Perplexed and slightly weirded out, I say belligerently  “Uh, what’s up? this is supposed to my room.” and the guy stands up quickly, looking quite scared actually, and tells me they were given that room and didn’t like it but their replacement room isn’t ready.  While he’s explaining and quickly gathering his stuff together, I realize they’re very nice people, and I’m tired from traveling (7+  hours to get there) so I just plop down on the bed, insist they hang out till their room is ready and we shoot the breeze for a while.

At one point, he asks how much the room costs and is shocked that it’s around $200/night.  I ask what he’s paying and he tells me it’s free.  Apparently, he lost a shitload of money there in a previous visit ($8000) and when you do that, the hotel will send invite after invite for you to stay there for free.  The good news is that the money he lost was actually won there first, so he came out even.  Anyway, that was my little education on how to get free rooms in Vegas.  Of course, I had to take a photo of them for Facebook because the situation was so ridiculous.

Roomies for an hour

About an hour after that, I meet up with my long-time yet never-previously-met online running sister, Carrie, who I’ve just loved for ages.  She and her friend Dina were hilarious and so easy to hang with, it was like we’d known each other forever (a theme for the entire weekend, actually).  We went to the Expo and dinner, then spent over an  hour trying to figure out how to get back to our hotel.  Here we are in the midst of the Venetian trying in vain to escape.

Dina, Me and Carrie

The next morning was CIM (California International Marathon) where the crazy doublers were doing their first marathon of the day along with a handful of non-doubling friends, so I had great fun tracking their races.  Almost every single person I knew PRd with a seamless, wonderful race…it was just a joyful morning.

After that, I went over to the Aria to meet Jay, who had flown in that morning after doing the Northface 50-miler the day before.  Jay is a gifted, speedy runner (he’s shooting for a 2:26 this Spring at Boston) and while he had signed up for the 50mile race, he hadn’t been training for it though he’d been doing some crazy stunt running in the weeks beforehand (Grand Canyon rim-to-rim-to-rim).  As it turned out, our friend Steve was doing the 50-miler but at the last minute, lost his pacer, so Jay offered to pace Steve.  Those guys kicked crazy ass, coming in well under Steve’s goal and almost 2 hours faster than the previous year.

Anyway, Jay was feeling amazingly good for having done 50mi the previous day.  We had brunch and bloody marys at around noon, which was my pre-race meal and hydration plan.  It was the last thing I had before the 5:30 race start, which worked out fine, except for me fighting drowsiness in the interim.

Jay and me brunchin' it up

At around 3pm, most of the CIM crew showed up in the lobby for a quick pre-race meeting.  It was so exciting to see them, some I’d met before and some for the first time: Paul, Matt, Kevin, Catherine, Holly, James and Matt’s girlfriend, Erin.

With a couple hours left, I went back to the room to get my running garb on before meeting Matt for the race.

The Race
First off, thank god I was injured for this one, because if it was a goal race, I’d have been incredibly pissed.  It was a clusterfuck on many levels, though for Matt and I, running at la-la-la pace, it didn’t affect us, but we could easily see the mess it was for those who were running the full or anyone trying to get a goal.

As far as my leg, I was really nervous about it.  My last run, a 5-miler on Friday, was not a feel-good run, my leg was pissed at me for having made it do two 8-milers before it was ready, so I was very nervous about how I was going to get through 13.  On the good side, Saturday was a rest day and I had most of Sunday as well.

Since the race started & ended at my hotel, the place was a madhouse with runners everywhere you looked (there were 44,000 participants).  Here I am with Matt before the race.

Matt and me before the race. I'm a dead ringer for Eddie Munster.

We line up, freezing our asses off (very windy at the start) and at 5:30pm, the gun goes off.  Matt and I, Lame and Lamer, begin our night-time journey up the Strip.  He was a total blast to run with, we talked and laughed, stopped at iHop so he could take a piss (44,000 runners and they had about 3 banks of Porta-pottys on the whole damn course).  I mentioned my leg but didn’t tell him how scared I was about it, so when I’d innocently ask “do you need to go slower, are you ok?” (he’d just run a 3:01 marathon that morning) I was actually doing it for myself as much as him, always relieved when he’d say “let’s pull it back”.

As it turned out, my leg was not a problem at all.  I was ever so slightly aware of my groin (all that’s left of the injury), but it never got worse so it wasn’t a factor at all.  And as the miles ticked by, I felt stronger and less careful, so he eventually had to ask me to pull it back regularly, which I was totally fine to do – the race was a wash as far as time, I couldn’t have cared less what we ended up with.

