Race Report: Good Life Halfsy

Last weekend, I ran my 42nd half marathon in Lincoln, NE, four weeks after the Twin Cities Marathon. I signed up last spring planning for it to just be an easy fun run. As the weeks went by after Twin Cities, it became more and more apparent that I needed to take it super easy to recover properly from the race. The weekend prior to Good Life Halfsy I was mentally preparing for a DNF the following weekend. My left hip flexor and right knee had been bothering me, and I hadn't run longer than an hour (with walk breaks) since TCM. Gulp.

We drove to Lincoln after work Friday night so we didn't get in until late o'clock and went right to bed. The next morning we woke up, checked the temp and decided we didn't need to do a shake out run. Can you see how committed to a solid race performance I was?? We found brunch and a pitcher of mimosas and all was right with the world.





After brunch we made our way to the expo (walking, see above: mimosas).



There wasn't much we wanted to see or look at, I debating buying a stocking hat but didn't want to spend $20 on a reminder of a terrible race (spoiler alert: I regret not buying that hat, UGH). And I was super excited to see that Jeri from six months ago went ahead and purchased a pint glass that came with a free beer at the expo. Since I was planning to buy one as soon as I saw the beer station, I was pretty excited. Melissa was feeling like crap from her cold, so we found a comfy spot on the floor to park ourselves while I drank my beverage.



We met some new friends that saw my TCM finisher shirt and wanted to chat, and before too long we were back on a walking mission to find coffee. Perhaps the shake out run should be replaced with walking to get multiple dehydrating beverages? Will continue to conduct research and report back.

We made our way back to the hotel, Melissa napped and I worked on coaching stuff, and eventually it was time for dinner. Possibly the best pizza of my life, and the slowest service. Uff da.

And then it was off to bed, with a late alarm that felt even later due to the time change. Yes please!

Before the race, I told Melissa that I expected to be around 2:17 if I was feeling good, but would probably be closer to 2:23. My plan was to take it as an easy long run, knowing that was my best chance for completing the miles without feeling like total garbage. She had been sick leading up to the race, and I just wanted her to run with me, but I knew, even if she was sick, she wouldn't likely want to run an 11 minute pace. Luckily for me, it was perfect race weather. Mid-30s, light breeze, sun while we were standing around (17 minutes!!) for the race to start and clouds during the run. Of course I was in shorts and a tank, and that was perfect. I was chilly standing around waiting to start, and was starting to get warm the last 5k. That's ideal for me.

We started off and I was thankful to be running and warming up finally. I had my watch on HR to just monitor that I was maintaining an easier long run effort, shooting to keep it in the 130s as long as I could. I was surprised at how many rolling hills there were the first few miles. So many people had said that it was a gentle downhill course that I was surprised by the rollers, but there wasn't anything crazy. My heart rate would go up a bit and then settle back down. After the first mile dinged, I consciously slowed down, knowing that I wanted to keep things closer to the 11 minute mile mark.

1. 10:24
2. 10:38
3. 10:45
4. 10:43

When I race a half, I usually break it up into 5 mile 5 mile 5k segments. When the first five miles were done, I was surprised that I was feeling pretty good. I don't think I picked up the pace on purpose, perhaps this was a decent downhill stretch, but somehow I felt even better with a little swifter pace. Ok then. At the halfway point I was at 1:09, putting me at a 2:18 finishing time if I evenly split the race. FYI I never evenly split a race. It's either negative or a monster blow up positive split, but always nice to have a bit of a check in here. At mile 7 I calculated that if I could run the final 6.2 miles in a 10 minute pace, I could run the same time I did for the Sioux Falls half, 2:12, or maybe even faster.





5. 10:35
6. 10:19
7. 10:16

I felt good enough and knew that even if my body wasn't up for it, with about an hour left in the race, I couldn't die that hard, right? It was around this time that I noticed how springy my legs felt. Like maybe I was secretly wearing a pair of Vaporflys and they were catapulting me toward the finish line. Nope, just my regular New Balance 880s..... Why couldn't my legs feel like this for TCM??



