I ran a 1.5 mile warm up with a couple strides to wake up my legs and got in the starting shoot. I was hoping to pace at an 8:00 min/mile for a 1:45 half marathon. I started out feeling good and settled into a comfortable pace. Just after the 3 mile mark, the first of the major hills of the course starts....about a 0.5 mile climb. The next couple miles were through neighborhoods and mostly flat, which was much appreciated after the hill. Then we headed out towards the water....miles 4-8 still were going well and my pace was on track, but I could feel my legs getting heavier. Then the wind hit....that's when things started getting rough. By mile 10 the wind was really getting to me and I started slowing down some. I was doing the calculations in my head to see if I still had a shot at coming in under 1:45 and around mile 11.5 I realized I wasn't going to hit that goal. My legs started feeling like bricks and I mentally broke.....even though I knew I would still get a PR for some reason I mentally just gave up. At the start of mile 12, the second major climb began and I was done. I actually stopped and walked for about 5 seconds......thinking to myself "what the frick are you doing.....run!!"
I finished in 1:46:38 (watch time....they didn't have chip time so I am going with this instead) and 1:46:51 (gun time). That's a 4 minute PR.....I ran 1:49:35 at the same race last year!! While I am really excited about the PR especially since I ran it coming off a 47 mile week, I can't help but be disappointed...not because I didn't hit my goal (I'm confident that I could run sub-1:45 with a proper taper), but because I mentally gave up. That's not me.....I don't do that.
Oh well, what's done is done.....at least I have the PR to show for it! Here's my mile splits from my Garmin if you are interested. You can see exactly where the wind kicked in and where I mentally stopped.
7:56
7:57
8:01
8:17 (first major hill)
7:58
7:56
7:51
8:05
8:03
8:16 (the headwind was brutal and relentless from here on out)
8:19
8:20
8:35 (the last of the hills and the end of my mental strength)
6:45 (for the 0.1....at least I had some kick left in me!)
Total time = 1:46:38 (avg pace 8:07)
Total weekly miles =47
1 comment:
Great job Sarah!! Don't beat yourself up too much. You've had a lot on your plate outside of running and then tends to tax us more than much of the physical stuff. You braved some tough conditions and still came out ahead - celebrate!!!
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