Oktoberfest Half Marathon - Race Report

Training:
This is probably the best I've trained for a half, up until a month ago. I had a nagging hip ache for a while, and starting about 4 weeks ago, I was forced to start resting it. Prior to that, I had been training about 8 hours per week of running/biking/swimming thanks to my new triathlon coach, including about 20 miles per week of running. After that, I was down to about half of that training, with under 10 miles per week of running. My last long run was 4 weeks ago and only 11 miles, although I was happy with how fast it went. I skipped two 13-milers, so I was pretty nervous going into this race. I did a fast-ish 7-miler last weekend, with the last 5 miles at around 11 min/mi.

About 2 weeks ago, it dawned on me that the race was a lot hillier than what I was used to. I knew this when I signed up, and all the times I avoided hills during training, but just sort of...forgot.

Prior to the injury, I had been hoping for 2:24 (11 min/mi), but now I was going for a PR (what I remembered as 2:32, but I just checked and it was 2:31:11 - oops, that was almost a huge disappointment). I was planning on starting out between 11:30 and 11:45 per mile (so just to PR), and re-evaluating at mile 7. I forgot about the hills.

Pre-race:
The race was in Philadelphia, which is about 90 minutes from where I live. My parents were driving down from Long Island to join my husband and me for the weekend (thanks Mom and Dad!). Other than that, I pretty much did everything wrong to prepare for the race.

The day before, I walked around a lot (over 10,000 steps for the day). I walked around Princeton with some friends, and had a rich lunch and lunchtime drink. I walked around Reading Terminal Market (pretty much my favorite place in Philadephia, because I really love food) purchasing all of my post-race treats (cheese, beef prosciutto, donuts). Then we all went out for dinner (my friend Dani joined us as well) at an absolutely wonderful restaurant. The food was delicious - and rich, and filling. I had another drink and ate a little too much. I didn't go to sleep when I should, because I don't have a TV in my bedroom in my apartment, so hotel bed TV-watching is always a treat. I spent a lot of time worrying about what to wear and how to pace.

The hotel pillows were the absolute pillows I have every seen. They were small squares that were way too high. It probably wouldn't have been so much of a problem if I wasn't so anxious about the race, but I ended up waking up at about midnight and using my husband's sweater as a pillow. I woke up at 7AM (pretty late for a race, woohoo) and had a soft pretzel (a favorite pre-race treat for me). My tummy was a little upset, so I hung out in the bathroom for a while and then popped an Immodium. I packed some tissues in my pocket, and my parents, Tim, Dani, and I piled into the car to drive to the race.

The race was at a beautiful (hilly) park in Northeast Philadelphia called Pennypack Park (fun to say - you should try it). My parents dropped Tim, Dani, and me off at the park, while they drove around for a while. There was no parking left at the park, and they were planning on getting food while I ran and then meet me at the finish. I went over and got my race packet, used the Port-o-potty one last time, and hung out with my husband and friend until the start of the race.

The race was Oktoberfest themed, so there was a guy playing the accordion at the start line. Pretty cool.

I'm pretty sure my race performance was due to lack of training on challenging terrain, but I'm going to blame everything else for now (dinner, the pillows, and all).

Race:

The weather was 58 and cloudy, with a few sprinkles throughout the race. I was dressed perfectly, in Underarmour running tights, an Underarmour t-shirt, a reflective vest (silly-looking, but plenty of pocket space for my phone and snacks), and arm-warmers. I spent all morning trying to decide whether to listen to an audiobook (but if I can't follow it, I might miss something important), a podcast (This American Life, but it sounded like a pretty heavy episode), or music (I don't usually train with music, so I will I get bored after 2 hours?). I chose music, and started with Ke Bolela by Matsieng, my favorite artist from Botswana (sometimes my semester abroad comes back to visit). I popped half a pack of Clif Shot Bloks (black cherry with caffeine), and was ready to go.

The race started, and although the race had advertised the widest starting line that allowed everyone to start up front, I ended up taking about 20 seconds to cross the start line (according to the official results).

Miles 1-3: The race started out very crowded, and I was lucky to be in between people at approximately the right pace. The course started with a few miles of paved, rolling hills, but I felt great and so I powered through them. Around the first mile-marker, I came across a race-walker that I later found out was named Tim. Good name. I realized early on that I needed help holding back my early pace, so I swallowed my ego and joined this race-walker. He would turn out to be my best friend for most of the race, and I quickly tucked my headphones into a pocket, where they would stay for the whole race. I noticed the mile markers for the return trip didn't match up, and I was worried the course was short (the mile 11 marker was only about 1.5 miles out). The early mile markers were .02-.10 miles early according to my Garmin Vivoactive. I felt very comfortable, and my hip was not hurting at all, so I figured an 11:15 pace would be okay for the time being. Splits: 11:18, 11:03, 11:20.

