Fort Lauderdal A1A Half - Race Report

 So yeah, this weekend was a big deal for us.  I ran my 2nd half marathon, the Fort Lauderdale A1A Half Marathon.  It was an EXTRA big deal because it was Brad's first half as well.  Yes, my husband, Mr. "If I wanted to go that far I would drive my car" committed to run 13 point frickin' 1 miles.  It helped that I drug him up to work packet pickup at the Expo with the awesome folks who run this race.  He got to see first hand why I'm always so willing to jump up and volunteer at events.  Because the people are AMAZING.  Oh, and the promise of a kid free night at a hotel may have helped too.

Of course, Murphys Law.  Sickness came to our house. First my son, then my daughter.  How can I ask a friend with kids to kid sit my sickie?  Commence freakout.  Thursday rolled around and the baby was better but, oh joy, Brad was home sick from work.  Commence SUPER FREAK OUT, because I had trained my butt off for this thing and was SO ready to run.  Didn't even want to think about the hurt feelings involved if I bailed because he wasn't feeling better (which wasn't going to happen) or him being upset if I ran it without him.  Thankfully, on Friday everyone was feeling healthy.  Breath of fresh air.

Of course, still plenty of time for things to go wrong too.  Remember that fun part of the Ragnar story where the battery on my wonderful Yukon died at the first major exchange?  The car that I haven't had a SINGLE problem with in the 6ish years I've owned it.  Yeah, well, we're starting a disturbing trend for races in 2013 (or maybe just races I do with hubs?  Not sure which . . . if its going to be one or the other, it needs to be the later because the next half dozen races on my schedule are without him sooooo, love ya babe but you understand.).   Dropped the kids off at my friend (AWESOME friend, by the way, that keeps your kids for 26 hours so you can go play), noticed that Brad's car was smoking a bit from under the hood.  Hmmmm.  Why no, dear, he told me, I'm sure its nothing.  Of course, by the time we had sat in traffic to get to the Expo for packet pickup, it was clear something was wrong with the car--it was overheating. Awesome.  AT LEAST the weather was cool, so that delayed the overheating.  Parked the car, would deal with it later. As in, when we got home later.

Expo was fun, but busy.  Spent a lot of time helping out.  Spent a lot of time trying to get food--long lines and crappy food made for a less than ideal lunch situation.  When we walked outside at 6:30pm after finishing at the expo, we sat in the parking garage and admired the view for a minute.  Beautiful cool South Florida night.  But wait, those flags were sure blowing a lot. Hmmmm.  Oh well, it wouldn't be too cold in the morning. Its South Florida after the all. Great running weather!  Easier to run when it isn't hot and humid!  YAY!   Ate food (Winn Dixie brought home to our hotel room . . . I much prefer Publix thank you!).  Laid out the race outfit.  Packed the bags. 

 

 Tough Chik tri top, Tough Chik arm warmers (THANK YOU TOO TALL!)

Skirt Sports  skirt and Aspaeris Gen2 Shorts (review on those coming soon).

Ummm, yeah, no one was going to be seeing my cute outfit race morning.  I checked the weather at it was 40s and you could HEAR the wind howling.  I'm sorry, 40s?? Are we still even IN south Florida?? We were hoping for 60s for Ragnar and we got 80s.  We were planning for 60s at race time and we get 40s?   Okay.  So I put on the outfit above, the ONLY long sleeve tech shirt I own, and then two sweatshirts.  And long pants over my Aspaeris Pivot shorts and under the skirt.  Some of those would be shed after working packet pickup.  Here's the 3:30am, not really awake, bundled up in too many layers picture.

 

I had previously had some serious issues with mental blocks on the long runs leading up to race day, so I wrote some stuff on my hands to keep my head where it needed to be.

****

"I race against myself.  Against Fear"  -- this one was because I always worry about my pace--I have compared my "slow" pace to my faster friends paces forever.  No more--this was a race against my old time.  And in the past few weeks, I had come to the realization that I have more speed in me than I let myself believe.  I have been labeling myself as a "slow runner" for as long as I have been running.  Some serious soul searching lately has lead me to believe that it may very well be the last thing I'm holding on to of the old me . . . I can no longer claim to be the fat girl who is stronger than she looks, because I KNOW I am strong and so does pretty much everyone else.  I think the slow label is one of those last layers that is holding me back.  Anyway, long psychobabble explanation. I digress.  

"Its not over when you are tired.  Its over when you are done." -- because really.  13.1 miles.  I'm gonna get tired. 

****

The other thing I did was program my Garmin for 5 minute run intervals with a 1 minute walk interval.  I was worried about going out to fast and keeping my head where it needed to be in the later miles.  So I left it with a warmup and cooldown option, so I could run for as long as I felt like it before I started intervals.  I had a goal in mind.  2:30. But in my head, I was pretty sure I was going to have to be happy with my B goal, which was simply "faster than my last half." 

