Not So Good

I ran my 7th Half Marathon today and it was by far my worst finishing time. Up until today, my slowest HM time was 2:15:48 which I ran in 2007 during my first HM. Each one since has been faster than that by a few minutes or more. Well, today was a new low. My time of 2:21:14 blows that Personal Worst out of the water.

The day started out fine. Here are a few pictures from before the start:

Mike did the full marathon while Brady and I did the half. This was Brady’s first half marathon and I was really excited for him.

Here we are with friends before the start. I felt lucky to have so many friendly faces out there.

The weather was comfortable at the start but sunny and humid. I ran the first 7.5 miles okay, probably averaging around 9:45 a mile. My legs felt heavy and I had a side cramp from the first mile on, but I thought I would make it okay. I was running with my friend and the time was passing quickly. I saw Brady coming back from the turn around and he was at mile 11 and was running great. He looked relaxed and happy. When I saw him, I felt a huge sense of relief and I realized that I had been worried about him. Not that he wasn’t prepared or that he wouldn’t run well, I was just worried because I’m his mom and that’s what moms do.

Once he passed, I felt hot and was in need of the bathroom. It was pretty much all downhill from there. I let my friend run on without me, and I suffered the rest of the way. Honestly, it wasn’t that hot outside. Temperatures were in the mid 70’s which is the best you can expect for a summer race. I just have a hard time in weather over 60 or so. My heart rate was sky high and my legs felt like lead. After the first bathroom stop, I thought I still might be able to break 2:15. When the cramp didn’t stop and I had to make another bathroom stop, I knew my day was done. When I walked, I felt fine and scolded myself into running again. When I would run, the cramp and the lack of energy was just too much.

I wish I had a big lesson to learn from my bad race, but I really think I just had an off day. I’ve been running a lot of miles and taking time to stretch and recover, so I don’t see any reason why I wasn’t prepared. This wasn’t a big goal race for me, so when it started to go poorly I probably didn’t dig as deep as I could have to salvage something. I’ve had a lot of good races lately and I figured that it’s unreasonable to expect that every race will go well. I’ve got lots of racing left to do this summer and there wasn’t any point to beating myself up about this one. So I ran when I could and walked when I had to and finally made it across the finish line.

The best part of my day was after the race was over. All of my friends ran well and it was great to have a cheering section at the finish. Brady ran the half in 1:31 and finished 50th overall. He had found another young man his age and they ran a lot of the race together. I’m so glad that he had a great experience. Watching him have a great day was so much fun. All of our running friends were so kind to him, asking about his race and congratulating him. Runners are just the nicest people. We found a great spot to sit and watch the marathoners finish. Mike ran well and finished in his goal range. It really heated up as the morning went on, so it was inspiring to watch the marathoners battle to the finish.

So my race wasn’t the greatest. Oh, well. I feel lucky that I’m healthy and can race again another day. I’m sore and I’m going to take several days off from running to recharge. My bike misses me and I should give it some attention. I’ve got a short triathlon on my schedule at the end of the month, and I’m thinking about doing a 10k on July 4th. It’s a really hilly course and it’s sure to be blistering hot, but they have the best race t-shirts. Congratulations to everyone who raced this weekend!