Feb 20, 2012

Toledo Roadrunners 25K

I had some good runs last week, despite the psychological setback of missing my planned 15-mile long run the week prior due to sub-zero wind chills.  According to Hal Higdon, I should have had a long run of 13 miles this past week.  On Friday I was feeling good and needed to tie myself down to doing that, so I decided to try my feets at a 25K at Oak Openings (details shortly).  I'm glad that I held myself to doing that!  Here are the numbers from last week:

Monday: 5.26 miles @ 8:31 pace
Tuesday: 4.48 @ 9:06
Wednesday: 7.20 @ 8:25
Thursday: 3.03 @ 7:26
Friday: 4.93 @ 8:45
Saturday: 8.02 @ 8:45
Sunday: 15.59 @ 8.28
Total mileage: 48.51

That was HUGE as far as mileage for me.  I'm sure that experienced runners will tell me I just did a big no-no, considering that I've been maintaining right around 35-mile weeks.  I won't be doing 25Ks every week, though.  Likewise, I (hopefully) am not going to do anymore weeks without a rest day.  I'm taking off tomorrow for sure.

No hood!  Totally 80s!
Let's go back to yesterday morning.  Toledo Roadrunners had a 25K at Oak Openings at 9:00AM for members only.  I had been thinking about joining, since membership includes discounted and sometimes free race entry, so the race was a good reason to finally do that.  I had planned to leave the house no later than 7:30, giving me a half-hour to 40 minutes to get to the ATM and make the 30ish minute drive to the park, wait in line to sign up for the Roadrunners and then wait again to pay my $5 to race.  Right before I left, Joe pointed out that my zipper on my coat was jacked up.  He helped me win the battle with the zipper, which went on for a few minutes, then I was out the door.  Found the park, registered for everything, got my super cool non-hooded sweatshirt, hit the port-a-potty (which had already been destroyed, leaving no other option other than trees because the restrooms are under construction right now), and then waited with around 45 minutes to spare.  I thought about joining the other more experienced runners in doing a warm-up mile, but knowing that I had never run further than 13.1 miles before, I wanted to save all of my energy for the 15.5.  I walked a loop around the parking lot, which ate up maybe 5 minutes, and then lingered around my car, periodically sitting down to play with my phone and pass the time.

The race directors didn't get us herded to the start until 9:00, which is when we were supposed to have begun racing.  A dude from Thursday night runs at Levis recognized me and offered to run with me for the start of the race.  I was all for it because I thought that would help me to not go out too hard or too slow.  One of the organizers gave a little spiel and then around 9:10, we were finally moving.  It was a small crowd of maybe 100, so it wasn't a big C-F at the start of the race.

There I go, all the way to the far right!  Thanks to Monica Urbanski of the TRRC for the photo.

I told running dude that I wanted to maintain an 8:30 pace, but he had other plans.  For the first five miles, we maintained an 8-minute per mile pace, which I knew I would later regret.  Running dude had plans to meet up with another dude to do 7-minute per mile pace, so at 5 miles, I told him to do his thing.  So there I was, all on my own, sandwiched between a big group of really fast people and some not-so-really fast people.

I slowed my pace gradually to 8:28.  Miles 9 through 10.5ish were a big head game for me.  The course was sort of a figure-8, and that stretch of the 8 was one long, straight, boring road.  I've pulled off 10+ mile runs on the weekend easy-peasy, but racing and being on that straight-away was driving me nuts.  Plus, I got passed by an old dude and a woman probably my age or a bit older.  At one point in that lame-o stretch, my pace went from 8:30 to 9:15!  I wanted to run faster, but I didn't want to wear myself out anymore before I really needed it.  Then I thought about walking a bit, but I thought I'd look like a schmuck, so I just pushed until I got my pace down to 8:45 and ended up not walking at all.  Once I hit the 11-mile mark, I watched my Garmin a lot.  I kept on doing the math in my head--"4.5 miles left; 4 miles left; 3.5 miles left; 5K left; a warm-up run left.  For the record, at 13.1 miles I was at 1 hour and 50 minutes--more than 3 minutes faster than my finishing time at the Fall Classic in November!

In the last 5 miles of the race, there were a few more "maybe I should walk" moments.  What kept me from doing that, though, was thinking about how proud I'd be of myself after crossing the finish, knowing that I RAN more than 15.5 miles.  Not gonna lie--I also thought about wanting to make my friends and family proud of me, knowing that I didn't wuss out at all.  So a big thanks goes to all of the people who have knowingly or unknowingly motivated me to run: mom, Joe, Tammy, Susan, Alyssa, Rob, Becky, Ryan, and Jessica.

Just before 15 miles, I could see the end of the race up the road.  I got pumped up at that point, even after two more people passed me with another old dude stomping loudly behind me.  I started to cheese it up because I suddenly felt no pain or tiredness.  I am pretty sure that I could have gone on for another 5 miles at that point, but Joe was standing right there at the finish, waiting for me with a Gatorade and a slice of pizza (my husband is the shit, in case you didn't know it).

According to my Garmin, I did 15.59 miles in 2 hours and 11 minutes.  Results aren't yet posted, so I'll see how different my time is from what they get.  There was no chip timing of any sort, since it was such a small affair.  However it turns out, I'm happy that I did it and feel good the next day.  As it turns out, my Garmin wasn't too far off!  According to the official results, I finished in 2:11:59.  Out of about 90 runners, seems like only 30 were women!  I finished 51st overall out of 91 runners and 10th out of 28 women!  The fastest woman finished in 1:54:14.

I didn't do anything special to care for my body when I got home, other than showering, popping 5 ibuprofens, and taking a 1-hour nap.  Moving up and down the stairs was awful throughout the day, but this morning I managed to go out and do 5 miles with Tammy and Joe.  I slowed them down a lot and Joe said I was moving like Frankenstein, but I felt a lot better afterwards insofar as being loosened up.  Tomorrow, though, is a rest day.  For sure.

For your enjoyment:

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