White Rock Lake Centennial Half

A 10k PR does not a half marathon make!

Last Sunday, I hit a huge PR at the Heels and Hills 10k and man, did it boost my confidence!  So much so, that it lead me to take some risks at the WRL Centennial half that turned out to be very poor decisions.  When you have a Galloway runner who is "comfortable" with 13.1 miles, take away her intervals and what you have left is no longer a half marathoner .. you have a 10ker.  At least that's my experience.  Not to mention the heat and the fact that I haven't had a long run (over 7 miles) in a while ... But I'm not one to blame poor performance on anything but myself.  If I'm late to band practice, I'm not gonna blame it on my ride, you know ;p

I decided the night before that I was gonna go for it; try to run the entire 13.1 without my intervals.  I knew it would more than likely mean that my pace would be slowed and I wasn't going to come near my half PR, but right now it's more about gaining stamina to run straight through a half.  Well folks, Saturday wasn't that day!

I woke up in the morning and felt great!  Breakfast went down easy, I was chilly in my shorts and tank and on the drive to the race, guess who I ran into on 635 E?  None other than Michelle K, my new race buddy!  I looked up from the road to see a window rolled down with her head sticking out - great surprise!  So I followed them to a parking lot and on the drive, I hear my new fav song!  A seemingly perfect morning so far.  I stuck with Team Kennemer and we found more friends - Rick, Brad and Michelle, and more TIR tutu members! We made our way down to the start line and I left my friends to stand with the 2:30 pace group.

The first few miles felt ok, and I decided to stay just ahead of the pacers.  In my head, if I was right behind them, it would've seemed like I was trying to catch up .. didn't figure that was a good feeling to have for 13 miles!  After a while, I was SURE we were running faster than an 11.  I heard a woman in front of me say something like "yeah, we're around a 10:16" and I thought SHIT! That's way too fast!!  No way I can hold this for 13.  I got so angry at the pace group.  Why were they pushing so much so soon??  Who picked these frauds??

I was definitely getting tired from the sun, but the wind was tricking me into believing I wasn't really that hot.  So when I hit mile 5 I finally stopped for some water and took my first Hammer Gel .. but it was too little too late at that point.  The 2:30 group was out of site.  I kept running till about mile 6 but things were going downhill from there.  LOTS. OF. WALKING.  Not only was I not running like I wanted, but I wasn't even doing intervals.  Just a bunch of walking with some spurts of running.  I lost it a little between here and mile 8 or 9.  They all kinda blend together.  I got goosebumps somewhere around 7 and was seeing yellow a little bit on and off from there to the end.  When you get overheated like that, you run through a ton of different emotions.  I went from the verge of tears to wanting to laugh out loud!  (Did I mention I chose to run without my handheld water?  Yeah, like I said, lots of bad decisions).  When the 2:40 run/walk pace group smoked past me, I knew it was over.  Wow.

So I crept up on the finish line and saw Rick waiting for me which was cool.  I was previously under the impression that after a race like this one, the worst thing is having people you know waiting for you at the end .. especially when you come in almost 20min after your projected time.  Man was I wrong.  I was so down on myself, overheated, nauseous, disappointed (need I go on?) I thought for sure I didn't want to be around anyone.  But Rick walked me up to where Brad and Michelle were sitting and eventually Erik and Michelle (yes, there are a lot of Michelle's in my blogs) found us.  Erik "tricked" me into drinking a beer and all was good. 

After I got home and took a shower, I finally got my appetite back - in FULL FORCE.  I picked up my dad and met my mom and sister for food and my mood was completely lifted.  Turns out, I didn't care much that I had such a shitty race and an even worse finish time.  The day started out with friends and ended with friends.  I didn't perform well because I wasn't ready for it.  Not much to do about that come race day!  I made some bad decisions.  Ok, lessons learned.  Now let's move on!  A DMer left this comment for me the other day:

Some runs are good and some are bad. The key to long term running passion is savoring the good and letting the bad roll off your back.

Oh, I almost forgot.  My splits ..

11:00

10:52

10:53

11:10

11:16 .. turns out the pace group weren't frauds .. they were spot on, ha!

12:07

12:01

13:12

13:54

15:24

14:21

14:52

14:38

14:45 (last .27) ...

For a grand total of 13.27 miles in 2:49:36 for an avg of 12:47 min/mile.  woo. hoo.

The Aftermath
I was totally expecting to be feel beat down and wanting to hang up my running shoes after this race, but I don't.  No post-race blues for me this time!  I can't wait to get out there again and really start training more consistently than I have before.  I feel fine about it and I'm ready to get after the next one and just have fun running with my new friends!!  Besides, I'm going to need all the help and training I can get if I want to run the Big Bend 50 in January .. OH SNAP!  Did I just make a big reveal??