another rainy race

New hat and headband to help provide attitude.

Oooo, look!  My second blog post today!!

So yeah, I ran the Get in Gear Half marathon yesterday.  If you recall, I won an entry to the race via a marvelous little invention called Facebook. The internet certainly is chock full of goodness!

Yesterday's race was just like last year's....cold, rainy and windy.  For some reason, it was a much tougher race than last weekend's half marathon. I don't think I hydrated as well this past week, and I was having GI issues most of the week as well...... I'm still figuring out this whole fueling thing.  It's a puzzle, that's for sure.  Good think I like puzzles!

Post-race soaking wet honeybadger.

I met up with the same friend I ran with last year (Julie) and we had a great time catching up on everything that's been going on since the Minneapolis half marathon (the last race we ran together.)  I also got to see my sister-in-law (well ok, technically she's my ex-sister-in-law but as far as I'm concerned, we're still family!) She ran an amazing race and finished under 2 hours.  I'm so jealous of that pace!  I was going to get pictures of all of us, but the porta-potties were calling our names.... so my SIL and I lost each other before the start.  Didn't see her again until the out-and-back portion of the race.  She was waaaayyyyy ahead of me - no way I could have kept up with her! Another work friend was running too, and also killed it at 2:02.  I have some speedy friends!

So anywhoo, the upshot of the day was that I didn't get a distance PR, but I did get a course PR!  My official time was 2:14:53, last year's time was 2:23:26 so that's an improvement at least. GarminElectra bailed on me at the start. The lying tart APPEARED as though she was ready to run the race with me, and chirped when I hit the start button as I crossed the mat, but at mile three I realized there was no beeping happening.... so I had to restart her. Grrr.  That means I only have my splits for the last 10 miles. SUCH a frickin' diva.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	1:41:39.1	10.17	10:00
1	10:23.2	1.00	10:23
2	10:13.5	1.00	10:14
3	10:19.1	1.00	10:19
4	9:51.0	1.00	9:51
5	9:57.8	1.00	9:58
6	9:41.9	1.00	9:42
7	9:58.9	1.00	9:59
8	10:12.1	1.00	10:12
9	9:25.9	1.00	9:26
10	10:00.8	1.00	10:01
11	1:34.9	0.17	9:18

We must have been REALLY slow for those first three miles because my overall pace was 10:18.  It was pretty crowded at the beginning and we were getting passed by a lot of people, but that's usually how it is for me anyway.  I like to start slow and then once my body gets over the fact that I'm making it run, it levels off and I can slowly pick up the pace.

I started to fall apart a bit at mile eleven (mile 8 according to GE) and needed some sustenance..... my hands were so cold I couldn't get my honey stingers out of my pocket so I had to walk. I told Julie to just go ahead and I would catch up.... not so much - I didn't see her again until the finish line.  She was flying and ended up about 2 minutes faster than me.  I really had to dig deep those last two miles and WILL myself to keep running in the last mile.  Not exactly the strong finish I had hoped for but, oh well.

After the race I still had 5 miles on the training plan. So I went home, changed my clothes and headed to the treadmill.  And I did my 5 miles for a total of 18.  Just like last year, it made me feel like a badass honeybadger to do all those miles.  Funny how that works!  After all that, I took a well-deserved ice bath.  I hate them and I love them at the same time.  My muscles are always much happier after an ice bath, but the during part?  Ugh.  The actual sitting in a tub of icy water is NOT happy time.

Not.
At.
All.

Colorful language helps me cope.