Baltimore Half Marathon Saturday October 11, 2008

I am not sure what was harder, taking two rest days (Thursday and Friday) or the Half Marathon on Saturday. Let me think about that......definitely the half.

I carbed up on Friday and got a good night sleep. It was great to eat carbs and use the race as an excuse (that trend continued throughout the weekend). Elise and I drove up and got there with plenty of prep time. I didn't really do any warm up running and barely even stretched. I was nervous and just wanted to get going.

I am usually one for details but I am not going to write every detail of the race because that would be as boring as running it. So I am going to do a lessons learned.
1) Run with someone next time. The ipod was going but I think the race would have been more enjoyable with someone to push me and for me to push too.
2) Strategize a race before running it. Whether it be talking to someone who has run that race or looking at the elevation chart or map. I never knew Baltimore had so many hills and I started out way to fast. I ended up running 4 miles in 31 minutes which may not have been the best idea. On top of that I never knew where the finish line was at and thought it was at Camden Yard with all the people to only find out it was about 500m on the other side.
3) Maybe run to train or prepare for a half marathon. I had never run over 7-8 miles before and sure enough my legs started bothering me around mile 8-9. The last time I ran was probably 4 weeks before the race. I have being doing Crossfit religiously and had no problem with my conditioning it was my legs that got tight, tired and heavy.
4) There is no "high" for finishing a race that long, there is only pain. If someone was to ask me if I would run another half or full marathon on Saturday I would have said HELL NO! Now after I have started my recovery I would be up for another race but will take these lessons to heart.

I set out with two goals 1) Not to stop running and 2) Run in 104 minutes or 1:44 minutes which is a 8 minute pace.

1) I did not stop running even to drink water and usually spilt more than I drank, which I think helped me not cramp up. That I am extremely proud of this considering I saw a lot of people walking the hills and stopping along the way.

2) I did not make my goal of 104 minutes but finished eight minutes behind that in 1:52.06 or at a 8:34 minute pace. I kept my splits and like I said before I started really well and maybe even too fast, I will leave that to inexperience and racing strategy. Needless to say I finished in under 2 hours which I am very happy with.

Not sure when the next race will be I am more focused on the short term of being able to walk right now.