The Half Marathon I Didn't Train For

I've talked a little bit on here about how running has been going since the Bellingham Bay Half Marathon, but here's a more detailed summary:

Somewhat consistent. However, if I had planned on training for the Amica Seattle Half Marathon on November 30, my training should have looked something like this:

The blue is what I actually did, the orange is what I should have done. Along with interval, speed, and tempo workouts. Granted, the first week is a little skewed because the Bellingham Half Marathon was on 9/28, so that mileage (13.1) is included in the first week's count.

If I took that out...

The fact that some of my weekly totals were the same distance (a little less if you count that .1!) as the half marathon is really telling.

So, why did I sign up for the Amica Seattle Half Marathon the day before the race? To put it simply, because it was going to be a beautiful sunny day, my sister-in-law was running it, and I had participated the two previous years. Plus I was kind of curious as to how I would do, going into a race under-trained.

Trying to ignore the fact that it was 25 degrees, and my dismal training, here are the results!

My first half marathon in 2011 was my slowest at 2:14:04, so with almost no training whatsoever, I'd say 02:10:17 isn't too shabby!

My sister-in-law, herself- she's the whole reason I ran this! She's the one who ran her first half marathon in October and loved it so much that she immediately signed up for the Seattle Half. We took the above picture about 10 minutes before we started.

The beginning of the race was much better than the second half, for me - Rachel and I knew that we were going to split up, so I went ahead pretty early because I was feeling good. It was going to be a beautiful day, but it was still really cold - under 30 degrees.

At least the view was awesome.

There was still ice in the grass.

But there wasn't a cloud in the sky!

I started feeling pain probably around Mile 9- my hips were really killing me, and my feet started to cramp. Rachel and I talked about it later and realized that was the benefit of training - our feet and our joints would have been trained, as well as our cardiovascular system. I had just never thought about it that way!

29 degrees, 9'36'' pace. Not to bad, but not awesome either. Oh well.. now I really understand the benefit of training.

Bellingham Bay Half Marathon

Saturday began with the long drive up to Bellingham. We rode with Chelsey and Aaron, who picked us up around 2, and after a pit stop to UPS, a detour to the start line (where I thought packet pickup was - whoops!), and finally arriving at the Expo, it was already 5pm! Chelsey and I ran inside, got both our bibs and her friend Larissa's, Chelsey bought a headband, and I grabbed a free packet of Gatorade gels. Score!

We drove over to our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express, about 3 miles away from the start line, to hang out so Chelsey could finish some homework (she just started her MBA!) and to wait for Larissa and her husband, Abel. They brought their cute dog Dexter with them and before we knew it, we were on our way to Olive Garden to carb load it up.

Unfortunately.. Olive Garden was a 40 minute wait. We waited it out, and then when we sat down, it was nearly another 30 minutes before our food was brought to us. We were dying and our eyes were WAY bigger than our stomachs, as we all bought the never-ending pasta bowl.. but barely finished one bowl with how many breadsticks and salad we stuffed ourselves with. Haha! I was so full, but I had my eye on their seasonal pumpkin cheesecake, so I of course had to get it. All in the name of running, right??

After stuffing ourselves silly (JW also got a dessert..!), the girls went to the grocery store so we could pick up a few things, and after getting lost several times (Bellingham is kind of confusing and I'm sorry but Google maps should not put a Safeway on its map if it's "coming soon"), we finally made it back around 10. Well, I was ready to go to SLEEP, so JW and I retired to our room... only to watch 2 hours of Friends. Whoops! This is what happens when you don't have cable at home.. you become transfixed in hotel rooms that do have it!

I ended up going to sleep around 12:15 and though I felt restful, my sleep app says I pretty much moved all night. Oh well! I woke up around 6:52 to get ready to go downstairs and get some breakfast. Larissa needed to be finished eating by 7:30 (2 hours before the race - she cramps at Mile 4 otherwise - I was so impressed by her knowledge of that fact! I wish I was as aware of my body!). I grabbed an english muffin with cream cheese, half a banana, some coffee with creamer, and a Greek yogurt container that was 70 calories. I think I ate the perfect amount, considering how full I still was from Olive Garden the night before!

I went back up to our room around 8 and got ready to go - we were gonna leave at 8:45 and had to check out of our room and move our stuff into the room where the other 4 were staying - the only room that got late checkout. (At least one room got it!) Before we knew it, we were on our way!

