New Half PR, Sub 1:30!!, EWEB Run to Stay Warm

This is my third attempt posting. Blogger is not happy with me. Sorry if i confused anyone :)!!
100% mental
I was a little unsure of whether or not to race this week, due to some unavoidable life-junk. But on the way to the race, I tried to stay focused on the fact that only I can control if I have a good race...

It's all about perspective.

Who decides for you whether you will have a successful race? Control the mind and you have the game won. I decided, while in the car, that I would make the best of it.  Regardless of how the numbers turned out, I would choose to be satisfied with my best effort. It would be a waste of a day, otherwise.

Pre-race
Pre-race I ate oatmeal and had coffee with milk and sugar, and an hour before the race I *drank about 6 ounces of Gatorade. I had about 4 hours of sleep due to kiddos (do all parents have one kid that insists on sleeping on your head?), but had a VERY restful week leading up to the race with tons of sleep- (6 days of 8 hours a night). I had also tanked up on hot liquids and cold liquids all week, including chicken broth the day before.

I arrived at EWEB (Eugene Water and Electric Board) at about 7:30 for the 9 AM race. This race is a fundraiser for EWEB's "Customer Care" program, making sure that people with financial hardship can have power to their homes. It was featured as a "Race of the Month" in Runner'sWorld magazine, November 2011. This was my third year doing the Run to Stay warm half, which also hosts a 10k and 5k.

The packet pick-up was well organized and I was able to get my packet and use the porta-pots several times. I also spent some time in my car with the engine running to stay warm, listening to music, praying and doing some self-talk.

At about 8:15 I went for a warm up of less than a mile. I am glad I did this because it took forever to get my Garmin to find the satellites, and it also showed me that I might get warm enough to go down to a singlet (which I did). There was no snow, but we would definitely be running to stay warm today!

The one thing I wanted- truly not in my control- was a friend to see at the race--someone to visit with and enjoy the pre/post-race fun. I was thrilled when I ran into someone I knew! I spotted a friend who I had met at the Eugene Celebration Mile. Perfect. We were both on our own and now had a buddy! We talked goals, froze our butts off in the near-freezing temps, and warmed up (just a little more) with a mini-run.

We both had a great race!!

Shortly after finding Emily, we headed to the race start, which was in a new location this year. I didn't line up in front, since I didn't see any other women.

And we're off!
When the race started, we wound around and back through the courtyard/fountain area, and then on to the paved bike path. Most of the race follows the Willamette River, and is also part of the Eugene Marathon course.

Things began to stretch out a bit and I saw a few faster ladies taking their places ahead of me. I checked my watch and noticed my pace just under 6:50- right where I wanted to be.

My goals, besides just enjoying the race, were

• To be consistent in pacing (no 5k starts). (I wore 2 pace bands)
• Hydrate, if necessary, with the geetah straw- I planned to do this twice.
• Take gels if I felt like I was flagging
• Run the tangents and keep the course as short as I could
• Finish faster than 1:30 if possible, if not, PR if possible..if not that...enjoy knowing I did my BEST.

Mile 1  6:49

We crossed the footbridge and steered right. There are many options for paths here, and there was a course marshal to direct traffic. It got little confusing in other stretches, though. Most of the turns had some white chalk arrows.

Mile 2  6:57

Here, I noticed that my pace had dropped, so I worked to get back into that pace I had before. I never really felt like my rhythm was "clicking" perfectly though, as I do sometimes on my long runs.

As milepost 3 approached, my watch beeped about 20 yards early. Not sure if this was due to misplaced flags, or me not hitting the tangents. There were several turns, but not much traffic.  After this, all the flags were about 20-30 yards after my watch auto-lapped.

Mile 3  6:53

There was also a hairpin turn and a loop near mile 3, after this, I saw all the other racers coming my way. Emily spotted me! We slapped hands as we ran past, and hollered, at each other. Both of us wore BIG smiles!

Around mile 4, the half marathon merged in with the 10K and 5k course, (races started 15 minutes after the half). This got kind of messy.

To add to the confusion of merging paces, racers and strollers, this was also in the same area where there were multiple path options. There was one course marshal I could see, and lots and lots of 10k racers, and very few (if any) half marathoners. I had to trust my gut and go with the flow of traffic, resurrecting memories from the race last year to guide me.

