Chip time 1:41:23
Race distance according to my Garmin =13.34 miles
Average pace for first 7 miles =7:36/m
Average pace for last 6 miles=7:38/m
| Mile 1 |
7:34 |
| Mile 2 |
7:38 |
| Mile 3 |
7:39 |
| Mile 4 |
7:32 |
| Mile 5 |
7:43 |
| Mile 6 |
7:37 |
| Mile 7 |
7:32 |
| Mile 8 |
7:35 |
| Mile 9 |
7:54 |
| Mile 10 |
7:33 |
| Mile 11 |
7:38 |
| Mile 12 |
7:45 |
| Mile 13 |
7:28 |
| Final .34 mile |
7:41 pace |
I had a great race today. Better than expected. I haven't been running that many miles lately so I assumed I wasn't going to be able to do as well as the half that I ran on Dec 18th (where I ran a 1:41:30). It was a surprise to finish with about the same time. Actually, today's race was alot more hilly than that other race AND everyone's garmin had it longer at about 13.3 miles long... therefore, I think today I actually did better than the Dec 18th race.
Today was really hilly... mostly gentle rolling hills but there was one "nice" hill. I don't think there was any part of the course that was flat... we were always going up or down. ELEVATION MAP ---> http://www.wellsphere.com/endurance-training-article/lake-benbrook-half-marathon-pr/596227
The hills didn't really bother me until around mile 9. I started having a mental problem in the 9th mile... thinking that the race was hard... that 4 more miles seemed SOOOO far.... I should have run more miles to prepare for this race... I'm not in good enough shape for this... what if I aggrevate my IT Band on these hills...
Then it occured to me that I needed to SHUT UP. I found this song on my ipod that seemed to pump me up and I played it over and over and over and over. I started focusing on the people in front of me. Several guys in front of me were slowing down in the final miles so I started passing them and that really improved my mental state. Actually, now that I think of it... not a single person passed me the entire race.
I saw this girl in pink ahead of me when there was about 2 miles left. She was probably about 2 football fields ahead at the time. I started focusing on her trying to catch up. She looked like she was getting weak. Some men were passing her so I thought she was slowing down. I was able to catch up in the final part. There was fairly challenging hill (er, well, challenging after running 13 miles) in the final .3 mile. I sprinted as fast as I could up that hill at the end (which was apparently a 7:41 pace) and I finished almost dead even with her. I found out later that I actually did squeak it out.... My Gun Time was listed as 1:41:30.3 and hers was 1:41:30.7... so by the skin of my teeth.
I think that song that I was repeating was what made all the difference this race. It's called "C'mon" by Tiesto and Diplo. I loaded it on my ipod last night. I have never even heard it before. Never heard of the artists. I just went to the itunes store to the "Dance" charts and saw this song featuring Busta Rhymes with a fast beat and on a whim I loaded it to my ipod. I LOVE IT! I think it's the perfect running fast song. I really recommend it!!!! It's kinda a techno song with some fast paced rapping. He repeats "Catch 'em by surprise" over and over. This became my mantra while I was passing people. He also says the following over and over... "c'mon" ... "Let's Go" ... "Hold em off" ... "hypnotize" .... "Let's go... we're going to fly"... VERY FAST tempo song. | 