I say big hill not because of the size (250+ feet) but rather because of the incline...it looked like we'd need some rappelling gear to ascend it. Mile 5 came headed up this hill...7:55. Ouch. About this time with the little O2 I had remaining that I was already in bad shape and the wheels were already coming off. Passed here by two runners towards the top of the hill that sounded like they were barely breathing while I'm wondering if I could really transition to a 0.5-0.5 breathing pattern. Passed by another runner who's been shadowing me for some time but I mark him and think I can retake him on the downhill section (we traded leads on a previous uphill/downhill stretch). After finishing the climb we started back down a long gradual downhill. Mile 6 came in 6:48 so I managed to make up some ground lost on the hill. Mile 7 was all downhill in 6:03 as I tried to take as much advantage of the downhill as possible.
I started seeing runners headed in the opposite direction now in singles and pairs. It slowly dawns on me that they are half-marathoners running the correct course and as I pass the runner shadowing me I learn that we're running the course in reverse. What does this mean? Am I going to be DQ'ed for running the wrong way while just following the lead group who was following the lead vehicle? I am in uncharted territory and am simultaneously demoralized and furious. I do my best to get my head together and press on trying desperately to keep the runner ahead of me in sight. Just after the mile 7 marker, we make a turn and start heading back uphill. Now the other runners are a flood, filling 1/2 of the road. Unfortunately, that is supposed to be the road I'm running on to so it becomes half race/half-dodge person. This road is 1/2 open and there are intermittent cars headed my direction. After a while of this, I decided to move to the right shoulder where at least I'm only worried about the cars instead of both cars and other runners. The uphill is taking its toll...Mile 8 comes in 6:57. I'm getting some cheers from the runners headed downhill, some questioning looks, and a couple of "What race are you running?" but all I have energy for is breathing and moving my legs. I am hurting badly here and thoughts of stopping and walking or quitting altogether are coming regularly now. I push them back as much as possible and keep my head down, focusing on trying to stay as relaxed as possible and chewing up this long long hill. Mile 9 in 6:57 too. Finally reaching the top of the long gradual hill I try to stretch it out to increase the pace a bit....no response from my body. I try coaxing, cursing, cajoling.....all I can manage is a 6:38 for mile 10. And this is where I get chicked. I heard the runner gaining on me slowly but surely up the hill and frankly didn't care but now I do. She's running well and I can barely tell she's working hard while I feel like I'm completely falling apart. She actually passes me at a turn where I got a bit confused and slowed briefly to question a volunteer on which direction to go having lost sight of the runners ahead on the hill. So part of me is glad to have someone to follow and I try my best to not let her get away from me. Another gradual downhill stretch (6:26, mile 11) followed by a looming uphill and she pulls steadily away. I hit mile 12 in 6:57 and some uphill and downhill components to mile 13 in 6:57 (what's with 6:57s? I don't know) and feel like I'm on the death march. I see the lead full-marathon runner who looks much better than I trudging alone up a hill and wonder how the heck he can be so far along on this brutal course? Completely in awe of his effort I sacrifice some much needed O2 to call out some inane encouragement his way which elicits a look but not much else, so in retrospect, perhaps he wasn't doing as well as I'd thought? 2:43:37, which on this course seems pretty darned good. Anyway, the final stretch routed us into the local high school stadium once around their track (which was some type of wonderful rubberized surface that was easy on the legs). As I headed towards the stadium (uphill of course) I hear a runner (more like a herd of elephants) closing fast from behind so despite feeling like I was redlined already I surged. The 3/4 track lap nearly turned into a puke run (lets call it a dry-heave run) and I came across the finish in 1:28:28, one second ahead of the other runner who turned out to be the one I traded positions with earlier in the race. Final split was 1:20 (all splits according to Garmin and it recorded the course a 13.22).
So I missed my target (1:24) and missed setting a PR (1:26:15). Combined with my weekend thus far, the "course snafu", lack of sleep, etc. I was in a state. Okay, so now add a helping of "no race medals in sight", "food/beverage station not yet setup", and dropping temps/starting rain, and I was downright POed. Food started slowly showing up but the race medals didn't show up until I was halfway to my car for some warmer clothes. Of course, the race medals were now being given out at the finish line, which was at the start of a one-way flow of bodies as the main half-marathon running force was now finishing, so I had to dodge some suddenly appeared race volunteers who didn't seem to care that I hadn't received my race medal in order to get to the finish (again), show my number and get my medal. I briefly flirted with hanging out for the awards ceremony wondering if I'd perhaps taken an AG award but the increasing rain and cold helped make that decision for me and I started back on my 3 hour return home drive. After getting some time and distance from the race and letting emotions cool for a while, I've thought about several take-aways from this race: 1. I need to know the race course and should be able to navigate it on my own. Yes, races are responsible for setting up the course, providing support, etc. and there's no excuse for what happened this time around, I should've known better. No reason I shouldn't have recognized the wrong turn for what it was and made the correct turn myself. I've got a choice email I'm going to write to the Race Director but that doesn't absolve me of my responsibility to know where the heck I'm running. Our little detour cost me.....I basically ran on the outside of the loop instead of the inside (left turns instead of right turns) which added small but significant distance to the overall effort. Plus, the monster hill would've been replaced by a more gradual (and longer) uphill if I would've gone the right way. Last, on the windy stretch, it would've been a nice tailwind instead of a brutal headwind.
2. I can't defy the Laws of Physics just because I train on hills. A flat course will always be faster than a hilly course, period. Well, okay, so a *downhill* course might be faster, but if it's a loop course, the flat course wins. You can never regain *all* of the time lost on the uphills on the downhills. Now that I've accepted this, I need to figure out how to better plan races on hilly terrain. I need to figure this out quick since my marathon next month is on a rolling course. 3. Going out too fast is disastrous. How many times must I learn this lesson? To be fair, going out too slow is bad too because you wind up at the finish knowing you probably could run a faster time by just pushing it a bit more earlier, but running too fast too early does not work. The problem is figuring out what too fast is. I see now that the course and weather conditions yesterday were not conducive to the 6:16 mile I ran early in the race. 4. Running/racing needs to be fun. Somewhere along the way I lost that this weekend. I showed up at the starting line depressed, tired, mad...anything but ready to have fun. My only focus was on PRing and running a time that showed my training was paying off, that I'd get my sub-3 next month, everything but enjoyment. And I don't run well if I'm not having fun, so I need to readjust myself and my attitude. 5. People need to be held accountable. I need to hold myself accountable for those things I'm responsible for this weekend. The race staff needs to be held accountable for their small but important glitches. The race medal situation? Come on. Once the gun goes off, you know you've got just over an hour before the medals are needed. Have them at the finish and ready to award to the finishers. Same with the food. I paid $60 to run the race...I expect the race to be well executed. A few minor mistakes, okay. One major mistake, not good but okay. Several big errors? No excuses. So that's it. Definitely a learning experience. I'm really trying not to be disappointed or upset too badly by this race but I'd be lying if I said I was not unhappy about it. But I need to learn these lessons and move on. And most importantly start enjoying myself again. Which I intend to do with a nice 30 minute recovery run today. Brooks Adrenaline (Yellow) - 486.93 miles. | 