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.
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!
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.
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.
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