We all piled into Larissa's car and the boys dropped us off at the start line around 9. I was weirded out because there weren't a mass of people hanging around - but then I remembered this was only the half marathon, not all the participants. The full and 5K started at 7:30! I was so happy it was only 9am!

We used the port-a-potties (virtually no wait!) and I felt really great after that - I felt like I had eaten just enough and didn't feel weighed down from the pasta or my breakfast. Love it when that happens. It was around here that I started to feel really positive and like I might actually do well at this race. It was about 55 degrees and foggy, but I knew it'd turn sunny soon - it was gonna be a beautiful day! And what more can you ask for, running in beautiful weather with wonderful volunteers and great friends cheering you on?

We got in line, saw where the 1:45 and 2:00 hour pacers were, and got somewhere around the middle. We knew that we were all going to run it at different paces, but we wanted to chat right before the start of the race. We asked someone to take a picture of us:

I was pretty cold when I was packing, and all my capris were dirty, so I ended up wearing the pants pictured above - and I kind of regret it. I also regret wearing long sleeves! I just didn't want to be cold. This picture is kind of awful- I had just handed off my phone to this woman and still had my headphones around my neck, with my water bottle awkwardly not in my hand...?? Oh well!

We got situated, counted down with the rest of the runners, and started moving towards the start line, which doubled as the finish line. Then the gun went off! It had begun - my 4th half marathon!

Almost within the first few steps, I completely lost Larissa - she must have bolted ahead to get right behind the 1:45 pacer - and then within about half a mile, I saw Chelsey up ahead (it's so funny how you can get so separated from people you started out with in races) and passed her with a little wave. It was Chelsey's first half marathon, and she was a little worried about going too fast, so she was trying to stick with 10 minutes/mile.

My goal was just to not hit a wall. I didn't want to feel bad or like the course would never end (like my very first half marathon), and I didn't want to go out too fast (like a lot of my training runs), but I didn't want to be looking at my numbers all the time. To me that's what a race is - constantly running (hah) numbers in my head and doing math. I just didn't want to do any of that this time. I just wanted to feel good... and happy that I was running. I wanted to get the joy back in my running.

So, I started out and focused on not passing people - just running a comfortable pace. I was told there would be water stations every 2 miles, but I found out later that the first water station wasn't until the 2.5 mile marker. The mile markers were on the flags, but there wasn't any wind, so they were all limp - so I had no idea where I was in the race at any time. I had even set my Nike+ to "Basic", so I didn't even get a "Halfway point!" vocal cue like I usually do.

The first and second mile were average 8'54"- obviously much faster than I'm used to - but it's just so funny how the miles felt pretty easy. I ran through the water station and continued on what seemed to be the longest straight road I've ever ran on in my life, and I was getting pretty bored. I was trying to sing along to the songs in my head and keep up with the people in front of me, but I needed something more. Suddenly the 2:00 hour pacer passed me. I knew she had started behind me, so I knew I was screwed to beat 2 hours if she stayed in front of me. I stayed with her for maybe the 4th mile?

I was starting to feel tired, around what I thought was during mile 4 (but it was actually Mile 5) and then suddenly I remembered! I had packed Gatorade gels in my water bottle! Hallelujah! So, you can see in my chart that I started picking up speed after Mile 4 and I definitely think it's because of the Gatorade gels!

Near the halfway point, we were running in this weird little park that had a really narrow trail and tiny rocks everywhere. Definitely not my favorite. We crossed a timing mat in this park, and I was so confused that I had only seen two water stations that I was almost convinced this was the 4.5 mile timing mat (some races have that), and not the halfway. Welp, it was definitely the halfway mark. My halfway time: 0:59:06 - faster than the split last year..! Of course, at that point, I didn't know it.

I slowed way down in the next few miles. As we approached the mile 9 marker, we were nearing where we would finish - we were about to make a smaller loop and come back around the other way - so it was kind of disorienting to hear the spectators and see downtown and some of the marathoners finishing when we still had 4 miles to go. But still, at this point I had no idea what mile I was at. As we passed the mile 9 marker, I finally saw a portion of the limp flag's number having a round bottom. I thought it must be 8 or 9, because there had been 4 water stops, but I erred on the side of it being Mile Marker 8 because I'd rather be pleasantly surprised that I was farther than I thought than be devastated that I had that much farther to go.

After the ambiguous 8/9 mile marker, we entered the large park where the terrain was mostly gravel. This kind of sucked. I saw some marathoners coming back on a path a bit higher than us, so I knew there was some kind of hill. Plus, Larissa had told us there was a hill right along the end (she ran it two years ago), so I knew it would eventually come... didn't make that fact any easier.

