Race Flashback: 2011 Fox Cities Half Marathon

Well, I guess I have procrastinated long enough with writing this post… I finally got rid of the pain in my calf so hopefully I can now write this without sounding like I will never sign up for another half marathon again

Last Sunday I finished my third official half marathon and with my best time to date – 2:06:15!  But it was still a little bit more of a struggle than I was hoping it would be but I guess that means I have more room for improvement, right?

At the starting line

We started out the weekend by heading to Appleton on Saturday night to try to get in some shopping while in town but surprise, surprise, my stomach decided not to feel very good that day so that kind of put a damper on the shopping interest  But we still did manage to do a little bit and stopped at Outback for dinner – one baked potato and one sweet potato counts as carbo loading, right??  Plus I had some cereal and other snacks before bed.  Probably not my most filling pre run food but since I was not feeling good, I did not have much of an appetite so it was hard to try to be interested in eating.  We also had a bit of a struggle figuring out where out hotel was :S – We thought it was in one location and got there only to find out that that place was called the Comfort Inn and we were trying to find the County Inn and Suites – oh we struggle with hotels in Appleton!!  But eventually we did find the hotel and get checked in!  I managed to sleep really well that night although I woke up before 4am so it was clearly not long enough!

I had my pre-run breakfast of coffee, banana, rice cake and almond butter and lots of water.  Let that digest a bit and then we were off to head to the starting line.  I think we left the hotel shortly after 6am for the 7am start.  Once we got there, I waited for a turn at the porta johns and then wound through the crowds to find my “starting corral.”  They had three starting corrals – A = under 2 hour finish, B = 2:00-2:30 finish and C = over 2:30 finish.  It was actually kind of funny they tried this and I am not really sure if it worked or not??  But regardless, I crossed the finish line at about 7:02!  I started off feeling pretty good – my iPod started freaking out though so I had no idea if I was going 8:19 or 10:43 minute miles – thanks technology… pretty sure I was not switching between those speeds really… Finally at around 3 miles, I decided to try to ignore the iPod and just go what pace I thought I should be going.  Also at Mile 3 I saw my friend Rachel waving and cheering from outside her apartment and also my cheer squad of my mom and sister

Hi!

I felt really good until about mile 8 and then for some reason, just Freaked Out!  I think it had something to do with the facts that last year in Appleton, at this point, my stomach started feeling really bad and I was worrying about if I would finish and then for Summerfest, I pretty much felt like a total failure at this point and had to sit by the side of the road, feeling like I was dying… but somehow I just kept trucking along.  My pace slowed pretty considerably at this point and I ended up taking a few walking breaks but was still going at about 9:45-10:00/mile pace.  I also got hit by a really weird and really severe side cramp at Mile 10.  For whatever reason, I ended up grabbing a glass of plain water from the volunteers to drink to supplement my homemade gatorade drink and it was like an instant knife to my side… Needless to say, those last 3.1 miles hurt so bad!

I think it was about Mile 12 that I got really discouraged and thought I was totally failing to the max but my sister came up to me and jogged along with me a few minutes and held my water bottle so my arm could rest and did the math for me and told me that I still had 18 minutes to finish one mile in order to finish in less time than last year so this helped rally me to put in the last gas I had to push to the finish line.  A few more walking breaks still followed but I feel like I finished that last mile really fast.  I still have yet to look at my splits because I know it is going to be EMbarrassing… After all the stupid little things that got in the way of me feeling super good about this race, I still finished about 6 minutes faster than last year!  And considering how much room I feel like there is for improvement, I have a feeling I could, someday, maybe, finish in under 2:00!?!?!  But I won’t get my hopes up…

Done and SORE!

With the sista

How did I feel the next day you might ask??  Well, to be honest, not very good.  I was somehow running while heal striking which I have been trying for the last 4 months to STOP and yet still my muscle memory took over during fatigue and I ended up heal striking… so my calves hurt SO BAD!!  And did not really stop hurting until today.  I ran two very slow, read like 11 minute miles, Monday to try to help recovery and then ended up being super lazy all week long… I had the sister get me a foam roller finally to try to get the soreness out.  I am not 100% sure it worked but I still kind of like the massage it gives my sore muscles  Hopefully this week I will be back up for my regular running routine.  I was a bit worried for a few days there that I was never going to like running again because it hurt so darn bad.  But luckily I am back in the land of the walking/running!  Now if only I can forget the fact that I decided to sign up for another half in like one month… but I have already decided this one will have NO pressure.  I’ll do what I can do and my main goal will just be to feel good the whole time if that is possible!  And hopefully my stupid stomach will finally start behaving one of these days so I can properly eat before running to see if that makes and difference!  Yeesh…

Hopefully now that I am running and working out again this week, I will be more inclined to post a few times throughout the week, but then again, maybe not  Yikes for the start of another week…

About these ads