2012 Houston Half Marathon

2 weeks ago, my coach emailed me a goal time for the Houston Half Marathon. The goal was 1:40:24. I admit, I freaked out a bit seeing this. My previous half marathon PR was 1:48:3x. But my training had gone well ... still 13.1 miles with average minute per mile under 8 min? I wasn't so sure. But I knew I wanted to give it my all. So going in, my A goal was 1:40:24 or faster, my A- goal was sub 1:43, my B goal sub 1:45 and my C goal was a new PR.

We got to Houston on Friday after leaving Boston at 6:30am. I went with Dave & my mom. Our first stop was the expo, which was big and well organized. I did a pull up hang for 60+ seconds at the Marine's station to get a coffee mug. That killed my arms. After the expo we headed to my uncle's house, where we were staying. We hit up Whole Foods for lunch and it was delish! After lunch, Dave & I went for an easy 4 mile run, it was warm out! My legs felt great during this run and I was feeling good. We had a delicious dinner that night and went to bed before 8.

Saturday morning we were up at 6:30am and heading into Houston at 7am. Thank God for Starbucks! Needed my coffee. We watched the Olympic Marathon Trials that morning and it was so inspiring. I was so happy for the top 3, and devastated for the 4th place finishers. It was amazing to be there watching these athletes accomplishing the goals they had been working so hard for. We saw the runners at mile 2, 10, 18 and 26. I loved watching Meb finish especially, he was so thrilled!

We spent the rest of Saturday relaxing and fueling. I watched the first half of the Patriots game on Saturday night, I was very thankful they had a sizable lead so I could go to bed early. Dave, of course, stayed up to watch.

I slept surprisingly well that night until waking up for good at 4am. I took my time eating and getting ready before we left at 5am. There was a bit of traffic getting there but not too bad. We porta potty hopped until finishing some with basically no lines, after taking care of business, it was off to the corrals. Since I was in Corral A, I had to be in by 6:40am. Then I just stood around for 20 minutes, boring ... took a gel and retied my right shoe at least 3 times. I think the retying thing comes from my figure skating days.

At 7am, we were off. It was a bit crowded for the first mile. And there was an bit of an uphill but I was fine, settling in well.

(Garmin splits, 1.01 time (pace))
Mile 1: 8:02 (7:57)
Mile 2: 7:38 (7:33), definitely spread out here ... didn't realize I ran the 2nd mile this fast, probably a bit of a mistake.
Mile 3: 7:42 (7:37), don't remember anything other than joining the marathoners here
Mile 4: 7:41 (7:36) ... find the 3:20 marathon pace group and try to run just behind them ... they're going a bit faster than I expected though
Mile 5: 7:33 (7:29) ... ooops
Mile 6: 7:34 (7:29) ... consistent at least ... ideally I should have been in the high 730s here I'm thinking. Took a gel with caffeine here ...
Mile 7: 7:39 (7:34) ... feeling good
Mile 8: 7:37 (7:32), I remember thinking just hold it in the 730s for 2 more miles, I can drop down to the 720s the last 5K and maybe run sub 140 ...
Mile 9: 7:40 (7:35), separate from the marathoners here
Mile 10: 7:43 (7:38) ... take another gel and try to drop the pace but can't ... just hang on to the 730s ...
Mile 11: 7:49 (7:44) and we're heading in the wrong direction ... keep repeating 1 line mantras to myself ... cannot stop, cannot walk, just go ... you can do anything for 20 minutes
Mile 12: 7:51 (7:46), just hanging on
Mile 13: 7:44 (7:39), ok maybe sub 141? Into the wind here, it sucked
Last .11: 7:12 pace
Total: 1:41:00 and I'm thrilled. Not sub 1:40, not 1:40:24 but a 7+ min PR and a great race for me!

Lessons learned:
- Still need to hold back for the first few miles
- I can run a whole half marathon without walking
- I am mentally strong
- Setting hard too reach goals is a good thing
- I need to believe in myself more, my coach knew I could do it, I was doubtful.
- Don't do a pull up hang the day before - my arms and shoulders were killing after the race
- Concrete sucks to run on

I'm still feeling great about this race, yeah I didn't reach my goal but I was close and I will get under 1:40 next time! I usually have major stomach issues during and after races and I didn't deal with this at all ... so awesome.

A quote that really describes how I've been feeling:

"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark."
~ Michelangelo

Up next: Cooper River Bridge Run (10K) ... not sure if I'm racing it or running it yet.

Hyannis Half Marathon Race Report

1:49:02.


So why am I disappointed … I shouldn't be. I made it under 1:50:00 which was my 2010 goal. But I feel as though I didn't leave everything out there. I don't think I've learned how to race yet but I need to realize that that is okay, it is a learning process and this is only my second half marathon. I've really only been racing for the last 6 months as before that I never trained etc … and did not run consistently. So I've only been a trained runner for about 6 months and I've cut 7:21 off of my half marathon time. That's a good thing not a bad thing.

I did feel so so much better during this race than my last half marathon. So here's a race report, a few days later, so we'll see what I remember.


