Adventures in Clean Eating

The Course

Soon after I crossed the start line, I knew that I placed myself well among the crowd.  I always complain about how Pacers races are notorious for unseasoned runners positioning themselves near the start of the pack, blocking the quicker runners from starting strong.  This is a huge pet peeve of mine.  Runners, know thyself.  I like to think that the halfway mark in the pack at a half marathon is a 10 min/mile pace.  Depending on your goal time, place yourself accordingly.  I situated myself a little more than halfway to the front.  After the gun went off, it was a little slow going at first, but I was quickly able to hit my goal pace early and stick it.  I was brutally aware of weaving this time around, especially since I knew it killed my 10 miler goal last month.  I had worked way too hard training for this race to let weaving keep me from my goal.  Luckily(?), this course was mainly along industrial roads with at least two lanes.  I found a line and stuck to it for as long as possible.

As I mentioned in my previous post, this was an unseasonably cold day in DC.  After I got moving I quickly warmed up, but the big issue was the WIND.  Running against the wind was wearing me down quickly.  When possible, I drafted behind other runners who were holding good paces (drafting is running directly behind someone else so they block the wind).  I tried to be inconspicuous about it, and I’m not sure if it really helped that much.  It might have been a mental thing.  I thought it was making the race easier, so I ultimately went faster.  Either way, it worked.  When this wasn’t possible, I tried not to fight the wind too much so not to exhaust myself early.  The course was a series of out and backs along random roads, so typically I was able to make up speed once the wind was behind me.

The aid stations were placed kind of randomly around the course.  I was a little worried going into it, since I forgot to buy Gu before the race.  I assumed they would have sports drinks at the aid stations, but I’ve assumed wrong about this before!  Luckily, there was Powerade at the 1st aid station at mile 2, so I grabbed a mouthful and chugged along.  Next aid station… just water.  Same with the next one.  Before long, I had completed the first loop, 6.55 miles in, and had only had a little Powerade and a couple mouthfuls of water.   I felt sluggish, but I knew I had to hold out until the aid station at mile 8.5.  I turned up my ipod to give myself a little boost, because I was definitely needing it.  Strangely, after I got my powerade, fuel was abundant!  I was offered a gel at mile 9.5 AND mile 11.  I took half of one with some water at 9.5 but passed up the next one.  In retrospect I should have taken it and shoved it in my pocket for another day.  Gels are expensive!  Who am I to be passing up free swag?  I fuel up on raisins and gummy bears during long runs.  I am in no position to pass up real performance fuel!  Lesson learned.

However, porta-potties were plentiful along the course, which leads me to the paradox of the morning.  I was pretty prepared and didn’t need to take advantage of them, but since I never saw any lines outside of them, had I needed to it wouldn’t have affected my time that much.  Therefore, why the hell were so many people relieving themselves in public during this race? I won’t go into detail, but I saw some God awful things on this run.  I mean, at least find a tree, people!  I’m not modest, but even if I were having stomache issues, I know that nothing would have motivated me to take action like that.  Seriously, guys, at what cost are you doing this?  If I can see you, you’re not far enough ahead to win anything anyways, and it’s only a half marathon; it’s not like you were going to qualify for Boston otherwise.  But regardless, you just passed a porta-potty not 100 yards earlier.  At what point in that 100 yards did your thinking go from, “I can hold it for a while” to “I NEED TO GO IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS OPEN FIELD WITH HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE AROUND ME”.  It’s not worth it.

My Performance

MOVING ON, I don’t have precise splits for you.  I can tell you that after crossing the 10k mark, I was just about a couple minutes slower than my 10k PR and feeling pretty good.  My official half split was 57:22, which sounds about right.  I know I slowed down a little bit during the second loop, but I tried to stick to as close to 9:00 min/miles as possible.  I stayed entertained by listening to my tunes and people watching around me.  There was one guy who was running near me for most of the second half, who stuck out because he kept talking to himself.  And by talking to, I mean yelling at.  It caught me off guard at first (“SHIT!  WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?!  FOCUS!!!”), but then it was pretty entertaining. 

That is, until I heard him say, “You’ve gotta beat this girl!  You can’t get beat by a girl!”, when I was the only girl around him.  You think just because I’m a girl you’re so much faster than me?  Well, alright then… so I graciously moved to the side to let him pass me, and preceeded to draft behind him for the last mile.  This guy was way too caught up in his own race to notice.  The last quarter mile was up a hill against the wind.  It was tough.  I noticed him slowing down, but I still had some steam left.  I darted out from around him and sprinted as hard as I could to the finish, leaving him in my dust.  It felt damn good.  In my head I yelled, “YOU JUST GOT CHICKED, SUCKA!!!”.

My goal for this race was to finish in under 2 hours.  I finished my first half marathon in 2:05:41 with some steam left in me.  I knew I could do better this time around.  At the half, I was well on my way to accomplish my goal, but I slowed down during the second loop.  With three miles left, I knew if I at least maintained a 10 min/mile pace I could make it, but occassionally I glanced at my watch to see that I was running at 10:30.  I was worried, but that jerk gave me the motivation I needed to finish strong.  So, thank you, bigotted asshole, for helping me set a new race PR.  When I crossed the finish the clock read 1:58:38, and I knew it took me a while to cross the start line.  Here were my Garmin stats:

• Distance: 13.32 mi
• Elapsed Time: 1:58:20
• Avg Pace: 8:52/mi
• Calories: 1351

As I finished, I grabbed my medal with pride.  I not only accomplished my goal, but I beat it by over a minute and a half, on a rough, hilly course with horrible wind.  I ran a strong race, and I’m still smiling about it two days later.  I may not be a naturally gifted runner, but through hard work I shaved over 7 minutes off my half marathon time in less than a year.  That’s definitely something to be proud of.

Come back for Part 3 soon!