As we helped out with late packet pickup, the wind killed us.  It was so chilly. And yes, I realize those of you in the north who deal with snow and sub zero temps are laughing at me.  But I've lived in this state for 12+ years and after a while, your blood thins.  It was COLD.   And then, to top it off, my stomach didn't cooperate.  Yeah, those of who are regular distance runners get my drift.  The rest of you, move on, you don't need to know.  We got busy at packet pickup and then suddenly, BOOM, it was time to go to the corrals.  I shed my non-race approved layers and started freezing my legs off.  Upper body was fine, but I was worried about my poor legs in shorts.  I started freaking out a little so I plopped in my headphones and started listening to my playlist. A new track from Red's new album was my first track--a beautiful song with some great meaning.  

As You Go.

At the risk of bringing in more psychobabble.  Probably the most spiritual moment I've had in a while.  I know we catch a lot of flack from some family members for not attending church, but I always feel closer to God when I face my fears.  So I had tears in my eyes and an uplifted heart when I crossed that start line.  I already felt like this was going to be amazing.

And literally, it was absolutely amazing. Start to finish.  I have never, EVER, run a race in such an amazing mental state as I had for this race.  Granted, this was only my 2nd half, and I have maybe a dozen other races under my belt.  But it was INCREDIBLE.  Start to finish.  I went out too fast, and knew it, and I just went with it.  I had to adjust some of my layers as I went.  But I saw some friends.  Mile 1 was out of the way, and I tried not to freak out a little when I saw the time clock there at 15 something.  Yeah, I knew we were at least 4 minutes into the race when I passed the start line.  I passed a bunch of people on the tiny little bridge (thank you Rickenbacker repeats for making that little drawbridge look just that--LITTLE), and then boom, bring on the waterfront views. Sunrise over the ocean.  I wish I had a smartphone, because I would have stopped for a picture. 

Lots of beach front property and one adorable intercoastal park later, I was six miles into this thing and feeling AMAZING.  I started intervals around mile 4.   Walked through the water stations.  But I really didn't start feeling fatigued until we got back on A1A and we had to face the full force of the wind again--head on.   But there were so many great people out there.  I made sure to copiously thank the volunteers that handed me water.  Have you ever worked a water station? You get wet.  And wet + the temps we had meant a cold, miserable job.   I had a little hiccup where my GPS got turned off--it had to have been for only .25 miles or so. I knew that IF I could hold where I was I would come close to making my A goal.  And then suddenly, we were turning.  And then we were at mile 9.

Right about then, this song came on.  Another Red favorite from their new album. 

At that point, I knew that all I had to do was hold on.  I had a beautiful ocean view to my left.  I knew Brad was waiting for me at the finish.  The wind was finally at my back and I shed everything down to my Team Tough Chik top.  And I knew . . . I was was going to crush it.  I was tired, but still absolutely in the best mental place.  Looking back, I can't say there was a minute where I was ready to be done.   The absolute BEST thing I did was make sure I couldn't see my pace on my GPS--I couldn't obsess over it and I didn't look at my watch as much.  That will be something I am doing on race day from now on. 

At some point, I realized my hands were numb.  And looked like sausages.  Hmm, noted, but its not like I haven't had edema before on a long run and it WAS cold.  Then suddenly there was a mile left.  That was probably the hardest mile.  But I finished strong.  I passed a couple people.  I looked at the time clock and KNEW it was good, because the course clock (that started with the gun) showed just over 2:30. 

  

I found Brad.  He had finished in 2:07, which included a potty stop.  (And even though my tummy didn't cooperate before the start, it did during the race, so SCORE!).  And even though we had JUST finished, I couldn't help but ask him if he would do it again.  And he said yes.  :-) 

It was COLD after the finish.  Turns out the temperature was dropping.   We grabbed some grub, hung out for a while and checked the times.  And before you read them, understand my fastest 5K on record is in the 30:03.  My only half marathon was 2:49:59.  (I thought it was 2:42, but I went back and checked . . . yeah, I was off).

Stats:

10K Split:  1:03:21 (Definitely a 10K PR for me)

13.1:    2:26:07   11:06 min/mile pace

When I had looked at the pace necessary to make it in under 2:30, I remember thinking "no way am I averaging under 11:30 over 13 miles."

 

I shared this on my facebook page 10 days ago.  And I said that I felt like I was at the edge of something.  Fear has been holding me back from going for more.  That if I could get the courage to JUMP, there would be something amazing waiting on the other side.  A long time ago,  Amanda (yes, Miss TooTall again!) told me that speed comes with miles.  This go round I trusted in that process and did JUST that for this race.  I put in the miles.  I did a little bit of speed work, a little bit of hills, but mostly I just put in the miles.  

So I hope no one thinks I'm bragging this week when they ask me how I've been and I tell them I crushed my half marathon record by 23 freaking minutes.   And next week I'm going to start following an actual training plan.  Because I know now I'm really not slow.  I'm not "fast" in the traditional sense of the word.  But I'm only slow if I let myself believe it.  And pardon me if I continue to say how running can change your life. Because it certainly has changed mine.   Kissing another layer of the old me goodbye.

"I said I'm not afraid, That I am brave enough.

I will not give up until I see the sun.

Hold me now.  'Till the fear is leaving. I am barely breathing . . . "

~Red

(Review of A1A is coming next, this was long enough, but suffice to say it was amazing.  Be sure to check out their Registration Blitz here, starting at 7am 2/19 for amazing discounts.