Race Report - Naples Daily News Half Marathon, Jan 2015

Flat and shady course through a neighborhood of cul-de-sacs which gives multiple opportunities to check up on runners ahead and behind you.  Nice crowd support, seemingly ample water stations.  63 °F and humid at race start the day I ran it (Jan 18).

First some (a lot of) running background

1987-1989

Field Hockey 1988.  
(Can't find any track pics.)

I’ve never been a good runner nor believed I would be.  I ran track in high school because it gave me something to do (that required no skill) and I was satisfied with seeing improvements over my own times even though I couldn’t keep up with the kids who won points for our team.  I ran the 1600 and 3200 back then and though on a team, pretty much trained by myself b/c I couldn’t keep up with the other girls and would quickly get dropped.  In my best race I either hit or just broke 14:00 for the 3200, which was a 2 min improvement over the season.

I remember having odd sensations back then, fierce itching of my legs while running, minutes-long sneezing fits upon stopping, and intense stomach cramping after my races.  I asked my track coach about some of this and felt a bit brushed off, like I wasn’t one of the cool kids and not really worthy of her time or concern.  It’s funny how such a thing can stick with you.  Looking back, I wonder why I kept doing it instead of just quitting.

2007-2012

2010 Philly 1/2 Marathon
(PS, I purchased this print 
but don't have it scanned.)

2007 Atlanta 1/2 Marathon

I’m unsure of what preparation plan I used for my first half marathon (Atlanta, 2007, 2:36:18, [11:55 min/mi]) but know the next two used carried-over fitness from other races.  Following Ironman Lake Placid in 2010 (a July race), for which my training focused on time-based volume over effort, I ran the ING Rock ‘n’ Roll Philly ½ in Sept in 2:23:17, [10:56 min/mi]; and following the Chicago Marathon in October 2010 I repeated the Atlanta ½ on Thanksgiving in 2:19:43, [10:39].  I focused on getting faster over the winter lead-up to my Ironman Wisconsin 2012 training by doing some speed intervals that I pulled out of my hat; following that September race I moved on to the Bucks County Marathon in Nov where I had a first half split of 2:03:14, [9:22 min/mi].  I think the moral of this recap is that tangible improvement comes from understanding and embracing that there really is no such thing as off-season.

2012-2014

If you’ve been following this blog you know the Bucks County Marathon did not end happily for me and that I earned an over-use injury of some kind training for it.  That was why I deferred my Shamrock ½ Marathon entry for March 2013 to 2014, but it turned out I couldn’t run it in 2014 either since I had a conflict with playoffs for one of my ice hockey teams.  Using my Broad Street 10-mile Run times for 2012 and 2014 for comparison (1:29:38, [8:57 min/mi] and 1:29:07, [8:54 min/mi], respectively) it looked like I was back to my pre-injury running pace.  And so in September I signed up for TriCamp and the Naples Half Marathon, wondering if I could break 2 h.

I had high hopes for this fall/early-winter's off season that I didn’t meet in large part due to a most unpleasant, never-ending and ever stressful remodeling job.  I can even quantitate the disruption: of the ~180 h of training planned for me between Sept 1 and Jan 11 I completed only 42%.  In fact, I asked to back out of the training camp, concerned I couldn’t run 13 miles and that I’d spend the entire camp’s workouts being dropped.  My coach convinced me this was not the case and I could not deny how badly I needed a vacation and wanted to put in some quality swim/bike/run time.  I figured that starting the run at a 10 min pace and finishing at an 11 min pace would be a reasonable success, given the circumstances.

2015

Alligator spotting after 
our recovery run

Friday evening of TriCamp was the first time since I was 17 that I’d done track workouts as part of a team.  We were put into pace groups and I was tickled pink to be paired with another runner.  For one thing, it gave me someone to follow without having to stare at my watch.  But it was also a boost that the coaches thought I could hang with this teammate.  Our first few intervals were comfortably uncomfortable, meaning I could do it but I’d rather slow down.  Then I felt the shift I sometimes do, where inexplicably running just seems easier.  By the end I was sprinting my butt off and felt fantastic in that satisfying I’m-going-to-puke-but-am-stoked-I-did-it sort of way.  This is when I thought I understood the point wasn’t to do well in the half marathon, but to eek it out on tired legs.

Race Day

With that thinking in mind I busted out in a full-gut laugh when I read my individualized racing plan on Sunday morning.  “Is this serious?!”, I asked my coach, who looked to be on his way to being irritated.  And I remembered the pre-camp pep-talk-email where I was supposed to embrace challenges and be positive and followed up with, “sorry, I’ll be able to do this in 20 min, it just took me by surprise.”  That sentence had a surprising effect on me – by golly, I was going to try to hit those paces, just like everyone else was going to try to hit theirs on equally tired legs.

I’m going to credit Emily just as much as Jack and Matt for my run.  I enjoy my coaching 100% but don’t know what to do with statements that seem ridiculous to me.  “We’re going to swim as a group for this” invaribly means ‘I will get dropped within 3 strokes and swim the whole thing alone and frustrated’.  I hoped I was going to be running with her again since we worked well together at the track and a quick comparison of starting pace ranges made me feel better.  She also confessed just enough skepticisim for her race to help me feel like less of a jerk for literally LOL’ing at my race plan.  For the first few miles, working to keep up with her or even keep her in sight helped to keep me from dropping off when I wasn’t sure I could achieve the prescribed paces.

The 2 h pace group [9:09 min/mi] was huge and crowded up the run path and I lost Emily and another teammate while working out how to get around them.  (Though I lined up in front of them, the 2 h group took off at faster than 8:50.  It took me ~6.5 miles to catch them and I used some micro-intervals of running in the gutter to pick them off one-by-one.)  After losing sight of my teammates I chose various strangers to serve as focal points and stuck to the planned paces pretty well, until mile 10 when I couldn’t seem to hit the end game pace.  I fought to not slow down, particularly after the girl I was following turned around, asked “where’s my friend?” and then sped off.  (I offered to be her friend, but I guess she wasn’t looking for a new one.)  I struggled past the well-meaning spectators saying, “you’re almost there” and the super enthusiastic daughter (?) who kept on screaming, “come on mama” at her running companion, and kicked it up a notch when I actually saw the finish arch.  Maybe I should apologize to the two runners I nearly mowed down in the final few feet, but after all that work I really did want to post my best possible time.  The participant in front of me changed her trajectory to step away from the man in front of her, and I chose to ruin their finishing photos rather than take out the camera man.

Cadence Cylcling and Multisport 
Epic Fort Meyers Tri Camp attendees

I’d been so focused on aiming for my target pace that I didn’t even see my overall time until I was lying on the ground after crossing the finish line: 1:57:06 [8:50 min/mi] - I had no idea I had it in me.  This was the first time I  (mostly) correctly executed a race plan, and if not for Emily, I’m unsure the defeatist in me would even have tried. Apparently, just as Jack has told me in the past, I’m capable of more than I give myself credit for.