Where did the time go y'all! I got what...two weeks of training recaps posted before I fell off the post wagon? To be honest, it was a lot of illness and excuses that lead to lack of training runs being done. Out of the 10 weeks that was my training plan, I managed to get two long runs done with the most miles being in week two of training for a 5 mile run (no wonder my legs hurt but I'll get to that). I was supposed to complete 40 runs and of those I managed to get 16 done before running my race virtually on Friday 12.13.2024.
My plan since the day I signed up for this virtual race was to train and complete the run on race day. That is what I've done the last two years and then my husband dropped on me that he was going to go hunting on the 13th and 14th. Who's going to watch the kid and the dog while I run for 2.5 hours if he's hunting? I decided to run it on Friday the 13th before he left and y'all it was a ride!
Before I get into talking about my race, I do want to talk about my favorite training runs that I did this round. I enjoyed the 400 meter repeats. I used to do track work a long time ago and my favorite thing to do was sprint straightaways and walk the curves. Pushing myself to maintain a higher speed for an entire lap around the track and then rest for the same duration was different but I loved it! I also started noticing that my VO2 max was starting to get better so I'll definitely be adding in some of those repeats into my half marathon training coming up and also in my continuation after training! One more thing...I know that I was focusing on low heart rate training this go around but I knew that if I were running this in my zone 2 it would take me over 3 hours which I did not have so I just went. Maybe if I had done some base building before and really stuck with the training I could have done zone 2. Something to keep working on.
Okay, time to talk about the race. I didn't take photos this training or this race. I was too focused on just enjoying myself. I had two goals. First and foremost is always the same. I wanted to finish the race. Second goal was to finish in under 2.5 hours. I started out walking down the hill to the paved trail I was running on. The entire way down I was praying. I asked God to keep me safe, keep me injury free, and remind me that I'm doing this for fun. I was almost at the 2 mile post when I spotted 3 deer ahead of me. I slowed down to a stop. Two were off the trail to my left and one was off to my right. The two on the left saw me and weren't moving but just looking. I tried clapping my hands and shuffling my feet to get either them to join their friend on the other side or vice versa. Eventually the one on the right crossed back and they went in to the woods and I continued my run.
I eyed the port-o-potty by the 2 mile post and considered using it but I knew there was another one about 1.5 miles up the trail and decided that I could wait. There's a reason I mention this now because something does happen in a minute. I have my running playlist in my headphones with the volume not too loud so I can hear around me and it really was a beautiful day. Chilly when the wind blew, cloudy, but overall nice. As I made my way passed the pond, I could see that the water was getting close to freezing at least a little at the top. I spotted the port-o-potty across the street from the pond and wondered if I would be able to make it up to the 5 mile post and back before needing to go and opted to go then instead.
Ladies. If you've ever been hot and sweaty while wearing leggings then this will resonate with you. Doesn't matter if you're working out or just hot, pulling down leggings and underwear (another mistake that you'll get in a second) while sweaty is difficult and equally difficult to pull back up and into place when you're done going to the bathroom. Tell me I'm wrong? I don't pause my watch when I see the deer and I don't pause it for the break because the race officials don't pause the race clock on the actual course if you have to go. I get my undies back up and my pants on and get out the door and keep going. I get about 20 seconds into my run and I realize my pants are quite on straight. I slow and try to adjust the best I can and I think I've nailed it.
Mile 5 post and I prop my foot up on a bench to swipe away at something poking into my heel from my sock, contemplate loosening my shoes because my toes are a little numb but I'm not sure if it's because my shoes are too tight or because of the cold so I just keep going. I'm chewing on salt stick tabs every 30 minutes and taking a Honey Stinger gel every 3 miles for fuel but need a little something else before I get to mile 6 so I grab a pack of fruit snacks. It's at some point during the consumption of the fruit snacks and getting to mile 6 that I get the realization that my underwear was not on correctly and that I didn't actually adjust my pants correctly and I was chaffing. I had zero desire to try and fix myself in that tiny port-o-potty and opted to suffer those last 4 miles.
At some point between mile 6 and 8 I saw another deer but only had to slow a little bit before it trotted off. Is that something deer do? Do they trot? I mean that's kind of what it looked like but I just wanted to be done at this point. I was walking more that I wanted to but remember goal number one is to finish. Did I mention that I almost burst into tears at mile 6? It wasn't because of the chaffing. I felt the tears welling up in my eyes, knew that I was hitting my wall and told myself just one more hour or less and I would be done. I told myself to do what I needed to do to finish in less than an hour and that's what I did.
I came around the last bend and hit mile 9. I walked about a quarter mile to just get some of my strength back and get my heart rate down before speeding up. I get to the bench that I clocked at a quarter mile from my starting point and slowly speed up until my watch beeps at me that I'm done and I almost throw up. It wasn't the first time I thought I was going to hurl on that run either but when my farthest run in my training cycle was 5 miles 8 weeks prior...well...my body wasn't ready for that 10 miles and my legs are still killing me but it's done! My time has been submitted, I have my digital certificate of completion, and all my swag will be shipped out next month!
So what's next. If you've been around a minute then you know that I'm jumping into my half marathon training for the Coast Guard Half Marathon. I'll be following the same training program as last year (with a couple tweaks to work on speed and pace) and hopefully illness and double ear infections don't take me out this year either! By the time this posts I will have at least 1 run under my belt for the training and hopefully I'll be back to weekly recaps!
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