Mile 4  6:48

After getting past the 10k/5k crowd, things thinned out again to virtually nobody. I could hear someone behind me and was curious, but didn't look back. I took some water from a cup (with my straw), without stopping. At this point I was passed by a man in a red shirt. He stopped for water, but I KNEW he would catch me again. I was acting as his pacer, by coincidence.

Mile 5 6:45

The rest of the course I saw very few other racers. I played yo-yo with the guy in the red shirt a few times at the water stops, but I didn't pass anyone again until mile 9 or 10. No one else passed me either.

I spent a lot of time thinking, and giving thanks for the blessings I have.
   I also thought about several people in my life who inspire me.
   I thought about my husband at home, sick.
   I thought about my mom and dad watching my boys for me. Thank you Mom and Dad!!
   I thought about a few other runners, 
   friends with cancer, 
   friends whose kids have medical issues that require surgery. 
   I am incredibly blessed to be healthy and able to run, and I gave thanks for that too.
   And, I thought about trying to catch the guy in the red shirt. 

Mile 6 6:48-Took a Powerbar vanilla gel
Mile 7 6:51
Mile 8 6:48
Mile 9 6:50- passing a water stop
Mile 10 6:42
Mile 11 6:50
Mile 12 6:47 Here I knew I had to pull out any reserve I had left, and surprisingly I had some!
Mile 13 6:42
last .17 5:56 pace

Final: 
1:29:30 official (6:50 avg pace., 6:48 by the watch)
43/453 overall
6th female (first female finished in 1:16:XX)
1st of 39 in age group

Post Race
There were finisher medals this year, and a generous spread for post-race goodies: bagels and cream cheese, bottled drinks, bananas, hot coffee. A raffle was made simple by putting the winning numbers on a board at a hosted snack table.

Why aren't my pants legs the same length?

Awards went out quickly, with medals for male and female age group winners (top 3),  and some gift certificates to the overall top 3 in each gender. I watched as an 8 year-old boy got a medal for finishing under 2 hours in the half, his first, which he ran in some 5-finger type shoes!

There was also an after-party with free lunch at The Cooler, but I didn't go since I remembered The Cooler as a pub, and it was Sunday, and pubs just aren't my scene these days, anyway. :)

A few other thoughts for those interested in doing this race

• Last year this course was certified, but with the change in the start location, I wonder if it was this year.
• The course changes were done "so that all three races will have a common start that doesn’t go out onto the road. The 10k and 5k were long in past years." Now all three races should be accurate.
• The course is supposed to change again, just a bit, next year due to some construction finishing.
• The RD did an excellent job of making things simple and taking care of the registration/packet problems from last year.
• Many faster runners were at this event (The top two females finished in 1:16:xx, 1:17:xx).
• This is a really, really fast, fun course. I like it a LOT, but I don't need crowd support or other people to run with to enjoy a race (though I do like company before and afterwards!!).
• I hope to run this race again, or even the 5k or 10k, but an email I received from Shelly Stephenson at EWEB stated, "Unfortunately, the race will have to continue to be on Sunday because of future home duck games. Next year’s game is a home game again. To keep things consistent, we will keep the event on Sunday." I will have to weigh that out for the future, as I would rather not miss church for a race.

As you can imagine, I am thrilled with a new PR at the half marathon distance! This was a success for me on many levels: 

• I met a time goal
• Executed my race plan well
• Kept positive, and took charge of the MENTAL side of racing
• Came close to the Vdot calculator prediction from my most recent race (40:14 10k). This gives me some hope that I might get close to the predicted marathon time. Ha. Someday...

Special thanks to family and friends who emailed (or texted) encouragements, and helped in a variety of ways over the weekend.  I am honored to have such special people in my life.

Running, More Running and Random stuff. Week 5 of 16 Boston

Running recap for the week
Hubby has the older boys, so I had a rare moment to blog without interruption :)

This week, running presented a few challenges and a few new tricks too. It has been both a TOUGH week and a week of rewards.

Monday AM- easy/peasy recovery run. I feel like I can do 10 in my sleep if that's all that's on the plate right now.

