Chip time: 2:19:41
17/27 - Age group (Females, 35-39)
251/339 - Overall
My friend, Steph, ran with me on this one. It was her very first half-marathon. I went by her house around 6:15 am. She was still asleep!
We made it there about 30 minutes before the race started, hit the restrooms, picked up our bibs and checked in our stuff with zero time to spare. I ate a Snickers as we made our mad dash around getting all that done. Yum.
At the start line!
I love this course because it's all flat, no hills. Hooray! Beforehand, I wasn't sure if I was going to try to run the whole way through or Galloway it (run/walk). As we started, I figured I would try the Galloway method to see what kind of results I would get.
I used a 9:1 ratio (run 9 minutes, walk 1 minute) to take any kind of thinking out of it. Every time my Garmin's time ended in a 0 minute (e.g. 0:10, 0:20, 1:40, etc.), I would walk for one minute. It was kind of funny at first. I would run, then pull over to walk and watch all kinds of people pass me by. Then when my minute was up, I'd start running again and catch up or pass the people who went by me earlier. They probably thought I was annoying. I know I would have.
Steph spotted the first photographer up ahead around the 3 mile mark maybe, and we started giggling like crazy as we checked out clothes to smooth out any muffin tops.
This one cracks me up because you can see us behind these ladies laughing and trying to look for the camera. I swear, you'd think we were 8 years old.
I ate about 4 Powerbar gummy things every 3 miles and sipped from my handheld, which had Nuun in it. I was feeling pretty good for the first half of the run. The walking breaks were doing me good and I felt energized when it came time to run again.
Things changed after the halfway point. :(
I started feeling tired and was trying to keep pace with an older gent (he's 64 and finished about a minute after me! How kick ass is that!). I would catch up to him, then it was time for my walk break and I'd watch him pull away, then it would be time for me to run again, then by the time I caught up to him, it would be time for my walk break again. Ad naseum.
After a few miles of that, I realized that I wasn't really pushing myself. I was just trying to keep up with him and cursed myself for not doing what I knew I was capable of. I passed the older gent and tried to step up my pace.
Going from focused...
to cheeseball at the sight of a photographer.
This was probably around Mile 10. The lady in the pink tank behind me eventually passed me. I remember seeing her and thinking, "Whoa! Where did she come from?!" I guess I'm pretty oblivious when I run.
I pushed through and managed not to veer off the 9:1 ratio, even though I really wanted to.
About a mile or two left.
I was actually starting to feel okay towards the end of the run, tired, but felt like I could still run more miles if I had to. I was a bit scatter-brained, though. During the very last corner before the finish, I saw a photog who pointed that I should run to his left. I nodded at him and continued to run straight. What the hell, me! When I realized I was stupid, I curved around him and just watched him stare at me. How embarrassing. Yeah, there was no pic of me there because I went the wrong way.
And the sprint to the finish.
I thought it was awesome that there were fellow runners cheering and clapping at the finish line for those still finishing. It totally made me smile. I will have to do that, too, at my next race.
Steph, and her no-training ass, finished in less than a minute after me. I think I hate her.
With the run/walk method, I finished in my best time ever for this course and just a minute over my all-time half-marathon PR. How crazy is that?
My splits from last year, when I ran the whole way.
My splits for this race doing a run/walk.
Anyway, I think I really like the run/walk method. Sure it's not running non-stop (or actually "cheating" like my husband says, insert stink-eye at him here). But my splits are more even, my overall pace was faster and I wasn't as fatigued towards the end like I normally am.
I'm excited to see how this will pan out for my marathon next month. Yikes!
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