Strawberry Plains 1/30/2021
Half marathon #43 is in the books! My first half marathon since last June, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from myself. I had been working on getting into half marathon shape, but didn’t sign up for the race until December and even then I wasn’t sure if it would go forth in person. But, the stars aligned and nothing happened to cancel the race, so I woke up at 4:45 on Saturday morning and we headed towards Knoxville an hour later.
I did this race 2 years ago, but neither of us remembered the drive being quite as long as it was…an hour and 45 minutes away is a rough drive first thing in the morning! Thankfully hubs was willing to get up early and drive me.❤️This race usually starts at 9 AM, but they moved it to 8 this year. Next time we are definitely getting a hotel room the night before!
Masks were required at all times except for while running, under penalty of disqualification. Socially distanced corrals of 20ish people were started in waves, and they had the waves going every 10 seconds or so; it seemed very streamlined and organized. I started in wave 4.
It was roughly 25 degrees frigid outside, and that plus me not wanting to stress my legs with any more miles than necessary, meant that I did not warm up for the race. Instead, I used the first mile as my warm-up. My lungs are not yet in shape to go gung-ho straight out of the gate and maintain for 13 miles anyway.
I felt like I did a good job of keeping the effort easy in the first mile. I did not let myself get carried away by the crowd, and my breathing was staying easy. I started picking up the pace just a bit towards the end of the first mile, and then my goal was to maintain the fastest pace I could that didn’t cause my breathing to get labored. Someone I knew passed me around mile 5, and then a battle between my legs and mind commenced : my brain said “don’t you dare try to stick with her, it’s not a good idea” and my legs said “let’s go for it, we can do it!” I had to keep pulling myself back as my legs tried to speed up and keep the gap small, but eventually my brain won.
When you try to smile for the camera but don’t quite get the timing right…😂
I was still feeling really good at mile 8, and knew it was almost time to start pushing harder, so I took another dose of my inhaler to make sure my lungs were as ready as possible. The whole course was rolling, no major hills, but there was an out and back between miles 7-10 that had some longer hills. I waited until after the turn-around around mile 9 and then slowly started picking up the pace. I powered up the hill feeling pretty good, so the closer I got to mile 10, the more I pushed. I was feeling strong and was fairly confident that my lungs would hold on, so I decided to run the last 5k as hard as I could.
I ran that last 5k feeling really strong, and by the time I hit the last mile I felt like I was flying. I was passing a few half marathoners, and numerous 10kers. I made it all the way to the finish line without lung trouble, and was super pleased to see my finish time of 1:35:08! It was my fastest in-person half marathon since 2017! After my run uploaded, I saw that my last mile was 6:39. It was my only sub-7:00 mile, but my slowest mile was the first in 7:33, so I had a fairly consistent pace for the rest of the race, with the last 5 miles being my fastest.
Crossing the finish line!
“Finish line face” gasping for air.
Turning around to look for the finish line time clock…there wasn’t one. If you zoom in you can see frost on my jacket…
Normally after a half marathon, I immediately drink my water bottle with two scoops of Tailwind Nutrition recovery powder (one chocolate, one coffee), and that protein kick stops my body from attacking itself and I am ok until I can get some lunch. This time, that plan failed me. I drank my drink as usual, but soon thereafter started feeling sick like I do if I don’t get the protein. We were on our way to Asheville for lunch, shopping, and to see some friends, and it was only 10:30 so nowhere was even open for lunch yet. I crammed a bunch of peanut butter pretzels in my mouth, drank some of my Tailwind pre/during exercise drink, and managed to eventually start feeling better. I was a bit confused as to why my normal nutrition strategy didn’t work, but I’m guessing that it is because I ate breakfast at 5:00 AM, and too much time had passed. I usually try to eat breakfast 1-1.5 hours before a race, this time I ate 3 hours before. Next time I will need to make sure I get a snack right before the race!
Post-race lunch : a bacon cheeseburger with smoked gouda mac n cheese. So good!
I am now taking a week of rest, and then am super excited to put in some quality training and hopefully get my half marathon time back down to 1:30!
