Well, I guess if you try try and try again you will finally have a good race. 3 half marathons in 5 weeks is how I roll! JUST KIDDING, it really isn’t normal. One was an “A” race, the 2nd was just to have fun and pace the 2 hour group, and the 3rd was a last minute decision. I was sick at Folly Beach half and didn’t quite have the race I wanted, so to say I’ve been seeking some redemption is an understatement.
Going into this race I’d had a recovery week 2 weeks prior, and normal training (10 hours) the week of the race. I wasn’t sure how my body would respond, or what I was capable of just b/c I’ve been running w/AJ the majority of my runs since Heath’s been out of town and I haven’t done this level of training since prior to having Addison.
I got to the race site and chatted w/Sarah before she took off on her run, and then ran into some friendly faces right before the start. This helped me a little as I was running this race alone today which made it daunting yet very freeing considering so much of my time has been spoken for these days. My thought process was that as soon as that gun went off just get into a groove, and that I did.
I was pleasantly surprised w/how well thought out mile 1 and 2 were, it really gave people time to thin out before you hit the trail so it wasn’t people running wall to wall. My first mile was 7:33, which had me a little concerned but I just told myself to find that groove. I wanted to be a little uncomfortable but not too maxed out. Mile 2 wasn’t but 10 seconds slower and it didn’t seem that bad. I tried to teeter in that zone of not too easy and not too hard fearing that at some point I might blowup. I was also making a huge gamble that this 1st time race would have the aid stations where they said they would and stocked. I carried my gel w/me but made a last minute decision to not carry my fuel belt. Sure enough, mile 4 had drink and was the perfect time for me to take my Powerbar gel.
I cruised through the miles only looking at my Garmin when the mile alerts went off. I never went above 7:50. I remember thinking to myself that if I just made it to mile 7 I’d be over half way through. Mile 7 came and went and I started to feel a little dehydrated and just hoped that the aid station at mile 8 was there. I was so thankful to hit that aid station. Gel 2 down and some drink to quench my thirst. Right around mile 9 was when I realized that I may be able to maintain this speed throughout. Mile 10 I felt a burst of energy which netted me my 2nd 7:32 mile. I could only hope that speed maintained through the hill I saw at mile 12 on the elevation chart. Around mile 11 was where I hit unchartered territory. Unlike the rest of the race where I knew every inch of the course, I just couldn’t visualize this part of the route for the life of me. The hill wasn’t mile 12, it was mile 11-12! This was my slowest mile, 8:25, and I wanted to walk so bad it wasn’t even funny. Just one more mile, come on Nicole get your crap together! This would be what I said to myself. The downhill helped me regroup only to encounter another hill. A female had passed me on the last hill and I could see her in the close distance but I was maxed out. I made the final right hand turn onto McBee and saw the finish line .2 mile away. I was going to cruise into the finish knowing I had PR’d, but then of all people to give me a little nudge, my shoulder doc was there yelling at me to give it all I had. He’d passed (tried to sneak by) me in mile 1, so of course to save face I sprinted to the finish. I still didn’t catch that girl, low and behold she was in my age group and beat me by 7 seconds. I finished in 1:42:22, 5TH in my age group, 23rd overall female out of 385 females. For you number geeks out there (me included), that’s in the top 6% of a decent sized race.
Congrats to all the hometown peeps who either raced or volunteered, nothing is better than seeing friendly faces on race day. So many people did so well, me included. I talked to Forrest afterwards and I think what hits home about me doing well is I’m finally getting some consistency back. I haven’t worked out over 5 days a week since before AJ, I’m making it a priority now to get back to some form of the old me. That means consistency. I will listen to my body, but there are times where you have to ignore it and not let it be an excuse.
I think for a 1st year race you couldn’t have asked for much more. This race had plenty of aid stations, you lost elevation on the course, great amount of volunteers, you were only on the road for 2 miles, and packet pickup was a breeze (thanks Eric and Elizabeth!!!). On On Tri and Al did a great job putting on this event and I’m sure I’ll do this race again.
