Yesterday was the Cary March Madness 1/2 marathon. I've registered for this before but blown it off, because the weather is typically shitty. This time, though, with our lack of winter in Chicago, and sudden summer in March, there was no excuse not to show up. I knew the course had a reputation for hilly, more so than the usual stuff that I consider hilly for this area.
I arrived at the race and wore my light windbreaker to go get my packet and was slightly chilled, but knew that my clothing choice (shorts, bra top and singlet) were perfect, and that it would be warm. I ran into a few friends--Ino, Juan, Debbie and Val. Val showed up on his MTB to send me off, but not before chattering away asking me a million questions which annoyed me, so I sent him away. Still, how can it not feel good when someone you know shows up at a race to see you?
I wasn't so much nervous as wanting to put on a good performance and not disappoint my coach. See I am already in that mentality that I want to be on top of things all the time. Well, let's take a look at the course:
Um...hilly, eh? Someone told me this is rated as the 3rd hardest 1/2 in the country. I don't know whether that's true or not, but it is the hardest 1/2 mary I've every run except maybe for that one part of Ultraman Canada that was straight up some mountain.
My race plan was to try and go out at 9:30-9:35 for the first 8 miles and then see how I felt and either hold or slow down. Mile 1 was 9:37, so perfect, just a slight uphill, no worries. Miles 2 and 3 together were 19:04 (forgot to hit watch at 2), so all good, right? And then the climbing began. I tried to keep my cadence up and just watch my RPE (I don't wear an HRM), and fly downhill whenever I could. Miles 4-7: 10:07, 9:50, 10:34, 10:26. Well there goes the 9:30's. But I wanted to run strong, and in my head, I was laughing at myself that the course was much more challenging than I could have imagined, and it's not like I thought I was in shape for a good 1/2 marathon anyway.
Miles 8-13 went 10:23, 9:27 (OMG a downhill!), 11:07, 11:15, 10:38, 10:23 and then :55. When I finished (2:13.52 total, subtracting the :35 it took to get to the start line--no chip timing), I thought I sucked, but I felt pretty good for having run that course. My suck ass performance was at 10:13 pace. This was my first long run on asphalt since last November, only my second long run outdoors this year (first one was a week ago!), first super hilly encounter (last week's long run I thought was hilly, ha ha not compared to this!), and on Saturday, I'd run an easy 3 something miles, biked 2:30 probably a bit too hard, and did about 20' of strength training including lunges and squats!
So when I put all of that together, I probably shouldn't complain too much. Here I sit writing this, and I have not one single bit of soreness in my legs. How can that be? Shit...maybe I am finally strong enough to carry this load in style and maybe even pick up some speed. But wait, there's more! I was supposed to swim 3,000 after the race. On the drive there, I saw a Y about 10 miles from the race venue that I thought I'd try and see if I could get in and swim on my way home. If I went home first, a) I would see a couch or a bed and bail and b) I would need to wait until 2:30 to go swim. Again, going all the way home (I had my swim stuff with me) would have resulted in a no swim.
When I got to the Buehler YMCA, they scanned my card and I was in! It's a huge Y, with 2 pools, so the lap pool has tons of lap swim time available. When I got to the pool deck, I thought I'd warm up a bit in the warm kid pool, but to my tired eyes I saw a hot tub! So I went in there first and stretched 5 minutes, then back to the lap pool. The lap pool was nice and cool, colder than my home pool, and I was shocked that swimming didn't feel bad at all. Sure, I was tired and a bit slower than normal, but I swam well, all things considered.
After I finished swimming, I went back to the hot tub, which felt so good, and stretched some more. Then I hit the shower, and on the way back to the lockers I spotted the sauna. Fuck yeah! I went in and stretched some more in there, then got dressed, and on my way out, asked where the nearest decent place for a burger and a beer was. There was a lot of traffic on the way back, and I really wanted to get home, so I drank another bottle of water and headed home with a bit of a lead foot--oh well. When I was nearly home, I remembered the 2 brew pubs like 2 blocks from home and turned to go park. I settled on Emmett's Ale House, promptly got a beer, and then I ended up eating these 3 mini burgers, all different, and coleslaw. Man, coleslaw never tasted so good! I don't eat it very often, so it was a treat. And the burgers were awesome.
I still was feeling like I'd sucked badly at the race, but then I figured, hey it's March, I swam after a race and while I was tired, I didn't feel all that bad, so I loaded the dishwasher, did laundry, chatted with some friends, and then ate some steak and a salad around 7PM, a little TV and reading, and passed out about 7:30.
I was shocked that I slept all the way through to 4AM today! I know I will be tired today, but I get a rest day, and I'm getting a massage after work. I think I will probably get in my strength training for the week today if I can, or at least some of it, otherwise I will go completely crazy.
So in consideration of everything, do I have a 2:05 or less 1/2 marathon in me? I think so. On a flatter course, I'm pretty sure I could do it right now. I have some other things to do as well, like get a whole lot better at swimming. That is coming along, too, and I am so happy about that. Turns out my Powertap is working, but I think I need to buy the software (again) that gives better analysis of the power files otherwise I must really suck, but that can't be true as on Saturday I was doing 24-25mph sprints next to freight trains. We shall see.
Bottom line: I remain highly optimistic that I am headed for some really great performances this year. Best decision I made a few weeks ago to get a coach, and a really outstanding one! She is kicking my ass, and I am loving it!
Only 9 weeks until Triple T, which is effectively an Ironman, so it's time for me to be Iron Fit! I am in an Ironman build right now, and I am glad my brain has short-term memory, because I always forget how crazy it can get. But I'm on it and getting my remodeling project all under control and about to contract to have my yard maintained by someone else for my year of reaching for the stars. It's all good!
