Here were my thoughts heading into the race. Positive thinking!
1. At least my legs would be rested.
2. This is "just" a training race.
3. I had my pick of running clothes for race day as everything was clean (because I hadn't run for so long). Turns out, that wasn't true and I was hand washing my favorite shorts Friday night!
4. My music would sound good because I hadn't heard it for so long.
Mom came in on Friday morning and we took the kids to Conner Prairie to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather! I took one picture. Of a cow.
Then, we went over to the expo to pick up our packets. This is a small expo but the girls managed to find some headbands they couldn't resist. Thank goodness for Gram! :)
Tom was kind enough to cook us a yummy dinner of pasta and chicken and then we were off to bed. But, not before laying out our gear. "Time to make history" seemed a bit ambitious for me!
We got up earlier than usual. The girls had their first gymnastics meet of the season and we were all going to miss it. I am so thankful for my neighbor and friend, Steph, who took the girls and Jack for the morning. And, my other friends, Jason (I'll give him the shout out here since I missed him on Facebook) & Tiffany, for recording their performances and sending it to me. Can't wait to watch them compete next month!
We took off around 7AM and rolled into the parking lot around 7:30. Brrrr. It was cold! I ended up running in my shorts (as always), a running t-shirt, a long sleeve shirt and my running jacket. I tied the jacket around my waist around mile 3. We paced the parking lot before the start and snapped a picture.
Then we were off! Mile 1 seemed to fly by. Our watches went off for 1mile at about 8:19 but we didn't hit the 1 mile marker until about 8:40 when our watches said 1.05 miles. My goal was to run the first 8 miles at an easy pace of around 9:15 and the last 5 at my goal half pace of 8:15. So, 8:40 was a bit fast. I told mom that I would fall back if mile 2 came in under 9. It did. 8:43.
We split up here. I watched her blaze ahead. She's in the pink with the green jacket.
I stayed steady around 8:50 to 9 minute miles.
3 - 9:09 (Decent sized hill here)
4 - 8:50
5 - 8:47
6 - 8:47
7 - 8:54
8 - 8:59
I've said it the last two years (2012 Recap and 2013 Recap), but this is such a pretty race. This photo doesn't do it justice. It seems to hit the sweet spot of the season of fall leaves. One of these days, we'll have a bright, blue sky too!
At this point, I was feeling good. Honestly, I could have stayed right there and probably made it through at around an 1:55. But, I had a plan and I was going to do my best to stick to it.
So, I changed up the playlist and took off. This is an uncrowded race and it was a little uncomfortable to just "take off." (It's a small-ish race with less than 1500 half runners.) But, remember? I had a plan. So, mile 9 was 7:58 and my goal pace is 8:15. A tad too fast. I think I caught up to mom around mile 10 and a water station. I kept at it and did 8:24 for mile 10. Not shabby but obviously, I was slowing down.
Have I mentioned the hills on this course? No? Well, there are hills. And, there is a BIG one during mile 11 and I think there was more than one. My pace slowed considerably. Mile 11 was a 9:41. Mile 12 was a little better at 9:13 and my last mile was 9:18. Back to my "easy" pace I was supposed to have at the beginning. I can't even tell you how much worse this felt than the first few miles.
I was just out of gas. It's times like this that I think about what actually feels bad. My feet hurt for sure. But, other than that, my legs didn't hurt, my lungs were fine, but I didn't have much left. I was surprised my time was as good as it was during those miles. At some point, I realized that I could get a course PR. I broke 2 hours at this race in 2012. I had in my head it was 1:57:50 something.
I finished at 1:57:09. My 2012 time was 1:57:40. Pretty close.
At the end of the race, I was bushed. I'm pretty sure I felt worse than after the full. My legs were wobbly and I had to go to the bathroom so bad! This is the only race where I almost stopped at the Port-a-johns on the course. I blame the extra Powerade I had that morning! I wondered over to the bathroom while mom got our gear. I came out to this!
Age Group Award Winner! Mom ended up with a 1:55:08. That is awesome.
This is a really tough course. With the exception of the crazy hill at the end of the Steamboat race, and honestly, the hills of the Dawes 5K, this is by far the toughest running I have done in a race.
All in all? A successful day for all! A course PR for both of us. Just a flat-out PR for mom. And, I realized I could power through a race on too much rest. {Spoiler Alert: I'm going to try that again this coming weekend.}
I rounded out the night like I had the two previous years - at the Rotary Steak and Bake. I did spend three hours on the couch though first. My Garmin Vivofit step counter did hit a new record - 35,519 steps for the day.
I'm so glad mom and I got to do this together! Even though we didn't actually run very much together, it was quite the experience to share! How many girls can say they did something like this with their mom? I hope mine can too someday. Thanks mom!
Indianapolis Half - 10/19/2014 (My 9th Half!)
Time: 1:57:09
Pace: 8:57
Overall Place: 322/1432
Division Place: 25/141
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