My BRF and I trekked to Chicago last weekend to run the F^3 Lake Half Marathon. I'm sure you've seen her face around this blog and my instagram account a million times, so prior to the race I asked if she'd be interested in writing a race report. She said YES. I suspected she'd run a PR, so I was excited for her to chronicle her race to share for all of us. [I may or may not make editorial comments throughout.....]
Please Enjoy!! -Jerbear
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5k, 5k, Mystery Mile (!), 5k, 5k.
Makes perfect sense.
We started the morning easy-going, we “woke up” (we both slept so soundly insert sarcasm font here please) around 6:30 and made a leisurely morning of it. After the quickest of trips to Walgreens for Vaseline to ward off chafing (Spoiler Alert: it did not work I have the pictures as proof), we got in the vehicle and headed to the stadium. Parking cost approximately $5,928.00, lies, it was $20.00 but that still made me gag, I did NOT remember it costing that much!
We got inside, stretched, dropped our stuff off, stretched, meandered closer to the exit, stretched, and decided to just go outside and wait there. We got outside aaaannnnd stretched. Not nervous at all. Fast forward a bit, the corrals are full; we both notice that we were dressed significantly less than most people there. Long sleeve and shorts seemed entirely appropriate for sunny and 39*, it ended up being exactly perfect, but many runners were MUCH more bundled than that.
So, it’s probably 9:53 and I am still standing right next to Jeri, “Go further up” she says, so I pick and poke and sneak my way up… about five feet. I turn around, and she narrows her eyes, “further!” So I continue on, preparing for the race in my usual way: talking to All the strangers. The nice woman next to me was glad she ran this half marathon instead of the one the week before because the weather was SO much worse the week before. The gal behind me once ran the Casper half marathon and she was so excited to meet a person from Wyoming. People tell me things, what can I say?
A few minutes later, corral #3 took off, and there I was, running in perfect race conditions, around awesome people, with my BRF/unofficial coach behind me.
On our trip out, Jeri asked me how I was planning to run this race. I semi-jokingly answered her with: “a 5k, another 5k, MYSTERY MILE (well, less than a mile), 5k, last 5k.” Because seriously, who runs like that?!
Apparently I do.
First 5k: I assumed this portion of the race would probably be throw-away. When I say that, I mean I didn’t think I would regulate my pace well because I really struggle starting a race out properly. Also there’s a significant incline at the beginning. I covered my watch up for this, which took all the mental strength in the world, and told myself to run until it felt like I was racing one of my nieces up the block. It seemed that would put me at a good difficult pace. Around mile two a man with a blue kilt appeared and I decided it was in my best interest to keep him in my sights. Naturally.
- 8:17
- 8:11
- 8:08
Relatively consistent, faster than I had intended, but again, I had no idea how fast I was going because I refused to look at my watch.
Second 5k: My original idea for this, was to make 5k #2 harder effort and then do a little recovery on “Mystery Mile” but game-time decision changed my mind. I was feeling good, the people around me were very consistent, so I decided to just keep going at that pace. I was still by the man with the kilt, so that was good. This course is very flat, but there were some areas that narrowed because of construction and they were a little muddy. Aside from that the sun was shining, and boy was it shining! (SO BRIGHT) and the lake was beautifully frozen in chunks.
- 8:11
- 8:11
- 8:12
Mystery Mile: Ok, so, I don’t need the recovery mile I thought I did, and I don’t want to speed up for just a mile…. Stay the course. Also, it was so warm at this point that I uncovered my watch and then could NOT stop looking at it. During the mystery mile I also saw Jeri, and I had a very profound thought occur to me. “She is not having a good time, this is not a fun race for her. I can see it all over her face, it is going downhill… MUST RUN WELL TO MAKE THE NINE HOUR ONE-WAY DRIVE WORTH IT”
- 8:13
Third 5k: This feels like it’s getting a little ridiculous doesn’t it? Who runs three 5k’s in a day? At the beginning of 5k #3 I saw the 1:50 pacer ahead of me. I was mediumly concerned by this because my absolute “A” goal for this race was a 1:49:40. That felt like a reach, but something that I could maybe pull off because of these perfect conditions and all my hard training. So why does it seem like they are so eternally, difficultly far ahead of me? Catch them.
- 8:14
- 8:13
- 8:22 (I caught them on mile 9, and then drifted back from them a bit on mile 10)
Last 5k: Whose idea was this?! Four 5k’s in a day… asinine. So, originally the plan was this: Last 5k, run it hard, REALLY hard, it’s only a 5k so you can go max effort on that. There was a slight, tiny baby, little itty-bitty flaw with this plan though; I was real tired. Like, Forrest Gump style, “I’m kinda tired, I think I’ll go home now” tired. On mile 11 I made a real effort to get back with the pace group. There were also LOTS of high-fiving people at this point who helped more than they realized, so thank you high-fivers! During mile 12 I floated around a few feet behind the 1:50 pace group, then Mile 13 they got quite a ways ahead of me and then I dead-sprinted to pass them at the finish, maybe not my best moment, but it worked.
- 8:15
- 8:19
- 8:24
.21: 1:35.
Total of 13.21 miles – 1:48:50 per my Garmin.
The only thing that's almost as good as a PR is a PR for your BRF that you do 99.9% of your training with. Toni,
I'm so proud of all of your hard work, your A+ attitude, and your ability to put up with me even when I'm whiny on a run. I can't wait to see where 2018 takes you!!
<3 Your BRF
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