I continued to run by effort, my watch was still only showing me HR and I would see my pace for each mile when it'd ding off, although I did miss a couple of those because I was just having fun pushing the pace and taking in my surroundings. I realized during the run, I don't run a whole lot of "new to me" races. So it was interesting keeping my eyes up to see where we were running.

8. 10:06
9. 9:25
10. 9:24



With a 5k to go, I really tried to turn up the heat, but I quickly learned it was already on high, so I focused on just continuing with the effort without fading. I took my second GU around mile 9 and hoped that give me the extra boost necessary to push me to the finish.



My heart rate was getting pretty high the last 4 miles, which makes sense because I had really picked up the pace. Usually when it hits the 170s my body and brain are like, holy shit, pull back. But for some reason it didn't feel terrible. I suspect the cooler temps had me handling it better than normal. Heat+high heart rate=death, quickly for Jerbear.

11. 9:32
12. 9:34



The final mile there was a pretty big climb and I vaguely remember Kristin telling me about this hill when she did it last year. I was committed to coming as close to 2:12 as I could so I powered up the hill, dodging walkers to the best of my ability. We got to the top of the hill and I took off like I was running the 200 meter dash. It was probably obnoxious to see, but I really wanted to finish strong and I knew I was going to be super close to being under 2:12.

13. 9:23
.12 :47 6:38 pace

I stopped my watch and chuckled, as this is the second time in the last year ish that I've had a dead 6 minute pace sprint to try to come in under some arbitrary time on the clock.



2:11:58 for a pace of 10:04.

Shortly after crossing the line I found Kristin and Melissa waiting for me and we got to take some pictures.

  


I had wanted to get my free beer after, but I started getting REALLY cold now that I had stopped moving and I knew Melissa would be turning blue before too long, so we took off.

After changing quickly we found a place to get tacos and margaritas, and then picked up some more coffee to keep me awake on the drive home. 

I love race weekends! Oh, for the record: I beat my SF half time by 9 seconds, but who's counting. :P

  

Spring Race Plans

One of my favorite parts of running is planning out my racing schedule, and it's that time again! This spring, my focus is on a speedier half marathon. I'm hoping I can come close to my PR in the half, or maybe squeak out a new one and I'm giving myself two chances to do it!

I plan to run the 605 Half Marathon in late April. It's a very flat course, that I run almost every weekend for my long run, and it's put on by my buddies at the 605 Running Co. If the weather is as perfect as last year, look out PR! I'm coming for you.

A group of us also signed up for the Fargo Half Marathon. I did the marathon in 2011 and it was such a fun experience that I really want to go back, but only for 13.1. You'd have to pay me to train for a marathon through our winters and then race on a warm spring day. Hard pass. The group of us gals are all shooting for a low 1:50/sub 1:50 so it'll be really fun to train hard and see what we can do. I also like Fargo because it's a Saturday, so it's fun to go out that night to celebrate! Runners gone wild! Lolz.

I'll run a few shorter races as well, but I am focusing on racing less this spring compared to last spring. Last spring I *may* have been overarching (I definitely over raced). I plan to run the Frostbite 4 Mile in early February. I really enjoyed this race last year, and arguably it was one of my better performances for all of 2018. I like to see where my speed is at before training starts so I can see where my speed paces should be. I also like that there are 4 courses that they choose from based on the wind since it's in the dead of winter.

I also plan to run the Chilly Cheeks 5 mile in early April as a tune up race for the 605 Half Marathon. Why are all these races indicating that it's cold as balls here? Oh. Because it is. I think I can run 4 and 5 mile PRs this spring, so that's fun!

So just four races, and hopefully a lot of strong training miles with zero time off for sickness and/or injury. I think I hit my max of being sick in November so I should be good for a few years!

What's on your schedule?!?

Race Report: Sioux Falls Half Marathon

Plotting out my training for the Twin Cities Marathon, I was really excited to see a quality long run fall on the day of the Sioux Falls half. While I don't like to all out race SF, I will do it every year, and the course profile is similar to TCM as far as late in the race hills go. 

