Surftown Half Marathon!

Yesterday, I participated in the Surftown Half Marathon in Rhode Island- my first race as an East-coaster! I signed up for the race because I wanted to do another half marathon before the half ironman, and to redeem myself from the Wisconsin Half I did in May, right after recovering from my Achilles' Tendinitis. My new friend at work, Heidi, found this race, and the timing was right, so we both signed up and gave it a go! I had no idea really what to expect for this race. I haven't gone out and done a run in a while, as every run has either been some form of speed work or after a bike. In addition, all of my runs have a healthy dose of hills, and this half was supposed to be flat. My coach said to aim for 1:55, but secretly, I was thinking that that had to be too slow, and made a silent goal of 1:50. However, what I really wanted was to just go out there and be strong and have a good time.

I met Heidi at 5 AM at her place for the trek down to RI. We got there fairly quickly, as it was very very early on a Sunday morning. I ate a protein bar in the car to fuel up. I had "carboloaded" for real the previous night at my "Flatbreads" cooking class, where we made and ate tons of Naan, pita, breadsticks, and matzoh. When we got to the race, it was COLD. I knew that this weather would be great while we were running, but we were so chilly while getting our race bibs and getting port-o-potty stops in before the gun went off. There were pace groups but they were only 1:45 and 2:00. Since I wanted to be right in the middle of those ranges, I elected to just do my own thing. Heidi said her race strategy was to just go out there fast and get past the crowd and slow down later. I know myself better than that, so I just wanted to take it easy and run at what I felt was a comfortable speed, and just stay consistent.

The gun went off and we were off! I ended up starting out a little faster than I had anticipated, and people were passing me left and right. At the first mile, my Garmin beeped and displayed a lap time of 8:08. Holy cow, I thought. People are whizzing by me and I'm at a low 8 min/mile? This is either going to be a race of super fast runners or I'm going to pass them all later when they get tired! The sun and the running had warmed me up by this point, and as I was no longer cold, but running into the wind, I was feeling really comfortable and strong. I was happily settled into this pace, and did the next 2 miles at a similar pace, even up the first hill. I was marveling to myself at how fast and comfortable I felt, and wondering when it was going to catch up to me!

Between mile 3-4 I caught up to Heidi and ran with her for a short amount of time. Just as I was pulling away, a giant deer jumped out of the brush right behind me right near her and the other runners nearby! Quite a scare, and quite amusing! I continued on, and paced right behind a couple until the next water station. After mile 6, I kept moving a bit ahead, and thought, man, this right here is my 10k PR, I wonder if I can keep this up. I felt strong so I kept chugging along. Just after mile 6, we could see the finish line ahead, but took a right to do some loops off the main road.

The next stretch of the course had two separate steel drum players (the surftown half, beachy theme) and that was a nice bit of entertainment. As I was running along, I kept thinking about how wonderful this race was: Lovely scenery, fun music, perfect weather, and I just felt confident and strong. After mile 10, there was a surprise hill. We could see the runners up ahead scaling what seemed to be a mountain compared to how flat the rest of the course was. I turned to the guy next to me and said 'I thought this was supposed to be flat!' He replied 'Just power up it' and we began the climb. He passed me on the climb but I just stayed even, knowing that the many hills in my last months training runs had come in handy here. When I got to the top, I resumed a more comfortable pace and breathing pattern, and caught back up to this guy. We kept trading places for the next couple of miles. I walked through a water break and then caught back up to him just before mile 12. "you know we may be able to do this in 8s even" he said to me. I said, "oh yeah? I was aiming for 1:55". He said, "I was aiming for 1:50". I looked at my Garmin as we passed the mile 12 marker and saw 1:38. I knew at this point that even if I did the last mile in 10 min, I would be under 1:50. That was motivation enough to pick it up a little bit for the last bit!

For the last mile or so, folks were sitting out on their balconies and porches clapping for us as we went by. It was so great to have these fans cheering us in. As I rounded the final corner, a lady said, go for it, you can see the finish line once you turn! There it was, not far away! I kept chugging along and I couldn't wait to hit the finish line. I knew that breaking 1:50 was in my reach, and I was so elated. I crossed the finish line with the biggest smile on my face, and saw 1:46:50! I almost cried of happiness as I got my medal. This was a new PR by almost 10 minutes, and I couldn't have been happier!

I went back to the finish line to cheer in Heidi who finished in about 1:51! A great race for both of us! It was a beautiful day, and a perfect race. All of this half ironman training in the hills has really paid off, and I am so proud of what I have accomplished with all of this hard work. This gave me confidence to go into the last month or so of training before the big race...