Weekend Review: White Tail Trail Half Marathon Race Recap

Saturday: 13.1 mile trail run

Well, hello there Monday! Why do you always arrive so quickly?

This weekend was neither productive nor restful. But we did have fun!

Friday night was spent prepping for my trail half marathon the next day. Foam rolling, laying out outfits, drinking wine...

Saturday morning I was up nice and early since the race was about 45 minutes away. I was nervous about finding the right location and there were buses to take us to the the start line so I wanted to give myself plenty of time.

It was a gorgeous morning and this sunrise greeted me at the finish area/packet pickup area.

The course basically went all the way around the lake.

This was probably the hardest race I have ever done. It was extremely humid and in the lower 70s at the start. The trail was gorgeous, but very technical - at least to my inexperienced trail running self.

I didn't want to risk losing my chip again so I used 4 zip ties. The poor volunteer at the end had quite a rough time getting it cut off, but it was worth it.

I fell at mile 3. But my chip stayed on!

Thankfully it wasn't that bad. I picked myself up right away and kept going, but I refused to look at my knees until the end.  I lost count of how many times I slipped or almost fell. I am lucky I only went all the way down once.

All the runners were very friendly and helpful. The woods echoed with warnings of  "mud", "log", "slippery" and the loud stutter steps of runners catching themselves from falling. I met several first time trail half marathon runners which was reassuring.

The second half seemed to be much harder than the first. There were more steep inclines and the trail seemed much more windy. Or maybe I was just tired at this point! I just kept saying to myself "the more you run, the sooner you're done" and "run when you can, walk when you must".

I wished the race was over at mile 9.5.

Looking back, I should have brought my own water and Gatorade. There were several aid stations, but it was so humid and pretty warm, I could have used more.

 On Saturday I was listed at finishing 3rd in my age group, but when I checked again I had moved to 4th. Darn! Overall the race was well-run. I am really happy to have completed my first (and possibly only) trail half marathon!

Race Decisions

Wednesday: TIU Jump Your Heart Out and Thigh work out

Who knew 15 pound dumbbells, a mat and a jump rope could be such torture devices?!

OUCH! 

I really like the variety that TIU has given me. I would never pick up a jump rope on my own, but, boy is it tough! I don't think my calf liked it too much though - oops!

I really can't decide about a full marathon for this fall, so I'm looking at other races. Maybe I'll just go half marathon crazy instead! Here are some potential races, let me know what you think!

White Tail Trail Half Marathon

Source

 This is dubbed one of Ohio's most scenic races. It takes place at Caesar's Creek state park in the beginning of October - so I would imagine the fall colors are stunning! I absolutely loved doing the 20K trail race in Hocking Hills a few years ago, and I believe this would be similar.

Cincinnati Half Marathon

Source

I am very partial to the Flying Pig Marathon, but this race came on the scene a few years ago and promises to be a flat course (unlike the Pig!). I have not run it yet, but of course it's close to home and I like the idea of flat race downtown -  not easy to come by!

Mason Half Marathon

Source

This race is even closer to home and is also rather flat! I have not done this race as a half marathon - it used to be a 15K and I ran that a few times. It's hard to pass up a half only 20 minutes from home!

Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Which race would you do?

Race Recap: Little Miami Half Marathon

Sunday morning I arrived at the race fairly early - about 6:40 for a 7:30 start. I was nervous about parking and I don't like to take chances on race morning. We lucked out with a great parking spot so we stayed in the car to stay warm until it was time to meet our friends at 7.

Mojo had a great group of runners for the 10K and half marathon.

I was extremely  nervous to start running.  I hadn't run since Monday and I just didn't know how my calf was going to react. I decided to start out conservatively and just see what happened.

I ran the first few miles with Sarah and Maureen. My calf was feeling good and the miles were ticking by rather quickly. Around mile 4 or 5 Maureen told me to go ahead with fellow Mojo-er Bryan. So I did.

I was still feeling good. It felt like I was flying. My Garmin would go from 8:20 to 7:05 - the trees along the trail were messing with the GPS signal, so I didn't really know what my pace was. I tried to slow myself down, but I just felt good. I was worried  I would run out of juice though in the last few miles.