I wore my Garmin, btw, but the satellites didn’t catch for over an hour into the race, so I never looked at it, though I did press lap during the iHop stop, just for posterity’s sake.  With about 2 miles to go, Matt realizes if we speed up a bit, we can come in under 2hours.  I didn’t care but it was kind of fun having something to shoot for at the end.

When we were almost done, we discussed how we’d cross the finish to which I instantly replied “holding hands!” because I’ve never had the occasion to do that and this was a special little situation we had here.  Some guy next to us heard us and said how sweet that was, so we chatted with him for a bit before giving it a “kick” (totally deserves quotation marks since our kick was probably around 8:30 pace, lol).  As we turned the corner to the finish area, we passed Cheap Trick playing their one big hit “I Want You To Want Me” which was kinda fun.  We made it in 1:59:54. Hilarious.

As for the finish, not only did we hold hands, but we did it total noob-style up in the air which makes for a totally goofy finish video but if you keep watching, you see us hug and that was a pretty sweet moment. 2nd video on this page, we come into the frame at 6 seconds.

We thought we got a racing shot together but I guess the photographer missed it, bummer.  Behold my general demeanor throughout the race:

Happy Me

As for the rest of our crew, Paul, who was supposed to do the double and is actually the person who thought up the crazy scheme in the first place, missed his plane to Sacramento, so Vegas was his “only” marathon of the day, but as mentioned, the race was a clusterfuck so while he did great, it was nowhere near his potential had it been a regular, not screwed-up race (ex. the pacers were having to run up on the sidewalks due to walkers in the one tiny lane they allotted to the Full people).  Carrie also had a tough time and gave up on it being a goal race after the merge of Halfers and Full people (terrible for the full folks) but luckily she found Dina so they finished together.  The doublers all finished between 4 and 5 hours, some of them stopping at a liquor store for beer, midway.

Party!
After the race, Kevin and his wonderful wife Catherine had reserved the Media Suite at Mandalay for a party pad and it was so cool:  floor to ceiling windows with a magnificent view of the city and a bathroom as big as my apartment.  Eventually, everyone trickled in, including some folks I hadn’t seen yet – Steve, who had done that studly 50-miler the day before the Vegas full, arrived with his wife Gina and her two friends, Melissa and Katy (who ended up being a total blast to hang with, more on that below) as well as Beth and her husband.  Beth has Lupus and was the impetus for Steve doing his particular contribution to the double race craziness, running it for charity.

We finally make it out to find dinner but because the place was so packed with runners, we didn’t eat until 2:30am.  After dinner, Steve, Jay and I hit the Black Jack tables…a totally new experience for me.  I’ve been to Vegas twice, once for work and once as a jump off for a Grand Canyon trip but the only gambling I’ve ever done involved one-armed bandits. The tables have always been a complete mystery to me, so it was really fun to watch and learn.  We stayed there till 4:30am.  Classic.

The next day, I met up with Steve and his harem for a little more Black Jack fun before meeting the folks who hadn’t left yet, for lunch.  There were about 13 of us still, so it was a pretty good crowd.  Here’s a photo of me and the guys from our forum thread.  What a studly lineup.

Kevin, me, Matt, Paul, Steve

Monday Night
Everyone had dispersed at this point but Steve and the ladies were still around so we had a blast perusing different casinos, doing this goofy novelty Photoshop thing where they Photoshop your head onto models who, of course, are bustier and hotter than you’ll ever be.  Here we are in the casino:

Katy, Gina, Steve, me, Melissa

Steve, btw, not only was my Black Jack instructor, he even let me lose some of his money, which scared the shit out of me, but to counter that, I conferred with him or Gina every time it was my turn to make a decision.  Was great fun, thanks again, Steve!!

At around 2am, drunk from margarita, beer and vodka, I ventured onto the karaoke stage.  I figured it out today, it’s been 12 years since I opened my mouth to sing so I knew I’d suck.  Choosing a song was crazy because there were so many to choose from and I don’t have a go-to karaoke song having only done it once before.  I ended up with Walk On By, and if it wasn’t humiliating enough sucking in general, the key was too high, so I had the guy start it again in a lower key.  I still warbled and ended up in pitch-hell, but fuck, it’s Vegas, so no regrets.  Here’s your proof:

2am Karaoke Hell. Note how I'm really getting my groove on (please God, when will this song be over?)

