Last weekend I ran the Satsuma 2 Miler with a goal of breaking the two mile Alabama state record for 38 year old females! I’ve got my eye on several state records this year!
I feel like I’ve gotten a little rusty on race day logistics as I’ve not been racing nearly as much as I used to. Racing is definitely a skill that must be used in order to stay sharp! A two mile race was a nice way to ease back into things. I got to the race about 45 minutes before the start in order to register, go to the bathroom, do a quick warm up, change clothes and (hopefully!) make it to the start line on time. I cut it a little closer than I meant to!
I warmed up in a different top and different shoes than I planned to race in. My plan was to wear my heaviest trainers (looking at you Brooks Glycerin!) for the warm up and then to switch to my “fast shoes” (the Saucony Endorphin Pros in this case) for the race. With temperatures in the mid eighties and a dew point in the mid seventies, it was … sticky! I took a gel approximately 30 minutes out from the start and headed out for a two mile warm up. Afterwards, I changed into my crop top and ate some crushed ice as I walked over to the start line. Nothing cools me down more than chewing on some ice, so this seemed like a reasonable pre-race cooling strategy. I also put a couple handfuls into my sports bra as well. I think I’ll likely do this again if I run another race on the face of the sun. Seriously?! This is bananas.
I lined up at the very front of the corral. I planned to go out close to 5:40 pace and hoped that I’d be able to sustain that. I definitely did not want to not crash and burn in a two mile race. There were several high-school runners in the race, so the pace started out a bit hotter than I wanted it to. I knew this would probably happen and I tried to hold myself back in the first half mile and have some patience (which is so hard for me (both in running and in life in general)).
My splits per 800 were 2:52, 2:49, 2:56, 2:49, so I ended up with a slight positive split, but not a crash and burn by any means. I was in about 15th place or so at half a mile in. I steadily reeled in a few runners I’ve the next half mile and was in the top 10 for sure as we came to the turnaround. I tried to pick it up slightly (which in hindsight didn’t actually happen) and told myself that I had less than 6 minutes to go! I find it really helpful to think in terms of only a certain amount of time or only a certain distance left to go. With half a mile to go, I made a more conscious decision to pick it up. At this point, I was hurting and just wanted this thing to be done!
I finished in 11:34 as fifth overall and first female! I got the state record by about 30 seconds, so … mission accomplished! For whatever it is worth, the “dewme” app on Strava says that my adjusted pace was 5:22 per mile. Granted, I don’t think I’ll ever race in “perfect conditions,” but I do like to think that my fitness is at that point. If you haven’t used that app, I’d highly recommend it! If nothing else, it’s a nice little confidence boost and reminder that you don’t *actually* suck. Ha!
Talk to you guys soon. Maybe!