Long Beach Half Marathon RR

ALRIGHT ALREADY ! Paul and Benson are a little antsy to hear all about the race report ;-)...can't a girl lie around all day after the race not feeling like moving and then walk around all of today like an old lady feeling exhausted without having to turn around and write? OK...maybe not...so I need a little encouragement to get the report out. So thanks guys for reminding me.

Short version: Race went well, mentally it 'flew by'...it was my slowest 1/2 so far, but I've only run 3 so really who cares. And as a friend put it...I really was 'training for a dissertation' not a 1/2 marathon while I was training for this race. The main point of my training was to mitigate the stress eating weight gain of dissertation writing and it did its job. I only gained 5-7 lbs during dissertation writing which I have since lost due to being sick after getting back from Asia and returning to normal eating. So...final result: 2:25ish including a 3:19 minute "must pee" break...so without the break 2:22ish. Overall...reasonably happy with everything.


Long version:So I realize I have been bemoaning this race for awhile. My thoughts have been focused on "not enough training" "not caring enough" "focus is elsewhere (dissertation/moving/traveling to Asia)" "Am I even going to finish on my training???"...I realize i have sorta gone ON and ON about it. But anyway...it went pretty well despite my huge worries of training.

I was staying with a friend up in long beach so I didn't have too far to go race morning. Got up early enough to sorta eat some food, I usually eat two Luna bars, a banana and drink some gatorade. Unfortunately I started to feel a bit ill. I felt a bit on the queasy side and did choke down one luna bar a banana and some gatorade, so I probably only had 350-400 calories on board. Unfortunately, my queasy stomach got the better of me at the race and I ended up actually throwing up part of my breakfast. Sorry if that grosses you out...it grossed me out too. Since I hadn't lost all my breakfast I really wasn't too worried about the situation...the whole thing was weird because it wasn't about nerves. I just felt a little yucky.

I had enough time to use the porta-potties, and warm up around the parking lot, but not too much time where you end up just wandering around trying to stay warm. So...we got ready, and go...the first mile I was flagging a little. I felt flat, but just tried to take my mind off of it. The race was a little warmer and more humid than I was expecting as it had rained a lot on Saturday. By mile 3 I realized I was starting to be uncomfortably warm and would take two cups at the water stops, drink one and pour one down my back. It wasn't super duper hot...but hot enough that if you didn't realize it was warm and do something early you could have overheated.

As the race began and I got into a grove...the time just started to click by and I realized the miles just flew by. UNFORTUANTELY right after the gun went off I realized I had to pee...again. I was mad because I thought I had timed the pre race porta-potty correctly...but I was wrong. I did have to stop between miles 5 and 6.

Mentally it was a 'speedy' race...the miles flew by and didn't take much mental effort. I had planned to run-walk the whole thing but hadn't figured out quite how to do the whole run-walk issue as I get a little too competitive with myself for my own good ...but I also didn't want to DNF if I could help it, injure myself so I was in PT for 6 months or get to the last 3 miles, completely blow up and want to crawl home and then not be able to walk for a week afterwards... so I wasn't quite sure what to do up until a few days before the race. I took a suggestion from Joe of walking the water stops and running the rest and seeing how it went and trying to control the 'damage' as I went. In the end I was able to run the whole thing and only walk the water stops. I only had two miles where I really was wishing for the next water stop so I could walk...miles 7 and 8...but I stuck to the water stop walking plan and that was the only time walked. My other part of the plan was for the first 5 miles to keep my hr between 150-155, miles 5-10...push it to 158-162ish...and the last 5K push it in as I could.

Mile Break down:
mile time avg HR
1 11:30 153
2 11:50 154
3 11:48 153
4 11:16 154
5...missed the sign...then I had to stop to pee and lost 3:19 of time (so subtract that from my final time)
So...mile 5+ was 16:51 hr156
rest of mile 6 was 5:47 156 (2 mile 22:22, 11:11mpm)
7 10:24 161
8 11:09 158
9 10:54 160
10 10:28 163
11 10:07 167
12 9:33 173
13.1 10:26 176
Total time including the break: 2:25
Without the potty-break included was: 2:22 which looking at my results, it appears that if you subtract the break I still was running 10:xx min/miles on avg....which is great. Nicely negatively split the race, pushed my HR relatively well. (although you can see in mile 7 and 8 where I was losing focus :-) but nicely gained my focus back)

My thoughts...maybe I could have gone a little faster...maybe not. But I learned a TON from this race. I am stronger than I acknowledge sometimes. I also realized how AWESOME last year's sub two hour result was when I was at the 10 mile mark and saw 2 hrs...and realized I still had a 5K to go. I realized how strong I can be with focused training(when I thought of my previous year's sub 2 hour race)...and I still had room for improvement last year.The main goal of this race was to aid in my dissertation writing as a way to mitigate the stress eating...so the training did achieve that end. I still finished the race and no seizing of the hamstrings. I realized how running also has a cumulative effect...if I had run my first 1/2 mary, 3 years ago on the training that I had this last time around, i would have probably been a puddle in the middle of the road around mile 7. I ran that one in 2:13:02, yes...almost 10 mins slower this year, but it still proved what I could "pull it off" with only minimal training.

Overall...i was happy with it. I was happy with how 'fast' it went by mentally...that really took me aback. Learned a lot and had a great day overall.