The Sioux Falls Half Marathon was set to be our last big scary workout leading up to the Twin Cities Marathon, 18 miles with 13 at marathon pace. Gulp. Melissa and I planned to do 5 miles before the race, and she stayed the night to make the morning easier. Luckily she stayed over, because I woke up to her shaking my big toe as my alarm had been going off silently for 20 minutes. GAH!We drove to the race start, and it was raining. We set off on our warm up and warm up it was. It was chilly!! I didn't pay attention to our pace because it was so pitch black out, but near the turn around point I realized we were running really slowly, like 11:10-11:20s. And Melissa mentioned she wasn't feeling very well and her HR was crazy high. She was trying to decide if she should run the race or not. Based on how she was feeling and some medical issues she had been dealing with, I strongly encouraged her to not start the race. I know how hard it is for her to run super easy, especially in a race scenario, and I was worried that she'd put herself in a bad position health wise. But I also REALLY wanted to run the race with her. She decided not to race, and we were treated with torrential downpours when we finally made it back to my car. Uff. I said goodbye to her and hustled into the Premier center to find a bathroom and drop by bag.
The race started and it was still raining but I was already soaked and dripping on people so it was NBD. Shortly after starting the race, I knew I needed to use a bathroom. Luckily I found one in mile 2. I think I was in and out within 47 seconds. What was Shalane's record? Coming up on the portapotty, I saw my good running friend Tom and had hoped to catch up with him later. I'm writing this report 2 months removed from the race, so the details are a bit spotty. I can't even remember what my race plan was going to be. I think my goal was to run around 2:05, but clearly my legs weren't having that.
1. 10:37
2. 11:32
3. 10:16
I was really bummed that Melissa wasn't out there with me, but I was super impressed as to everywhere that Kyle was on the race course. It's like he's finally gotten this race down. Every where I looked there he was ready to cheer me on. Wahoo. Miles 4 and 5 had decent downhills, so I think the effort was relative, just a faster pace because of the downhill portion.
I enjoyed running through the falls, got a little teary eyed running by my mom's "spot" but was thankful she wasn't out spectating me in the crummy weather. She had a habit of commenting on how NICE the weather was on years I was cooking my insides while running, so we clearly had two different views on the nice weather. I think she finally got the hang of if it's nice to spectate in, Jeri's probably have a rough day. :P
4. 9:37
5. 9:30
6. 9:54
7. 9:57
I continued to leap frog with my friend Tom, catching him around mile 6 I think. It was nice to have some company for a bit. I remember thinking (not when I was with Tom, just while running) that I had way more fun in 2018. Running and laughing with Melissa, and running super fast at that, was significantly more fun than running what felt like hard, but didn't show very fast as far as my watch was spitting out.
8. 9:46
9. 9:58
There is a long slow hill in mile 10 which....sucked as you can see, but I just kept powering up it. I like how this course mirrors the TCM course, so it's great prep for how your legs will handle the final hilly miles of Twin Cities.
And mile 11 is a nice downhill. The last two miles I ran as hard as I could, but couldn't seem to find another, faster gear. Even my finishing kick was just... meh. Even though I'm pretty sure I was giving it my all. I guess that's what racing on super tired legs looks like! Meh. Hah.
10. 9:59
11. 9:42
After I saw Kyle the final time, I really tried to crank up the pace to finish strong. My heart rate wasn't all that tired, but my legs were just ready to be DONE. 9:30s-9:40s doesn't look that slow but I think my effort was closer to sub 9.
12. 9:43
13. 9:35
.23 1:57 (8:32 pace)
I finished 13.23 miles in 2:12:07 for a pace of 10:00.
