Chilly Half Marathon 2015 Race Recap

My 6th Half Marathon is over! I have another 13.1 miles of continuous running to my name.

How the race went: I started out strong, then I hit the hills and tanked. I kept trying to pick the pace back up, but general fatigue hit, and my watch kept reading at 11 plus minute miles. I just kept going, and kept trying to pick up the pace, but no matter how hard I tried to stick with a certain runner, they inevitably pulled away as more people passed me from behind and my legs refused to quicken the pace. The harder I tried to speed up, the more my legs threatened to quit altogether and the fear of stopping made me ease up slightly. I tried to find the maximum exertion I could put into it and still keep going.

I lost Greg’s co-workers in the first mile; they were targeting 9:30s but ended up running stronger than that. I’m so glad they pulled away so I didn’t slow them down! While I maintained that target pace for the first mile, it slowly crept down and I was in the 10s for miles 6 and 7, and then the 11s for the remainder of the race.

How I’m feeling: I’m disappointed. I hired a trainer and ran higher mileage weeks than ever before because I wanted to run this race faster than last year, not slower than the past two years. More miles, worse race performance. That’s hard emotionally. Am I a better runner, and I just had an off-day? Or did I miss too many key training runs this year because I was sick and didn’t run the Maine Half Marathon? Did I start training seriously too late in the summer? Maybe I didn’t run enough repeats, because I was focusing on adding miles rather than intensity.

I don’t know. What I do know is that I need to accept that this same experience is a possibility next year. I may just be a 2:10 – 2:20 half marathoner. I am not complacently accepting this or giving up the possibility of improvement, but I also need to be realistic going into training next year and not expect that my results will automatically reflect my training efforts. Because they didn’t this year. And that stinks. I need to accept that possibility even as I enjoy trying to get faster.

If I’m going to do this again, which I most likely am, I need to continue to enjoy the journey and not focus on the destination.

Some awesome things: This race motivated me to start running 4 or 5 days a week instead of 3, giving me the added confidence and flexibility in my training schedule because I no longer avoid running back to back days. This race introduced me to strength training and the TRX, something I am going to focus on achieving a better base-line in this winter, so I can do 50 squats come spring and still be able to run the next day.

This race motivated me to get out and run long, something I enjoy and take pride in being able to do. I watched the sun come up, I ran by fall foliage and beautiful lakes, I made running a priority when I otherwise wouldn’t have.

I get more than enough aerobic exercise to be physically fit and healthy. That matters, and this race helped me stay motivated to do it.

The best part of the race: My in-laws (who are expert race spectators) brought Will and Andrew to see me on the course. I got the biggest, most beautiful hug from them around mile 4. I was still feeling great, running sub 10 minute miles, and thrilled to see them. I didn’t care that it would slow me down, I ran right over to them and gave them a hug and thanked them for coming to see me run. Knowing now that I wasn’t going to be running fast later, I’m so grateful that I followed my heart and spent those 30 seconds to be with them during the race.

   

Greg came back for me: I remember a moment at mile 9 when I looked down at my watch and saw that I was giving it everything and running 11:35 pace. I knew I was going to be “late”. I knew Greg was going to be worried. I tried so hard to pick up the pace – I kept looking at my watch and thinking of him standing there, minutes ticking by, wondering if I was walking, or crying, or injured. I wished I had my phone so I could text him “slow but sure”.

I was right – he was thinking of me. He was wondering how I was. He ran 2 miles into the course to find me. After running a 1:28 half marathon and coming in 34th out of over 1200 people, he jogged 2 miles into the course looking for me to make sure I was ok and run alongside me the last two miles in support.

Except… 2 miles into the course, he still hadn’t found me. I was so slow that he was afraid he’d missed me. He didn’t want to not see me finish, so he sprinted back to the finish line. 2 more miles. After throwing down a PR, he ran 4 extra miles, 2 of them at top speed, to be there for me when I finished.

If only I’d been a little faster; he must have turned around just before he would have seen me.

I can’t imagine running that course and then turning around and running more. To run an extra 2 miles as fast as I could to see someone finish? I cannot imagine what that felt like, and I’m humbled that Greg loves me so much that he would make his legs do that, for me. Especially when it was already clear that I was not going to be finishing proud.

I wish, for him, that I had been able to run faster. Not for a second did he make me feel as though I’d let him down… and that’s almost worse. He believed I’d be finishing sooner, and I didn’t. He believed in my ability, and I feel like I let him down. He ran four extra miles to see my 7 minutes shy of a PR finish.

He’s crazy.

I’m lucky. Greg did that extra running because he cared about how I was doing, and being there for me at the finish.

He cared about how I was feeling, not how well I was running. He could not be better or more supportive. I wish I were a faster runner for him; but he doesn’t care how fast I run, he cares about me.

I hope you had a good running weekend, and have people in your life like Greg who care only about how the race went for you, not how fast you ran it. We could all use a Greg in our life!