I’m coming at you to day with a smorgasbord of a post. We’ve got a training update, a race recap and lots of ramblings in between! Last weekend I ran the Mobile Half Marathon as a tune-up race for the Mercedes-Benz Half Marathon that is coming up in Birmingham next month.
The plan was to tackle this one as somewhat of a workout with the first half (ish) at current half marathon PR pace (6:20 ish) and the second half (ish) at goal half marathon pace (6:10 ish).
I haven’t raced a half marathon since the fall of 2018. Life got a little squirrelly at that point … you know … getting divorced, remarried and then having a baby all in the middle of pandemic. Fun times! Bottom line is that it had been a hot minute since I raced a half and I felt like I probably had a shot at an *official* half marathon PR. I technically ran a faster half marathon split in the Indy Monumental Marathon than my actual half marathon PR, but I don’t think that really counts. Either which way, I thought I could run faster than both of those times. I was also in contention for a state record for my age and a course record at this race. So yeah … I had lots of goals to work towards!
I fell back off the weekly training log bandwagon somewhere in the beginning of December, so I’ll do a bit of an update here. Side note: I don’t really think the weekly posts are necessary or helpful. I do think a bigger picture training update post could potentially be beneficial and helpful. Maybe I’ll work on that in my free time [sarcasm]. Heck … I really don’t even have time to be writing this post right now, but you know what, sometimes I just really *need* to write. It’s cathartic even when I’m not sharing something super profound.
After running the Turkey 10 Mile race in November, I shifted my focus towards the half and started a twelve week training block with Mercedes as the goal race. The half in Mobile fell seven weeks into that training block. My weekly mileage averaged out to 60 miles per week of running and 10 miles per week of walking with the stroller. The stroller walks are quickly becoming one of my favorite things. Ward loves it, so of course I love it too! There is something special about those slower paced “nature” walks. They are definitely beneficial from a mental health perspective, but I think they might actually be beneficial from an overall training perspective as well!
Most weeks have four easy run days, two workout days and one long run day. Of course it doesn’t always work out exactly as planned (especially now that there is a baby in the mix!), but that’s the general idea. I had two weeks of no workouts (the week after Turkey 10 and the week after Christmas (thanks to COVID)), but otherwise things went smoothly. My “long run” has stayed in the 12-14 mile range.
Strava links to workouts are below (basically if you are interested in this stuff, follow along on Strava … that’s where all the juicy details are found):
2 mi. WU, 5 mi. @ MP, 4 X 200, 2 mi. CD
2 mi. WU, 3 X 800, 4 X 400, 3 X 800, 2 mi. CD
2.5 mi. WU, 10 X 0:40 w/ 1:20 recovery, 2.5 mi. CD
2 mi. WU, 3 X 2 mi. progressive tempo, 2 mi. CD
2 mi. WU, 8 X 1k, 2 mi. CD
2.5 mi. WU, 12 X 400, 2.5 mi. CD
3 mi. WU, 6 mi. tempo, 3 mi. CD
2.5 mi. WU, 6 X 3:00 on w/ 2:00 recovery, 2.5 mi. CD
This was my 12th time running First Light (while that is technically not the name anymore, it will always be First Light in my heart). This race tops my list of most run races over the years (with Spring Fever coming in a close second).
Past results (in case you are interested!) are as follows:
2008: Half marathon 2:00:43 (a personal worst)
2009: Half marathon 1:41:39
2010: Half marathon 1:42:07
2011: Full marathon 3:24:12 (my first marathon)
2012: Relay! 2:57:17 (female champs and a course record)
2013: Full marathon 3:23:26
2014: Relay! (female champs)
2015: Relay! (female champs)
2016: Relay! 2:54:52 (female champs and a course record)
2017: Half marathon 1:24:44
2018: Full marathon 3:14:12
I used the Featherstone Nutrition carb load calculator to determine that I needed 400 grams of carbohydrates the day before the race. Side note: Richard asked if I was sure it didn’t mean 400 calories of carbohydrates. Ha! I can’t speak highly enough about Meghann Featherstun! She helped me nail down my nutrition needs for training while breastfeeding and I’ve learned SO MUCH about fueling from her bi-weekly podcast Fuel for the Sole. The basic gist is that I under fueled for performance for the first two decades of my running career. I’m eating between 3k and 4k calories per day at this point (and yes … I know it sounds like a lot!) and I’ve never felt better on the run. I am also still breastfeeding, so that’s where a good bit of extra caloric needs are coming into play. 400 grams of carbohydrates sounded intimidating at first, but once I started doing it, I discovered that it was actually not much more carbohydrates than my typical daily intake at this point. Apparently my entire life is a carb load! Who knew?!