Saturday: Got up after not sleeping well the night before. I woke up nauseous twice randomly. Not fun. Dave and his friend had stayed up until 2ish playing video games but luckily I managed to fall asleep around 11. I got up and quietly headed out for an easy two miler. It was snowing lightly and it was very pretty and peaceful out. I was feeling good about my running. We headed out around 11 since I needed to go to the running store for a rain running jacket. Yep, I didn't have one and rain/snow was the Sunday forecast. After stopping there and a few other places, we headed down to the Cape. I was able to sleep some of the hour drive which was nice. Stopped by the Expo and picked up my number. It wasn't an overly impressive expo, a lot of running stuff for sale but not many free samples anywhere. Oh well. We headed to the hotel to check in and then spent some time in the pool/hot tub before going out to dinner.


We went to dinner at UNOs since they have a Gluten Free Menu and I'm currently GF. I had the cheese and tomato pizza which was pretty good and a salad. We ate early and just headed back to the hotel to relax and watch the Olympics. I managed to fall asleep around 10 and stayed asleep until 4. I woke up at 4 and couldn't fall back asleep until almost 5. Ugh. 

But I got back to sleep and slept until 7am. Got up and made my waffle with PB (smuggled a toaster into the hotel room for this) and had some coffee. We headed out around 8:45 thinking we were only a 5 minute drive away and we'd be fine for a 10am start. Not quite. There was quite a bit of traffic and then we had to park far away so I had to decide at the car what to wear. At this point it was overcast but not too chilly, I ended up with capris, a short sleeve running tee, my new running jacket, and a headband. I bought cheap gloves when we got to the Expo since my hands got cold walking there. So we got there and it was about 9:30. I grabbed the gloves and said bye to Dave since he wasn't running. I headed to the porta potty line which moved dreadfully slow and I was very worried about missing the start but the porta potty was so necessary. Finally got in around 9:55 and then ran over to the start. This was not my plan, I had hoped to get a ten minute warm up in after the porta potty. Ooops. I was stretching in the jam packed starting area. There was literally no room to move around though. We finally got started around 10:08am.


Mile 1: 8:29 – my HR monitor was a mess this mile, it said my HR was 195 and kept saying HR too high over and over. Eventually it settled down. I knew there was no truth to it since I felt good and the mile was nice and easy until my stomach started cramping. Ugh. I just kept running through it. This mile was nice and flat but included a lot of maneuvering around people due to the crowded start.

Mile 2: 8:05 – Faster than I had planned at this point but I was feeling good. My running jacket was driving me absolutely crazy though. Bad choice. It kept riding up and I had my Sports Beans in my pocket along with gloves, so it was driving me crazy. My HR strap was bothering me too and I wished that I would see Dave to give it to him. I also wanted to take the jacket off but I couldn't since my fuel was in it and my ipod was in the little ipod pocket. Damn.

Mile 3: 8:01 – I honestly don't remember much about this mile.

Mile 4: 8:10 – I think the first water stop was during this mile, I managed to grab a water and keep running while I drank it. Feeling good and right on pace.

Mile 5: 7:58 – Ooooh, getting a little too fast at the beginning. But feeling good, some downhills here. I think we were along the ocean at this point but I don't remember much. It boggles my mind that people can remember intense details of their races, I just can't, I wish I could.

Mile 6: 8:17 - There was a hill here but not a bad one. I think I took some sports beans and there may have been water. Still feeling good.

Mile 7: 8:09 - I don't remember anything here.

Mile 8: 8:20 - I think there were some hills here.

Mile 9: 8:51 - I had to stop to take in some Sports Beans here, I couldn't eat, run and breathe at the same time. I was getting hot and really wanted to take my jacket off. There was a water stop here too.

Mile 10: 8:18 - Feeling good again, except for a minor stumble in which I twisted my ankle. Ugh. They had only a small part of the road for us to run on and it was right on the shoulder and crowded. I was worried for a second but my ankle recovered fine. Started to notice the pain from my blister here. It always feels like a rock is stuck in my shoe at that one spot.

Mile 11: 8:05 - There was a girl in her yard cheering us on while jumping on a mini trampoline. It made me smile and gave me some energy.

Mile 12: 8:34 - Unfortunately, I had to stop for sports beans again. Why, I don't know. I should have just kept running.

Mile 13: 8:10 - Almost there, I'm thinking I'm definitely going to be in the 1:48 range according to my Garmin.

Mile 13.1: 1:35:25 (7:13 pace) – I had a nice kick up the hill at the end, hitting 5:35 pace at one point and passing about 5 people which felt amazing! My Garmin measured this as .22 miles. 


Final time: 1:49:02 (Race chip official time) 8:20 pace/mile

Garmin stats: 13.22 miles, 1:48:54, 8:14 pace/mile






It's so weird to me that my Garmin is less than the official time since I started it after the start mat. And my official time is usually a good 10+ seconds less than my Garmin. Weird, it must have been off that day but whatever! It's a 7+ minute PR and only :03 off of 1:48:xx, so I'll live. I'm much happier now looking back at it. Now it's time for the Marathon training to really begin!