Race Report: Sioux Falls Half Marathon 2011

Sunday I woke up after a good night of sleep.  I never sleep before races.  A WIN ALREADY!  Yay me.  I dashed outside to see the finish line so I could begin visualizing crossing it, exhausted and ecstatic.  True story:  while we were laying in bed Saturday night I demanded that Kyle open my window blinds to see if the finish line was up yet.  I wanted to dream about it.  It wasn’t.  I was bummed.

I got dressed, ate breakfast, snuggled back up to Kyle to wake him up, and we were off to the race start.  I wanted to get there early a) because I’m neurotic on race days and b) because a bunch of my friends were running the full and I wanted to see them off for their 6:45 start.  The fact that I was perfectly content in shorts and a thin long sleeve at 6am was slightly concerning. In past years, I’ve been bundled up in sweats and a hoodie heading to the race start.

Said hello and good lucks to my studly 26.2 friends (silently being uber thankful I was only tackling half the distance) and started my warm up.  Kyle and I got to a whole new level in our relationship when we discussed the importance of pooping on race day.  My favorite quote of the morning was, “Most people focus on winning the race, Jeri focuses on pooping.”  Accurate.

Megan and I made our way to the starting line and tried to eyeball where we should be.  The start is d-u-m-b.  We run a lap around a track and then head out of the stadium primarily single file.  It’s typically a cluster-eff.  My goal is usually to avoid the cluster-eff as much as possible.

Oh.  Speaking of goals.  My race day strategy was as follows:

Miles 1-4 (hilly) 8:30

Miles 5-9 (slightly less, but still hilly) 8:20

10-finish (flat) BTTW

I calculated out what my paces for 1:48, sub 1:49, and sub 1:50 would need to be during those 4 remaining miles.  None of them seemed that scary.  Not easy.  But not capable of killing me, either.  When I talked to Tom before the race, I told him that I realized that if done properly, the race SHOULD NOT FEEL EASY.  I should be working my booty off.  A lot of times I lose my brain when I think, “CRAP! This should feel easier!  I’m going to die!”

Megan and I commented that we were way too comfortable standing around in shorts and tank tops for the start of the race.  I tried to ignore that comment and pretend the sun wasn’t already making its way high up in the sky.  The race started and we were off.  Shockingly we picked a great starting spot, because dodging people was minimal.  I had settled in to an 8:30 on the nose pace, and it felt…er… easy.  Okie dokie then!  I waved g’bye to Kyle on one side of the stadium and my madre on the other, and got to work.

About one mile in to the race I had sweat droplets starting to fly off of me.  Roughly a mile and a half in, my body was so wet that my heart rate monitor slid right off me.  Perhaps I should’ve brought a handheld along…. Hmmm..  One of the first big hills was in the second mile, and I just concentrated on going up it.  There were some rollers for the next mile, and the pace was evening out around 8:30.

1. 8:31
2. 8:43
3. 8:32

During a major downhill I was flying trying to bank a little time for the upcoming hill I knew we had.  At one point I looked down at my watch to see a 7:40 average mile pace.  Uh… oops.  During the next uphill stretch I took my GU, grabbed some water (yes, the first water stop was a good 3.5 miles in.  UFF!) and thought my legs were starting to feel some of the pounding.  At the top of the hill, we turned around to run through the downtown, which is one of my favorite stretches, and also where I planned to see Kyle for the first time.  During this downhill portion, my legs were not flying.  They felt very heavy.  I expected the heaviness to subside after they got the uphill work shook out of them.

I saw Kyle and he snapped this lovely pic of me throwing him my heart rate monitor.  And it was on to Falls Park.  One of my other favorite portions of the race.  And also the part with the steepest incline.  I saw my madre in all of her Team Green glory, screaming and cheering like a fool (which I love, Kyle could take notes).  I knew that after this stretch, things flattened out more.  I tried to power up the hill but my legs felt…stuck.  No biggie… I’ll make it up on the flat part!

(I'm so good at running I can do it with my eyes closed.... lolz)

We looped back through the downtown area and made our way to the backside of the bike trail, since the primary part is still under construction.  My legs felt like crap.  My IT bands, specifically my right one, felt like I had 10-15 lbs of extra weight attached to them.  My stride was short and choppy.  I kept thinking the heaviness would shake out in due time and I would get back to work.  I did realize that unless they figured it out asap, sub-1:50 probably wasn’t in the cards.  But a course PR was more than doable!

4. 8:34
5. 8:35
6. 9:23

At about the halfway point I figured if I ran the same as I had the first half, I’d be right at a course PR.  And I never positive split a half (attention:  foreshadowing!), so let’s just get back on track!  Look at me being Miss Sunshine.  Holy crap.  Except that they never loosened up.  I was stuck running a 9-9:30 pace and just could NOT stride out at all without feeling like my leg would give out.  This part of the route had a smidge of shade, which was good, because it was getting very very hot out there.

