This race was really tough for me. I spent all fall doing speed work at the track on Tuesday nights with my RAW friends, the "Trackies." I only missed one Tuesday, when I was in NY for Kelly's wedding. I knew I had gotten significantly faster and my form had improved a lot. (This was my 5th Half.) However, I despise the pain of going fast. Everyone's fast is different and my "fast" is way faster than it used to be, but oh dear god does it hurt.
My goal was 1:54:00. Diana and I got there in plenty of time to do a warm-up and decide what layers we wanted to wear. (Not the easiest decision, oddly enough.) Well, everyone that runs with me knows I normally have to pee at least 3 times before a race. I was seeded in the A corral but we could barely even make it to the B corral the madness of people was so overwhelming. I do not enjoy being surrounded by that many people. At all. There was about a 45 min wait for every porta-potty and I had to pee so bad! We spotted some porta-potties right before the chip line at the start and I quickly made my way over to them. When I ran back, we were thick within the C corral.
This proved to be such a challenge to my time goal. For close to 5 miles we would have to sprint in the very little open space and then get stuck behind a line of people, and then sprint, and then get stuck. FOREVER! We wasted so much energy and were so frustrated. Live and learn. This was my first big (in terms of participants) race that I actually had a time goal and not just a finish goal. Now I know, get to the correct corral and just suck it up if you still have to pee.
Evan was at mile 7.5. I was seriously so tired from my pace at this point that tears came to my eyes when I saw him. It feels so ridiculous to say that but there was such mixture of emotions going through me. I was so proud of myself for the track work I had put it and the pace I was able to keep up to that point, but I was hurting so bad and I knew I still had a while to go.
The last mile was the hardest. I have a lot of faith and confidence in my endurance but not my speed. Oh man, it sucked. It ended up being an 11 minute PR (personal record) for me, my overall time was 1:54:46. I definitely didn't negative split it, which is always my goal, but I did learn a lot of lessons for next time.
Up next:
RAW's Bold in the Cold 5k
Cross Timbers Half Marathon
St. Patty's Sprint Triathlon
Grasslands Half Marathon
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