Race Report a Month Late

I'm going offline for a month starting tomorrow, and I want to get my race report up. It's already a month late, but better late than never.

Having already done the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February, I was able to build on that training for the Illinois Half Marathon. I increased my running time from 1 minute per cycle to 2 (I do a run/walk interval of 4 minutes walking and 2 minutes running). During training I felt great and was pretty fast (for me). I went into the race knowing that, barring extreme bad luck, I was going to set a personal record. My previous record had been 3:06:06, and I was aiming for 3:02.

As I was moving toward the start line, I suddenly got a blank spot in the right side of my vision. That is always the first sign of a migraine headache. I couldn't believe it--this was supposed to be my PR day, and I was about to have blinding pain! I decided to just keep going and, if I had to, stop at a medical station to be picked up.

During the first two miles, the blind spot got bigger. It got so big, in fact, I had trouble seeing my watch. But I stuck with my 4:2 interval. During miles 2-4, the blind spot started shrinking. It's usually about that time that the pain hits, but I didn't get any pain. I did start getting the pins-and-needles tingling along my right side, another of my usual migraine symptoms, but it wasn't enough to make me slow down. In fact, I averaged 14 minute miles for the first 7 miles. By that time, all of my migraine symptoms were gone. I never did get any pain. Very weird.

One of my usual problems on race day is that I start out too fast and burn out around mile 10. My strategy for this race was to intentionally hold back in the first half and then push a little harder in the second. As I said, I averaged 14 minute miles during the first 7 miles, which was exactly what I had planned to do. From miles 7-11, I averaged 13 minute miles! I felt really strong the whole time. Coach Terry was working that stretch of the course and ran a couple miles with me. He told me several times how well I was doing. He had run with a few other TNT racers and said none of them were doing as well as me. I ended up passing several of them during that stretch.

Miles 11-13 were a little harder. I slowed back down to 14 minute miles, but that was still better than I had expected. The TNT tent was just outside the stadium where we finished. Papa Runner was waiting on that corner to cheer me on. As soon as I saw him, I started yelling, "PR! PR!" I headed into the stadium and across the field, finishing in 2:58:22! I was more than 3.5 minutes faster than I had expected, and almost 8 minutes faster than my previous record!

As I crossed the start line with early symptoms of a migraine, I wasn't sure I'd finish. Instead I crossed the finish line triumphant! I don't currently have another race lined up, but I will probably do 1 or 2 halves this summer/fall and make the Big Push for my first Full Marathon in January.

(Papa Runner also ran this race and also set a PR of 2:18:18--15 seconds faster than his previous best.)

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Second race report:

Last weekend I did my first 5k. You'd think having done 5 half marathons I'd have done some shorter races, but no. I knew from my previous race that I was capable of doing 13 minute miles for 4 miles in the middle of a half marathon, so I wanted to do better than that for a race that's only 3.1. During my few weeks of training between races, I shortened my walking ratio from 4 minutes to 3. On race day I decided, what the heck, let's do 2 minutes walking. I did 2:2s through the whole race.

I did my first mile in 12 minutes. That's really fast for me. There were several others who were doing run/walk intervals at the back of the pack, and we kept passing each other over and over. I did my second mile in 11 minutes! I was really surprised. By this point, all the other run/walkers had switched to just walking, and I didn't see them again after the half-way point. My third mile was closer to 13 minutes, but still pretty fast for me. Final time was 36:55. Pretty good for my first 5k. When they announced the age group winners, I was actually ahead of the ladies who won the 40-49 and 60+ age groups. There are a few 5k's in my area this summer that I'd like to do. They make for good speed training as I build toward my first full marathon.