And that’s it.  An epic vacation and one of the most fun weekends I’ve had.  Big love to all you guys and gals that I got to hang with, I’m sure we’ll be doing it again sometime, somewhere.  Viva Las Vegas!

Still, I wasn’t sure if I should race on Saturday since the painful start is an ongoing issue and I was a bit nervous that racing might retweak me.  To test it out, on Thursday’s run I included a few pickups.  The first one felt twingy and made me think I better not race, but I then tried a couple more at around Half pace and they were fine.  Yesterday, I did a 5-miler w/4 pickups and those were totally uneventful, so I decided that Yes, I would race!

Funny how my initial worry when I signed up for all these 5ks was “It’s been so long since I’ve done anything near 5k pace, my times are going to suck whale dicks”.  Now, after a month of injury crap, my worries were “I hope this won’t hurt too much” and “I hope I don’t fuck myself up”.

To remove as much pain as I could out of the equation, I warmed up longer than I ever have before a race: 4 miles.  Luckily, I also had less wooden-leg-syndrome today so I was super pleased about that.  As for the race itself…

I had a hard time, just could not get my pace down and ran crazily close to my Half pace just a month ago.  My time sucked, 21:28, but I won 1st AG.

Last year at this same race, when I was far less fit then I am now, I got a disappointing 21:05, so all I can do is chalk it up to a month’s worth of injury.  On the positive side, my leg didn’t hurt during the race and feels fine now, plus I got an extremely oxidized rust-buster out of the way and my first bit of hard running in weeks.  Hopefully, next weekend’s 4-mile race will be smoother and my leg will be done with these injury shenanigans completely.

I was feeling all mopey about it when it was over and almost bagged the awards ceremony but instead, chose to kill time by walking home for a jacket since I live only a couple blocks away.  As I passed the finish clock ticking at 33:xx with a good amount of people still coming in, I saw the faces on these racers and the effort they were putting out and, I don’t know if it’s hormones or what, my eyes welled up.  Hell, they’re welling up right now thinking about it.  I just wanted to hug them all and let them know I thought they were great.

When I got to my apartment building, the girl who lives downstairs was also going inside.  Until now, she’s seemed kind of bitchy to me, barely said a couple words but she’d also come from the race, so we had a chat about running and she totally opened up.  She asked me my time and when I replied, she made it like I was some fast thing – it was really sweet.  Then I get back to the race site and chatted with a couple women separately who also asked me how I did and they, too, made me feel like a fast thing.  After I got my award (a medal), a woman that I recognized from those 33:xx finishers walked up to me to shake my hand saying “I’m in your age group and wanted to see what the winner looked like. Congratulations!”.

So listen, how can I whine about 21:xx when, for the luck of whatever, it could have been me trying to get that 33:xx and going up to shake someone’s hand?  This humbles me beyond belief. There will be no moping today, just gratitude for enjoying something I never dreamed I’d ever want to do, much less be kinda good at.  And to find it this late in life?  I’m one lucky, extremely grateful lady.

But I still hope next weekend is better.

Training beforehand
Might as well post a graph of my mileage since that’s been my focal point for the year.  The graph begins on Feb. 7th after taking a voluntary 2-week running break due to burnout.

Weight
I had mentioned how I was going to lose weight for this race and start counting calories again.  I did for a couple weeks but when the move started, I gave up on the counting and just ate healthy as ever, there was enough stressing without being nitpicky with food.

Turns out that while I only lost a couple pounds, holding at 119-120, thanks to the physical labor of moving to the new apartment, my bodyfat percentage dropped by 1.5%!  It’s been steady like that for about 2 weeks, so while I know my fancy-ass scale can’t be accurate as far as the base percentage (I’m surely not 14.5%) I do believe it’s trustable as a comparison unto itself.  So anyway, while I wasn’t at my best racing weight, the bodyfat thing made it A-OK.

Yesterday
My sweet pal and race buddy Kat arrived in the afternoon. I’d picked up both our packets already, so all we had to do was chat and eat dinner.  I made her accompany me to an old-fashioned diner in my neighborhood that I wanted to try because they served spaghetti and meatballs and I thought that’d be a funny place to go.  We were not disappointed.  It was Early Bird Prime Time so we were the only ones there who still had pigment in our hair.  Was good, made me feel fast.

