Race Report: Urban Wildland Half-Marathon

Sadly I did not really accomplish most of my goals for this race. I did not PR. I did not run continuously. I did not finish strong with a negative split. I did, however, believe in myself and finish a race in which I suffered dizziness and lightheadedness in the last two miles.

Pre-Race
I woke up at 5 and had some water,  a cup of coffee and a couple of mini bagels with nothing on them.  Then I got dressed, pinned my bib on, and woke up M. so we could head to the start. Before the race I was able to meet up with a couple of other bloggers/DMers Courtenay and Clarinda. It was great to meet them in real life and to chat for a minute. Courtenay has been coming back from an injury so she was running the 5K and Clarinda and her sister were doing the half. (How fun to have a sibling who also runs!) After some conversation and obligatory photos, it was time for us half-marathoners to line up for the 7am start.  I headed toward the back of the pack and waited for the gun, going through my strategy and plans for the race again.

Courtenay, Clarinda, her sister, and me - because a person was directly behind me in the shot it kind of looks like I'm wearing a small blonde toupee

Miles 0-3

Crossing the Start

When the race started, I did my best not to get too caught up in the race day excitement and bolt out of the gate as I have at a couple of other races. I remembered my strategy and tried to just settle into a nice pace of around a 10:30 min/mile. My plan was to run the first three miles at this pace and then to pick things up just a tad every 2-3 miles until the finish. The first water stop was at around mile 2.5, but I decided to keep running. It was humid, but I was carrying my own fluids and I had a GU in the pocket of my running skirt that I planned to take around mile 7 or 8. We were looping through residential neighborhoods and park trails. It made for some pretty running, but there was some congestion caused by the narrowness of the paths and the fact that a number of people seemed to be walking together 2-3 abreast.

Splits: 10:26, 10:35, 9:45 (I think this last mile was marked a bit early because my Garmin did not read 3 miles yet)

Miles 3-7
Around the 3rd mile marker we looped around Wood Lake and onto some unpaved trails. They were pretty hard packed, but it did slow my pace down a bit, as did the narrowness of the trails and the congestion of race traffic. I pissed a couple of walkers off by suggesting to them that they should really be walking single file and to the right on the narrow trail. They acted as if I were a puppy killer. I know I am not the fastest of runners, but I don't try to make it difficult for faster people to pass me.  I expect the same basic courtesy from others out on the race course. I knew I was slowing down on the dirt path (I haven't trained on it really at all), but I figured that I could make up the time in later miles since I knew from the route that the rest of the race would be on pavement. Around mile 5 I was starting to feel a bit tired and sticky, but I just told myself to make it to the next water stop and then I could take a walk break and pour some water over my head. At the water stop I walked for 60 seconds and got a piece of fresh gum out of my pocket. I had pulled both a stick of gum out of my pocket and my GU as well.  I didn't want to take my GU yet, so I put it back into my pocket -- or atleast I thought that I did. In reality, I must have put my GU in between my skirt and my compression shorts because about a mile later I realized I no longer felt my GU against my lower back. When I checked later it was indeed gone.

Splits: 12:14, 9:38, 10:48, 10:31

Miles 7-11
At the water stop just after mile 7, I walked through and planned to take my GU. It was then that I realized that I didn't have my GU and what must have happened. I also knew that I was a bit off track for a PR. However, I was still optimistic that I could finish strong and run a negative split and put myself in a position where a PR still might be possible. Even though I almost always take a GU on any training run longer than 8 miles, I hadn't taken one on an 10-11 miler a few weeks back and had felt fine.  I told myself to focus on enjoying the experience and to start picking up the pace. Around mile 9 I began to start trying to push my pace to 10:20 and planned to run a 10 minute mile or under for the rest of the race.  As you can see from my splits, that did not happen.

11:04, 10:49, 10:22, 10:43,

Miles 11-13.1
As I passed the 11 mile marker, I started to feel weird. My head was feeling taut. I told myself just two miles left, I repeated a mantra to myself a few times. I started to try to pick up the pace, but then a couple of minutes later, I felt as though I was spinning. I thought to myself, "Holy shit! I am going to faint." I started walking. As soon as I started walking I felt a bit better, still a little lightheaded, but not so bad.  After a couple of minutes of walking, I tried to run again, but the same thing happened. So for the last mile and a half of the race I essentially walked a minute, ran a minute. My spirit wanted to run, but my body was not cooperating. All I could think was: just get to the finish, so that I can take in some calories, make it to the finish, try to stay upright. I was worried that I might DNF. I finally got to within sight of the finish line and put on a smile - so grateful to be finishing!- and ran across.

Splits: 13:36, 14:02, 1:42

Official race time: 2:25:35.

Post-Race
I walked to a stop, and knew that I could not bend over to untie my shoe and take of my timing chip without toppling over. Fortunately, a volunteer untied my shoe and removed the chip. Then, I managed to walk over and say good job to Clarinda, find M. and then get to the food before sinking onto the grass. I put my head between my knees and breathed and then ate some bread and a cookie and drank some water and Powerade. Then I felt stable enough to make it to the car.

Racing Reflections
I have to admit that I spent some time yesterday feeling disappointed and sulking a little bit. It didn't help that I wasn't feeling very well - low grade headache all day and some queasiness. However, all in all, I think that I learned from this race. Even though it didn't go according to plan, I know that under different circumstances I would have finished strong. I could have run a negative split. I ran the second half just about 8 minutes slower than the first half and that was largely due to the walking that I did during the last two miles when walking was really the smart thing to do. I did enjoy myself during the first 11 miles. There will be other half-marathons in my future, and I will continue to become a stronger, better, and more confident runner. My PR is out there, and I will run it down. So I will leave this race in my past, taking away from it things that worked well - carrying my own fluids during a hot and humid summer race (I'm really glad that I did this because the first two water stops were quite far apart) and things that did not - only taking one GU and not being careful about storing it properly.

I would consider doing this race again - the swag was awesome - a reusable bag and a t-shirt - no paper crap that I don't give a shit about and have to recycle. I love the idea and the execution of a green race - everything is recycled, reused or composted. I loved that they had bins for old shoes to be recycled and for unwanted race medals to be donated. The volunteers were plentiful and friendly.

So am I a total asshole for wishing that walkers would get to the right and/or start at the back? I know that some people use walk breaks as part of their racing strategy, doing 10:1 or 9:1, but the number of people that I saw walking 2-3-4 side by side during this race seemed ridiculous to me. I'm glad that so many people were out there participating, but it seems like there was a disregard for basic race etiquette.