I had 18 on my schedule, and Jessica was sweet enough to join me at 5:40 a.m. to get the extra 5 miles in. We were about a mile from the bike trail, and it was so dark out. I had to use my flashlight app on my phone because I couldn't find my headlamp, and at one point our conversation turned from fictional murders and dismemberment and turned to real life, local accounts, and quickly decided that perhaps a less terrifying topic was needed, STAT. The five miles flew by, we kept them nice and easy, and we promptly lost each other after we stopped at our vehicles to ditch our Noxgear vests. (She went on to have an excellent, speedy goal MP 13.1 miles as well! She's going to kill it at TCM.)

Next stop was bathroom, bag drop, and meeting up with Melissa, Carter, Kristin, Rachel, and Karissa. I found the ladies, found the bag drop, found another bathroom stop, and we made our way inside. We only had a few minutes until the start of the race (yay, we timed our warm up miles perfectly!) and we were SO FAR away from our correct pace corral. I had planned to run with Kristin and Rachel as it was Rachel's birthday, and she was hoping to come in under two. I thought I could help pace her for part of it, and maybe helping her accomplish her goal would make my hard effort long run not seem so hard. While we were congregating in the corrals, we lost them (they were smart and went under a barrier to get further up!). 

At the start Karissa and Carter took off and Melissa settled in with me. Yay! We chit chatted a bit, I told her my plan for the day, and she said her goal was to feel strong, and maybe come in under two hours. She was also signed up for the 5k after the half to get in some extra miles. I kept us in check pace wise making sure we took the first few miles nice and easy. Melissa is a beast and powers up hills, while I'm a little more conservative with my effort (read: I'm not as strong at them!). It was really nice to have her ahead of me so I could focus on keeping good form like hers, and then she'd slow up a bit at the top to wait for me. We saw Kyle for the first time around mile 3, and I didn't even notice him, Melissa did. Ha.

My goal for the first five miles was to keep it in the 9:30-9:40 range. Nice and easy. 

1. 9:42

2. 9:27

3. 9:43

We made our way downtown, and both Melissa and I commented that this was our favorite part of the race. There are so many spectators, and live music, and the sun is just rising at the perfect spot in the sky, and the energy is just insane. I noticed around this point that despite running ~9:30s my heart rate was low. Like recovery zone low. Yessssssss. As we started to head toward Falls Park, we were a little thrown off by the slow lyrical version of Hallelujah that was being blasted out from some giant speakers. Give me some pump up music man! 

We took some back ways to get toward Falls Park, and then made our way through the park in the normal fashion. I gave Melissa a heads up that my mom would always be at the same spot at the Falls and there may be some tears, but I'd try to hold it together. I felt really strong running through the park, and had to laugh, as yet again, no one was in "her spot". :) 

We flew up the hill at Falls Park and I silently thanked all the Wednesday night group runs for making that hill not feel nearly as hard as it used to! Thanks 605 Running Co. Our pace was a little fast through this area, but it was a mix of flat and downhill, so I didn't attempt to reign us in. Plus the heart rate was still so low, I thought it'd be just fine. Thank you cool weather! 

Speaking of weather: I always joke that this race has terrible weather. Usually Labor Day weekend is just frigid, everyone has a great last long run of their training cycle, and then race day comes and it hits 80 before the finish with heavy humidity. This year we had a crazy hot and humid Labor Day weekend, so I thought maybe we'd luck out. And we did! Once out of every 7 years you can expect this race to be great racing conditions. I've lucked out 3 times over the last 14 years: 2005, 2011, and 2018. 

4. 9:14 (1st GU)

5. 9:20

6. 9:22

The plan for miles 6-10 was to run around 9:10-9:20 pace. Miles 6-9 were mostly flat, especially compared to the previous miles, so it was nice to settle in at this point. I don't know how many times we said, "I can't believe how strong I feel right now!" It was really great. Around mile 8 I did some math and realized I'd likely be just over two hours and mentioned to Melissa that if she really wanted to come under 2 hours, she might need to start her pace pick up around mile 9 instead of 10 as I had planned. She said she was fine and wanted to keep running with me because she felt really strong. I told her that was fine, but suggested that she run strong during the hills in mile 10 and to strongly consider NOT waiting around for me once she got to the top if she felt good. And she did.