On race morning, I had a cup of coffee, some water with Nuun, a banana and a bagel on the way to the race. Otherwise, I didn’t take any gels or other fuel out on the course. I was fully stocked up at that point!
The race started at 7:30 in downtown Mobile. I got in a one mile warm up before the race. We had perfect weather! It was around 50℉ at the start and warmed up to about 60℉ by the finish. The humidity was about 75%, while perhaps not ideal, is certainly not bad for the Gulf Coast.
After the initial start line chaos sorted itself out, I found myself in no man’s land (of course!) behind a lead pack of 10 or so men. In the moment I was very torn about whether I should try to stay with them or let them go. It’s not very often that I have other runners to work with during a race, so part of me really wanted to go with them and see what happened. Fortunately, the logical part of my brain triumphed over the impulsive part of my brain (for maybe the first time ever?!) and I stuck with the initial plan. I reminded myself that I would most likely catch some of them in the later miles.
My plan was to negative split this thing and I had a feeling that some of the guys in the pack might be in a bit over their heads (as I would’ve been had I gone with them).
After the first mile, two of the guys had dropped back from that initial pack and I focused on them. I didn’t necessarily want to catch up to them immediately, but I wanted to at least stay an equal distance back from them. I didn’t look at a single split on my watch from mile 2 to mile 10. I had a feeling that I was running a tad faster than planned. However, if I looked down and saw that I was running slower than planned, I would’ve felt defeated and if I looked down and saw that I was indeed running faster than planned, I would’ve felt scared. It seemed like a lose, lose situation, so I decided to run purely by feel.
I passed one of the two guys that I had been chasing in the third mile and caught up to the other one in the next mile. I ran with him for a few miles, which was nice! As it turns out, he is also running Mercedes next month. At one point my curiosity got the best of me and I asked him what his goal was so that I could try to gauge if I was running close to the pace I was supposed to be. I don’t remember exactly what he told me his goal was, but he did tell me that he thought I was “close” to where I needed to be pace-wise. I was really set on not checking my pace, splits or overall time at that point.
We eventually parted ways (i.e., I sped up a little bit) and I continued to reel in other runners. Granted, it wasn’t *that many* runners because there were only about 10 or so ahead of me to begin with. I would say I passed one person every mile and a half or two miles. I loved having some people to chase down. I lost count of how many people I passed, but I had a feeling I was going to end up near the top 5!
One of the best parts of the entire race was seeing my wonderful support crew along the way! I saw Mom, Dad, Richard and Ward out on the course three or four times (five or six time if you count the start and the finish). My dad hopped in and started running next to me with the stroller several times. Ward was grinning ear to ear and my heart was so happy! I really wish I had been able to capture one of those moments with a photograph from my viewpoint. It was truly one of the most special things I have ever experienced. And, my dad was running FAST! I had to yell out to him to slow down at one point because I was having to sprint to catch up to them. Ha!
I did finally look at my watch when it beeped for the mile 10 split. At that point, whatever the watch told me was going to be fine as I felt really strong and I knew I was about to make the final turn onto Dauphin Street and head for home! The mile split was 6:10 and my elapsed time was right at 62 minutes. 6:10 was right where I was supposed to be and 62 minutes also seemed about right. At that point I made a conscious decision to pick up the pace ever so slightly. My last three miles were the fastest of the day at 6:00, 6:01 and 5:56! Whew. And yes, I looked at each of those splits as they happened. After I looked once, I couldn’t *not* look!
So where does that leave us?! Oh yes! The finish line. I crossed in 1:21:10, which was a personal best, a course record and a state record for 37-year-old females. I was also the first female and fourth overall! Woo! It was a good day to have a good day.
And since I didn’t give you a play by play of the splits as I went (I didn’t know them!), here’s the full breakdown:
I took at bit of a down week with just one short workout after the race to let my body recover. Now we are just four weeks out from Mercedes! I am definitely feeling very nostalgic about running Mercedes, as it was my first *ever* half marathon in 2005. This is also the last year of the race, which is sad. I haven’t done it since 2006 (a casual 17 year ago … when did I get so … old?!). I’ve been ruminating on a post about how much *LIFE* has happened in the 18 years since that first half marathon. 19-year-old Sam had quite a lot coming for her!
To be continued …