Race Report: Sioux Falls Half Marathon

After being concerned about serious back pain all week long, I was ecstatic to wake up Sunday morning painfree. My excitement for the day wained when I went to put on my Garmin and learned that my battery had drained it instead of charging it. Deep breaths, be thankful you're not racing, be thankful this isn't the marathon. I put it back on the charger and it started doing the reverse charging thing that the Garmin 610 is known to do, so when we finally HAD to leave I wasn't sure what percentage of charge I actually had.

We got to the race start in time to see some marathoning friends depart! Go Emil! Go Ed! And for the first time in the history of all running time, my stomach wasn't angry. Yay! I ran in to my friend Julia, and we set out to do a warm up lap. Within a 100 meters, I had a completely new pain stabbing in to my knee. GAH! I stopped to stretch and it came back. Cue internal freak out. I stopped to do my hip and glute stretches, hoping that my knee would just pop. Soon it was time to start!

We were off, and the random knee pain was gone, thankfully. I started off a little faster than my planned long run pace, but it felt nice and easy. I also knew there were some decent hills coming up that would surely slow that pace down. My watch started to tell me the battery was low at mile 2. Womp. And then my mom surprised me by being around mile 3! She has very specific spectating spots so I wasn't even looking for her. I was enjoying the day so much that I didn't bother listening to my music.

I took my first GU at mile 3.5.

1.  10:06

2.  10:13

3.  10:27 (first hill)

.66  10:26 pace

I looked down at my watch during the downhill portion of Phillips Ave. when I realized it was dead. Oh well. I guess Jenn will get her wish for me to run a race without a watch. ;) I looked for Kyle on the downtown stretch and didn't see him. And I ran into my new running friend from Fargo, Janna! We really need to be running besties as frequently as we run the same pace in races. 

Then it was down to the falls. Usually my mom is at the falls, but I didn't see her at all. Instead I took in the view of the Falls. So pretty. Coming out of the falls is a decent hill. I was mentally preparing myself for mile six to come and to start picking up the pace. I was also checking in with my legs to see how they feel. I re-read my last 4-5 race reports Saturday night and every one of them I talked about my quads being destroyed at mile 6 and not being able to pick up the pace at all.

Shortly after I finally saw Kyle.

He likes to get his finger in the shot, I guess. :)

After this we headed back toward the bike trails. I took another GU around mile six and also realized that I'd forgotten to take a salt pill, so I downed that too. I knew there'd be clock around the halfway/10k point, so I was hoping to get an idea of what my time/pace was. Well, there was a mat, but no clock. And the spectators were saying "halfway done!"

Except not much further away was mile 7, soooooooo ??

According to the results I hit 6.9 miles in 1:11:57 for a pace of 10:25.

I asked a couple at mile 7 what time their watch said hoping I could estimate a pace and finishing time, and they told me they were on pace for a 2:20 half. Which... didn't help at all. Hah. Still nice of them to tell me! I was enjoying picking up the pace and gaining energy on passing people. That probably sounds rude, but it does re-energize you (just as it de-energizes you when you're on the opposite side of it, trust, I've been there plenty).

I heard a couple of gals saying they were on 9:30 pace, so YAY! I was doing even better than I expected. Shortly after mile 8 we had a MONSTER downhill that I tippy toed down so my legs didn't die. I knew I'd be seeing Kyle, Emily, AND my mom. Yayzies.

I saw Kyle at Lincoln High School, and was bummed that I didn't see Emily anywhere. Waaaah.

A few minutes later I saw my mom screaming in her usual spot. YAY! I was actually somewhat concerned when she wasn't at the Falls. I'd hoped there was just traffic issues, and not anything serious. Worrywart: party of 1.


And then, out of nowhere, I saw Emily waiting to cheer for me! YAY! I took my last GU shortly after I saw her at mile 10, and finally cranked the tunes up.

I picked up the pace in mile 10, but it might have been too much. I had to pull back a little bit during mile 11, and then kicked it back in with 1.5 miles to go. I would've guessed I was close to my 8:30 goal pace during this part. But I would've been wrong. Hah.

I saw a guy at mile 12 a ways ahead of me, and set my sights on catching him. The chase is on! Spoiler alert: I didn't catch him. When I finally got close enough to the finish line to see the clock I was shocked to see it at 2:10! I would've guessed I was in the 2:05-2:06 range. Drat!



















I finished and immediately saw my mama, and then Emily.

And then I learned that I can't follow directions when it took me years to find Megan. She finished her 2nd post baby 5k and killed it. Obvs.

And then everyone left me and I jumped into the line for a massage. I looooove that this race gives free post-race massages. Wahoo!!

I stuck around after the massage to watch some marathoners finish, until I realized that it was making me cry which is embarassing, and that it was FREAKING.ME.OUT. Seeing marathoners pain faces reminds me of how painful running 26.2 miles is! EEPS!