I kept plugging along running as fast as I could, STILL thinking that eventually the heaviness would shake out, and I could race whatever I had left on the course.  Except that there kept being rolling hills and the downhills would lock things back up, even as I was taking them very conservatively.  Well…poo.

7. 9:11
8. 9:36
9. 9:19

I got to Lincoln high school where I had planned to see Kyle, and he was leaning against the school not even cheering.  I may have snapped something to the effect of, “The least you could do is cheer for me!!!”  Haha, poor guy.  In his defense he was staring in the sun, and probably didn’t see me coming.  Also, apparently every other girl at the race got the memo about black shirt green shorts.  Jeepers.

I saw my mom shortly there after and she was a cheering and screaming fool, which of course, made me smile.  I think I may have given her the, “this sucks” memo as I ran by.  That may have been an exact quote from the exact spot in the race as last year.  ;)

(Always gotta have the sad panda photo....hahah...)

This was supposed to be the part where I started my BTTW kick.  This is literally the part of the race I look forward to when running halfs.  Wah wah.  I pretty much stopped looking at my watch and just tried to enjoy the day.  I chatted it up with some runners and offered encouragement to some that were struggling.  I was bopping along at my long run pace, the least I could do is use some of my extra energy to cheer people on.  :P

The last few miles must’ve drug on, but looking back, I don’t remember anything too notable, other than getting passed.  A lot.  Hah.  Since I usually start at a more conservative pace and then really turn it on the last 5k, I’m not used to that.  Since I started at 8:30s and was finishing at 9ish, I was definitely getting passed a lot.  Ho hum. Ha.  I did see a girl getting oxygen about a mile from the finish which freaked me out.  I kept thinking how horrific it must be to be running the full.  It was warm. (Sidenote: After chugging a bottle of water post race, along with the fluids I took in during the race, I was still down 4 ½ pounds. Holy sweat-a-thon!)

I tried to pick up the pace the last mile and at some point realized that breaking two hours might be close.  Eep!  I ran the finishing quarter of a mile as fast as I could with pain shooting up the IT bands.  Beep beep!   Coming through.  I probably looked like the biggest sandbagger. :/  Oh well.

11. 9:36
12. 9:26
13. 9:14
.14 :55 (7:08 pace)

1:59:49.

(True story: my mom was pissed this chick ruined her finishing photo of me. Baha.)

Well ok then. :)  The nice thing was that I wasn’t dead tired crossing the finish line, but I was bummed.   I was very proud of myself for never giving up on the course, but looking back I was probably a little delusional.  IT band stiffness doesn’t “go away.” Hah. It took awhile for it to click that that’s what it was, I just thought my quads were feeling tired from the constant ups and downs.  Whenever I run downhills, I always run them very conservatively, because I know my IT bands will be severely affected by them.  I’m not sure why it didn’t click in my head that flying down them wouldn’t do the same thing. ??  I guess I just assumed that I’d be miserable the next day, not during the race.

I’m happy that I finished my 12^th half marathon and that I finished my 7^th consecutive Sioux Falls Half Marathon with my 3^rd best time.  I hope I read this blog post before signing up for next years race, because unless the course is back to normal, I don’t want to race-race this again.  I’ve decided it’d be fun to do the marathon as a relay “for fun” (attempting to convince Kyle of the fun-ness), or to do the half as a relay and then just keep running with KK during his final leg, or pace my BFFF who’s been talking about doing a HM forever.  All fun options. 

Sweatiest finisher award goes to: jerbear!

 

My friend Molly was back home for the weekend from San Diego.

I'm starting to sweat just looking at her in capris.

He's only faux touching me. He was extremely grossed out when my sweaty arm touched his.

Jerbear and Mamabear

Sioux Falls Half Marathon Goals

Sunday marks my 12th half marathon and my 7th consecutive Sioux Falls half marathon.  Interesting fun fact:  the half in 2005 was my first race longer than one mile.  Neat-o, no?  This is the race I look forward to the most each year, because it's an awesome race, the finish line is walking distance from home, and I run the route most days on my training runs.

This fall, this half is my "goal" race.  Last year, my goal race time eluded me, so this year I'll take another crack at it.  So without further adieu, my race goals:

Goal A:  Somewhere in the 1:48-1:50 range.  This was my goal for last year, and I lost my shizz/mojo way early on in the race.  It will be tough.  I will look grimmacing in most if not all race photos, and it will hurt.  But it's doable.

