Monday, August 9, 2010

Race Report: Urban Wildland Half Marathon

Race weekend ensued Friday night by meeting up with Miss Alyssa.  Seriously, I'm not sure if there's a sweeter more fun gal in the world.  For the record.  We ate some food and called it a night since we had a 4:45am wake up call.  Alyssa's friend Amy rolled home from work at 4:30 and we were up and at em and ready to head to the race.  We got to the race after a couple of wrong turns ;) and immediately gave the race 5 stars out of a possible 5 for having sufficient parking extremely close to the starting line.  It was humid out, but cool temps, so it wasn't kill yourself hot.  Whoo!  I was shooting for a PR and Alyssa was planning on a training run, as her goal HM is in October, and technically she's just starting her training for that.  

We lined up and we were off.  The race start was *so* congested.  Right off the bat we were led to a 2-3 person width trail which doesn't work for a race start.  Alyssa and I tried to run on the grass dodging trees to jockey for position.  For some reason, the grass running made me super tired...yikes.  It took to about the 2.5 mile marker for it to feel like I had some breathing room to run in.  Alyssa and I ran together for about the first 4 miles, or I should clarify, I ran exactly one and one half feet behind her left shoulder for the first 4 miles.  I'm weird like that.  :)  My Garmin was showing baaaaad paces (10:30-11:30 minute miles) which was annoying.  I had planned to start the first few miles at 8:45 and progress from there, so when I saw my pace at 8:30, I decided to let Alyssa go ahead.  Run like the wind my friend! :p

1. 8:51
2. 8:36
3. 8:48
4. 8:46 

The course was beyond gorgeous.  We ran through some beautiful wooded areas and around some lakes.  I actually left my iPod off for the first few miles, because it was so calm and peaceful listening to all the hundreds of sneakers hitting the trail.  Very zen moment.  Ooops..... I'm racing...buh bye zen!  Since the race is pegged as a very green and eco-friendly race, the race bibs had seeds embedded in them, so you can plant them after the race and they grow in to black eyed susans.  I had joked that at mile 10, I had expected to be sprouting flowers since I sweat so much.  Uh...try mile 4 or 5.  That was the first time that the bib ripped and I had to re-safety pin it.  And again at mile 6.  And again at mile 8.  Finally at mile 11 I let it go.  Buh bye race bib. :'(

5. 8:39
6. 8:41
7. 8:39
8. 8:36 

At the halfway point (6.65) I knew that I had a PR in the bag as long as I didn't slow down the second half of the race.  Since I'm known to have a strong finish and run a negative split in races, I wasn't too concerned.  Unfortunately, I was unconcerned enough to continue pushing the pace.  For some reason, I kept thinking I would pick up the pace, and I didn't.  With 5 miles to go, I'll pick it up....nope.  4 miles.... you can run a 1:51 if you put in the effort....nada.  5k to go, this is where you shine....just kidding.  Seriously.... 2 miles?  Are you even racing?... hmmm... not sure.  One mile, seriously you should at least run a strong final mile....meh.

9. 8:45
10. 8:32
11. 8:32
12. 8:45
13. 8:21
.02 :05 (5:27 pace)

So as you can see the 8:45, 8:35, 8:25, 8:15 progression that I had planned did not happen, but I still PR'd.  Apparently I just wasn't in this race as mentally as I should have been.  I am still ECSTATIC that I PR'd, don't get me wrong, just bummed that I didn't seem to have any mental toughness.  Possibly because this isn't my goal HM race (that's coming in September) I didn't feel the need to push it, I'm not sure.  But it's definitely lit a fire under my booty to push hard at the Sioux Falls HM and to do whatever is necessary to get my legs and my brain on the same page in the meantime.  

I finished the 13.1 in 1:52:42 for a 27 second PR (so I ran the second half about 18 seconds faster than the first half :p).

This was a fabulous race.  Like I said, beautiful course.  Super flat course (even though I was convinced it was hilly until I looked at the elevation on my Garmin.... apparently I'm insane).  Awesome shirts.  Sweet recycled bags.  Great crowd support.  One failure = no finisher's medals.  This girl likes her bling, so I may have complained once a thousand times about the lack of medal. :(  But I would highly recommend this race to anyone in the Twin Cities area.  Make sure to check out Alyssa's race report to see how she did (no spoiler's here!).

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Spoiler alert or not, congrats on the PR! ;) It's hard to push it *that* much when you know the Goal race is still ahead of you - a Zen run (or, a few Zen miles) is never a bad thing ;)

Jamie said...

You did great! Congrats on the PR in a non-goal race! Awesome! Can't wait to see what you'll do in the goal race :)

Keith said...

Do you know how many trees it takes make finisher medals? Me either I was just asking.

Quinton J said...

congrats on a good race. your ducks are all lined up to whoop your goal races ass.

Heather said...

Awesome job on the PR!

jt00ct said...

Very nice race Jeri, congratulations on the PR. Good luck at the SF half!

baker said...

nice on the PR!
how come there were no medals?! i just love medals after a race...
that area sounded so nice to run in! its so 180 from what im used to running in up here in the urban jungle.

Mica said...

Congratulations on the PR, even if you didn't use your planned strategy.

...That bib sounds gross. I'm all for being green, but not for having to deal with a soggy, biodegradable bib in this weather.

Aron said...

yayyyy PR!!! and on a non-goal race! you did great, cant wait to see what you have in those legs when its THE goal race :)

Julie said...

Hi Jeri,
Way to go! You PRd! Awesome half marathon...I am so darn jealous of your time:) Maybe if I get my crap together and the end of summer I can muster up enough speed to actually do it!

I will have to check out your friends blog. I live in the Twin City area:)

Anonymous said...

awesome job on the PR...even though U fetl like U weren't as "into" this race as you wanted to be...

J said...

Congrats on the PR!! I am sure when you get to your goal race in Sept you will be ready to go and get another PR!!

Trying To Heal said...

great job on the pr beautiful!!! you did awesome!!!

Jules said...

Great job! Way to PR!!!

Susan said...

Congrats on the PR!!

audgepodge said...

COngrats, Jeri! And no medal? Boo... I think all half marathons require a tech shirt and a medal but that's just me.

Glenn Jones said...

Another great race Jeri! Congrats on another PR. You seem to be settling into a PR habit here....

Anonymous said...

I had so much fun!!! I'm so proud of you for running a PR! Thank you so much for making the trek to the race, we will definitely be seeing each other soon.

The Boring Runner said...

First, thanks for stopping by my blog!

But, more importantly, way to kill your PR! I can't even imagine PRing in a non goal race. You're going to kill it during your next one!

Unknown said...

Congrats!!! -cw

Carly said...

Congrats on the PR! You did awesome.

I ran this race as well and love it. But I will say I was irritated that there was no medal. The website said that there was going to be a medal made out of renewable wood. I also run for bling. That aside...I will run it again since it is a fun neighborhood race.