Full Race Report

I think you all got to witness me having a little pity party for myself in my last post. I wrote it right when I got back from the race, before showering, before napping.

After I woke up from a two-hour nap, I felt a bit better.

I'm still not happy with my time of 2:15:18 for today's half-marathon, but I have accepted it at least.

Here's the details of the day:

The hotel where we stayed moved breakfast to start at 6 AM instead of 8 AM since they were one of the race's sponsor hotels. I thought that was really cool of them. We woke up at 5:15 and headed down at 6 and had some eggs, sausage, yogurt, cereal... a little bit of everything, small portions.

We drove the 1.5 miles to the race start and were one of the first cars there (crazy right?). We got a great parking spot less than 100 feet from the start/finish area. Hells yeah!

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The Havasu Half Marathon is a small race- less than 1,000 runners but it's pretty new. I think it will get a lot bigger each year. The race started at 7:30 AM so when we got there at 6:30, I was shocked that we were one of the only runners there. That doesn't usually happen. We sat in the car and watched the sun come up over the mountains until 7:00 when we started warming up.

The race was very well organized when it came to the "important stuff." The water stations were plentiful and well-stocked. The start went off without a hitch and registration was painless. The course was well-marked with volunteers everywhere directing us and the course was really quite beautiful.

Now it's time to add the "fluff" to the race though... get chip timers for accuracy and widen the course. It's pretty skinny so if it's going to get bigger, it won't be able to hold more racers. Improve the goodie bags from local vendors coupons or discounts too and try to get more people at the expo (I think there were 4 booths?). Also, the volunteers along the course were helpful, but that's about it... there was no cheering and locals didn't really seem to even notice us... get some bands, get some cheerleading squads, or just promote it more so all the traffic that we're running by beeps/honks their horns and screams out their windows!

Like I said- the basics were there for this race so I commend it for that...

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Okay, back to my personal race this morning.

My goal was sub 2-hours. Considering my fastest half-marathon before today was 2:28:00, I was planning to run it quite a bit faster than ever before. I knew I was bighting ofF a lot, but I feel like I'm in pretty good shape, so as long as my body played nicely, I thought I could do it.

A sub 2-hour pace equates to a 9:09/mile.

Here are my splits:
1- 8:42
2- 9:17
3- 8:57
4- 9:18
5- 8:59
6- 9:48 (stopped at a water station to take some Gu & guzzle some water, still felt strong here though so I figured I could make up the 30 seconds & I wasn't worried about it)
7- 9:18
8- 9:38
9- 11:08 (knee seized up on me, took one minute to stretch, still figured I could make up the time in the final miles, told myself it was better to take a minute to stretch now than be in pain later... ha, if only I knew...)
10- 9:24
11- 10:13 (running through pain during mile 10 and 11, but not excrutiating, just making the most of it)
12- 12:52 (calf cramp)
13- 16:28 (absolutely nothing I could do here... knee pain was debilitating at this point, tried to run .25 miles but positively could not)
.1 - 1:13

Total time = 2:15:18
Average pace = 10:18/mile

It's frustrating to look up at those splits and see that I lost this race in the last two miles. I know I wasn't going to be under 2 hours, but even if I was able to maintain a 10:00/mile pace, my time would have been 8 minutes less. That's a pretty big impact.

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Where do I go from here?
When I posted earlier, I had pretty much given up running... telling myself my body was just not meant for it.

But I've changed my perspective.

I need to take it down a notch, focus on shorter distances and my form. My calves cramp up because I'm pushing from my toes instead of letting my legs pull themselves up and behind me. My knees hurt because my IT bands are tight and cause a lot of friction and swelling that after 2 hours, becomes debilitating. My IT bands are tight because I don't swing my hips enough.

These are all things that a lot of people do without realizing it, but for some reason, my body doesn't adjust accordingly like others. Most peoples' bodies compensate for these types of errors in form by strengthening offsetting muscles or ligaments, but mine doesn't.

So, back to basics... back to square one. I need to work on improving the above issues so I can compete in long distances.

I'll use 5Ks and maybe even 10K's to work on my form... not for time, but for form. One thing is for certain, even if I'm not happy with a 10:18/mile pace this morning, I can't deny or forget that a pace like that is a HUGE improvement for me. I never thought I'd be able to run a 5K at that time, let alone 13.1 miles! CrossFit forces speedwork and as a result, my speed has improved substantially. Now I need to TEMPORARILY take two steps back and work on my form.

I'm INCREDIBLY sore this afternoon and can barely walk. My calves feel okay, but my knees- wowsas... they're killing me still.

Until tomorrow,
Kelsalynn