0 to 13.1 in 6 weeks
I laid out all my stuff before bed last night, and we set multiple alarms for 6am. I was asleep by 11, but woke up a few times in the night. 6am felt like death, but within 10 minutes I was feeling okay. Breakfast was a whole wheat english muffin with crunchy peanut butter, half a honeycrisp apple, and coffee.
A little sleepy-eyed, but ready to take on the race.
We left the hotel a little before 7- apparently the Brooks people stayed in our hotel, too!
(it’s the freak show from the expo!)
My parents dropped me off a few blocks away from the start, then headed off to find parking. Walking into the race area was intense- a 20,000 person race is CRAZY! It was probably 1/4 mile from the start line to my corral. I ditched my hoodie into my bag and checked it at gear check, stopped at a porta potty and headed to my corral.
From there I started to get a little impatient- it was 27:something from the first gun to the time my corral crossed the start line. I liked that they started each corral separately (as opposed to the free-for-all at the one corral-based NYRR race I’ve done) but I was getting antsy to get going!
I saw my parents right after I crossed the start line. I wasn’t expecting to see them so soon, so I gave them a big excited wave. I also knew I would be bad at looking out for the race photographers so I tried to run as much as I could with a big cheesy smile on my face, so there won’t be any professional photos of me looking like I’m about to die.
Let me pause here to say that I owe my finishing time to two things: the pace band I picked up at the expo yesterday, and the fact that I stayed in the corral that I was assigned to based on my original estimated time of 2:25. I grabbed a pace band for 2:30, and every mile I passed I checked my time against the band. Most of the race I had a solid 1:15-1:30 padding between my time and the pace band time, so I was feeling confident!
At the beginning I was WAY TOO JAZZED to stop and walk as scheduled. The plan was to run 2 songs, then walk for a verse/chorus, then run for the rest of that song and the whole next song. Repeat! It’s about a 5/1 interval. I made myself stop and walk as scheduled, but it was only for about 20-30 seconds for the first couple miles.
Around mile 4.5 I saw my parents again. The girl in the cool red/white skirt thought my parents were cheering and waving for her, so she kept stepping out in front of me to pose for their pictures. Finally I took a wide detour around her and she realized what was happening. Not too far after this I saw some friends of my parents who went to my church when I was a kid- we conveniently learned last night that they live overlooking the race course!
Not too long after this is where things got tough. At mile 5 I broke out my gummies and had 4 Gu Chomps. At mile 8 I had 3 Clif Shot Bloks. After that we crossed a bridge and started heading back down. I must say, I was very thankful for all the high school cheerleading squads that stationed themselves every few miles along the course. They must’ve been jumping up and down and screaming for 2 hours straight, and their enthusiasm was much appreciated.
Things didn’t get really tough until about mile 11 for me. I could still do my run/walk intervals because I wasn’t giving myself the choice, but I was starting to really have to push myself. The clock at the mile marker for mile 11 was broken, so I couldn’t check my pace and it made me freak out a little bit. Any time I wanted to stop, I just thought about the fact that I’d made it the whole race and was still on pace to meet my goal. As long as I didn’t slow down too much in the last 2 miles, I would make it. I didn’t come this far just to miss out on my goal time in the last 2 miles of the race!
Mile 13 I did some really bad math- 2:55:something, minus 28 minutes (time after the official start that I crossed the start line) somehow I ended up with 2:37 and got really disappointed that I wasn’t going to make my time. Then I correct my math (really 2:27) and took off up the hill at the end of the course! (A hill at the END? That’s just mean. Who designed this course, me?)
I saw my parents again right near the finish line! They were standing separately, and it was totally unexpected (hence the surprised face in the left picture.) My mom was 50 feet down the road and took a picture of me with my face that says “I SEE YOU FINISH LINE. I SEE YOU.”
Not too many steps further and I was done! I threw my arms up as I ran through the finish line, cheesy smile and all. A few steps more and I was THISCLOSE to bursting into tears, but I took some deep breaths and was okay. Someone handed me a medal, I stopped for a picture, and then collected all the free stuff people could give me (banana/bagel/pretzels/strawberries/water).
13.1 miles DONE. Splits:
5k: 34:37 (11:10 average pace)
10k: 1:10:04 (11:18 average pace)
10 mile: 1:53:35 (11:21 average pace)
FINISH: 2:29:02 (11:22 average pace)
I’m really proud of myself in general, especially proud of myself for making my goal time despite a mid-training injury and essentially cutting my training time in half, and maybe most proud that my average pace didn’t change much from mile 1 to mile 13.
I was a little bummed I didn’t get to meet up with anyone, since this race was pretty much a tumblr bonanza, but I was so so happy that my parents made the trip to see me run. Looking forward to them cheering me on at a couple points was just the motivation I needed.
Now to figure out my next goal and my next half…