Goal B:  PR.  Current PR is 1:50:57.  So dang close to sub 1:50, but I honestly didn't have another 57 seconds left in me that day.  Race course PR is 1:53 something.

Goal C:  Be thankful you're able to run and enjoy the day.  **For the record, I would rather accomplish these goals while also accomplishing goals A or B.** :D

So there you have it.  Kyle surprised me with some sweet running shorts I've been coveting to complete my fall Team Green ensemble.  Like a dork, he made me try them on, and then I had to find a shirt to wear with them.  And then I had to see if I "looked fast" in them.  Ignore the uber messy bedroom featured behind me.

And since I can't be the only cutie featured in this post, I made Kyle try on my race shirt from this race 2010.  I was psyched because it was the first year they had tech shirts.  And then I cried when I saw how giant the SMALL was.  For reference, Kyle is about 110+ lbs. over me.  Doesn't he look cute in this pic?  Normally he look slike a big goober in photos... can't all be as photogenic as me I guess.  Bahahahahahah.

Fall Race Plans + Alabama Orientation Recap

My running has been pretty boring this week.  Easy paced miles with low heart rate, and striders thrown in at the end.  My allergies are attempting to wreak havoc on my system, and after 3 nights of sleep, my insomnia reared it's ugly head the last two nights.  Meh.  I figured it was high time to provide you with my Alabama orientation recap.

But first, I wanted to share that I had made a decision regarding a fall marathon.  But wait?  You think to yourself.  Didn't you already make this decision?  Like...twice or so?  Yes yes I did.  School is going awesome, and it's a ton of work, reading, writing, etc.  Much like I imagined it to be.  Surprisingly, I am adjusting better than I expected.  However, the more research I do about marathon training and specifically heart rate training, I realize that my endurance is not where I want it to be for a go at 26.2 miles.  I'm sure the race would go fine, and probably better than my last two injury fests, but I want to really knock it out of the park, and I don't think a quick 5 week schedule crammed in to heavy study sessions is going to do the trick.

Instead, I'm taking on my back up plan race of the Fargo FM half on October 8th.  The course is super flat, and should be nice and chilly.  I love the half marathon distance, sand that's what I'm most prepared to run, so that's what I'll do.  And then because halfs don't destroy your body like fulls do, I can still run some fun local races in October before the blizzards arrive.  :)

And shockingly, I plan to employ a standard length of marathon training for my spring race:  my 2nd go at the Green Bay Marathon!  And during the frigid winter months leading up to that training program, I will be working my tushy off with heart rate training to get my endurance where it needs to be.  #yaycloud

Ok, on to the bama recap. :)

I arrived in Birmingham, AL on August 17th, and met some of my cohortians at the airport.  (There are 43 of us in my incoming class).  A shuttle took us to our hotels in Tuscaloosa, and we got to see some of the horrific tornado damage.  Interesting fun fact:  I got my acceptance email an hour before the tornado hit, so I was glued to my tv as if it was "my" home being undertaken by storms.  Yikes.  We went to the nearby restaurant/bar to meet some of the other students and professors.

Thursday morning orientation started bright and early and it was go go go for about 12 hours.  There was a ton of information to cram in to our nerdy brains.  I kept finding myself analyzing the group, particularly in terms of introvert tendencies.  Typically in the librarian profession, you see a high number of introverted individuals, and orientation was true to form.  It was interesting to see people need to take breaks from interacting with people to "recharge" and people that would need to move on from group conversations when the group became too large, and thus unmanageble for them. :)

I guess the next two days were fairly similar to the first two, with lots of information thrown at us.  We did get to have a night out on "the strip" where we all felt like old farts compared to the little 21 year olds.  I managed to take a sweet photo ID pic, and then the worst photo of all time for our cohort "directory."  I'll have to share that on a day that someone needs a major laugh. :)

So enjoy the random pictures from the weekend.  I left my camera batter charger at home, so I had my cell to take pictures with.  I whined about this 1200x.

running + tuscaloosa..... yayzies

Gorgas Library. Pretty, right?

Denny Chimes.

Cool tinman sculpture.

roll tide!

Denny Chimes from the Gorgas Library steps.

Sweet library/harry potter shirt?  check!

Librarian cardigan?  check!

Bama pride?  check!

Sweet ID pic.  aka I WIN AT LIFE.

Surrounding the Denny chimes are the captains names, hand prints, and cleat prints.

ZOMG Race Week + MOAR PRETEND MODEL PICZ

ZOMG IT'S RACE WEEK!  Cue intense race nerves immediately.

