The Oak Barrel Half is about a month away. To prep myself for Whiskey Hill, my short run now consists of a 4 mile circuit around my neighborhood, including going as far up Pilot Knob as I can before my run turns into a hike. I may not be able to run the entire mile or so up Whiskey Hill, but at least I won’t let it intimidate me!
I may be sore now that I’m in recovery mode, and at one point during the race, I could’ve sworn that my feet were literally going to detach at the ankles, but my first half marathon is in the bag.
This was the third year for the Upper Cumberland Haunted Half Marathon, and the runners numbered close to 500. Not a bad turnout for a local race!
Virginia walked the Women’s Half Marathon in Nashville about a month ago and, content with the knowledge that she could finish in the allotted time, was geared up to walk this one, too. One of Virginia’s friends from high school, Karen, was also running the half, so she and her husband stayed with us the night before.
On Friday night we went to the “expo,” which really should’ve just been called “packet pickup.” There was nothing expo-like about it—no vendors, no cool stuff to check out, just packet pickup tables and not much else. Then we went to the equally underwhelming pasta party at Char. It was minor stuff, really, and I’m sure that planning will be better in the future.
Since this was a Halloween-themed race, costumes were encouraged. Virginia was a pirate, complete with a cardboard hat from Long John Silver’s; Karen was Chun-li of Street Fighter fame; I was Gandalf the Grey, with a sign on my back reading: YOU SHALL NOT PASS! Because that’s how I roll.
(I’m totally stealing this image from your blog, Karen. Sorry!)
Race morning was COLD! Seriously. But my costume actually helped quite a bit. The robe was made of a thin polyester material that added an extra layer without being constricting, and the hat and beard kept my head and face nice and warm.
After the race started, my plan sort of fell apart. Almost exactly halfway through, I started having foot and ankle pain. I was just over an hour in, so if I’d kept my pace, I would have had a finish time of just over 2:00. My overall goal was 2:30, so I knew I had some leeway. I started doing intervals, but the pain was still there. I ended up walking way more than I wanted, with a finish time of about 2:41. Not exactly what I wanted, but hey, at least I finished.
And this is what I received:
Not one, but TWO medals!
The first is the standard finisher’s medal. I’m not crazy about the design, but at least it looks pretty unique!
The second is the Run the Cumberlands medal, the reward for running a local race series about which I’ve previously posted. At first glance, it’s very basic with its rectangular shape and gold-colored finish, but upon closer inspection, there’s a lot of detail in the logos of the three races.
All in all, I’m very happy. My time wasn’t great, but this was just my first half. Now I have a goal for my second: 2:30 or bust.
I learned an important lesson yesterday. 8 miles at my half marathon pace + a 5k at my 5k pace = failure.
The important thing is that I managed the 8 miles for my morning half training without any problems, and my distance pace seems to be improving to around 10:30. I have just under a month until my first half, and I’m more optimistic than ever.
The whole “failure” part of yesterday was assuming that I’d had plenty of rest in the 6 hours between my 8-miler and the Race for the Cure 5k and that I could do my normal 5k racing pace. I started out great. Really great, in fact. On-my-way-to-a-new-PR great. Then at about halfway through, I could feel all the muscles in my legs tightening up, and I had to slow way down. Eventually I wimped out and resorted to walking intervals, but I didn’t want to risk an injury even a month out from my first half.
I’ll have plenty of chances to redeem myself, and it’ll be worth it just to secure the Haunted Half finisher’s medal and the Run the Cumberlands medal. (I really like medals.)
A few months back, a challenge was announced to Cookeville-area runners. Three of the major races in the area (the After Dark Race for the Park 8k, the Fall Fun Fest 5k/10k, and the Upper Cumberland Haunted Half) would be part of a series known as Run the Cumberlands. Runners who finish all three races get a special medal, and man, do I love special medals. The Race for the Park (which, at the time, was the longest distance I had ever run) and the Fun Fest (for which I did the 5k, because I’m a pansy) have now come and gone, leaving only the Haunted Half standing between me and eternal glory. Eternal glory, of course, being a cheap piece of metal hanging on a ribbon.
The Fun Fest 5k was yesterday, and I’m happy to say that I actually PR’d. I crossed the finish line at almost exactly 27:00, which is a big deal for me.