Tuesday- I overslept due to an alarm clock issue. :p
I debated whether or not to run on the treadmill or just wait until the kids went to bed. I went with option 2, as I have a MENTAL block about running more than 5 miles on the TM and had 9 to do- plus the screen is hard to read and I had speed work to do. Hubby thinks the TM might be slipping (but just for him) and I didn't want to take chances. So I left at about 8 PM.
** side note: This is not long enough after dinner for me!! I was gently reminded of what it feels like to have my gut busting up into my lungs, and NO THANK YOU, I will stick to mornings if I can, before breakfast.**

Anyhoo...the moon wasn't out yet and it wasn't getting any lighter, so hubs kindly duct-taped a small flashlight to my hat. RIDICULOUS. Of course, the problem is that once you start moving at all, the hat wants to also.  I must not have a linebacker neck, because my head was raring and wobbling like a bobble-head doll. As soon as I got past the driveway I ripped it off my head and carried it in my hand. I purchased an inexpensive headlamp the following day. Thank you Bi-mart. :)

Continuing with the run... The workout was for 6x5 minutes "hard", whatever that means.
(I just came up with it as a nice idea- something like what I have seen in the Daniels book.) Sounded good.
After a few miles warm up I hit the 5 minutes countdown on El-Watcho (now filled with condensation).
I must say that it is nice not to be restricted to mileposts, and after the 1600's I have had recently, to stop a little earlier. Most of the recoveries were about 200 yards+/-.
Just for kicks, I decided to take #3 as a 1600 instead and had to restart the watch, but finished in 6:04. Nice. Would still like to do a sub 6, though. Finished the entire run as 10.5 miles and in record time. went to bed and woke up to do..

Wednesday AM - Nine-ish miles easy. In my sleep. haha. It felt more like the "Bataan Death March", but I still did allright and without any DOMS- just fatigue.

Thursday AM - I had a looming feeling about fatigue and the planned tempo run. It was supposed to be 6 miles @ 6:52 pace (41:12)..which is close to my PR 10K pace. (So much for not racing during training, huh? )
 I had some serious doubts, as I have not met a few tempo goals due to the large hill on the route. I moved the tempo to a rolling, but not-so-steep area, and somehow managed to do the 6 miles, with two turnarounds, in 40:52. 
**side note: Now I have a few thoughts: Should I have used a gel/sports drink? I haven't been using any except for races, and the last long run before. (My legs flagged at mile 3, but seemed to tap into reserves again, strangely, shortly after that.) And, When is the next 10K around here?  And, this is with back-to-back days with fatigue...should I even bother to rest before a 10K, like I have in the past, or just plow through? Anyway...always wondering about this stuff. **
Total run, just shy of 9 miles. Slow warm up.

Friday AM- I can't even remember...Oh yeah. Nine easy on 4 hours of sleep. Another "Death March" with no specific pain or soreness- just fatigue. I see a pattern evolving here.  Managed to run almost at goal easy pace- a little slow, but not terrible.

Saturday/Today- I shall refer to this run as "The Journey to Mordor and Back" run (referring to Lord of the Rings, Dad). This is the preferred route for the 20 miler, given no injuries.
**side note: I drove out a water bottle the day before and left it at mile 7/13. First time I have done this in months! There were two old nasty bottles waiting for me there. **

   This route involves a gradual ascent, with a few steep descents on the way out, and the opposite coming back. I wore the headlamp and was SEEN, though I had to readjust it a bit and I need to check to see if I have a wound from it pressing on my forehead through the hat. :)
**side note: After 2 years or long distances in the dark, I can't believe I have functioned with only a the moon, a flashing light and reflective vest (dropping off the flashlight at the mailbox). Why didn't I buy one sooner?! **
    I stopped way too many times today- to take off the LS shirt, to go to the bathroom a few times, to get water. I HATE stopping. I need to figure out how to take a shirt off while keeping my vest on. Rrg. Any ideas? Any case. I stop my watch for these short pit stops. And I really try to keep them short.

I am not sure which hobbit I identify most with after today, but I am certain I am not Gandolf. Maybe I have a bit of Golem in me.  Total time running: 2:46:48

Tomorrow I am sleeping in. (except to go to church) And drinking coffee all day.

Some non-running achievements in our house this week:
My oldest, Nathan discovered he can make himself fake-burp. I can see life with boys will only get more interesting... lots of burping and nerf guns.

My youngest discovered onions. He likes them raw. Takes after my mom, I guess :)

And a question, since you might have skipped past all the boring running stuff above: How do you take your coffee?
I tried a new thing today. Coffee + Vanilla powerbar gel (unused from long run) + milk= vanilla latte. ? Not quite, but if I closed my eyes, I was almost sitting in a quaint little book shop sipping espresso.

Does

+

=

?