Turtles Can Run

I’ve only had 2 races where I feel like I fell apart, they both  happened on warm, high humidity days. So when I awoke on race morning and the temperature said in the mid to high 60s with 90-100% (yes accuweather said 100%) humidity I wasn’t exactly thrilled.  But instead of adjusting my race plan and starting off a little slower I stuck with my goal pace (7:38).  I felt good for the first few miles and according to the race results when I passed the mid mark my average pace was exactly 7:38.  But my wheels came off very quickly after that.  My pace went from 7:30s to 8:30s.   I usually do have a really bad mile somewhere in the middle of a half marathon but can usually recover.  But I was never able to get my pace back up, in fact I started to go even slower.  Around mile 9 I threw my water bottle because my hand was cramping from holding it and I thought I would be able to run faster without it.  But having to stop at the water stations slowed me down even more and when the cold water hit my gut my stomach started cramping up.  My stomach was cramping the night before and into ther morning hours because of the  dinner I ate.   But up until this point in the race didn’t effect my running.   Everytime I tried to run fast the cramping got worse and forced me to walk a few seconds to lessen the pain.

People were passing left and right and I couldn’t even tap into my competitive nature and try to catch them or at least make them work to pass me.  My legs would not turnover and the cramps wouldn’t let up.  I think the last mile was the worst.  I was so upset by the end I just grabbed my medal and told my husband I was ready to go.

This makes bad race experience number 3 for me and this one stung the worse.  Not only did I not meet my goal of 1:40, I ran slower (5 minutes slower) than my PR which I did while having some pretty painful ITB issues.   Official time 1:48:31.  I trained hard for this one but kind of feel like I peaked a couple of weeks ago.  The weather and the stomach problems were definitely an factor but I was feeling a little overtrained the past couple of weeks and even with an easy training week did not feel as energized as I usually do before a big race.  My confidence was also down and doubted I could do it.  Much of running is a mental battle and I feel I lost that battle during this race.

I am ready to chill for a while.  My daughter and I will be doing a 5K in a couple of weeks and we have a family 5K planned as well.  No races for me though, at least not for a while.  I will be doing a fall marathon but after this race am doubting that I will be able to meet my goal of a BQ.

Now that I’ve told you how horrible I did let me just say a few words about the race.  The course was flat and had some nice tree lined stretches in the beginning and the end.  Crossing over the lake was also nice.  I do think the course was longer than it was supposed to be and not just because my watch said it was 13.3 miles and I couldn’t wait to stop running but because map my run said it was 13.22 miles long.  I loved all the schwag (tech T, socks, mug, medal, reusable bag). Great course support, plenty of water and gatorade to go around (at least when I ran by).  Cold rags and plenty of food at the finish..hot dogs, chips, cookies, soda, water, jamba juice which was nice.  Free massages too,  always a bonus.  I would do this race again and hope for better weather and hopefully not be  over-trained next time.

Here are some pictures of the race..Thanks to my wonderful husband for taking them.

Filed under: Races, Running Blog