Ran the plan, man!

So here I am today after my FIRST half marathon...which, I found out later, I happened to have run with Joan Samuelson!! OK, I didn't exactly run "with" her as there were something like 7,000 people out there and she apparently was the 4th female finisher and I was, well, 1,072nd... BUT I was running on the same course as she was for a small period of time!!! I wish I'd have known earlier that one of my all time heroes was doing the race...but oh, well, it's cool to know it now.

I wrote out my whole race plan earlier this week and am happy to report that I stuck to the plan pretty darn well, if I say so myself (there were some of those moments like the old snoopy cartoons where he has conversations with various body parts--see challenges section below-- and discusses their complaints, but mostly we all got along). My plan was to go out slowly, relax and settle in for about 4 miles...then "Keep it loose, keep it tight" and bring up the pace a little bit for the next 5 miles...then run how I felt the last 4 miles, just observing how the end would go more than trying to control the pace. My goal time was 2:05 and I ran a 2:03:58, negative splitting the course. I never felt like I was pushing super hard---none of it felt as fast/awful as tempo runs lately have, but I was definitely ready to be done by the end, that's for sure. I had a strong, consistent run and that was the goal. This was prep race for Tucson in 2 weeks and my first half marathon, so I gave myself a few breaks and didn't go out on a suicide mission.

Things that went well: taper and workout prep this week was great...I felt rested and not sluggish. Slept and ate well/lots the last few days (scale had me about 1.5 pounds heavier than usual this morning...oops, should've tapered on the pumpkin pie, too, I guess). Glycogen stores were up, for sure. Pre-race schedule and timing of coffee/breakfast was fine. I carried my water bottle and that was good, too...no screwing around and running into people at water stations. My only nutrition on the course was one Clif Shot Block that I put in my mouth at mile 9 that still hadn't dissolved at the finish...just didn't feel like I needed any calories. I got all my mile splits, but decided earlier this week not to use the HR monitor. It would be cool to have that data, too, but I know where I was on RPE and having the splits helps. It really helped to have several pieces of the course be familiar...I felt strong on those stretches in particular. I also had amazing race support from Seujan...chauffer, bag schlepper, food finder at the finish area, french toast maker post race, and "I'm proud of you" sayer. And she didn't even complain about getting up at 5:15 a.m. or hanging out in the cold rainy crap all morning the day after she ran 18 miles...

Challenges: Weather sucked. It was 37 degrees and raining/slushing for much of the race, with the occasional breeze. Puddle stomp-o-rama. Fortunately, we found rock star parking and I was able to stay warm in the car until shortly before the race started...took me 3 minutes to get to the start line, but once I got going, I was pretty warm. My numb toes checked in at about mile 3 and actually felt normal by mile 4 and after. Hills. None of them were as long/hard as the hill I regularly run home from Greenlake, but there were a damn lot of rollers. My quads let it be known at about mile 9 that they were starting to blow up and said loudly, "take note of where we are going to be really sore tomorrow..." Note taken...they are already sore now. Mental gymnastics. Mostly I stayed focused and my "my pace, my race" mantra prevailed. I had a couple of freakouts in the middle where I thought I was running a bit too slow and where I worried about whether I had enough reserves for hills and all the miles...but I let the doubts go in and back out and stayed pretty steady.

My splits are below. I averaged 9:27 and placed 1,072 of 3,458 women.

Mile 1: 10:36
Mile 2: 10:04

Mile 3: 9:53

Mile 4: 9:28

Mile 5: 10:06
Mile 6: 8:57

Mile 7: 9:25

Miles 8 and 9 together in one split: (where the hell was the "8" sign??) 19:09
Mile 10: 9:51

Mile 11: 7:45
Mile 12: 8:53
Mile 13.1: 9:45

Total Time: 2:03:58

Below is last week's workouts...just under 10 hours for the whole week.