You know why I love half-marathons?  It’s a long enough race to feel accomplished…but not so long that you cannot walk the next day (a la marathons).  Anyway, I’m feeling just peachy this morning…excited that the weather is BEEEEEautiful.  I have a very wonderful Sunday planned out: a little bike ride (30ish mi), a little recovery run (7ish mi), and a looong trip to the dog park.

But, here goes the race report…

Pre-race: Noah and I drove down to Savannah Friday evening (ok, Noah drove and I was a bad co-pilot…spending the whole drive on my Iphone).  We grabbed our race packets out on Tybee and did the 30 sec perusal of the teeny tiny expo.  And ventured back out to the car.  At which point the sky had opened up and we got drenched.  But, better the night before the race than the morning of.  We dined at Macaroni Grill and made our way out to my aunt and uncle’s house to settle in for the night.

The next morning, we left the house at 6:45 thinking that would be plenty of time for Starbucks, parking, walking to the start, visiting the portapotties, and dropping off our gear check bags.  We were wrong.  For a minute there, I really thought I was going to be running 13.1 with my gear bag in hand.  Fortunately, we got it all done…but were stuck at the very back of the start.

Miles 1-3: 7:40/7:32/7:26

The first mile was spent dodging people and weaving in and out of the crowd to get around the walkers and slower runners.  As always, I tried to relax into the pace.  The first mile or two are always hard for me because I’m not in a groove yet.  But, once I got to mile 3, I was feeling great the pace was relaxed and easy.

Miles 4-6: 7:16/7:29/7:31

I think Mile four is extra speedy because I saw one of my super duper fast running buddies.  Seeing people I know always gives me a little burst of energy.  Other than that, these are the end of the “relax” miles.  I always break down my half marathons into three mental segments: miles 1-6, miles 7-10, and the last 5K.  So, miles 4-6 I want the pace to still feel like an easy-ish effort.  However, at this point we started feeling the 20-30mph wind gusts coming off the ocean.  The wind made the pace harder, so I did like any good cyclist would do, and tucked in behind a couple people and drafted (again I lament the shame in not being able to draft on the bike in a tri…) The benefit of “drafting” while running isn’t all that great; and is probably more mental than anything else.  But, during this chunk of the race my sole goal is to preserve mental and physical energy.

Miles 7-9: 7:34/7:24/7:35

These are the tough ones.  These are the “move” miles.  People start dropping off, and that is when I make my move.   The avg pace may not be any different, but I’m primarily making up places.  I usually try to be a little more aggressive with my pace during these miles, but I was a little scared to be more aggressive for fear of dying in the last 5K.  Next time though…

Miles 10-12: 7:35/7:25/7:36

At mile 10, I looked over to a girl that I’d been running with for about 6 miles and proclaimed “10K to go!”  Clearly meaning 5K.  But, 10 miles in, the lactic acid was in my brain.  And, well, we all know how brains function on acid.  She looked at my with tears in her eyes…and said “NO, no.  Not 10K.  5K!!!”  (Oops.) These are the “hang on” miles.  Just tick off each mile and hang on for dear life.  I kind of like this part of the race.  People succumbing to the lactic acid and pain.  And just picking them off as I stay strong (I really like passing people, if you can’t tell).

Miles 13-nubbin-mile: 7:41/0:43 (7:12/mi)

My garmin had the course a little long, but I finished strong.  Saw one of my running buddies as I was sprinting/trying to sprint to the finish line.  That gave me a little boost.  But, finished strong.  Could I have gone a little faster?  Maybe?  Did I puke from overexertion? No.

Oficial Stats:

• Time: 1:39:19
• Pace: 7:35
• AG: 7/128
• Overall: 129/1236

Garmin Stats (stopped at 13.1mi…course was long):

• Time: 1:38:35
• Avg Split: 7:31
• HRM: 181

Overall Thoughts: I guess I did a lot of fluctuation between 7:20s and 7:30s (save the first and last mile).  It seems a little inconsistent (though maybe not inconsistent in the grand scheme of things) but I’m not sure how much of the pacing had to do with the wind.  All in all, a good race.  Though.

Thinks I could have done better: I’ll be honest, I’m actually pretty happy with my race.  I stayed confident, stayed aggressive, I stayed positive.  I went out steady and maintained a steadish pace.  I think the one thing that may help in the future is to have some calorie intake on the course.  This was an oversight from rushing through the morning.

Okay, question time: what are your super bowl plans?! (I’m going to be watching the Puppy Bowl)

And now, to go enjoy the sun with the pup.