October 2017 Running Challenge

katharmonic wrote: »

10/1/17 Wineglass Half Marathon, 13.1 miles, 2:17:13

You guys, what a day. We had a lovely day on Saturday at the race expo and pasta dinner. The guy who is race director for the Boston Marathon, Dave McGillverey, was the speaker and it was a pretty inspiring program. We also sat with some super interesting people, including a guy who had done 64 marathons (he thought) and a woman who ran the last 5 miles or so of a marathon in just her socks because her new shoes were giving her blisters. She'd also done like 29 marathons.

I slept pretty poorly and was still suffering from my cold a bit, and the alarm came so early. It was COLD at the start, at only about 35 degrees F. We had to bus to the start and it was quite a bit of logistics and standing in the cold. I had decided to do the 2:15 finish pace group, which was pretty nerve-wracking as I've never run with a pacer and didn't know if I could hang with that pace. Well, even before I had a chance to find out, things took a bit of wrong turn when I tripped over an unseen cone in the road in the massive swarm of people moving toward the starting line. Before I even got to the start! I fell hard, because I totally didn't see it coming, and bruised and scraped both knees and hit my right hip and ribs as well (I think my arm was trapped against my ribs). I was too startled to find myself on the ground to do much more than jump back up and try to get going (and not get run over). A few people asked if I was okay and I just said yes, because I didn't want to think about the alternative.

So, I just went! I tried not to look too much at my knees and just let the adrenaline of the start kind of carry me through. It didn't seem so bad, so I felt like I could at least finish, if not manage my hoped-for PR. I didn't want to talk myself into letting that goal go already though so I kept the pacer in sight and concentrated on one foot in front of the other.

Things went pretty well for about the first 7-8 miles, and I was consistently about the same distance behind the pacer, and the time was actually a little ahead of pace, so I was pleased. Then I started feeling tired and it was getting hard to keep up. My pace was slipping and I started to lose the pace group. But I knew I was still ahead of the 2:20 group so I kept trying to at least push it a little more and not give up completely. Miles 10 and 11 were tough, and my slowest paces. When I got to the 12 mile mark I gave myself a final kick in the figurative pants (no energy for actual kicking, and knees to sore). I managed to get the last mile back down and even sprint for the end. That finish line kept moving away from me, I swear, but finally I crossed and my watch was saying about 2:17, although I didn't see the race clock well enough to know how accurate that was but I hoped it was close. The official time ended up being 2:17:13, which was a 3-minute PR for me. I was very happy but of course wonder if I hadn't thrown myself on the ground to start how much better I could have done. Seriously very excited though.

As soon as I stopped, I got feeling back in my knees and they were screaming. My hip and ribs also. I got some water and chocolate milk and then kept moving so I wouldn't freeze up. I went back to the finish line and watched for my friend to finish. She also got a new PR and was super excited. When she saw my knees she was horrified but thought it was pretty badass. We got some food and then I went to the medical tent to get cleaned up. They were so nice there! They weren't busy because I think the cool weather was working in their favor. But while I was in there, the first female finisher for the marathon came in and she looked like she was going to collapse. She was okay, but wow what effort she must have put in.

In good news, I didn't think about my cold at all during this run It was long drive home and I was happy to get cleaned up and now am resting and icing. Tomorrow is going to be a challenge.