This past weekend, my Mom and I packed up and headed down to visit my brother, sister in law and my 3 nephews in Virginia. Heather and I were going back to VA Beach to conquer the Shamrock races, I was running the half, she the full. Two years ago this race was Todd& Heather's first half marathon. Now they've both run marathons and triathlons (including a 70.3 each!) and various other muddy mountain runs with those wild obstacles along the course. They're tough, so despite poor Heather's string of injuries I knew she would do just fine on race day. Even with one incident of falling off of the road, she still ran an awesome 4:02. It was a great weekend for everyone because I managed a PR in my race and I was more than happy to break the 1:39 mark in my race. My goal was to beat my time of 1:40:something from 2010, but really I wanted to break 1:40. I was not confident in my ability to run that fast going into this race, not at all. I had a small confidence booster at the Coogan's 5K when I ran the hilly course at 7:01 pace, but that was short- could I maintain a speedy pace for 10 more miles? I get sweaty palms just thinking about it, even now. I was afraid of crashing and burning halfway through, but looking back I really did have a solid base and several long runs under my belt. All I kept thinking was that all of my training was too slow. In my head: My long runs were slow, my speedwork was too short, I didn't do much tempo, etc etc etc... In reality: I'd run steady, progressively longer runs on Saturday mornings for months and I'd done so much inadvertent hill work that I was/am in really good shape. I even ran 16 a few weeks ago!
As the race progressed, I began to get a second wind and I brought my mile times down a few seconds each mile from 8 on. I can tell that I was really running the hardest race possible because I couldn't pick up my pace any more in mile 13 to dip below 7:20 when normally I can bring my final mile down to 7:15 or so. I wanted to give up and die at several points during the final 1/2 mile stretch of the boardwalk too, so that's always a good sign. I was really happy knowing that I'd left it all out there on the course. My splits were not as consistent as usual, and I did have a rogue 7:25 in mile 2 after a crowded mile 1, but my slowest mile (1) and my fastest mile (13) are within 20 seconds and I'm happy with that. I actually didn't run one single mile at goal pace. Ha!
I'm beyond happy with the overall results too, top 100 for women in a race this size is shocking. I hope I can translate this speed into some smaller races this summer and maybe take home a few AG awards here and there.
Did I mention that they gave out finisher hooded sweatshirts at the finish?! Take that NYRR!!!
I still don't understand why they had the half start an hour-and-a-half before the full. Do you?
ReplyDeleteRegardless, it was a great race, and I'm happy to hear that you P.R.'ed. Bummer that we didn't run into each other down there, but I'm sure we'll be in the same city at the same time again sometime soon.