30 degrees. No wind.
| Mile 1 |
7:13 |
| Mile 2 |
9:13 |
| Mile 3 |
7:50 |
| Mile 4 |
7:43 |
| Mile 5 |
7:46 |
| Mile 6 |
7:39 |
| Mile 7 |
7:48 |
| Mile 8 |
7:24 |
| Mile 9 |
7:25 |
| Mile 10 |
7:38 |
| Mile 11 |
7:38 |
| Mile 12 |
7:29 |
| Mile 13 |
7:24 |
| Mile 13.2 |
7:02 |
My garmin actually had 13.2 miles, so I used that for calculating averages.
Overall average pace (ap) = 7:42
First half (6.6 miles ) total time= 52:05, ap=7:53
Second half (6.6 miles) total time =49:30, ap=7:30
-Miles 1-2 ap =8:13
-Miles 3-7 ap =7:45
-Miles 8-13 ap =7:29
In one word: Bittersweet. I'm disappointed with how I executed the race, but I'm proud that I recovered so well especially after mile 8... heck, I'm proud I just finished considering at one point I thought about quitting!
This week I started thinking I wanted to do a sub 1:40 which would have been 7:30 pace. I still think that would have been realistic had I done a better job with strategy in the beginning. Basically, I started out WAY TOO FAST the first 2 miles and ruined my first half. I met up with Emily and decided to run with her. Stupid. We ran together last week's 12 miler at 7:35 pace... which was like a race for me and easy for her. She ran a half marathon 2 weeks ago at 1:34:17 (7:10 pace). Today her time was 1:33:50. She's just out of my league at this point in time. Maybe one day I'll get up there with her....
Anyways, I ran the first 1.75 miles ranging between 6:45 and 7:20 pace. What was I thinking? It wasn't my goal to run 1:30 to 1:35 and I knew I wasn't capable of that! Why did I do this?! Regardless, even at that pace, all these women were passing me... It was freaking me out. Maybe some were the 10k people, but there were really alot faster women in this race than in many of my previous races. I kept watching my watch and seeing fast times and it wasn't good enough to keep up with Emily or these other girls.
Then all of a sudden, I became aware that my heart was beating too fast... scary fast. My legs felt like they were made of lead too. It was hard to move. Maybe in actuality, the issue with my legs was the cold weather, but at the time my mental state had me convinced that my body was shutting down. I was spooked. I tried to slow down but even at an 8:30 pace, my heart still was going crazy. I can't remember ever feeling this way before... it was scary. I should have done a warm-up! Idiot! Why didn't I just stick to the 7:30 plan? I really thought I was going to throw up.
So I decided to stop and "stretch" at mile 1.75. Embarrassing. Not even mile 2. Not even to the first water stop! Amateur. I stopped for maybe 2 minutes... maybe longer... and caught my breath. I considered quitting. My car was only 1.75 miles away.... Then I thought about how much I'd beat myself up if I did that. How would I explain to my friends about why I quit? A fake injury? How stupid. So I decided that even if I have to run a 9 min pace the rest of the way, I'm finishing this thing. I just had to calm down and relax. I never looked at my watch again for the rest of the race.
When I rejoined the race, I figured I was now running with the people who were going about an 8 minute pace. It was much less stressful back there. No one else passed me the rest of the race. Actually, I was passing tons of people. No matter what the pace, passing people is much more enjoyable than being passed... BUT I still felt ruined and uncomfortable aerobically until around mile 8.
Mile 8 - I would say I kinda felt like I "woke up". All of a sudden, I felt like myself again. I started noticing the scenery and I started thinking about speeding up. My times after mile 8 got much better. Around mile 12, I started really hurting. I pushed on. I struggled with my ipod until I found Lady Gaga. I've got 3 of her songs in a row and in the past they've been motivating in crutch time. Today, I decided the songs are losing their effect... I need to change my ipod.
Literally, the only thing that motivated me during the last 1.1 miles was that I told myself that as soon as I finished I could throw up. The thought of that was really exciting. I kept saying to myself... just 1/2 mile until you can puke... just the distance of one lap around a track until you can puke... it was my mantra. But I finished strong in the end. The final sprint into the chute was 6:12 pace. I didn't end up throwing up after all. However, here I am 4 hours after finishing and I feel awful.
So overall, a painful race. Technically, the time wasn't too bad. I just got way too ambitious and ruined it. I think if I had started at 7:40 pace, I would have improved my overall time by at least 2 minutes... probably would have gotten sub 1:40 like I wanted. Live and learn I guess.
I ended up as the 6th place overall female. The first place girl was 1:31: something. Emily was second with 1:33:50. I was 3rd in my 30-34 age group... 1st in my age group had a time of 1:39:something.
Honestly, I'm confused about why the pace those first two miles did that to me. I didn't feel like I was going to throw up during my 5k on Thanksgiving where I running 7:00 pace. Maybe the cold today just got to me. Maybe I haven't been training enough lately. I've got think about it some more. | 