Monday, December 12, 2011

Third time IS the charm at Decker Challenge!



This is the elevation profile for yesterdays half marathon. It does not do the difficulty of this race justice! But you get an idea of just how many hills there are! 12-13 of them! And those at mile 5,6,8,10 are memorable! I can still feel myself running them!

I'm still so happy that I was able to run all the hills, all the way to the top. I think I ran the smartest race I have ever ran. Right from the start, I paced myself and took it easy. I have to remind myself that my "slow" pace is some other runner's impossible pace. I'm recovering from an injury, and yet I can still drift into " I USED to be able to run such and such pace". Total waste of time and not the reality. Not to mention you can let that suck all the fun out of a race. I managed during the race to have a great time, focusing on my music, my pace and praying the calf did not lock up! I slowed and ran a shorter stride up every hill and felt like I did my best out there. In the end that is all you can hope for. I set out to finish above all else, and my Distance Challenge is still intact with 7 weeks to rest and train for the next half marathon, which is on a mostly flat to downhill course (3M Half).

I have much to be proud of and I will stay focused on that. When I started running, I felt that anything under 12 min/mile pace would be awesome. I ran 11:57 pace over the course! Gotta love that. The weather looked pretty iffy 30 minutes from the start there was a downpour! Cloudy, 41 degrees at the start but the rain did stop before we began! No major headwind for the first 3 mile stretch where normally we are pasted by a North wind. There was a slight 5-10mph breeze out of the east, but we only headed Easterly for a couple of miles and I was soaked in sweat in no time anyway. I ditched my throwaway gloves and my sweatshirt by the 1 mile point, I always warm up really fast.

The race was really, really well organized, all the water stops were so smooth. It helped to be running where I was, in a sort of no-man's land for much of the race. No one right behind me, no one right ahead. I passed about 44 people total on the last half of the race, even though my pace slowed for the longest hills of the course. Most people were walking the hills, and I felt if I started walking the calf might lock up as it did on the Turkey Trot. Hitting the 8 1/2 mile point was huge for a mental lift, because that was the longest I had ran this year. And I was going strong. Smart is knowing what pace you can maintain, and holding to it.

The last mile was as always the hardest! The course used to be a 20K, so the added mile was put in that made it a slow, painful climb to the last tenth of a mile to the finish. Some people were really hurting at this point. The adrenaline of knowing I had ran the entire race (stopped only long enough to drink a cup of water at each of about 4 water stops) and had my Distance Challenge intact kept me rolling.

Picked up my finishers medal, which I was not even aware they gave out! And my refrigerator magnet, 3 races down and two to go!



I will be so proud if I can finish the last two races! I have 7 weeks to get ready for 3M, but there is only a 3 week recovery period between the two races. That will be a challenge!

It's dreary and overcast here today still, I have had enough of this weather! It would be nice close to Christmas, but I could sure use a couple sunny days!