Half Marathon #4 Complete!
PR!!!
2:14:02
AND GUESS WHAT?! That’s right, I got my PR! I reached my goal! I’m so excited! (in case you couldn’t tell)
I finished the race in 2:14:02. My publicized goal was 2:20. My private goal was 2:15 (based on my practice runs). My last half was 2:29. My first half was over 3 hours. Needless to say, I’m improving, and I’m very, very happy about it.
The nice scenery along the way didn’t hurt one bit, either
I started the race at a 9:30 pace and kept it up for 4 miles. I was planning on only running 2 miles at that pace, but I was feeling good and I was pacing behind “purple girl” — purple hat, purple shirt, purple shoes — so kept going. They didn’t have official pacers for this race, so I had to find someone who I thought I could keep up w/ and she won the ‘I’m-gonna-be-a-race-creep’ lottery! I totally trailed her for the first 4 miles, but decided not to be a total creep, so didn’t take a picture of her!
She stopped at the 4 mi water to stretch and I decided to keep going, so my pace was much less consistent the rest of the race. After mile 4 I slowed down, randomly going back to 9:30 pace when running past something motivational or a big group of people. Mile 10 is when I started having issues. My left calf was very tight so I stopped to stretch it a few times, and by mile 11 I was having quad pain and barely holding onto an 11:00 pace. After a few walking spouts I decided to really slow down, since I was doing very well on time.
Starting out stronger really seems to help me get a faster overall time, but I’m hurting more at the end of the race. All day Saturday & Sunday my quads were killing me. I’ve been foam rolling and stretching like crazy, and am finally starting to feel OK today.
I managed to make it across the finish line above my goal so I’m still happy w/ my results — but I do wish my timing was a little more consistent. Here are my splits:
Mile 1 – 9:33
Mile 2 – 9:29
Mile 3 – 9:28
Mile 4- 9:19
Mile 5 – 10:05 (you can tell I lost my pacer)
Mile 6 – 9:35
Mile 7 – 10:21 (getting tired!)
Mile 8 – 9:59
Mile 9 – 10:20
Mile 10 – 10:44
Mile 11 – 11:00 (sore calves)
Mile 12 – 11:40 (walked a lot)
Mile 13 – 10:51
According to my watch my finish time was 2:12. My leg hurts like I finished in 2:12, but I’ll accept Tybee’s official time of 2:14 =)
The next few weeks I’m traveling, so I’ll be running shorter distances, but hopefully the same (ore more) number of days. I have a 10K in March, and am going to search for my next half to run in late Spring. I really want to run a marathon, but I’ve got to lose the rest of my weight and become more comfortable w/ the half distance (and get my time under 2:00) before I even think about training for one. Hopefully in the Fall I’ll be ready for a full.
Thanks for a great race, Tybee!
**Tybee Island and Savannah, GA are amazing and beautiful, and I definitely suggest going there if you have never been! I will be visiting again for sure!
Happy Running!
Awesome job! Congrats!!!
Great job! I want to go to Tybee Island and Savannah so badly! It looks awesome!
That is amazing! Huge congratulations to you, lady!!! Beautiful pictures of Tybee too.
I’ve nominated you for the Very Inspirational Blogger Award!
http://blessedwiththunderthighs.com/2013/02/09/ive-been-nominated/
[...] police man or woman at it. I felt so safe on the entire course. It was such a difference from my Tybee Half, when the runners in front of me almost got hit by a car that ran a stop [...]