This Morning
My new apartment is amazing for Philly races -  located 2 blocks from the start, it allowed us to take our time and pee to our heart’s content…luxurious.  We ventured out at 7:30, ran into my friend Peggy who was on the way to her long run.  She wished us great races (so cool to see her), then split up while Kat looked for our friend Lynn to run with.  I did a mile warmup with strides and got into my corral.  While standing there, I see my young friend Steph, one half of the twins I’ve befriended in my racing/running travels.  She didn’t have a firm goal but we decided to run together with the understanding that neither of us were “talkers”, which worked out great.

The Race
No big details here.  First mile seemed right on, then the Garmin went insane as it always does downtown, so for a couple miles I only had the mile markers to rely on, though I hadn’t noted when we’d left in relation to them and I missed the first one entirely, so my Garmin was saying anywhere from 8:46 – 5:xx, and for the first few miles, I thought we were off goal.  Around mile 4 I realized we were dead on, so that was a relief.

I wasn’t very stuck to the Garmin for this race because it was off for a great part of it and required quite a few “catch-up” lap presses (was on Autolap), it told me that for the most part I was running 6:4x-6:5x so after adding the leftover lap press, I figured I was right under 7:00 territory.  I did think I was in line for a sub 1:32, btw, right up until I saw the finish line.

I felt solid throughout this race.  There were points where I recognized my breathing was getting louder or that funny exhale whistle was happening but I would make a point to try and relax at those times, which helped.  Because of my previous collapsing/medical adventures, I was very mindful about how much effort I was putting out and told myself in the days before this that should anything feel strange, to not try and power through but to back off and slow down, race times be damned.

At this point we were at the park, my day-to-day running ground, and as we approached it I turned to Steph and said “home”.  Once there, I had a gel at mile 5 with a half-spilled cup of water to chase it. Never wanted for more, the temps were great (57, though breezy at times with 14mph wind) so it was extremely comfortable out there.

Once we hit Falls Bridge, with about 4 miles left, I felt like it was all downhill from there.  Steph dropped back at mile 9 so I was on my own from that point. Coach Adam/A muse had told me to keep steady till mile 10, then go into L’ Assassina mode, and I had to smile at the thought – while I was able to pick off people, I didn’t have an extra gear so I just kinda kept chugging was all.

About the park: since I started running in 2007, it’s been my gym, my confidant, my shoulder to cry on and an unparalleled source of joy.  I talked to the park this morning and thanked it for taking care of me.  I told it how much I loved it and reminded it where my favorite spot is and that even though it’s been the location of some scary health moments, I know it loves me too.  I communed with that park today.  But back to L’ Assassina…

There was this one girl that I don’t like from the park, she always gives me a bitchy look, and in the last few miles, she jumped into the race to run a few friends in.  When I finally passed them I heard her tell her friends they had to speed up, which I know was totally prompted by my presence so I took pleasure in moving farther ahead and out of their vicinity.

As I closed in on the finish, my friend Kev yelled out “just 1/2 mile more, you’ve got it!” which was great.  But even with all my park adoration, that last 1/2 mile is a scary spot for me, it’s the finish of many a Philly race and where 2 of those silly race collapses have occurred, so while other people were kicking it to the finish, I repeated to myself “feet under you, feet under you, keep your feet…”  and slowed down a tad until the finish line was right there.

After
I mentioned before that I thought I had my “A” goal right until the end so it was a disappointment to find I didn’t.  But really, it’s nothing but a few seconds and since this was my first race since January and I’ve had no real idea of where I was at, I’ve got nothing to be poopy about.  I know this and anything else is just plain Ego.  The main thing is after 2 long years, I finally got a PR when I’d pretty much convinced myself I’d not see another, ever.  I’m also pleased as punch with the Age-Grade and the Age Group placing.  This is such a competitive destination Half, I thought I’d be lucky to be in the top 6, so 4th is a nice bonus.

This race also unveiled the new race me: one that is confident but at the same time, reticent about pushing it to the Nth degree, probably won’t ever again as a matter of fact, but will do what I can within a comfort level that feels safe.  Because of this, I’ll never be a great racer – I believe you do need that balls-to-the-wall ability to do it properly, but I’m ok with that.  I think I have many great races ahead, just within those parameters is all.