I had some great race prep this past weekend, starting with my final long run of 12 miles, with the last 3 at race pace.  My overall pace (with the race pace miles) was much lower, running by heart rate, and there were times when I had to slooooooooooooooow myself down.  The three race pace miles were challenging, but the run was SUCH a mental boost.  I definitely needed that after my flopasaurus tempo run.

I did 12 miles in 1:49:25 for a pace of 9:08.  My race pace miles were 8:18, 8:27, 8:23.
Average heart rate:  162.

Saturday Aaron and I took the race route by storm on our bikes.  The route is the same as last year, but that means it's completely different from the previous years due to construction.  It's definitely a lot more challenging, as the first 9 mile are rolling hills (as much as you can call something a hill in SoDak) and then the last 4 miles are pretty pancake flat.  The ride helped me mentally strategize what the plan for race day will be. 
____________________________

I had a surprise waiting in my mailbox last weekend:  A CD with all the images from my "photo shoot" from May!!!  I didn't realize there were more photos than the ones my photog friend Kathryn had posted on facebook.  I seriously LOVE THEM.  If I put in the effort with my looks, at best I think I can pull off cute.  I'm not complaining, good enough for me.  Turns out Kathryn can make you look (and feel) gorgeous, in front of the camera, so that's neat.  Who doesn't like to play pretty pretty princess for the day??

Toe Update

Attention:  If you are eating, please do not read further.*

Toe update! 

Kyle has been begging to rip my toenail off since it first started to come up off the nail bed.  I've jokingly been telling him that maybe I'd let him do it for his birthday.  Well two weekends ago, I managed to get the nail caught TWICE on random items within a 15 minute span, and each time almost reduced me to tears.  Ok, each time reduced me to 'a' tear.  At least.

Finally it was decided:  time to do some more toe nail maintenance.  I almost gave Kyle the green light, until I realized that the nail is 100% attached to the toe on the left hand side.  Hence the extreme pain each time I got the nail caught on something.  I decided it was time to trim it down as far as possible.  It took some hard work and maneuevering, but I did my best.  I broke in to a sweat in the process.  Kyle was hovered over my foot with a look of glee in his eye.  Hopefully this keeps it out of the way until the turd just falls off.

But the saga continues....... I just looked a bit closer at my left big toenail, only to realize that it's not attached either.  Gah.  At least this one appears to have heeded my advice of waiting until sandal season is over.  Right toe nail?  You've officially  been put on notice.  Bitch.  Now I must debate wheter to perform surgery on this one before the half next weekend.  EEP!

*I got a few "OMG I just barfed up my cheerios!" the last time I posted about my toenails, so I thought a disclaimer would be nice this time around.
___________

Last long run today after work.  I was supposed to do it tomorrow morning but the weather is supposed to be similar to Wednesday morning.  Yes, it was SO BAD that I'd rather run today at NOON than tomorrow a.m.  Barf.

Insomnia + Weekly Wishlist

When I was in college, I randomly incurred bouts of insomnia.  I say random because that's what I referred to them as at that time.  However, I now realize that I have some "issues" with anxiety and when I'm extremely anxious/nervous/etc. I can't sleep at all.  It's impossible to shut off my brain.  In college these bouts would coincide with the start of the semester (fear of the unknown), midterms (holy anxiety), and finals stress (double anxiety). 

After graduation, I still had issues with insomnia likely because I was so stressed and concerned about my current lack of employment, and student loan payments looming on the horizon.  Luckily, I also learned around this time that running is really great medicine for insomnia (for me).  I'm sure the endorphins calm down my crazy worrying brain and help me relax, but really running just knocks me out so I can turn my brain off and just sleep.

Well.....

It's back.

I started classes last week, and even leading up to classes starting I couldn't sleep.  There have been several times in the last week that I've laid down for the night, and then apologized to Kyle 30-45 minutes later when I'm flipping on the light to do some reading for class.  [thank God that kid can sleep through anything.... :/  ZOMG HE NEEDS A SLEEPMASK!!!]

Currently I haven't slept soundly since..... Saturday, and I'm a bit of a crabapple when I don't get my sleep.  I'm hoping the insomnia will peace out once I get more "in the groove" with school.  If not.... yikes. 

Any suggestions?

(lol cat image from icanhascheezburger.com)

And on to more lighthearted things.... weekly wishlist!

Buy it here.

I dont' think I could wear this jacket and not sing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band all.day.long.

It's amazing.

Buy it here.

As a kid I was obsessed with old skeleton keys.  I loooove this ring because of that.

Buy it here.

A golden snitch... for a necklace... are you for real???

Sign this 'arry Pottah nerd UP.

P.S.  I've yet to see the final movie.  Someone come to SoDak and be my date, puhlease?

Buy it here.

I feel like this is a must have for any future librarians out there.  Oh wait... that's me. :):)