Ok. I didn’t expect to pull off a new PR at this event, but miraculously, I did! I went to bed only after midnight and then Thing 3 was up much of the early morning and, consequently, I was, too.
When I finally got out of bed sometime between 6:15 and 6:30am, I was so grumpy I even “threatened” to bail out on the race!
My FitBit sleep stats had me going to bed at 12:57am and awakened 20 times (what?!?). In total, I was in bed for 5 hours and 7 minutes and got 4 hours and 32 minutes of sleep. Yikes. Plus I still had the sniffles.
This year, Tom ran the 10K (and got his PR as well!). He kept me warm and stayed with me until start-time. I knew things would start off slowly and was grateful for that. After huffing up the hill, I was distracted by GPS and Pandora issues (not quite getting the signal strength I’m used to!). I finally gave up on music and just looped the few songs I downloaded from Rhapsody (Lean on Me, Drown in the Now, Santa Monica, Hung up On You). Terrible.
I wasn’t feeling particularly strong or able that morning, but once we were on the trail to Wilder, I caught sight of the 1:55 pacers. This trail is very prone to bottlenecking since it is just a 2-lane bike trail, so I sought opportunities to jack-rabbit in front of runners who were at about my same pace. Eventually, I managed to get by the pacers and leave them far behind.
I was pretty pleased I was able to pass the pacers while still feeling pretty good, but I did wonder how long it would last. I managed to keep ahead of them all along the Coast Trail (soaked in sooo many beautiful view of the ocean as well), but once back on the paved biking trail, I got behind some slower runners and they managed to eke ahead. At this point, I was also getting a bit more fatigued on the hills and I really had to mentally focus all of my energy on continuing to just move, no matter the pace. I was disappointed when the pacers got ahead of me, but I was unable to catch them on the hills.
Once back at West Cliff, I saw a welcome sight! Jenny and Kaden (in double-BOB stroller) were watching the race just across the entrance from Natural Bridges!! She came and ran with me at a critical time. I was pretty beat at that point and was seriously contemplating walking for a spell. She kept me going … and even got me past the 1:55 pacers (even though I told her I was content to remain behind them)! She peeled off at Delaware, leaving me to find some reserves to make it up the hill without walking but with the inspiration to keep on moving at a pace that would keep me ahead of the pacers.
In the end, for sure, I couldn’t have PR’d without her pulling me from mile 10-ish to 11-ish!
Division Place: (half marathon): 541/2348 (23%)
Gender Place: 180/1391 (12.9%)
Age Place: 35/340 (10.3%)
Pace: 8:39
Time: 1:53:22
This beats my previous PR from at the SJ Rock ‘n’ Roll by 56 seconds. I’ll take it!