ONE NY Half Marathon: Don't Stop Believin'

 I love how I write an end of season post, then go do two more races.  Famous last words, right?  So, the backstory on the ONE NY Half - as always, this was a combo of goals and bad decision making.  Someday, I'll write a novel on this stuff.  For now, it's race reports.  Thank you in advance for being my guinea pigs as I flex my muscle for this best seller.  As if you had a choice. 

As I alluded to earlier, back in October when I got grumpy, it was a combo of things.  Post big race let down.  Crappy weather.  Life.  But one of the big things was - I felt a little unfulfilled. After Eagleman, I felt like my two 70.3's were big, but not conducive to PR's because of the courses (Hilly AF).  So after the big cyclone dance in Utah, I felt great about the season, but like I had something left in me.  I also felt that because I hadn't really focused on the run, I had something to prove to myself.  About five weeks ago, I went out for an easy run that ended up being a 3 mile tempo at a 7:30 pace - which was my old mile repeat pace - and something began to percolate.

As always, this was aided by a new friend, Jeff, that I met at Cassadagaman.  Jeff did his first tri there (he's an idiot badass) and is quite the runner - he had just set a sweet 1:34 PR in October for a half marathon and seemed to at least tolerate my weirdness via text.  Seed planted.  

Somehow in the midst of a buddy run and a string of texts that encouraged bad decisions, we both signed up for the ONE NY Half marathon in Syracuse.  The goal?  To break that pesky 1:40 half marathon.  Which equated to roughly a 7:35 mile pace.  Scary. As. Shit.  I drew up a five week plan, and ran six days a week - three easy, one long, one tempo (3-6 miles @7:30) and one day of speed work as mile to two mile repeats.  Bam. Jeff agreed to get me to sub 1:40, and offered to pace me for the race.  He's a crazy man awesome friend. 

Here's the scary part.  I nailed every workout.  Every single. damned. one.  Which never happens.  Even leading up to race week, aside from one run post 5k that felt like death, I hit all my paces.  And....they felt good.  Like any neurotic athlete, I blew up Jeff's phone the week before the race - either I felt like death and was suspicious, or it was going entirely too well and I was suspicious.  Poor dude.  He handled it like a champ.  It's crazy how a tapering athlete gets - and this was honestly the worst case of taper I'd had all year.  And I knew why.

There was never an option to fail.  I had no fall back goals, no B goals, nothing.  It was sub 1:40 or bust.  Don't stop believin', baby. Bring it.

Race morning dawned early and cold - with temps in the mid thirties and gusty winds.  The course was a "round the lake" course - it looked pretty darn flat with the exception of a few rollers at miles 3 and 9, and mile 12 was uphill - but with a net elevation gain of 300.  I decided to aim for a 7:30 pace, which would give me wiggle room on the back half if need be.  When asked the day before the race about goals, I gave my never wavering answer - 1:39.  Ken (we all know Ken, he brings on all the tri bad decisions - I love my people) responded with - That's soft.  I'm going for 1:37.  WTF Ken.

All egging on aside, I travelled to the race, met up with some friends - Jeff, my main man, Jeremy (who was in from Florida for the weekend and in because of my bad decision encouragement!) Simon and Sean, fellow RATs, and Martha, from Roadkill.  Sweet! We chatted, shivered, and did a quick warm up.  Pre race start I shed my layers and froze my ass off while we waited for the gun and before I knew it...we were off!!

Miles 1-3.1: 21:56

This race had a neat feature of a timing mat at each 5k, which was a great way to break up the race.  Jeff and I started out a little fast (of course) and two minutes into the race, I realized that the spare stick of gum I always tuck in my handheld....was still in my shoe.  Yep, I ran 13 miles with a stick of gum in my instep.  I would inform  you I'm an idiot, but we know this already.  I was also freezing - I Asked Jeff if I could borrow his pants, and he wisely ignored me.  We hit mile 1 at 7:05 and mile 2 at 6:58.  Jeff was being an awesome pacer - he kept checking in and was determined to stick with me.  I felt fine, but also knew this was a hot pace that I didn't care to sustain, so at mile 3 (7:16) I told him to run ahead and do his thing.  He looked so comfortable at a 7 minute mile that I knew the guy had a PR in him - and - after checking with me a dozen times, he finally ran ahead and did his thing (and netted another huge PR in 1:31 - holy hell!)  I hit the 5 in 21:56, well ahead of my goal and feeling good.

Miles 3.1 - 6.2: 44:06 10k split

The second 5k actually felt amazing.  I kept checking in with my splits, and for every mile under 7:30, I would figure out how much time I had banked, but also checked in at an effort level.  At the 10k split I felt great, was running at an effort level of 6/10, and had a ton left in the tank.  At the 10k there was a sign saying we were (almost) halfway there, and I chuckled, thinking of our road trip to Utah and singing a little Bon Jovi in my head.  I hit a gel at mile 5 and chatted with a few runners along the way, but largely running solo and feeing fine with it.  Oh, and I also hit a 10k PR by 36 seconds.  This was either very good or very bad....TBD!

