I’ve been running consistently every weekend with Jenny for about a year now and I think the regularity is paying off. I surprised myself by getting a new PR — my first ever on this course, 1:51:23, which means I shaved 2 minutes from my previous PR (from the Santa Cruz Half)!
The conditions leading up to this run were not terribly favorable, leaving me to wonder if I can get yet another PR this year, possibly in Morgan Hill.
First, we traveled to San Diego for Tom’s meeting. I managed to squeeze in a short, pre-trip run on Monday before we left for SD on Tuesday. While there, I forced myself to use the hotel fitness room on Thursday night, after the kids went to sleep. I didn’t get any other running in during the trip so I only ran twice in the week before the event. Also, I never did do the 12-mile training run I was scheduled to do with Jenny…and we didn’t follow the training plan I had set forth–we mostly did 6-mile runs with the longest of our runs being 9 miles.
Then, we got home from our trip at 4am on Saturday and, later that evening, we went to Christina and Dre’s engagement cocktail party. I drank more “spa water” than I did mojitos and cosmos, but still, I did have some cocktails and I didn’t really get the good carbo-loading meal I like to have before events! I had some sushi rolls (good stuff, to be sure), but I didn’t really feel full….
I only ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep because, of course, Thing 2 had a potty accident and I was awakened by the hubbub of Tom changing her into new clothes and her protests against the late-night rinse-off!
I roused myself from sleep at about 5:15am, intending to leave for the race by 5:45am. Of course, I was slow. I was sooo tired! And then I forgot my Shot Blox, though luckily, I did have a banana in the car that I could eat.
But, on to the upsides….it was cold–53F according to my phone! And I am so familiar with the course. I knew how much energy I needed to conserve…and when. And then, I was motivated to get as far as I could before it got too hot. But, luckily, the weather didn’t get any hotter than maybe 64F or 65F! I got to the reservoir at 8:28am (start time was 7am) and it was considerably cooler than I’d remembered that stretch being in previous years!
By this point, my main goal was to simply stay steady and to not slow down. I refused to look at my splits at the 11-mile and 12-mile marker. I tried not to look too far ahead to gauge how much distance was between me and the turnaround. I did everything I could to keep myself from getting discouraged or anxious.
After the turnaround, it felt like a downhill, so I went for it. I knew I only had to have enough energy to make it for another mile. Once off the dirt, I knew I’d just have to do the lap around the track…and then I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the finish before I expected to!!
Final Results:
Chip Time: 1:51:23
Div place: 181/828 (21.8%)
Age place: 12/113 finishers (10.6%)
Gender place: 43/446 (9.6%)
Pace: 8:30 (a 9-second improvement over the Santa Cruz Half)