After After
Kat and I went out for food and bloody marys before she embarked upon her journey home (Love you Kat, thanks for being such a fun and calming influence).  I sat here for a bit, thinking about the blog post I had to write and looking forward to seeing my ex-hubby tomorrow for the first time in eight years when he stops for a visit on his way home from that 12-week sailing adventure.  But after a few minutes, I said fuck this and went to the drugstore and bought a shitload of shit to stuff in my piehole.  Doritos, Reeses Pieces and Twizzlers.  All huge size.  After being good for so long, tonight I will be bad (or have a really bad stomach ache, whatever comes first).  All that’s missing is a cigarette.

Before I close, I want to thank all my dear friends from the 3:20 thread, even the hopeful crazies who predicted a sub90 (Matt), which I knew was not ever on the table.  Your confidence in me was beautiful, albeit overly hopeful.  And that huge collection of messages from my Facebook friends filled my heart like you wouldn’t believe.  I just love all you internet and real-life pals of mine – you make it all so much fun. Thank you for being so great.

I hope to have at least one ok race picture but until then, here's me and my dinner.

]]> http://www.girlinmotion.com/philly-half-race-report-2011/feed 48 http://www.girlinmotion.com/carlsbad-half-report http://www.girlinmotion.com/carlsbad-half-report#comments Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:45:52 +0000 Flo http://www.girlinmotion.com/?p=7516 Before anything, I want to thank my friends and hosts for the weekend, Jackie and Louis.  I can’t believe how lucky I am to have such incredibly giving people in my life. They took care of me from the moment my plane touched down with such unabashed generosity, sweetness and humor, the weekend was one huge-ass party.  There are not enough Thank You’s in the world to let them know how grateful I am.  I love you two kooky kids!

Jackie, me and Louis at Point Loma

Pre-race dinner: Charlie, Matt, Jackie, Louis, Me, Pete, Barb and Skye the Wonder Husky

The race
When we drove the course the day before, I realized this was going to be harder than I thought but I was cool with it, just unsure of what pace to target.   I decided to go with the 1:35 pace group,  a possibly optimistic but seemingly sensible goal.  Other than that, I had no plan, no splits referenced, just que sera sera would be the theme of the morning.

Pacer Madness

We get into our corrals and I ask the pacers what their plan is and they tell me they’re planning on straight 7:15s which sounded ok but tough, since there’s a steep uphill straight off the bat and I’d prefer to take it slower to start, but figured they knew what they were doing.   Unfortunately, the pacers, while very nice guys, went much faster than 7:15s.  By mile 2, we were running near my 10k pace! This was not sensible, especially for me, who considered the rollers to be a real challenge.  First 4 miles were:

7:10
6:51
6:57
6:50

At mile 4, one of the pacers tells us proudly “we’re 35 seconds ahead of schedule” though looking at these splits after the fact, it was over a minute.  Even 35 seconds would have been too much considering the course.  Meanwhile, this guy behind me (who is not with the group) sees their 1:35 sign and says to no one in particular “You guys are going at 1:30 pace!”  I have him to thank for whooping some sense into me because it was then that I realized it would not end well if I continued, my breath was already labored, so I let the group go and  focused on getting back into a calmer mode.

Honestly, I’m annoyed with myself more than the pacers – I was wearing a Garmin and saw my average lap paces so I should have backed off much earlier.  Anyway, live and learn, it was a good lesson to trust my instincts more.

Cheering Squads!
Mile 4 and 9, I see my friend from the 3:20 thread, Matt, cheering me on.  What a great boost that was.

Mile 7, a woman takes my picture and yells out “Flo! I’m a blog stalker!” which was hilarious and so unexpected, I loved it.  Hope she pipes up here since I have no idea who she is.

Shoe Lace
In the 4 years I’ve been running, my shoelace has never come untied, I always double-knot and it hasn’t failed me, until mile 7 of this race.  Here I was with 6 miles to go and my laces are flopping around.  I decided to ignore it as long as I could and keep running but then, out of nowhere behind me comes one of the pacers, who had dropped back for some reason. He says “Tie your shoe!”  I reply, “Nah, I’m ok, I’ll just ride it out”  He says again, more authoritatively “No, tie your shoe! I’ll get you back”.

I’m glad he did, because it would have been an idiotic move to continue with it untied. I stop, tie my shoe and then it’s the pacer and me for a bit.  He’s indicating that I should get behind him to draft since it’s breezy but I’m such a dork and can’t figure out where I should place myself to draft.  It was fine though, the breeze felt good.  He gets me up another of those stupid hills (rollers-schmollers, these were low but long hills) and I’m breathing too hard, so I tell him to “Go ahead, I don’t care if I get a 1:37, seriously, just go” because I really didn’t care – but in a good way, not a self-defeating way.  He tried to change my mind, but I wasn’t having any so he went on.