Miles 6.2-9.3 1:07:11 15k split

At mile 7, we turned into the bend of the lake and hit a massive headwind.  Like, blow you back headwind.  Oof.  My pace slowed from 7:15s to 7:20-7:30, which was totally fine but it was also starting to get a little tough.  We hit mile 8 and entered the Christmas displays along the lake, and there was a course sign that said "You WILL enjoy this pretty mile" and I laughed, thinking, well- if I must!  I realized at this point I had waited too long to fuel and hit another gel, and a few minutes later I felt much better.  There was a huge cheering section right before mile 9 which really helped out a ton, and at the 15k split Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas" was playing full blast.  If that wont get you to move the hell out of the way, I don't know what will!

Miles 10-13.1 (ish): 1:35:35

Once I escaped the fresh hell of the song that won't end, we hit another bridge and there was a race
photographer snapping pics - I joked with him that he was capturing our suffering uphill and he responded by getting a snap of my best side.  As we rounded the lake for he home stretch, I hit mile 10 in 1:13 by my watch (Which was always .1 off) and I did a little quick math.  The final 5k.....could I do it in 24 minutes?  Was Ken right??  OMG.  I had been stuck on 1:39 for so long, faster just did not compute to me.  But I felt good!  A little slower (was averaging 7:30-7:35 now) but well within 24 minutes.  LETS. DO. IT. Miles 11 and 12 went by with the same vein at 7:35 and 7:26, then the final mile hit with full force, with an 85 foot incline (this seems trivial, but was 1/4 of the elevation gain of the race).  I slowed, but didn't die (7:34 split).  At mile 12.9 I saw a woman retching on the ride of the road (Talk about leaving it all out there!) and glanced at my watch at mile 13, and saw 12.9 - decisions had to be made) Saw Jeff cheering me on and gunned it to the finish....and ran right through that sucker until I hit 13.1 on my watch.  I'm again, a moron, but I needed that 13.1 on my watch to feel legit about it!

Post Race

Post race, I caught up with Jeff, who was laughing his head off at my finishers antics - the course was 13.01 by my watch, so I needed to feel legit about my half PR - which is either 1:35 according to the race or 1:36 according to my Garmin. Either I'm a tangent wizard (I saw 13.03-13.3 from my friends) or the course was a little short, but either way - I wanted there to be no question on my PR!  I caught up with Greg, who texted all the love in the world and the news that I made the woman's leaderboard as top 10 - OMG! (10/421 women and 45/907 total).  I managed to snag 3rd place in my age group (the winner of my AG was the overall winner) as well! (PS - The gum in my shoe did not fare very well). 

I was completely overwhelmed.  Jeff and I hung around and waited for Sean, Jeremy, Simon, And Mike to finish, got our pics on the time board, and in general, grinned like goofy idiots. 

Five days post race, I'm still grinning.  My legs aren't quite right yet, I've had a slew of bad decision suggestions from friends like Marcus, Ryan and Bruce (what would I do without these people) and am still in complete awe that I managed to hold a 7:20 pace for 13.1 miles.  What's next??  Well, I'm done with 2021.  I can't top what I just did and I am completely over the moon with it. I'm so incredibly grateful for my circle that believes in me and helps me with these crazy goals - you know who you are - and I cannot wait to start working toward those 2022 goals!

First, we rest.  It's legit off season time for the next month.  I have a Turkey trot next week that's being run completely for fun, and in the meantime I'll be taking the time to prep my mind and body for 2022.  

The Grocery Run 5k: Bad Influence

 So, post tri season, I have all of these brilliant ideas.  BRILLIANT.  I started running more, signed up for a half marathon (what's off season?) and started re thinking my 2022 season and goals.  After such a shitty October, I realized that I needed to do one of two things - change my attitude or change my circumstances.  Bingo.

I decided to do both, which means a slew of things for 2022 (oh just you wait) but it meant a few key things for the rest of 2021.  Namely, to stop pouting and eating all the chocolate.  Oof.  It also meant branching out in terms of some bad decision making, cause those usually make the best stories.  I've gotten involved with two pretty awesome local tri groups lately - Wolfpack (who I'll proudly represent in 2022 as an ambassador) and the Rochester Area Triathletes (RATs).  I was a RAT back in the day, from about 2008-2011, then fell off as the family stuff came along and I changed my multisport life a bit.  Last year, the President roped me into the fray, and I've met some pretty awesome RATs through all of it - they are fun, excited about the sport, and have a fantastic sense of humor.  I don't know how, but somehow I was voted into the board as the co marketing VP for 2022, so somehow my highly ridiculous awesome presence is appreciated in the club.  Huzzah!

With the involvement comes some pretty sweet friendships, partner runs, and group fun.  So when Mike (el preso), floated the idea of a group 5k three days before the event, I immediately said "WTF Mike" "I'm in!"

