 |
| How many other races have inflatable alien swag? |
I haven't really been on the virtual race train this pandemic but I wanted to make an exception for a race I had fond feelings for. So, a few weeks ago, I signed up for the Milky Way 26K: the combo half marathon and 5K, which equals about 26 kilometers together.
We had from Saturday, May 1 through Saturday, May 8 to complete and log our races. I wanted to tackle the half marathon first, just in case I imploded and needed to take another shot at it. I decided on Sunday, May 2. The weather was looking warm-ish, but I figured if I got out early enough, I'd be OK.
Well... it didn't go quite as planned. The morning started off great. I left from my house at about 9 a.m., with a frozen water bottle and a couple of Huma gels. My goal was sub-2 hours, but my real time to beat was 2:04:30, my fastest known half, the second half of the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon in November, 2012. (2012!!!) I wanted to walk a warmup, start the first 3-4 miles at 9:20 pace range, the next 3-4 at 9:09 pace range, and the rest sub-9:00 pace. And I wanted to keep the clock running, counting my TRUE overall time as race time.
My legs took a while to warm up but I ticked off a few miles in the 9:teen and 9:twenty range feeling pretty good. I drank at mile 2, and took a gel and drank and mile 4. It was starting to get a bit warm. I had frozen a small throwaway bottle of water rather than one of my larger, reusable running bottles. I'm not sure why I chose to do that. (Foreshadowing!)
I hit a landmark at mile 5 and thought, huh, the route I chose is going to be much longer than 13.1 miles. I tried to do some math in my head and decided to cut the lollipop part of my route short a little. On the far part of the lollipop there was a bit of wind, which sucked to run into. My pace didn't falter much, but I could tell I was putting in more effort. I drank at mile 6 and took a gel and drank at mile 8.
I got off the windy part and into a path that was pretty full of people. The heat was starting to get to me and I didn't have much water left by the time I drank at mile 10. Shortly after I hit mile 11 I had to walk out a side stitch. I went back and forth on whether I should stop my watch but I decided I could have the best of both worlds: Potentially a Garmin PR, and the overall time recorded.
I didn't have to walk long but the next two miles were really hard. I'd run for a while, sip what was left of my water, and walk out a side stitch. I felt better after about a mile and was able to run the rest in. I wanted to hit 13.25 just to be safe, and my Garmin did tell me I had hit my sub-2 goal for overall running. BUT, before you send me hate messages, I did log my overall time for the race, which included about six additional minutes of walking.
I ended up about 2 miles from home so I called my husband to come get me with some cold water. Would I have done better had I brought a larger bottle of water? Maybe. Would I have done better had I planned my route to avoid the wind? Maybe. Would I have done better had I left earlier to avoid the heat that was getting to me by mile 11? Maybe.
Overall, it was still a fun time, and I ran 11 good miles. I chalked this up to a learning experience and a chance to support a local race.
I ran easy on Wednesday and decided to go for a dedicated 5K on Friday, my usual speed day (Fast Friday). My legs still felt pretty fatigued but I figured I would warm up for a couple of miles and do 3.1 as hard as I could manage that day. When I did the math, I ended up with 26:40, not terrible at all. Not PR fast, but still a good time.
Overall, I got three medals, a nice t-shirt, an inflatable alien, the chance to support a local race, and a good time. Even if my races are few and far between these days, I'm glad I signed up for this one.
Whether you are racing in person or virtually right now, I hope you're doing so safely and having a good time doing it.
No comments:
Post a Comment