Mile markers 9-11 were really beautiful, despite the bad terrain, and I kept a remarkably steady pace. It was right alongside the Bay, and the view was really breathtaking. However, there were spectators, casual runners not wearing a bib (meaning they weren't a part of the race), and casual walkers out for their afternoon stroll on the same trail as all of us. So, I found myself dodging regularly clothed people quite often. Also, I saw three runners down - like, in the process of being put in stretchers. It was pretty scary, but they had people tending to them, so I knew they were being well cared for. Still!

Mile marker 11 - clearly marked - started the uphill, and I lost about 16 seconds in the mile that followed. Granted, I knew I was almost done, but it was mostly uphill until the Mile 12 marker, where there were still some uphills. However, now I knew that there were literally only 1.2 miles to go, so I started to really pick up the pace and start to pick people to pass.

It really gets me that I had so much gas left in the tank, so to speak, at the finish line. As soon as I saw it, which was right at Mile 13, and I had .1 left to go, I just flat out sprinted. And it kind of sucked because the finisher's chute was pretty narrow and kind of crowded- I had to leap over a couple of the metal bars and weave in-between people pretty badly. I saw the clock and I thought it said 1:55- which I was basically SCREAMING in my head, "so close!!" but as I got closer I saw that it actually read 1:58 - but at least I was going to beat 2 hours!! So I gunned it as hard as I could, and crossed the mat at the fastest pace I think I've ever crossed any finishing mat (about a 7'30" pace). I felt so winded after it was over.

Final time: 01:57:58. Just 1 minute, 52 seconds slower than my half marathon PR. Agghhh!

JW watched me cross the finish line, and I talked to him a little bit before I got my water and food. He said - "You were fast" - which was nice to hear, and I'm sure I did look fast since I passed a lot of people near the end... but again, I just wish I hadn't had so much energy left in the end that I could have pulled out much earlier in the race, to potentially get another PR. Ah well.. live and learn!

I refueled with pretzels filled with peanut butter (YUM), and then went to stand with the rest of the group (Larissa beat her personal best by 5 minutes!!) to wait for Chelsey, who we knew would be finishing within the next 15 minutes. Lo and behold- we spotted her and cheered for her while she crossed the finish line! I think this was the first time I had cheered on a friend in a race, so it was really fun!

Though none of us were very hungry, we brunched at the Boundary Bay Brewery & Bistro, and once we got some actual food in our stomachs that weren't gels and pretzels, we felt a lot better.

We hurried back to the car - it was so cold! - and drove back to our hotel where the girls took turns showering and the boys continued what they had been doing all morning - relaxing :). We left the hotel right at 2 and were on our way back to Seattle before we knew it.

It was a great race - great support, great weather, and the course was really beautiful and not too repetitive. Though I do wish I had PRed, I'm very pleasantly surprised with how well I did, considering how training went. I think I would definitely race Bellingham Bay again!

Amica Seattle Half Marathon

I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving break! Mine was filled with wedding planning, running, traveling, and performing. More to come on all that later - but first, my recap of the Amica Seattle Half Marathon!

On Saturday, we went to Seattle to visit the Expo and pick up my race packet. This is one of my favorite Expos - the space is so large so it never feels overcrowded, and there's always tons of vendors that have delicious samples. I really should look up races I want to run and then to go expos to sign up, because they're usually heavily discounted.

I was SO excited to see the Flipbelt being sold! JW and I immediately tried them on and bought them. It was my belated birthday present :)

We got home, I went to Snowflake Lane, and then I came home to start mentally preparing and setting things up for the next morning.

For some reason, it was so hard to focus on the next day. I had no idea what I should wear, or what the weather was going to be like - I had heard rain, no rain, snow... gah! So I laid out the pants that I wore on the Turkey Trot, the orange long sleeve Seattle Marathon shirt, another shirt on top of that, my zip up vest, ear muffs, gloves... could you tell I was cold as I was trying to decide?? I bought some Clif Shot Bloks and put them with my stuff, and made the decision to not bring my water bottle since I was going to try just having the fit belt as my only extra gear.

The next morning, on Sunday December 1st, I woke up at 5:15 to leave by 5:45. I was really worried about parking and wasn't sure where I was going to go- last year I had to pay $15 to park in a lot, so that sucked. I was planning on parking near my friend's apartment. I had one thought on my mind: Have fun, and get in under two hours.

