Chilly Half Marathon Race Recap

The Chilly Half Marathon in Newton, MA was my second half marathon!  It was a great race.  The weather was ideal, going from 43 degrees at the start to 50 degrees at the finish, with rain finishing minutes before the start, leaving a cool, overcast humidity for the duration of the race.

The course wound its way through Newton, MA, with gorgeous views of foliage, Crystal Lake, and beautiful neighborhoods.  It’s advertised as a challenging, hilly course, but it was all paved and the elevation gain was less than that of my first half marathon, so I found the course less challenging than I’d anticipated.  Isn’t that a great feeling!

Race packets were available for pickup two days prior to the race, and since we’re local, I was able to pick up our shirts and bib numbers, leaving us more time before the race for sleeping, eating, and warming up rather than worrying about race registration logistics!  Greg warmed up by running.  I warmed up by hanging out in the car.  (13.1 is enough for me in one day, thanks!  Being a novice runner, the endurance is still the biggest part of the challenge, so I warm up on the course.)

I went into the race hoping to do better than I did at my first half marathon.  On one hand, I was skeptical, because I felt as though I’d had little extra time to train in the 7 weeks between races.  I had to recover, I had to taper, and that left only four serious weeks of training that included long runs of 10 or 11 miles.  On the other hand, that’s four extra double digit runs under my feet, five if you include the first half marathon as “training”!  My body was a lot more familiar with running, and running long distances, than it was when I tackled 13.1 the first time.

I’d also learned the hard way to incorporate hills into my regular running.  After being so challenged by hills during my first half marathon, I stopped using hills as an excuse for a walking break during my training runs, and I started to sprint or run the hills leading into my neighborhood that I used to walk as a “cool down” after my runs.  I didn’t think it had added up to much, and was feeling negligent because I hadn’t done hill repeats, until I got onto the half marathon course.  The hills didn’t phase me the way they did during my first half.  They took more effort, I slowed down, I lost my breath… but I maintained a reasonable pace, I didn’t take a walking break during or after the hill, and I made up the slowed pace on the downhill.  It was like I was a different runner.  I can’t tell you how good that felt!  Plus, if you run the hills, you get to the top a lot faster, and it’s really nice to get them over with!

The Real Reason I Did So Well – An Unexpected Running Partner!

The running I did in preparation made the race possible, but an unexpected running partner made the race enjoyable, and kept me motivated and steady-paced enough to PR by ten minutes, with a finish of 2:16:04!

Just after the start, I heard two runners from Greg’s company shout hello to one another… one of whom I remembered had a goal to finish in 2:20.  Since my last half marathon was 2:26, I thought that’d be an ambitious but possible goal for me, too.  Luckily, after I found him at the start, he agreed to let me run with him!  Since he was a very experienced runner, I found myself running a very steady pace, losing track of miles thanks to our conversation, and determined as ANYTHING not to be the one who got in the way of his goal.  There was no way I was going to slow down and cost him his race, and I worried that after a few miles he’d feel bad leaving me behind.  So I ran it.

When I got really tired at mile 10 and subconsciously sped up because I wanted the race to be over, he held me back.  When we hit mile 12.5, he suggested we pick up the pace for a strong finish, and if I wasn’t so determined to finish with him, I probably would have slowed down at the end rather than giving it everything I had left!  We didn’t sprint, but we dropped our pace down to about a 9 minute mile for the last .5, so that our last full mile averaged a 9:43 pace, with the first half being 10:30 ish and the last half mile dropping the average mile pace down those extra 45 seconds.  Smart… because it’s safer to spread out any reserved energy over the last .5 rather than sprinting at the end which can cause injury, but also REALLY HARD.  Again, not sure I would have done it, or believed I could do it, if I didn’t have an experienced runner next to me with whom I really wanted to finish.  (Ok seriously, who is running my next race with me?)

Would I have decided to walk some of those hills if we weren’t trying to stick under 10:30 pace and didn’t have time to lose?  Probably.  Would I have lingered longer at the water stations?  Probably.  Would I have been bored and full of doubts by mile 8?  I certainly wouldn’t have been surprised to discover it was mile 8, and I was this time, thanks to having such great company!  I KNOW I only finished that fast because I was with him.   What are the chances I would find another runner with such a compatible goal?  This race will always stick with me in my memory as one of the most beautiful, fun races ever.  Gorgeous fall scenery, a running partner/coach keeping me on track, and miles that actually slipped by, not to mention a 10 minute PR.  It doesn’t get better than that.

This race was extra awesome because I knew my family would be waiting for me at the finish – my parents had driven down to see me run the half marathon and to watch Will and Andrew for us so that Greg and I could both run!  (He and many of his co-workers run this half marathon, so it’s kind of his race!)  Greg was hoping to break 1:30… and he did.  I kept asking what time it was during the race and picturing him crossing the finish line while I was running.  Just before we headed to the finish, some of Greg’s coworkers spotted us and I was able to find out that he’d met his goal – it put me in such high spirits that I’m sure it contributed to my strong finish!

“I WILL smile for my parents!”

My parents had only seen me run one race before, a 5k where I was trying to break 30 minutes for the first time.  I did, by two seconds, but I couldn’t even wave or smile to them as I entered the finish.  It was not my most spectacular of races.  I started too ambitiously, walked halfway through, realized I still had a chance, and then ran so hard that I almost dry heaved across the finish and I left my parents, grandparents, and in-laws all seriously questioning whether it was actually healthy for me to run.  They certainly had trouble understanding why I claimed it was so much fun for me!  They kind of had a point.  (You can see a photo of me looking pretty destroyed going into the finish at that race on a blog post I wrote for beginning runners on my parenting/life blog.  The post was so popular I decided to start writing a blog about running… and here we are.)

Anyway… not this time.  I was determined to smile and wave going into that finish, and you know what?  It wasn’t forced.  I had a fantastic race.  The miles slipped by, we finished strong, and my running partner promised that not only would I smile for my parents this time, but he would, too.  We did.  Knowing we’d beaten our goal by several minutes didn’t hurt 😉