10/28/07: Houston Half Marathon Race Report!

1:54:47.0.

A MAJOR PR for me today.....wow.

Is a 4:00 marathon really out of my reach this year?!

More shortly...

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I definetely felt more prepared about this race then I did about the 10 Miler just two weeks ago, both physically and mentally. Two consistant and strong weeks of 30 miles/week helped put me in that frame of mind I think:)

Anyhow, I went into this race well-rested (okay-5 hours, but I napped a lot on Saturday!) and wearing new shoes. I know some of you probably think that new shoes are a bad omen right before a race, but I haven't bought into that way of thinking. (I do believe, however, that new CLOTHES are usually not a good thing before a race!!!) I actually bought the new shoes (well, same as my old shoes, but the newer, unforunetely more expensive model) on a whim that my sore knees and my old shoes (about 330 miles now that I look back on it) were related. Sure enough after this race, I couldn't have been happier on my decision to go with a new race-day shoe:)

I lined up as close to the front as I could comfortably get and stretched and drank a little gatorade I brought with me to settle my stomach (I always have an uneasy stomach on race day!) I didn't feel nervous but I certainly felt determined. 13.1 miles is nothing to joke about. Just think, two years ago, my 'goal distance.' Now, just a stepping stone to longer journies...

Although I forgot my split-pace band, (again!) I knew my main goal was to run consistant 9:00/miles the entire race. However, I knew I always got a slow start at this, so I would settle for negative splits in the second half of the race. I quickly ran into Strider Cari and we setlleed into a very comfortable 9:00/mile pace. Soon we saw Strider Pony and Cari ran to catch up with her. I was happy with my pace, so I stayed behind and took a Carbboom. This was around Mile 3.

That sucker kicked in pretty quick though, and before I knew it, I was arm-in-arm with the two ladies:) We ran a very comfortable pace for about 3 miles together, all speeding up about 10 seconds/mile until we finally got seperated at a the mile 6 water station. I told them that I would slow down and they would catch up with me. However, this never happened. I mean, I am sure they tried to catch back up to me and were running their 9:00/mile, but something WEIRD was happening-I was speeding up!!!

And I continued to speed up! Although I accidently deleted my splits right after the race (URGHHH!) I believe I ran negative splits the entire race! Is that possible?! I am still amazed by it, after the fact...I just ran and ran and ran. What do I say? Attribute it to great weather? A great feeling pair of new running shoes? I don't know. I just ran and ran and ran.

I did start to 'finally' feel bad at mile 10. Almost like clockwork, I think, with the 5k left to go. I wanted to slow bad so much, and I would tell my legs to put the brakes on, and nothing happened. I hammered the 'downhills' and trotted the 'uphills.' People that saw me running said I looked very good and strong. All of the Striders cheering for me had to have helped too:) (thank you, thank you to you all!) I felt like a million dollars.

Around mile 11 or 12 Strider Ruben saw me and started running with me. I just wanted to be done with the race at this point because I have an eye infection and the sun rising from Downtown was stinging my eye soo bad! So yes, if you saw a crazy-looking girl with an orange hat and a towel over her eye, that was probably me! (I don't know how I ran like that, by the way, with one eye covered I mean...haha. I must have been swerving all over the road...)

Anyhow, Ruben just kept my mind occupied and we talked a lot, mostly about trusting your training. I told him I didn't know why I was running so fast! I must have sounded crazy at that point: don't most of us want to run fast?! Why should I question that?! We kept speeding up, and ran mile 13 in 8:20. Wow, lightning fast (to me) although I didn't feel *that* fast. He, Bless his soul, kept me going though. I wanted to walk, I wanted to stop and felt whiny all of a sudden. I even started to hypervenilate because I felt emotional and ready to be done with the damn race. But he said it best--'You've done the Marathon, you can do this!'

I finished strongly, sprinting, and probably with a crazy look of determination and a dumb bit-of-a-smile on my face. And you know what? I don't care HOW dumb I looked. This was absoulutely MY race to run strongly and have such a huge personal best: 4 minutes and 12 seconds:) I still can't believe it! As the famous 'first Boston Marathon' woman K. Switzer once said about her best race (the 1975 Boston Marathon):

"It felt as though the road just meet me."

Next on the bill...nursing my soreness away, getting rid of this eye infection and the 25k in only two weeks! Woohoo! Another PR in store? Hmmm, only hard work and time will tell...

THE STATS:

13.1 miles @ave 8:49/mile

1:54:47 official chip time

8:56/first half average

8:35/second half average

9:02, 9:02, 9:00, 8:44,
8:40, 8:40, ?, ?,
?, ?, 8:40, 8:35, 8:20, .48
(splits I remember)