Oh, you don't laugh at mile 8 of a half marathon? You're doing it wrong. Obvs.

7. 9:10

8. 9:17 (2nd GU)

9. 9:12

10. 9:21

We hit mile ten and with Melissa off in the distance, I was really excited to crank up the pace a little bit. The plan was to run 8:45s to the finish. I briefly thought if I all out raced the final 5k, I could maybe just squeak under 2 hours, but quickly realized that other than a boost to my ego, that wouldn't give me any extra preparedness for Twin Cities, and it's also not likely that I'll be throwing down low 8s at the end of a marathon, so also not a great goal MP race pace scenario. :P Also, there was the little black cloud over my shoulder saying that I'd probably get hurt trying, so I shouldn't. This was probably the voice of reason, and I listened. 8:45s it is!

I look like I'm running to a rave with all this neon!

I saw Kyle a lot during these miles, and maybe it was because Melissa wasn't there, but I was finally able to spot Kyle myself, AND he actually cheered for me. Out loud! 

I was a woman on a mission and I zoom zoom zoomed to the finish line as best I could. The end of mile 12 and start of mile 13 was a pain, as we were on a small bike path and I had a hard time getting around people, but once the route opened up to the road, I was off! 

I didn't put in my headphones until mile 12 started. That's how much fun I was having. Crazy!

I saw my neighbors near the finish line, and that gave me an extra boost. I came through the finishing stretch, threw my arms in the air, and then wasn't sure when to stop my watch because there was two timing mats and neither was marked.

11. 8:45

12. 8:50

13. 8:46

.17 7:57 pace

13.17 miles in 2:01:35 for a pace of 9:15.

My 14th consecutive Sioux Falls Half Marathon and 37th half marathon. 

This half, as a training run is my 4th fastest SF half. Whoa. 

I found my speedy running friends shortly there after.

Melissa ran her sub 2 (YASSSSSS!)

And Kristin hit her goal time as part of her training for her next race.

 

After the race, it was my goal to drink some beers and cheer on runners! A few people generously donated their beer tickets to me (3!), and I took advantage. I hung out at the 605 booth at the finish line to help cheer in all the runners! Most of my friends were also doing the 5k after so it was fun to cheer them in, as well as the marathoners. 605 Running co. was committed to sticking around for the last runner to finish the race (how cool is that?!) and I was committed to sticking around as long as I could before my stomach needed food ASAP. That ended up being about 12:45 pm. By my calculations, I maybe missed about 15-20 marathoners. Not bad.

I am beyond excited about this performance as it relates to my goals for Twin Cities. It's so hard to wrap your mind around a goal time or pace for a race as long as a marathon. There are so many doubts that can creep into your brain. We haven't had a nice day for a long run yet, they've all felt VERY summery, so it was nice to see how my heart rate looked on an actual cool "fall" day. This gives me all the confidence in the world to go all in for Twin Cities. Marathon PR, I'm coming for you (ooh, that literally gave me chills as I typed it. Man I'm a nerd!)

Race Report: Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon

We woke up at 4am to start getting ready for race morning. And I woke up to an email from my credit card company that someone had attempted to make an online purchase for $2200 overnight and was this possibly a fraudulent charge? Oy. After taking care of that, I was ready to focus on the race!

We quickly got dressed and headed outside to the buses. It took longer than I expected to board the buses, despite us getting out there at the earliest time they were available. And when we got on the bus, the temperature was no less than 1200 degrees. I quickly had a stream of sweat snake its way down my spine and was worried about how miserable and freezing I was going to be when I got off the bus and went outside in the 40 degree temps. I continued to sweat and freeze for the duration of the drive.



Once we arrived, I told Toni I NEEDED to use the bathroom, so we set out to find one. We only had 30 minutes before the race started, and I had thought we had timed it to have closer to an hour. Where had the time gone?! There were a ton of single porta potties with 20+ people waiting in line for them. Cue the panic. We moved closer to the starting line and finally found a bank of 4 porta potties with giant lines, and I figured that would be better than waiting for a single one, and I jumped in line.



