Best “Darn” Race Half Marathon Recap
Well, my most recent half was a week ago so I guess it’s time to get to recapping it huh?
When I first signed up for a half marathon in February (in New England) I wasn’t expecting much out of it except a solid tempo effort and maybe a slight PR from my half in December. But then Hyannis was cancelled and my mom and I booked a weekend trip to Florida so that I could run a race and suddenly this half became much more important to me. We were spending the money to fly down, I was taking two days off of work, and my mom gave up 4 whole days to come support me which meant that I put a whole lot more pressure on myself.
Pressure is something that I’ve never dealt with very well especially when I’m not confident and any distance longer than a 10K is truly out of my comfort zone. In college my coach used to think I was “too relaxed” before races but that was mostly because I was so confident in my ability to run a 5K in less than 17 minutes. While it might seem crazy I am not as confident in the half and full marathon distances. I know that I am capable of running much faster than I have but mentally I need to do some work to get there.
I say all of this basically to say, me + self inflicted pressure = a ball of nerves. My heart rate, which is usually in the low 50s, was 90ish the days leading up to the race and my stomach felt like it was in knots. As much as I tried to focus on other things and calm myself down it didn’t work and I went into the race really anxious and nervous but still thinking I had a chance at a sizable PR.
Race morning came and I ate my regular pre-race breakfast of oatmeal + 1/2 a plain bagel, got all ready and headed down to the race with my mom in plenty of time.
I did a 10 minute warm-up with the last 2 minutes at a faster clip to “prime the engine” per my coach’s instructions, stretched, hit up the bathroom line, checked my bag and headed to the starting line to do some drills and strides.
Right from the gun it was me and one other lady leading the way behind a group of 5 or so men. My Garmin is completely dead right now so I don’t know my splits exactly (black screen so I’m hoping when I charge it it still works) but from memory I was right on pace for the first 3 miles – maybe even a little under goal pace. Then the 4th miles the other gal dropped a 5:53 – which was 10 seconds faster than my plan and so after that mile I let me go a bit because I didn’t want to overexert myself too early in the race.
Bad IDEA!
I got stuck in no-man’s land and the anxiety-induced stomach pains really started to bother me (they had been there the whole time) and whenever I tried to push the pedal down even a little bit it got worse so I logged the last 9 miles of the race somewhere between 6:15-6:30 per mile. I have never been more frustrated during a race before because to my legs/lunges/heart the effort felt like a tempo but if I tried to run faster it felt like I was going to toss my cookies… seriously no fun.
I stayed the 2nd woman the whole way and finished with a 1:23:19. Not awful, great even, but far off from what I was hoping to run.
Of course it’s hard to complain or be sad about a second place finish but if I’m being honest I was really upset after this race. I cried to my mom, cried to Henri on the phone and then called my best friend and put on my most upbeat voice because we had more exciting things to talk about (like her first little one coming in August – who is most definitely a boy 😉 ).
To be really honest I questioned whether I can really do this… is the half/marathon for me? Why do I even try? But then I remembered that bad races happen, mental training is a real thing that can have real affects and it’s just another thing that I need to work on in order to get faster. And I will, I will learn how to get over the anxiety and I will gain confidence in my half marathon/marathon running abilities.
Next steps in Project Mental Training – a local Shamrock Shuffle 5K next weekend as a confidence booster and then it’s on to 2 more halfs before my spring marathon! I got this – I know I do!
Do you have any tips for getting over a tough/disappointing race? I’d love to hear what you suggest!