The Course
There’s an ocean there.  I think I noticed it a couple times.

The Rest of My Splits
After I separated from the pace group, I spent the rest of the race working on effort level only.  I had my elapsed time on my Garmin screen but refused to look at it until I crossed the finish line, paying attention to Average Lap Pace every so often.

7:24
7:16
7:36
7:28
7:24
7:30
7:33
7:32
7:13
1:11 Garmin says for .18

Final time 1:35:57.  I was very surprised and super happy with the result.  It’s only a minute off my last Half which was a much easier course and one I was very familiar with so I consider this an improvement, even though it was slower.  Plus, I wonder what kind of race I’d had if I hadn’t burned off so much energy those first few miles – might not have made a whit of difference, but then again, it might have.

Photos and Form
Unlike stingy Philly, where they have 1 or 2 photographers and it’s always at the end when you look like shit, Cali races are chock full of photogs.  Unfortunately, due to my god-awful facial expressions and excess waving leg skin which only shows on race photos and disgusts me, there was only one photo I was cool with (the first one above).  However, on a very good note, I am not overstriding and the finish line video looks fine too (as far as form) so I’m pleased about this.

This just in, my friend Barb’s hubby Pete (both of whom were also staying at Chez Louis/Jackie) is a great photographer and took these.  I Love Them!  Of course, there goes my overstriding observation, but at least it’s intermittent.

Medical Drama
Not mine, for once!   I posted this in the California forum of RWOL, but it’s worth reposting here:

Immediately after the race as we were walking back to the car, Jackie and Louis spotted a writhing runner laying on the sidewalk, moaning in great pain.  Without missing a beat, Jackie ran up, took the patient’s leg and started stretching and applying pressure while talking soothingly and distracting her with questions about the race, etc.  Louis got her head elevated and went for the other leg.  Together, they worked on her for about an hour.

Me, being the callous East Coaster, got really bored and secretly irritated because all I wanted to do was get to the FE.  I eventually wandered over to the car to walk Skye so I could get compliments on my beautiful dog but not before surreptitiously taking photos with my crap phone for proof of the gory scene.  Happy ending was the patient survived and joined us at the FE.

The FE
For those not in the know, an FE is a “Forum Encounter” where you meet your internet forum friends in real life.  Jackie, again the angel, arranged brunch for all the Cali forumites.  It was a big one, some hadn’t even raced but came down just for the gathering.  I’d already met a handful of people previously at the Boston Marathon FE which was pretty cool.  I also got to meet fellow blogger Kristin, a blog reader of mine Deb and of course, the infamous Coach A muse/Adam and his better half.

The FE Crew minus a few that had left by the time this was taken. You can click this to make it bigger and to see my Popeye arm veins better (don't know what that's about)

The A Muses: Stacie and Coach Adam

Fellow blogger Kristin. Don't ask me why I changed from my race clothes into other clothes that look exactly like my race clothes. It's what I brought.

And that ends today’s epic from the West Coast.  I will be dreaming of the people I met and the fun I had long after tonight’s predicted 8-12″ of snow has melted.  Running: the adventure never ends.

28 degrees for this race.  Everyone got into position early on and after that, there was little movement. I followed this one guy the whole time, passed a couple kids midway but nobody returned the favor.

Garmin splits were just where I wanted them: 6:30, 6:34 and 6:28 for the first 3mi.  Alas, Garmin was lying its ass off.  Not that it would have made a difference had it been truthful; I raced full-out from the get-go (breathing was noisy the whole time) so no excuses, but it was a downer to see the finish line clock not be at all what I expected.

When I got home, I tried to make myself feel better by checking out Tinman’s heat index chart but felt like a lamer for doing it.  Then I compared it to my last 5K which was a few seconds slower in much better weather with a flatter course, but since I raced that one badly, taking the first mile to get up to speed, it negated anything positive I could gain by the comparison. Ultimately, it is what it is, yet another mediocre race.

But I can’t let it get to me.  Improved workouts and the resulting heart rates (this particularly) indicate something is going right.  And the fact that I even raced at all is in the Plus column, you can’t get that kind of workout on your own.

