HOLY COW!?! It’s been a month since I posted?! Things have been soooooo super busy that everything has gotten away from me!
Things here have been going pretty well. I’ve really gotten back into the swing of things with work and still finding time for fitness. The hubby and I signed up for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon way back in July. Since then, we have been going on long runs every Sunday together. Things were much much different this time around for my second half marathon.
The Training
For my last half marathon, I trained religiously. I followed the Jeff Galloway plan (mostly…..) and tried to mix running with my regular boxing schedule. I ran short runs once or twice a week and a long run on the weekend. Of course I slowly ramped up my mileage until running 13.1 all by myself. This time I did things much differently knowing I had the mental stamina and physical endurance to carry me across the finish line.
Dan ran short runs on his own during the week. I skipped almost all of the short runs! I found that I was training so hard and long at boxing that I didn’t need the extra running time. Also, my body was happy not to be running so many miles. I still ran long runs on the weekend, but this time I had Dan with me. The runs went by a lot faster having someone with me. We don’t really talk when we run but it’s different to have someone there with you. I enjoyed the time together while still being able to have plenty of mental time to sort through my brain. I could always keep up on the long runs even with skipping the short runs.
As the marathon grew closer, we knew we would run out of weekends to practice the whole 13.1 miles. I knew that if Dan could do 10 miles, he could do 13.1. The first time he would go the whole distance was in the race!
The Morning Of
The morning of the race we were both pretty nervous. The temperature was much colder than we were used to. Also, we had to take a bus downtown to get to the race and we were feeling anxious about getting there on time. I checked a backpack for the first time at a race as well. I always avoided this because I thought it would be a pain, but it was actually pretty convenient. The bus got us downtown in time……..to stand in line for the bathroom.
While we were standing in line for the port-o-johns, we heard the first wave starting. I refuse to stop during the race unless absolutely necessary. We were in wave 6 and were trying to keep a time of 2:10. I really wanted to beat my previous time, even if just by a minute. I knew that if I ran the same pace I’d run on our 10 miler, I would make it.
I’m usually really early for races and end up standing at the starting line for 20 minutes at least. BUT, we waited for the bathroom for so long that we almost missed our starting time. When we were walking up, our wave was starting. So there was no time to stand and get pumped but no time to get nervous either. So there’s no ‘before the race’ picture otherwise it would have been a selfie in the port-o-john. Gross.
The Race
Dan and I had planned to run the race together and cross the finish line together. Since he had never gone the full distance, I was worried about Dan over-pacing himself and not being able to finish strong. Once we started, Dan made a rookie mistake and I was glad I was there to fix it. Dan took off like a bat out of hell. We are used to running 9:30-10:15 pace. We ran the first mile in 8:30. In a race, it’s so easy to get caught up with those around you. It’s easy to run at their pace not considering how much farther you have to go. (And let me tell you, most of the people in front of you in mile 3 are way behind you in mile 10 if you know how to pace yourself) When I finally caught him in mile two I said, “The point isn’t to beat everyone. I can’t keep running this pace and I can’t chase you for 13 miles. Are we running together or not? Let me pace you.” After that, things went much better.
The Rock and Roll is a very cool race. They had lots of local bands along the route. Also, the Denver route loops for the first few miles downtown so there are lots of spectators. The sunrise was beautiful and the people of Denver cheered us along the way. Some of the route was even our usual running route! We passed our apartment four times, which got harder each time!
When we picked up our race packets, they had wristbands with paces of them. We picked up the 2:10 wristband so all through the race I knew if we would finish on time. Because Dan sprinted the first two miles 🙂 we made up extra time that we needed at the end of the race. Each mile we were ahead but close to the pacer. In mile 10 the 2:10 pacer runner passed us and I was devastated. My heart sank and I thought we wouldn’t finish in time but I was also thinking that the pacer was a little too fast according to my calculations.
When we hit mile 12, I knew it was close. The last mile of the course was fun! My nike app clicked over to mile 13 and we could see the finish line around the corner. I grabbed Dan’s hand before we crossed the finish line.
The Times:
Official Colfax: 13. 2 miles, 2:21 Nike +: 13.1 miles, 2:18
Official R&R: 13.5 miles, 2:17 Nike+: 13.1 miles, 2:12
So according to my records, I broke my last time by 6 minutes. What made me even prouder was setting almost all new personal recorders and FINALLY breaking half an hour on a 5K, so thanks to Dan for running to darn fast at the beginning!