Now I’m waist-deep in half-marathon training. Last weekend, Virginia and I walked 11 miles as part of her training (she has knee problems, so she’s walking the half), and I just finished a brisk 6 mile run this morning with a 10:48 overall pace, which is a lot faster than my goal pace of 11:00 to 11:30. I might do better at this than I think.
I’m terrible at keeping a blog. I don’t know why. I just am.
Anyway, I’m currently in training for a half that’s coming up in October. I’m trying to follow Hal Higdon’s novice half plan, but of course I’m rearranging it to fit my schedule. Now that I’m done with grad school (hurray!), I have a lot more time for running (hurray!). 2-3 mornings per week, I do my normal 3 mile run. Then every Wednesday evening, I join my awesome local running group for a slightly faster-paced 3 miles. My long runs are on Sunday mornings. Because if the Commodores have taught me anything, nothing’s easier than a Sunday morning.
A few weeks back, I ran my first 8K, which was the farthest I had ever run before. Unlike most of my early 5Ks, I actually ran the entire way without doing walking intervals when I became overheated/depleted. Today was my regular 5 mile run (it was supposed to be last weekend actually, but I got a little lazy), and though my finish time of 52:47 was about 20 seconds slower than my 8K finish time, I didn’t feel as worn out when I was finished, which tells me that I’m getting better at endurance and that I’m settling nicely into a half-marathon pace of 10-11 minute miles.
I still have about 8 weeks to go before the half, and that’s plenty of time to finish my training and get myself where I want to be.
Springtime in Tennessee suffers from multiple personality disorder. This year, it began with humid, Summer-like temperatures that swelled into the 90s, and for the past week, they’ve dipped back into the 40s and 50s. It makes running (or at least dressing for a run) more difficult.
On the positive side, I’ve about developed the perfect 3 mile run, starting from my house and looping around part of south Cookeville. If I run it early enough, I can probably avoid being brutally run down by traffic, so that’s a plus. Now to find time to test it out…
One loop around my neighborhood may only be 1.5 miles, but it seems more realistic running that much every day than trying to schedule a run twice as long every other day. Of course, as I’ve tried to make exceptionally clear, my neighborhood has hills, so I think it’s actually a better workout than what I had going on before. I hope to get back on the Ease into 10K program sometime in the near future, but that may have to wait until I’m done with grad school to actually have time for it.
Anyway, I may have to take a trip to Foothills, our friendly (albeit only) neighborhood running store very soon. I need some new shorts.
After last weekend’s 5K, I decided to ease back into things. Sure, I didn’t do as well as I’d done in the past (my time was about average), but I really want to pick up where I apparently left off. Before we slacked off/the weather turned bad/we got sick, we were running the track at TTU, which is all well and good, but it’s also flat. Too flat. How often am I running a 5K course that’s actually flat? In Tennessee, that’s a hard thing to come by.
So I’ve started running around my circular neighborhood. It’s anything but flat, as I’ve recently been reminded. In fact, it’s hilliness would be rated as god-awful if there was some sort of informal hilliness ranking. I mean, look at this:
Ok, maybe it’s hard to tell from that picture, but it is, in fact, a very steep sloping hill. I suppose when you move into a neighborhood that actually has the word “hill” in the name, you get what you pay for.
This Saturday is the Purity Moosic City Dairy Dash 5k, and I am horribly ill-prepared. I’m just now emerging from another spell of being sick and/or lazy and only managed to run a handful of miles spread out over the past two weeks. So we’ll see what happens.
The awesome news is that the swag will include a tech shirt! I don’t see those often enough in the 5ks I usually run, which probably says a lot about them. It’s always nice to get a shirt I can actually wear while running.
Today’s the first day of Lent. Even though I’m not an overly religious person, I think it’s a great excuse for temporarily changing my diet, so yeah, I’ll be participating.
My whole weight loss kick and segue into the running lifestyle actually began with Lent last year, when I decided to give up delicious sugary things. My sweet-tooth has always been my dietary Achilles heal, so this was a big deal to me. So a year later and 30ish pounds lighter, I’m doing it again.
I have my own set of rules, too. The main thing I’m giving up is sugar, so sugarfree things are just dandy (hello, local frozen yogurt place with sugarfree flavors). Things that are naturally sweet, like honey and fruit, are okay, too. Also, I have some leeway with breakfast foods, like cereal.
So it’s time to get back on track. Later, chocolate, I’ll see you at Easter.