Btw, I initially wrote this entry with no indication of how I felt about the race, facts only (shortest report ever) because I didn’t want to steer you lovely readers into any “poor Flo” comments.  But then I thought it would result in well-meaning, yet awkward “yay, Flo!” responses, which would have been even more ouchy, so in the end, I’ve vomited up everything I feel as usual.  You would have known something was up anyway since it’s no secret that my heart is permanently staple-gunned to my sleeve.

Anyway, I’ll close this with a shout-out to Victoria and the Smiley couple, 3 sweet souls at the race who were kind enough to admit they read this blog.  Was great meeting you today!  Hope to see you in the park and at more races.

Oh look! It’s happy hour on the East Coast…I’m gonna have me some wine now and go to a happy place in my head.  Cheers, everyone and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Here’s the dirt, corrected since my Facebook post:
1:34:40
277/8404 OA
60/5369 F
5/387 AG (awards go 5-deep so apparently I won something)

Today was major, major.  No PR (you all know I wasn’t shooting for one) but the way it played out couldn’t have been better.

Saturday
was a day for my 2 favorite race roomies to arrive at the Blue Hovel: Audra and Kat.  We went to the Expo, had a huge dinner of my new favorite pre-race meal: mushroom cheeseburger and sweet potato fries.  Kat and I kept worrying about what to wear since the weather was going to be 33 windchill (turned out to be a perfect 42 degrees).  I ended up in a light longsleeve, capris and throwaway gloves.

The race plan
was to not have a plan.  7:12s.  That was all I was thinking.  I knew there were 3 hills in this race and that I’d run up ‘em slower, but I’m finally recognizing that I’m good at downhills, so as long as what goes up goes down, I figured I’d be ok.

I didn’t even work out a single split in advance to write on my hand, no “where I should be at 5K, 10K, etc”.  I am where I am when I get there.

The Corral Crazy
I park myself in the back of the first corral and while waiting, get into a strange conversation with a super skinny girl who is shivering uncontrollably, though dressed in 2 shirts, tights, hat and gloves.  I rub her arm exclaiming “You’re freezing!” which starts her talking non-stop, eventually getting to this:

“I should probably be farther back because I’m going slower than when I signed up”
Me: “what are you aiming for?”
Her: “was going for a 1:35 but am going for 1:45 now”
Me: “yeah, you should move back”
Her: something I can’t understand and “…I have a stress fracture in my foot right now but…” more wacky talk I can’t understand
Me: [finally realizing girl is a nut-job, surreptitiously finds another place to stand]

Salvation In Balloons
My first mile is slow, around 7:31 but I’m cool with it, I want to remain calm and collected today.  In that mile, I can see the 3:10 pace group ahead of me and while it hadn’t occurred to me to go with a pacer, I recognize the leader is PacerChris from the Runners World forums.  Cool.  Since I’m going for 1:34:xx, I realize I can stick with the group and then at the end make a break for it, since Half of 3:10 would be 1:35 and I figure he’s going to be close to that at the Half.

This turns out to be a smart decision.  The Garmin is unreliable downtown so I tend to worry about pace in the initial miles and having a group to focus on was brilliant for keeping my thoughts neutral. Additionally, 3:10 was almost all men going for their BQ, so having marathoners around doing their more comfortable pace helped me stay comfortable as well.  And did I mention it was almost all men? ;-)

I was so focused on sticking with those guys, I didn’t even pay attention to any mile markers till I eventually left the group.  (I noticed my first mile marker at mile 10, lol).  Also, the uphills that really bothered me last year were suddenly not so heinous, maybe it’s the group mentality but it was a major confidence boost.

The downside of the group was that it was quite large and I didn’t do well on tangents because I was more intent on staying as close to the guys as possible, which required more weaving than I’d have done on my own.  Also, when I did the water stops (which went quite well today, my second time going bottle-less) it was a little anxiety-driven of “must not let them get ahead” but at the same time “must drink properly”.

On My Own Again
Around mile 8.5 or so, I saw that sweet downhill just waiting for me, so I decided to make a break for it.  My thought was that the pace group would probably catch back up to me on the last uphill but I hoped they wouldn’t.  And they didn’t!  It was also lovely having all that space suddenly around me instead of all those heels and legs so close.

Now that I was on my own and reveling in the fact that everything was working so well, I had no idea how fast I was going since I hadn’t been paying attention to the markers, but when I finally synced it back up at mile 10, lovely low 7s showed up.  This was wonderful!

