Friday, October 7, 2011

Half Marathon #2

After the race and wearing the finishers medal
I haven't done a non-book related post on Friday in a really long time.  I know you are all heart broken, right?  I thought I would try to get back in the groove by sharing my latest success with my second attempt at a half marathon.

Many of you might remember that I attempted my first half marathon this past April.  I was pumped and excited about it and ended up being very disapointed with my performance.  We had an unusually hot day and the temps just got to me and I ended up having to walk several times.  My goal had been 2hrs and I finished it in 2:18.

I felt I needed to prove to myself I could finish a half so I set out to run a fall half marathon. 

Before the race
 I knew the Rock N Roll Marathon was the 23rd of October so I started to loosly train for that even though I hadn't signed up for it.   Then another half marathon was announced in my area, the MO' Cowbell.  It happened to be a couple weeks earlier and a heck of a lot cheaper, so I immediatly signed up for it.

That is one reason I haven't been as active on my blogs, I've been in full training mode since the beginning of July.  I basically work out 7 days a week and it's eating in to my reading time.  Plus, I'm barely sleeping for some reason, so I'm basically walking around in a fog because I'm exhausted once evening hits.

So the half...it was last weekend.  I had trained for it knowing I wanted to finish it in 2 hours.  It was supposed to be a mostly flat course so it should be possible since I train with hills.    Then I recently ended up having some health concerns and knew I couldn't push myself.   I went into the half knowing that I still wanted to do 2 hours but not set on getting it.  Instead I had to pay attention to my heart rate and make sure it didn't reach 170.   So that meant any little incline would make the HR go up and I would have to back off.

Start off the race, the girl in blue with the black arm warmers is
who I ran with for the first 6 miles.
Well...I started off running with a girl I met earlier in the summer doing some speedwork and then doing a series of trail runs.  She's a tad faster than me on low mileage runs but we had the same pace setting out for the half.  I stuck with her for 6 miles, then slowed down and walked while getting water at the 6 mile water station. It was either that or dump water down the front of me. Plus it was a chance to get the HR down a bit.  She got a bit ahead of me but I was still close until mile 9.  After mile 9 we hit hills and I had to take it easy and lost sight of her.    While I constantly checked my garmin because I had to watch my heart rate, I didn't pay much attention to the miles or pace.   I felt good the whole time.  I never hit the "wall".  I felt stronger and better than I did for the half in April.

When the finish line came in sight I increased my pace a bit and as I got closer I ended up going out at a pretty good clip. I knew the heart rate would go up but also knew it wouldn't be for very long.


The finish at last! (don't like how it looks like I'm walking though)
 I managed to come in with an overall-all time of 1:58:11, my pace was 9:01.  I was extremly happy that I not only ran the entire race, but even having to take the hills easy and not push the pace on the flat area I was able to hit my time goal.   I'm definitely gotten bit by the bug, already planning to run the race next year (as long as they offer it again).

9 comments:

Book Dragon said...

fabulous!

Anna said...

Congrats!!

bermudaonion said...

Woo hoo! Way to go!! I hope your health issues are improving.

Unknown said...

Thanks Book Dragon and Anna!

Bermudaonion - Thanks! The health issues are going good and I'm still working out as much as I want to, just at a lower intensity.

Unknown said...

Awesome job. I knew you could do it.

Bookfool said...

Well done, Kirs!

Unknown said...

Thanks John and Nancy!

Mark Baker said...

I'm contemplating signing up for a half marathon next year. I've trained for a 10 mile mud run, and signed up to actually do it next year, so I know the distance is doable. Still, it's pretty scary to actually do it.

So congrats on doing it twice and making your goal time this time.

Unknown said...

Thanks Mark! It's incredibly scary to make the decision to do a half marathon for the first time. When I started thinking about it the most I had done was 4 miles! So I did a 10 mile run to test it out and did pretty good, so made the final decision. Scary but worth it! I'm so much stronger as a runner..as a person. It's addicting too! I would have never thought I would do 2 in one year! I'm already planning to do this one next year too. haha Good luck with your decision, I think you can do it and you would enjoy it!