Between mile marker 8 and 9 Bryan told me he was going to hold back and to go ahead.

I held my pace as best as I could. I kept my eye on a guy in a red shirt and just tried to stay with him. I let him get a little bit ahead of me in an effort to conserve some energy, but made sure he didn't get too far ahead.

With 2 miles to go I knew I was going to PR if I could just hold on.

The guy in red passed an older gentleman and as he went by the older guy said "Way to go, you're passing a 74 year old man!". As I passed him he said "You're doing great lady!"

This made me giggle.

I kicked it in a bit with about a little less than half a mile to go. A guy next to me looked over and laughed and said "oh no you don't". In response I said "I'm about to PR, I don't care what else happens!"

We raced across the finish line and congratulated each other after we crossed. It's always nice to have someone push you at the end!

After crossing the finish line I stick my foot out for the volunteer to clip my chip off...

and it's GONE!!!!!!

My heart dropped to my stomach and I was about to cry. I'm always a little emotional after races.

K and Sarah's husband met me at the finish and I'm pretty sure my first words were "my chip is gone". I was so focused on finding a race official to see if anything could be done, I couldn't think about anything else.

Thankfully one of the race officials looked me up and my chip did cross the starting mat. I had worn my Garmin for the race (which I RARELY do), so they set my time by my watch.

I knew I wouldn't win anything - but it was a PR and so important to me that it was official.

K asked me if my leg hurt during the race. I barely remember this, but I looked right at him and said "yeah, it started at mile 10.38".

I was so happy it didn't hurt for almost 10.5 miles. And when it did start hurting, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared it would be. I wanted ice as soon as I crossed the finish, but the missing chip took my mind off of that pretty quickly.

So, my new PR is 1:46:32.

I finished 4th in my age group (by 19 seconds!) and 34th woman and 136th over all.

Not to shabby with a bum leg!

The race was a great event, I would definitely do it again. It's on the smaller side, but well organized. The course is scenic (but not many spectators since it's along the bike path), mostly shaded and flat.

Weekend Review: PR City!

Happy Monday!

Foggy Monday morning sunrise. View from my backdoor.

This weekend was quite fun!

Friday night K and I had a date night at the hibachi grill. Such yummy food!

Then we headed over to his brother's house and hung out (and drank some wine!) with his family. We ended up over there WAY later than we expected. Time always flies when we are with them!

Saturday was pool party time at our friends house!

The weather was absolutely beautiful.

I made a delicious quinoa salad I'll tell you about later this week!

We also played this super fun game Telestrations.

Imagine Telephone combined with Pictionary. Totally hilarious!

Sunday was the big race day!

 

I'll give more of a recap later, but the BIG news is:

I have a new PR and Sarah kicked some serious booty in her FIRST half marathon!

Race Goals

Thursday: Body Blast Class at lunch

I had to modify or (yikes) not do a few things in class yesterday because of my calf.

As hard as it was to do that, I am proud of myself for not pushing it and hurting myself even more.

We had class outside and it was gorgeous! It's always nice to get out and enjoy some fresh air in the middle of the day.

The sunrise became 1000 times more beautiful minutes after this picture.

I am feeling fairly confident in my leg for the race this weekend.

I plan to wear either a compression sleeve or compression socks during the race.

I'm sure there will be some ingesting of ibuprofen before the race (yes, I know you shouldn't do that, but I am anyway).

Luckily the course for Sunday is flat, hills would be really bad news for my calf.

So I've been thinking about my goals for the race:

A) PR. It's a flat course and my current PR isn't exactly breaking any world records, so should be doable. Or so I thought until I injured my leg...

B) No PR, but close to my last 2 half marathon times.

C) Finish. If all else fails and my leg is not cooperating, I still want to finish. I've only DNFd one race before and it was a 5K that I tried to run with a broken foot (I didn't know it was broken until 2 days later).

I think those are all fairly realistic goals! Fingers crossed for a healthy and safe race for all of the runners!

 

And on a totally random note, two different days this week I saw hot air balloons in the sky on my way to work in the morning. There's something I just love about hot air balloons.