Race #146
Half Marathon #48
South Carolina Half Marathon #35
2018 Race #7
2018 Half Marathon #4
Mountains to Main Street Half Marathon #2
Today was not my day, again. After yet another long week and a near cold (perhaps I’m in the middle of one), I held out hopes for a decent day but was not surprised when a little before halfway through, my legs had nothing left to give. I still am not 100% sure what is keeping me from being able to improve my performances but I really want to figure it out.
Mom ran the warm up portion with me. I went ahead and ran 25 minutes instead of 20 so that I could run with her a little longer. Plus, we had an hour before the race started. Rain had been predicted and persisted in a light drizzle while we ran but that felt pretty good.
I also felt pretty good on the warm up as opposed to other recent race warm ups. I wondered what that might foretell for the race performance.
After waiting with me in the car – a brief downpour occurred right after we finished the warm up – Mom took the pre-race picture and headed out.
With only a few minutes before the start, we did not have long to wait.
After I got out, I realized that I should have made another bathroom stop before the race started. I had no time when I realized so I decided to make a quick stop as soon as we passed some decent bathrooms.
The first couple miles ran through parts of Travelers Rest, including an initial loop through a subdivision. I know just how hilly Travelers Rest can be so I did not expect to feel super fast through this section.
I also knew that I would probably run the first mile a bit too fast, especially since we started on a downhill.
Mile 1: 7:50 (as predicted…aiming for an 8:30 pace)
Mile 2: 8:41 (the uphills slowed me down)
After we returned to the Swamp Rabbit Trail by Travelers Rest Family Practice, I decided to make a pit stop at Williams Hardware, knowing that it would add time. However, I knew that I would feel much better.
The pit stop ended up adding about a minute. (Shalane Flanigan, I am not.) As predicted, I felt much better and settled in, feeling good and thinking prospects for a 1:52 (my coach’s goal for me) looked pretty good.
Mile 3: 9:10 – I think, with the pit stop added in, this time means I ran mile 3 much too fast.
The next two miles on the Swamp Rabbit Trail before we got to Furman University, where we would make a quick loop, felt great. I actually felt the best out of the entire race through this portion, even with the mist/fog/drizzle that persisted through the first part of the race.
Mile 4: 8:33
Mile 5: 8:24
When we entered Furman campus, for some reason, the flat trail on the backside of the lake felt hard. I wondered why that might be and started the positive mantras. Then I saw that for some masochistic reason, the course designers decided to bypass the bridge and have us traverse up and over the ridiculous hill that has no point, the hill that I absolutely hate.
I decided then that I would walk up the hill while eating some fuel so that I would not totally trash my legs before I reached the halfway point.
When I started running again, I felt fine but lacked any pep in my step. I kept glancing down at my Garmin and seeing the average pace drift towards 8:35 and 8:40 while the effort felt like I should see results faster than that.
By the time I rejoined the Swamp Rabbit Trail, the struggle began, not quite in earnest though.
Mile 6: 9:10 (not too bad for including the hill portion)
Mile 7: 8:30
This is where I started counting down. The cloud cover had dissipated, although I did not realize it at the time. I had been wet for so long, I could barely tell what was rain and what was sweat. The amount of moisture in the air remained the same. For someone who does not perform well in the heat and humidity, I most definitely live in the wrong place.
I decided that I would walk at mile 8 and take some more fuel.
I also decided that I would start taking two cups at the water stops in addition to the Gatorade I had in my OrangeMud bottle. I think I made the second decision primarily due to the fact that I suck at getting water down from cups while running and this gave me yet another opportunity or two to walk for a few steps.
I also flipped the screen on my Garmin over and stopped trying to maintain an 8:30 pace. My legs felt way too heavy and at times during these last six miles, I wondered if I would even finish. I have no idea why but my legs had absolutely nothing to give. I made choices just based on what would get me to the finish line as close as possible to my original goal time.
I walked through every water stop. I walked at mile 8, 10, 11 and 12. I had to give myself pep talks all along the way just to make it to the finish. I felt like, by the end, all I could do was slog, although I managed to maintain a fairly decent pace for the last .3.
I also did not realize until mile 12 that the reason my Garmin mileage did not match the mile markers, and had not matched for a while, was because of the slight extra distance I added for the pitstop back in mile 3. Yes, it took me nine miles to put that together.
Mile 8: 8:32
Mile 9: 9:16
Mile 10: 9:01
Mile 11: 9:21
Mile 12: 9:24
Mile 13: 9:14
.34: 8:14
Final Time Overall: 1:57:55
This was no here near the performance I had hoped for although I am fairly certain that I gave all that I could give. I ended up cutting my cool down short by 10 minutes because I just could not run another mile.
I also think that I might need orthotics or something in my left shoe because it felt like my shoes were way too thin (they have barely 100ish miles on them) on that foot and I could feel that heel/plantar fasciitis. The stupid heel thing continues to bother me because it has not gone away even though I have done several things to try to rid myself of it. I feel like it was on its way out before I started marathon training, back when I wore the old shoes too long but since then it decides to hang on for the longer and longer long runs.
After today’s run, I know that I need to figure out why I do not recover as quickly as I have in the past and what the reason was why my legs ran out of fuel so fast. The most likely culprits in my mind at this time still center on the weather and the life stress of school. I can do next to nothing about the weather but there are a few things I can do to mitigate the life stress at school which should, hopefully, soon be ending with the end of the school year.