Toni's Race Report: 605 Running Co. Half Marathon

Today we have another guest post from BRF extraordinaire, Toni. Leading up to the half, I suspected that she would run under 1:45, but I told her I thought she could run a 1:46. Mind games, man. In the half in January, her goal was to break 1:50 and without realizing what she was doing, she ran a 1:48. I wanted to see if lightning would strike twice on this race which only became a goal race as the weather was pretty darn perfect as we crept up on it. Spoiler alert: she smashed her PR by another 4 minutes in just 3 short months. INSANE!

Without further adieu, here's Toni's race report:

605. The Glorious Race.

Race morning started out great and I felt really good, I kept looking outside thinking, “Oh! It’s going to be so cold in these shorts!” but as soon as I opened the car door when we got parked and I wasn’t shocked by the cold, I really started to get amped up! We’re totally prepared for this race, the weather is beautiful. It’s going to be a great day!

There wasn’t much for a warm-up for this race and we cut it pretty close getting to the actual start line, but I wasn’t nervous for this race and I didn’t really have a plan. I was totally winging it, to be honest. When I took off, I figured I would run comfortably hard and at one mile see what time that put me at.

The first mile always goes so fast –

7:57 – At this point I thought maybe I would just see how many sub 8 miles I could manage before feeling like I needed to slow down.

Mile 2 - 7:53

Between these two miles I was supposed to see my husband – I was concerned about not seeing him, but I thought to myself “maybe I’m just SO fast he’ll barely miss me,” as it turns out, he thought the race started a half an hour later than it actually did, so there’s that.

Mile 3 - 7:54

Mile 4 - 7:56

Mile 5 - 7:52

Mile 6 - 7:58- This is where I took my first GU and that ended up being way too late, you will see.

At the turn around I saw Benson, and he said to me, “You’re killing it! Way to go!” and I was so proud of myself, it made me feel awesome, in all honesty I think it was his encouragement that kept the next two miles under 8 because I was really starting to feel the sluggish effects of lack of nutrition. (I’m not going to say I was bonking because I refuse to believe I was careless enough to bonk)

Mile 7 - 7:49

Mile 8 - 7:57

Mile 9 – 8:17 – This is the part where my body is giving me the middle finger for starving it, so I took my second GU.

Mile 10 – 8:18

Mile 11 – 8:08

Mile 12 – 8:12 – By this point I have given up all hope of ever running a sub 8 again for the rest of my life.

Mile 13 – 7:54. – ONLY because it was downhill.

Total time: 1:44:24 – This is surely a mistake because there’s no way I can run under 1:45. Except that I did, and I still can’t believe my legs did it.

The best part about running fast, is that I get to see more people cross the finish line, that is easily my favorite part. 605 put on such a wonderful half and I was so excited to be a part of the inaugural running.

Race Report: 605 Race Series 4 Mile

I woke up at 6am to eat some breakfast and head to town to do an early packet pick up and some warm up miles. I was really close to hitting 100 miles for the month of July so that helped me get there to do a couple of extra. I picked up my bib and headed out. It was so thick and muggy, and my head was completely full of mucus. Did that paint a vivid enough picture for you? Uff.

The warm up was a complete slog and I ended up only going 1.5 miles and being completely drenched. I did manage to get some monster snot rockets blown out during the warm up so I could breathe a little bit.

We all lined up for the race announcements and I was excited to see some of my runner friends. I found a couple of pals I thought I could try to stay with and/or keep in my sights based on our recent 5k race series times. 

We started out and I glanced down at my watch a couple minutes in to it to make sure I hadn't gone out too fast (as I tend to do, 7's? um... no thanks, not right now!) and was shocked that my labored pace was an 8:40. Uh... according to Mr. McMillan Running Calculator that should be pretty doable based on my 5k paces. Shoooooot. 

Mile 1 8:53

From there I decided just to run comfortably hard, and maybe my legs would loosen up and have some speed in them the second half of the race! (Spoiler alert: they did not have any speed or additional pep in the second half). I tried to just stay competitive in that I worked to catch people that were loosing steam in front of me.

 

Mile 2 9:15

At the turn around I glanced at my watch and saw 18:20, so my new goal was to finish around 36:40, as I knew I was fading and thought that might help me hunker down a bit. I leap frogged with a couple of gals during this stretch before one finally left me in her dust.

Mile 3 9:09

I tried to reel in a male and female that were in my sights during the final mile and tried to kick with .7 to go in the race. My mile split will tell you how slowly I must've been going for that first .3 miles. My legs just felt like lead.

 

Looking at my running form in the race pictures, I can totally tell why it felt like garbage. For some reason I've reverted back to my bad non-glute using running form. I like to refer to his as my sad panda form. Uff, my hamstrings ache just looking at it.

I finished the last .25 pretty strong, and even had a 7:20 something final kick.

Mile 4 9:08

.05 :21

My final time was 36:48 for a pace of 9:06. A PR. (auto PR, but whatevs)

 

Great start to a race series even if it was a last than fun race performance! That's a heckuva lot faster than I would've run on my own on Sunday in the humidity with a head cold!