Thursday, May 3, 2012

Half Marathon PR!!!

When you last saw me, I was a dirty mess from changing two flat tires on my long Saturday ride and was heading into an ice bath to hopefully revive my legs for the Eugene Half on Sunday. Probably overkill, but I stayed stewing in that ice for a full 20 minutes before heading down to Eugene. The kids and I headed out to pick up Kathryn...

...who was running her second full marathon in Eugene and then settled in for some pretty terrific soreness in my hammies and glutes the whole ride down South. After we made it out of the car I started having doubts about Sunday, but I had a great visit with parents and brother and SIL and nephews, however, in the back of mind all I could think about were those two dead legs and how sore and tired they were. I did some stretching and foam rolling and Mom made the perfect pre-race dinner before sending us off to bed.

I woke up to no race day anxiety and with my wheels feeling pretty normal. YAHOO!!!!

The shuttle bus had me at the start line in no time and after lubing up my thighs good and checking my bag, I went wandering around to the pre-race music. The first song I heard perked me right up...(she's going to kill me for posting this, but I can't help myself....it makes me so happy!)


...and I knew Raina must be somewhere close by! This is when the first odd thing of the day happened. Two girls walked by me giggling and one of them looked me dead in the eye and said "I'm a triathlete, too". Weird. Trying to figure that one out, I stumbled upon Raina and we shared our race plans and parted ways so I could go get in one of the many lines for the honey buckets. My line had about 300 people in it and it took me all the way through the national anthem and beyond to get in and out and hop over the fence in time to start running.

My pace band had me at 9:05 m/m to get me across the finish line under 2 hours. The first mile I felt like I was running pretty fast, but I was mostly just dodging people and trying to get in a nice space where people wouldn't trip me up. At mile one I was at a 10:30m/m. Poop. Mile 2 was a little better and then I found my groove and started picking it up. By mile 7 I had a good 2 minute cushion and that was when the jerk behind me thew an entire cup of gatorade on my back. Weird thing number two. I turned around to see what had happened and he just gave me the stone face. So sticky elbows, a see through skirt and gatorade mixing in with my body glide could have ticked me off, but that 2 minute cushion had me way too happy. My original goal had been to pick it up in the last half, but worst case scenario, I know I could hold this pace to the finish and I would have my sub 2!

I don't remember much except that the ending was a lot different than last year. In 2011 as I headed into the final miles, I was able to pick up the pace, pass a bunch of people and kill it once on to the track, but this year, I was pooped. I had given it my all and I had nothing left to push at the end. Unfortunately, Eugene didn't get any photos of me during the run, but Raina figured out how to capture me crossing the finish line from the video. Thanks, Raina, YOU SEXY THING!
I got my sub 2!! With change!
I crossed at 1:56:47 and PRd by almost 8 minutes!

Now I'm just wondering what I could do with fresh legs =D
It felt good to keep up the pace and I couldn't be happier! I think my goal after this next 1/2 Ironman is to focus on running and yoga for awhile.

After the race I ran into some TNTers and then made my way to just outside Hayward Field to watch for full marathon friends to come through. I turned around to find Amanda and her entire family standing right behind me so together we got to wait for and cheer on Raina and all the other fast peeps as they came heading through for the final .1 mile of their race.

After Raina came blazing through, Ronda  and I caught up with her for a quick hug and picture of all of us PR girls...

...and then I headed home to get some cheers from my family before heading out for pizza and wine - the post race meal of champions!!!

I'm on a nice little running high right now....other than the chest cold I've caught and the fact that my heel is not playing nice.  I have a 12 miler on the schedule for Saturday, so we'll see how I feel about this running stuff then :-)

26 comments:

Big Daddy Diesel said...

CONGRATS on the PR!!! Between you and me, I think there is a link between being on the bike the day before and PR, we are both living proof of it

I would have gone off on the guy that threw gatorade on me

Julie said...

Awesome job!!!! As I was reading I was wondering about your heel....sorry it's not playing nice.

Reading your blog makes me happy. :)

Colorado Gal said...

Congrats, what a great job!!!! PR's are the best EVER!! :)

Nelly said...

Congrats on the PR! That is awesome!

What is up the guy spilling gatorade on your back?!? How about an apology from him when you clearly saw who did it? That is really bizarre. Normally runners are really friendly and will apologize for something like that, that is weird.

Teamarcia said...

Congrats on the monster PR! There's something weird about running tired, I'm not sure what it is. My half PR came 6 days after a marathon.
WtF with Gatorade on your back? Very uncool.

XLMIC said...

OUTstanding!!!!! That is a huge PR :) Way to go, girl!

Anonymous said...

congratulations on the PR! I can't seem to grasp the entire idea of running tired and still PR'ing. I can't seem to do it with fresh legs. You're amazing! :-)

Anonymous said...

now that's how you do it! Wooottttt!!!!!!!! Great job you!

Caroline said...

congratulations on this HUGE PR!!!
very happy for you!

Laura is Undeterrable said...

Congrats on the PR! Sorry I missed you guys after the race, I was running all over Eugene being race support for our marathoners. Glad you had a good time!

Unknown said...

Congrats on an amazing PR! You killed it and left it all out on the course. Awesome.

Could the weather have been any better for you guys?

ajh said...

That is a great time! That's a lot of minutes to take off a half!

Raina said...

I WOULD kill you, except that you keep calling me sexy! So I will forgive... Besides that, you honored me with your presence for pizza :)

What an AWESOME PR for you!! Do doubt it was harder to cross the line because of the bike ride and the faster pace you held this year. I am all excited for your season ahead. Get rid of the chest cold though!

Raina said...

BTW, I want a skirt like yours! It s so pretty!!

Johann said...

Congratulations on a great PR! Lots of good runs by all the blogger peeps there. Rest well!

Coy Martinez said...

WOW!!! Nice time!! It's nice going into a race with fresh legs that wanna run :) All that tire changing gave you some good mojo :)

CautiouslyAudacious said...

AWESOME PR!!!!!!!! Gatorade really that was weird and he didn't even say sorry.... glad you ignored it and kept on going!

Elizabeth said...

congrats on a HUGE PR!!!

Jill said...

I am SO very happy for you, girl!! Big smiles here from Denver!! Congratulations :) :) :)!

Kate Geisen said...

SUCH a great job!! And after that ride, too, you crazy girl. You rock!! :)

RainStorm said...

What a fantastic PB! You must be super-pleased!

Ransick said...

Congrats on the HUGE PR! Nicely done. Loved the video too :-)

Terzah said...

Congrats, Julie!! That is huge. I'm sorry it took me so long to read this.

2 Slow 4 Boston said...

Good job Julie! Eight minutes is a huge improvement. Congrats!

Tricia said...

wooohooo!!!! super congrats!

(and also,I had lost you,been asking on twitter for where your blog went.so happy I was sent over here)

Paul said...

Hi Julie!
Nice to meet you and congrats on the awesome PR..a great race!

I have never had somebody throw gatorade on me....ewww. WTF? What was wrong with that fella? I apologize for him...!

It was a bit crowded for us hoi-polloi ..I found the cars parked on the roads with mirrors out a bit of an obstacle. Raina is so fast she didn't notice 8)

Cheers!
-paul