I checked the weather - 52 degrees. 52! That's apparently scientifically proven perfect running weather... or something. I decided to only wear the orange long sleeve tee, and went and grabbed my capri yoga pants that I sometimes run in. Thank goodness I also decided to pack other things in my bag to leave in my car - I brought my vest, the long pants, another sports bra and long sleeved t-shirt, and gloves. 

Before I knew it, it was time to leave!! Mentally I was feeling okay - a little unsure of myself, but thinking about my awesome 13.1 training run really boosted my confidence. The weather being so awesome also made my outlook a lot more positive. I swear, running is like 70% mental.. if not more.

I arrived without a hitch and managed to snag the closest parking spot ever - it was right next to my friend's apartment and less than half a mile from the start line, as the crow flies. (I've used that phrase like, three times in the past two days - does anybody else regularly say that??! I feel a little nuts.) 

After staying in my car for about 10 minutes making sure I was warm and that I had everything I needed, I started walking over. On the way, I had to walk through where we would finish and snapped some pictures.

I wasn't nervous or jittery. I visualized myself crossing that finish line with the numbers saying anything less than 01:59:59. I felt a little calm - it was strange.

I walked over to where I could chill out in the Armory, where most of the other runners were doing the same thing, and stayed there until about 7:15 when I knew it was getting ready to be time to go. 

After the Turkey Trot, I now realize the importance in warming up before the race starts. Before races, I always saw people running before the race and thought they were a little crazy - why were they tiring themselves out before they had to run?! But now I realize... it's just incredibly unsafe to not do that. I jogged my way down to the start line and immediately felt better, a little more awake, and more importantly, ready to go.

I got as close to the start line as I could. I was in line with the 2 hour 15 minute pacer so I knew I needed to get ahead of her to catch up to the 2 hour pacer. As I took the above photo, my phone was in a Ziploc case (in case it rained - the Flipbelt isn't waterproof) and someone passing me said, "Nice waterproof case!" and I said, "I know, real high-tech, right?!" :D :D

We sung the national anthem and the countdown begun - we were off! My main goal was to not start out too fast at the beginning. If someone got in front of me, so be it. I refused to weave in and out and waste my energy trying to get in front of people when I need to be holding back. I was convinced I was running a 10 minute mile.. but nope. 8'30''! Yikes.

My second mile was even worse (with trying to be slow) - 7'25'', my fastest mile pace ever. Haha!! Honestly I just zoned out during the race - I listened to my music, danced along, looked at the scenery - sometimes I would even forget that I was running. I was sort of pushing it, yeah, but I didn't feel like I was going all out like at the Turkey Trot.

The only thing bad about not bringing a water bottle and having Clif Shot Bloks was that I had nothing to wash them down with when I wanted them. I saw water stations at the first mile, but thought that was too soon to take one - big mistake. I wanted one in the second mile, but there was no water in sight. So I just waited until the third mile and took it then. I stopped at nearly every water stop, so of course I'm looking at my finishing time and betting that I could have shaved off at least 10 seconds, if not more, if I hadn't stopped. My next purchase will be a small handheld water bottle, I think!

As we approached the tunnel I was feeling pretty good. As we got to the 4 mile marker inside the tunnel, someone was yelling that we were at 36 minutes. What!! That meant I was doing GREAT on time. I didn't dare look at my Nikeplus app and jinx it, though.

I continued to feel good all the way. We got up to the halfway point and I saw my time - the clock said 59:43. I knew my chip time was earlier than that, so I started feeling really confident. My mantra became: I eat 13 miles for breakfast! Seriously, I don't know why that works, but the mantra gave me confidence and made me laugh a bit, too. Sometimes you just have to not take things so seriously.

I tried to actively push a little more than I had in the previous half. I knew it would be harder, but hey, we can do hard things, right?? I knew there was a huge hill around mile 7 so I was mentally prepared for it, though that didn't help it absolutely killing my calves. After I got that over with, I knew there were more rolling hills later, but I felt better knowing I got the biggest hill (in my mind) out of the way.

I did pretty well the rest of the way, but I could tell I slowed down while we were in the park area - the same place I slowed down last year. I was happy when we exited the Arboretum area, because I knew the end was so, so near. As we were going down one of the highway ramps, I saw the 2 hour pacer and quickly sped up so I could pass her. At that point I knew, barring anything unfortunate happening, I was gonna hit 2 hours!!! 

