Soooooooo..... I'm finally getting around to writing about my first half marathon experience, the Hyannis Half Marathon on February 28, 2010. It's taken me this long to actually acknowledge my poor performance for a more than a second, and I don't know how long it will take for me to completely get over it. I'm sure Hyannis will haunt me until I run another half marathon, and I am able to avenge myself.
The weekend itself was a great experience. I went down the Cape the Saturday before the race with Steph, Christina, Dave, and Johnson. We stayed at a trashy little hotel that didn't process our online reservations, so for about five minutes we thought we were without a place to stay and panic mode set in. Luckily, the hotel had 2 open rooms - a non-smoking, king-sized room which the girls took, and an unfortunate smoking, queen-sized room that Dave and Johnson got stuck with.
After getting settled at the hotel we went to the Marathon Expo to check in and get our bib numbers. It was a cool expo, with lots of running clothes for cheap/reasonable prices, unlike the booths and tents at the Boston Marathon Expo. I bought a pair of running tights and tried every flavor of Cabot's cheese sample I could get my hands on. Following the expo we all went out to dinner at Olive Garden, which was fantastic. In the spirit of Olive Garden's motto "When you're here, you're family," we took a few enthusiastically "candid" pictures to serve as a memento of the great time we were having. After becoming an official family at Olive Garden, we went back to the hotel and chilled for a while before going to bed.
Next morning was race day, and somewhere along the line all of my previous training had become obsolete. I woke up ready to go and energized, but my regular go-with-the-flow self was overtaken by Anxious Control Freak Meghan. This is where I went wrong. I was really concrned about getting a stomach ache during the 13.1 miles, so I barely ate anything that morning. All I had was a handful of cheerios and half of a plain, untoasted bagel. whatWhatWHAT was I thinking? That is clearly not enough fuel for a half. In addition to making a poor breakfast decision, I became concerned with having to go to the bathroom during the race. So Control Freak Meghan made the decision to drink only half a water bottle that morning. Not eating well and not hydrating well are recipe for a half marathon diaster.
At the starting line I was still feeling pretty good and excited and ready. We lost Christina in the hustle and bustle of the start, so it was just Steph and I together on the line. I was feeling pretty good in the beginning miles, but I could tell something was off. Steph and I ran around an 8:30 pace for the first 5 or 6 miles, and around that point my back started hurting. This was a bit alarming for me because I never have back issues, and it's not like I was running any faster than usual. I think in the back of my mind I knew that I wasn't going to be going any faster that day. I can't remember exactly, but I believe it was around mile 8 that Steph started to pull away from me, and I lost her. After that I felt defeated. I wanted to go faster, but my body just wasn't having it. I got water at mile 10, and not long after that I saw Christina breezing by me, which was another blow to my ego. I tried to keep up with her, but failed. With about a mile left I picked up my pace a little, but not by much. I finally finished, clocking in at 1:58:04, a 9:01 pace. Despite being extremely upset with my time, I got a little boost from hearing my name annouced as I crossed the finish line, and I was overall relieved that I had finished my first half marathon and did it in under 2 hours.
While I remain upset about my race, I am very happy I did the half marathon. It's something I can check off my list, and it's given me more fuel for the fire. Literally the day after the race I contemplated registering for the Run to Remember Half Marathon which is held at the end of May. I really wanted to redeem myself, but I'm glad I held off. I'm still itching to run another half, but I think holding off for a while is a good thing because I'm sure it'll make the huge PR I plan on obtaining that much sweeter!
0 comments:
Post a Comment