Miles 4-6: The paved trail turned into packed dirt with some rocks a little bit after the 4th mile marker. I was starting to breathe a little more heavily, but Tim kept me entertained as we swapped stories of our families, both current and back a few generations. I took some of my Clif Shot Bloks and a water from the aid station. By this point, I had rolled down my arm-warmers. The wet leaves on the ground had mostly dried, so the ground was much less slippery. The rolling hills never seemed to stop, but I still felt good. I was aware that the pace would come back to bite me, but I figured that later-me would deal with that. Tim and I talked about the generation gap in running technologies (he recorded all workouts and PRs in a spiral notebook) and e-books. Splits: 11:19, 11:12, 11:28.

Miles 7-10: The conversation had moved to tales of training struggles and injuries. Tim had been running since the 70s, so he had many more tales to tell, had seen many doctors, and had lived through countless trends in running shoes and nutrition. By about mile 9, the conversation dropped off as we struggled to maintain pace. I met one of Tim's friends who ran with us for a while, stopped for a planned walk interval, and then cruised past us running a little while later. I had a gel at mile 8, and took some water at the next aid station, which made my stomach cramp up a bit. My hip was tight, but not hurting. A couple of toenails were hurting, but that was not a huge concern. It was getting harder and harder to maintain pace, so I slowed down a bit, but kept going. Right before the 10th mile marker, a big uphill took the wind out of me, and I had to walk a bit, but I started running again once I reached the top. I didn't feel better, but I was on track for a major PR - or major blow up. I did the math, and only had to complete a 37-minute 5K to break 2:30. Splits: 11:26, 11:40, 11:29, 11:18.

Miles 11-13.1: I felt like I was holding Tim back, but he stuck with me for a while and kept motivating me by telling me how good I still looked (bald-faced lie) and how little distance we had left. He was going to stick with the pace until the 11th mile marker, and then open up to impress his daughter, who had likely finished her first half marathon right around 2 hours. I stopped to walk at a hill right after the marker, and saw him pull away. Bye Tim, thanks for 10 miles of conversation! Now, it really started to hurt. If I ran up a hill, I would feel a little lightheaded, so I walked all uphills. Eventually, the course flattened out, but I was still feeling crampy, so I didn't have my 12-mile gel. I was negotiating with myself - run for 200 steps, then I can walk. In the last mile, I was doing some serious math - I can walk up until this exact minute and still PR. I couldn't get it together enough to run the whole last mile, which I think I've done in every race I've ever done. I walked a little and jogged a little. My breathing was heavy and my stomach was in knots. At about 12.75 miles, I heard the accordion again, and found the strength to run the last bit, which was flat and across grass. I saw Dani holding an awesome sign with my name on it, and Tim (husband) and my parents were cheering me on. Right as I passed the finish line, I heard Tim (running buddy) call my name and I waved at roughly the area I thought he was standing. I didn't care though, I was done. I didn't even care that my Garmin only showed 12.99 miles. Splits: 12:00, 12:41, 12:26.

Post-race:
I took my finisher's medal and immediately sat on a bench. My family found me, and waited patiently while I sat with my head between my knees for a few minutes. Dani brought me a water. Eventually, I could move enough to walk over to the grass, where I sat on the ground and slowly sipped water. My husband was excited about the bratwurst and sauerkraut they were offering, but I had zero interest. It took about 15 minutes, but I was then able to get to the car, where I had the longest 30-minute car ride of my life. I got so car sick, and was barely able to finish the single Fig Newton I had started at the finish line. I was so happy to get back to the hotel, where I could lie down.

After about 20 minutes watching TV (hooray for not caring if I got the hotel bed sweaty!), I felt so much better. After a shower and a maple-bacon donut (yes, at the same time), I was feeling pretty good, so we went out for Chinese food and then hopped into the car to head back home.

One of the best parts about this race was that at about 2PM, I got an email with my official results:
Chip Time: 2:30:27.1
Gun Time: 2:30:47.7

Right about now, the couch is my friend, as is my leftover Chinese food. My hip is tight, but overall my legs feel pretty good. I lost one toenail. I had another donut. That was probably the hardest race I've ever done, and the worst I've ever felt afterwards. I'm already planning the next one!