Right around mile 12, they had these INSANE downhills that just killed my quads, but I still pounded down them because I knew my goal was in sight. At Mercer, right before the 13 mile marker, there's a pretty steep uphill that I HATED, but I pushed as well as I could to get through it. I could tell I was slowing down and was disappointed that I wasn't surging as much as I could, but finally I got up the hill and started to sprint as fast as I could. Now the question was, how much under 2 hours was I going to be??

Right at the end, looking at the times, I was going about 8'30'' ish and sped up to about 7'50''. As I rounded the corner, I saw the clock in the distance reading 01:57:40 and I was ecstatic to see it so far away from 01:59:59. Plus, that was the gun time - I knew my chip time would be even faster! I crossed the finish line with a big smile on my face. I did it!!! 

Originally clocked me in at 13.4mi (see the lost tracking in the tunnel?)

Really hate that all of my miles were under 9, except for the 10th mile!!

10 minutes, 37 seconds faster than last year!!

I'm SO happy to see that the second half of the race was faster than the first half of the race - even if only by 4 seconds. The competitive part of my personality looks at the 56:06 and wonders if I could have done it 6 seconds faster... but then I remind myself that my goal was under 2 hours, and I accomplished my goal. 

I got in the top 15% and 14% of my age group and gender respectively, and top 24% overall. Of course, these numbers might change as they get data and change it- I was originally 89th in my age group when I first saw it, and the total number of 25-29 year olds has been fluctuating almost every time I refresh it. 

Last year, I was in the 33% and 34% of my age group and gender, respectively. I think it's cool to see how much I've improved in a year!!

Overall, I'm SO HAPPY!!! :D

Did you race this weekend?

A 13.1 Mile Training Run (Instead of Yoga)

So today was strange...

I decided there wasn't enough time to go to my one hour yoga class, so I decided to run a half marathon instead. Let me explain..

First of all, the sky looked like this. Amazing and beautiful and I could see BLUE and sunlight and oh my god it was just gorgeous. I kept thinking, do I really want to be stuck in a dark room with a bunch of sweaty people doing the same old yoga I've been doing for two weeks now? And my heart said no. 

I literally got as far as rolling up my yoga mat to walk out the door when I just listened to what my body actually wanted to do, and stopped myself. I wanted to run. There was no way I was going to ignore the urge to run and let this sunny day to go waste.

I quickly changed into my running gear, strapped on my water belt, grabbed some Clif Shot Bloks, and set my Nike Plus app to go 10 miles*. I thought I would break it up into four 2.5 mile runs. 2.5 miles south, then back up north towards my apartment - to give myself a chance to back out if I wasn't feeling good - and then 2.5 more miles north, and end it with 2.5 miles south.

*From my original schedule, I was behind by 20 miles total, if not more. Most recently, I was supposed to run 12 miles on Sunday and I didn't. I needed sleep and I felt like shit. I didn't even go to yoga that day. Shame on me. I figured since my last long run was 7 miles, that I should instead complete 9 miles on Monday. Well, instead of doing 4.5 miles there-and-back, I decided to bump it to 5 - round it out to an even 10, right?

Ever since I came back from Vegas, I've been skipping scheduled runs left and right. I was following a Hal Higdon plan for marathons that are run 6 weeks apart from each other. Well, hello. I'm not running another marathon. I'm running a half! So skipping a few runs from my rigorous running schedule was bound to happen.

Anyways. I started running until I got to the point where I usually stop and turn around. Well, I didn't feel like turning around. I wanted to see how far the trail went. I knew the I-90 trail was around there somewhere, but I hadn't found it yet. Challenge accepted. So I kept running. And I literally had to go like .1 more miles and there it was!! So I followed it. And I nearly got to go across the whole I-90 bridge, y'all!

At first I considered only going to the 5 mile mark and then turning around to make it the planned 10 miles. But then I realized, hey, I could run 6 miles and totally just make up my 12 mile run that I didn't do yesterday! And then I was like, hey, if I extend it by only .55 miles after that, then I could run a half marathon!! I was feeling good and decided to just do it.

It was so cool. It was hilly and challenging and I made great time. Considering this was just a hilly training run (and I only really decided to make it a half marathon around the 5 mile mark), this makes me SO much more confident that I can break 2 hours in the half on December 1st. Shaving off 2 minutes and 19 seconds seems doable to me. It would be a new record for me! :)

All in all... great run. I love feeling like this!!