The lines were not moving. Toni could sense my panic, so she offered to run ahead with our bags, utilize the bag drop and check on the one set of porta potties prior to the race start to see if the lines were better or worse. She came back and reported they were roughly the same. At this point, I had 15 minutes prior to the race starting, and had resigned to the fact that I wouldn't be starting on time. This bathroom trip was much more important than getting in my coral on time.

Just before it was my turn for the bathroom, the race started. While I was in there hustling, I heard a volunteer announce to the porta potty masses that there were banks of porta potties inside the corrals actually, her exact quote was "there are HUNDREDS of porta potties in the corrals!" Where was this information 30 minutes ago when this line was 50+ people deep??? I was fuming.

Luckily I was in and out of the bathroom lickety split and Toni and I took that opportunity to take a warm up jog to the start line. Except it wasn't the start line. Once we got closer there was yet another giant slow moving line of people being tunneled into an opening 2 people wide. Volunteers were checking bibs to make sure everyone was supposed to be in the race. Ok. So we waited in another non-moving line for another 5-7 minutes. I opted to take my first GU here based on how angry my stomach was that morning already. Once through we found ourselves in the massive corrals for the race. With, yes, you guessed it, banks of bathrooms, although hundreds is an extreme exaggeration. From what I heard from those in the corrals the lines for the bathrooms were just as long there, so who knows. Toni mentioned that maybe she now needed to use the bathroom, and I figured, hell why not? We're already late, and I ducked in too. I guess I was really well hydrated!

We finally got to the start line as the gun time read 14:30. I shouted to Toni good luck and kick some ass and we were off. Immediately it was very congested with a lot of walkers, which makes sense as I was catching up with the tail end of the race. I bobbed and weaved and kept a very positive and collected mindset. "This is great. Now I don't have to worry about going out too fast!" "Look at all of these people out enjoying a great day. Yay us!"

This was my 36th half marathon, and due to the size of the race, I expected it to be pretty congested for maybe the first 3 miles based on when I started, my pace, and the pace of the folks I was catching up and passing. It was kind of a fun game of frogger or something, and it took my mind off of my watch completely, which was great, as my plan was to not really look at my watch and just run hard, and see how that played out. I caught up to the 2:45 half pacer/12:30 pace around mile 3.

1. 9:35
2. 9:20
3. 9:08

Despite all of the mental maneuvering, the stop and go, and the strategic maneuvering in and out of people, I was shocked at how quickly the miles were ticking off. It seemed like only a few minutes would pass, and I would see one of the mile marker balloons just up the road. I was also thrilled that these low 9 minute miles were feeling effortless. In fact, I think the first 5k was done in my recovery heart rate zone. Granted I wasn't trying to keep it this effortless, but that was truly the fastest I was able to navigate the throngs of people.

Unfortunately, the congestion didn't ease up at mile 3 like I had hoped. But that was okay! I was going to continue to pick it up where I could, and with how great I was feeling, I can launch in a next gear around mile 5. I was calculating my finish time with 8:30s-8:40s for the final 8 miles, and was stoked to let loose. I took my 2nd GU during mile 4 and grabbed a glass of water at the aid station and quickly realized that the aid stations were going to add a good 15-20 seconds on to my time. It was essentially shoulder to shoulder people with water and sports drink on both sides and people walking and jogging here and there, and I was really nervous that I was going to collide in to someone who would stop abruptly in front of me. PANIC!

4. 9:11
5. 8:56

Around the half way point of the race, I checked in and was pleased to see that I was on pace for a sub 2 finish, with the hopes that I'd be able to find some space to pick up the pace and maybe still snag that 1:55 finish. It was also around this time that I passed the 2:30 pacer/11:30 pace.

6. 9:00
7. 9:01

The course was perfect. Honestly. It felt like there was a good amount of elevation change, but it was such a gentle up and down that it was exactly what the legs needed for a little break. Our first hill was during mile 8 and it felt like I was up it in no time. I discovered pretty quickly that it is extra hard to bob and weave around people on an uphill, especially when they come to a screeching halt without checking to see if someone is trying to power up behind them. uff da. With 4 miles to go, I was ready to rock and fly. I just could not believe how packed in we all still were. Whenever you could see off into the distance because there'd be an incline up ahead, you could see people still just shoved in like sardines from one side of the road to another. At the one moment I felt like I finally had a little extra space, they narrowed us down into half of a roadway. GAH!