The race: East Ave Grocery 5k.  I've always eyed this race with a "maybe" - its flat, fast and not at a bad time.  I haven't legit raced an open 5k in years (I've paced some, done some for fun) and I wasn't in shape to race this one either - though my half marathon has included some speed work, its been mile repeats, which really don't do a ton for 5ks.  However, my old 5k PR of 21:45 was from a split of a 5 mile race in 2019 (what) and my open 5k PR was from four years ago - a 22:53.  Woah.  We probably needed to fix this!

With 3 days to prep, I dusted off my zoomie shoes, took one day off running, and ate a bagel.  Killer training, yo.  The morning of the race, I headed out to Mike's house to join him and seven other teammates for a nice 3 mile warm up to the race site from his house (he has awesome, terrible ideas).  This, of course, meant that there would be a 3 mile cool down, cause that's what the cool kids do.  I woke up race morning to find my favorite capris had a hole in an, um, unfortunate spot, so I brilliantly decided to wear brand new running tights.  What could possibly go wrong?

Mike and I had a bet riding on the race - he would buy lunch if I beat him, and vice versa.  He was hoping for a sub 23, I was hoping for a PR, but doubtful it would happen.  Sweet.  He very nicely volunteered to pick up everyone's race bibs, so when we got to the house, everyone was all set - except me.  He somehow forgot mine (ahem- sabotage?) which I of course, gave him crap for.  I threatened to wear my Reaper singlet and was immediately thrown a RAT's singlet (score) which made up for the bib snafu!  (I'm kidding.  It was hilarious and I will use any ammo for our highly ribbing style of friendship).  With business taken care of, we headed to the start - I got to meet a bunch of new RATs - Nancy, Mike, Carin, Kara, Bonnie, Hugo - and hang with Sue and Simon, two awesome peeps that are already aware of my insanity.

We got to the race start after a nice easy warm up and I went off in search of a bib.  There were roughly 700 people in pace to race (what a great turnout!) and the morning was clear, cold, and beautiful.  After saying hello to a zillion people that knew me that I knew um, some of, it was time to line up.  I went off on my own to get in race mode and debated how to line up.  I wanted a sub 22:45 and was super secretly hoping to run every mile at 6:59 - something about a six as the first number screamed FAST and also scared the  shit out of me.  With that in mind, I lined up about a quarter of the way back and called it good.  Before I knew it, the gun sounded and we were OFF!

Mile 1: 6:36

As we took off, I realized I seeded myself way the hell too slow and was passing people left and right.  I finally caught up to a good pace and felt like I was running hard but not too hard.  About a half mile in I realized I was, um, in the lead pack of women.  There was one woman out ahead (Melissa, a local runner that wins all the 5ks and is way speedier than me - she won and finished in 18 minutes!) and one more woman about 10 yards in front of me.  And then....me.  Wait, what??  I hate 5ks!  I'm not fast!  This was my first running race of the year!  Woah.  I reminded myself that we still had a ways to go and to run my own race.  Nonetheless, I hit the first mile marker in 6:36, my fastest mile...ever.  OMG.  

Mile 2: 6:48

I won't lie, for a hot second, I started to debate a sub 20.  But then realized I'd need to run sub 6:20s to accomplish that and...well....next time.  At this point, another woman zoomed by me, followed by one more.  Whew.  I felt a little let down but they were hauling ass and I was starting to hurt!  Hit the turnaround, kept my clip steady, and managed to pass one of the women back just before mile 2, which clocked in at 6:48. Holy shit

Mile 3: 6:44

At this point, I remembered why I hate 5ks.  They hurt!  I kept my eyes on the woman in front of me, the one I had stayed 10-5 yards behind the whole race.  I knew I couldn't catch her if she kept her pace up, but ya never know.  Rounding the final turn with half a mile to go, the lead biker was heading back down the course and almost plowed into me.  Whoops.  I'll admit, I didn't have many of my faculties left at that point - sorry dude!  Hit mile 3 in 6:44 and as I raced to the finish, I saw the clock ticking toward 21 minutes...holy shit.  I tried to accelerate to sneak in under 20 but ran out of time and crossed in at 21:01.

(PS - Check out that bad race photo.  Apparently I cant be cute and fast.  I'm totally okay with this)

OMG.  What the hell just happened???  At the finish, I saw #3 woman and thanked her for keeping me going (I totally stalked her later and had absolutely no business being anywhere near her - she's fast as hell!)  I missed her by 13 seconds, which haunts me about as much as missing going under 21 - not very much at all.  I blew every expectation I had for this race and am still in shock.  The final stats - 4th overall woman out of 325, and 22nd overall out of 575 people.  Holy shit.  At a pure running race where I struggle at the distance.  Totally unreal. My overall pace was a 6:43 mile, which also blew me away.  (Apparently my true 5k time was 20:52, but I need to learn to run tangents.  Duly noted!) Maybe I should actually train next time??

Post race we got the deets on our AG prizes (to be picked up later, I won my AG) and waited for the rest of the RATs to come in (Mike, you owe me lunch).  We trotted back to Mike's house for coffee and goodies, and made a pact to continue being a bad influence on each other.  After all, according to Mike, a pack of RATs is...a mischief.  Spot. On. 

Next up is the One Half Marathon in Syracuse on Sunday - fingers crossed its a good day!