On top of this and even more happy-making was that my breath was unusually good for the whole race.  No labored or embarrassing loudness (which is my usual M.O. even when not on the verge of collapse).  I felt more in control and strong than I’ve ever done in a Half.

I make it up the last and worst hill and as I wend my way around on the flat, can’t wait to cruise the final downhill to fly out onto the last 2.5 mile stretch.  From that point to the end, my thoughts are “hold on, just keep feeling this way, you don’t have to go faster, just hold on.” Amazingly, as the distance dissolved, instead of my usual “how much longer, am I almost done yet?!” it was “wow, it’s almost over already!”  Sure, I was ready to be done, but I wasn’t dying to be done.

Gels & Water Stops
I brought 2 gels, and had one at mile 6ish but when it came time for the 2nd, I opted for a few sips of Gatorade instead because I didn’t want to deal with the packet.  I used 3 water stops total, the first one I walked a few steps to make sure I drank the entire cup (because I’d just had that gel) but the next two were less thorough.

Finish
The coolest part of the finish was that a friend of mine, Kev, a local runner dude who puts on races around here and is an all-round sweet guy, was the volunteer who put the finisher’s medal around my neck!  That was extra special.

Final Thoughts
I went for 7:12′s and got 7:13′s.  Since I hit the lap button at mile 10, I know for a fact (assuming that marker was placed correctly) that I finished the final 3.1 in 21:58…that’s 7:05′s!  This is huge for a gal whose Indian name should be Girl Who Dies At End Of Races.

Add to this that today’s course was harder than the PR race yet I ran it more comfortably, indicates that I am indeed back in PR shape!  Not to say “I could’ve PRd if only…”  I needed that pace group today, I needed to feel what a racing body should feel like at the right effort. I needed the way this day went.  It was perfect.

I still don’t think I’m the greatest racer and if left completely to my own devices, I’d have had some anxious moments and very likely been slower during those first few miles, but I can learn and improve.  The main thing is that the fitness is there and I’m on the upswing.  The shit 14 months are over.  I’m back.

Chip time – 43:11
26/1859 females (chip time…gun time has me one later)
161/3268 OA (ditto chip time)
Useless factoid, Age-Grade: 79.32%

…and that was with a first mile of 7:21 (that bridge is the bane of my existence).  No placing, thanks to a couple 39s and a couple 40s in my AG (I was 6th).  It was a fast field in general, including a number of Ethiopians and/or Kenyans (sorry, I don’t know enough to separate).

3268 runners & about 1000 walkers.  Was colder than crap, I wore my fleece with a down coat over and did not want to give either of them to bagcheck.  That said, I wore tights when I left the house but brought capris, which I changed into in the car.

I’ve been feeling good about the race for the last couple days, knowing that it’s not a fast course and it’d be cold, so I didn’t have to worry too much about final outcome, just doing the best I could.  My only worries going into the race were that I didn’t go pooh before I left the house and when I got there, I thought there’d be something to eat, so I didn’t eat at home (you have to get there early since they close the bridge) but I found a couple donut holes on some vendor’s table, so that was enough.

Btw, last night I had my new magic meal: mushroom cheeseburger as big as my head and sweet potato fries.  It’s what I ate before last Sunday’s fabulous long run, so I figured I’d try it again – that’s why I wasn’t hungry enough to eat upon waking.  Anyway…

After the first mile or so, just one woman passed me at around mile 3.  Me and another girl played cat and mouse for the last mile and she outkicked me, but that was mainly because I was looking around the field for the finish line when it was right in front of my face (they changed the course a bit this year).  Didn’t even get a chance to kick.

Garmin loves Camden, NJ, so the splits were right on with the markers:
7:21 (wake up, Flo!)
6:49 (still on the bridge but the down side got my legs moving for the second pass uphill)
6:44 (one last mile of bridge)
6:46 (finally off the damn bridge)
7:06 (hill and wind here)
7:00 (nothing interesting to report)
1:25 (6:25 pace)

One thing I did after the first mile was sing to myself Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” because that’s one of the songs I used to practice with when I did cadence training a couple years ago.  It actually works as a helper.

Bottom line, I’m pleased with my performance, I was controlled and not breathing maniacally through any of it.  Could have done better out the gate, but I think the speed is returning, it’s just a matter of learning to give it more gas from the get-go.  I seem to start timidly as habit now, so that’s something I need to work on.