8. 9:15 (hill)
9. 8:51



Mile 10 brought the "big" hill. I ran up on a lady who was decked out in purple for Project Purple, the group that raises money and awareness for pancreatic cancer. I thanked her for raising money and told her that my mom passed a couple of years ago from pancan, and she responded that she was running for her, and for me, and I thanked her and then I burst into tears and had to sprint ahead of her so I could collect myself. Uff da. Someday I will run a race with Project Purple, but maybe that time will be when I can get through a race without crying that my mom isn't there cheering me on.






The good news is, I flew up that hill with tears streaming down my face. The bad news is, we were at the point in the race when a lot of people were really tired and walking, so the charge uphill for me was significantly harder with everyone that I was trying to weave around. I was closing in on the 2:15 pacer, so my 9 minute pace was jostling around with the 10:30 ish folks.



10. 9:04
11. 9:00

Finally with a couple of miles to go, I realized that the course was never going to open up to allow me to run as hard as I wanted to, which was such a bummer because I felt phenomenal. Mentally, I was gassed from being so "on" and strategic with weaving in and out of people and being on high alert for crashing into people, but my HR was hanging out in that, "oh hey, Toni and Jeri are going for a nice casual long run together" zone, and just wanted to gun it. We hit mile 12 and I started calculating my finish time, and was a little worried that I might not make it under 2 hours. How the heck had that happened? Most of my miles had been pretty significantly under 9:09, the pace for a 2 hour half, and last I had checked were around 9:04. And then I remembered: BOBBING. WEAVING.  Good god, I was so far over in distance from all of my frogger that I might not come in under two. UGHHHHH.



During the final mile, we were running on the construction/re-routed part of the course. And you could tell. We had so many twists and turns in that final mile. One of the first greeted us with a giant Hoka archway. And my brain immediately thought, oh! the Finish! Except it wasn't. It was just a Hoka cheer zone. In the final half mile. Harumph. So then I picked it again, and then we went round and round several more turns finally to turn onto the finish. Which had 2 or 3 more archways before the finish. I tried to round out a final sprint and a dude kept creeping to the right cutting me off, and I was finally done fighting it and just finished.



12. 8:42
13. 8:36
.23 1:49 (7:55 pace)

I crossed the finish line in 1:59:33, in a pace of 9:02 for 13.23 miles.

I found Toni shortly thereafter and was excited to hear she ran another strong 1:44. And then I immediately felt bad, because surely she could've ran way faster if she had started where she was supposed to and didn't hang out with me making sure I didn't panic while waiting to use the potty. We made our way to the bag pick up and proceeded to freeze our asses off as the wind was coming off the lake and we were soaked to the bone. Plus the smell of the porta potties at the finish were atrocious. After 30 minutes we finally got our stuff and made our way to the buses. I had REALLY wanted to watch our friends finish the full marathon, as well as the elites come through, but I was so grouchy about the race and had blue lips and fingernails and just needed a hot hot shower.



I'm super bummed to have not been able to run as well as I think I'm currently in shape for. Perfect weather, amazing course, felt strong. But I refuse to dwell on the negative of this race. So I'm thankful that during this run, my heart rate zone stayed in my long run zone. That bodes amazingly well for my fall marathon with a BIG goal of a PR and maybe possibly a #sub4 time. Eeps. A few more months of training, and that might seem like a less scary goal.

I'm also really proud of my mental state during the race. I feel like normal/regular Jeri would've PANICKED that she a) didn't start the race on time and b) that she was incapable of maintaining a regular stride without running people over. I think it would've been really easy to mentally give up on this race, knowing my goal wasn't happening, but I really just kept telling myself that eventually I'd be able to pick it up. Now knowing that wasn't a possibility, I'm glad that I didn't let the sub 2 finish pass me by. I could've easily run a 2:05 if my head hadn't been in the game, so I'm thankful for that!