![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
That went really well. Upshot: 3:30:03 for the full marathon, for a new PR by 6:09!!
Lindsey and I went up to Indianapolis yesterday evening, having decided to come home and hang out with the kitties after our red-eye flight from California. We stayed in a hotel in downtown Indianapolis and walked over to the Westin to find the BARA folks and take our traditional pre-race team picture, just like previous years. Our friend Jaimie met us at the hotel too -- this was his first half-marathon!
It was a beautiful day for racing! Nice and cool but not cold! Overcast at first, and then the sun came out.
My pacing was really good; I started with the 3:35 pace group, just like last year. My original intent was just to stick with them the whole way, ready to be happy with keeping a steady pace and a small PR. I tried hard towards the beginning to stay relaxed and not push myself. And doing that, even, I found myself floating further and further in front of the group, and I kept thinking "wow, these miles are just flying by!" Really happy with how this went: negative splits overall, and mile 26 was the fastest one.
Had some interesting conversations along the way; one girl, Laura, told me about how she was a graphic designer and used to live in Bloomington (and knows Rachel N, like probably most runners in the area); she was dedicating each mile to a different friend, and would announce who that mile was for, when we got to mile markers.
My brain goes to strange places in the last third of a marathon; a guy commented on my VFFs, saying that my calves are probably pretty strong and that it's probably more like how our ancestors ran. And I started thinking about persistence hunting and said (to a total stranger) something like "it's like I'm chasing down a buffalo; it will collapse from exhaustion and then I will fucking stab it to death. And drink its blood." ... he didn't seem too weirded out by that, somehow.
Almost broke 3:30! In my defense, my watch says that I went 26.3 miles overall. So there's that.
Great race, yeeaaahhh! Compare with my previous one this year, especially the splits.
Things that went well here: the pacing, clearly -- staying relaxed at the beginning was good. Nutrition: before the race, I ate two Clif bars (and a multivitamin -- my supplementation is ON POINT), and had a Gu like a half hour before starting. Then I ate a Gu roughly every 45 minutes during the race, which I think was about the right amount of calories. Drank mostly Gatorade along the way, but sometimes water if I was feeling thirstier. My training leading up to the race was pretty good running-wise (although I've put in more weekly mileage, sometimes), but I've also been doing more strength training than before. I started doing a fair amount of bodyweight strength training since the spring, and that probably helped. I wore some toe socks with my VFFs (which are just a touch looser than I would like), and I didn't get any blisters, which is rad.
OK, cool :)
( the stats, if you want even more detail )
Lindsey and I went up to Indianapolis yesterday evening, having decided to come home and hang out with the kitties after our red-eye flight from California. We stayed in a hotel in downtown Indianapolis and walked over to the Westin to find the BARA folks and take our traditional pre-race team picture, just like previous years. Our friend Jaimie met us at the hotel too -- this was his first half-marathon!
It was a beautiful day for racing! Nice and cool but not cold! Overcast at first, and then the sun came out.
My pacing was really good; I started with the 3:35 pace group, just like last year. My original intent was just to stick with them the whole way, ready to be happy with keeping a steady pace and a small PR. I tried hard towards the beginning to stay relaxed and not push myself. And doing that, even, I found myself floating further and further in front of the group, and I kept thinking "wow, these miles are just flying by!" Really happy with how this went: negative splits overall, and mile 26 was the fastest one.
Had some interesting conversations along the way; one girl, Laura, told me about how she was a graphic designer and used to live in Bloomington (and knows Rachel N, like probably most runners in the area); she was dedicating each mile to a different friend, and would announce who that mile was for, when we got to mile markers.
My brain goes to strange places in the last third of a marathon; a guy commented on my VFFs, saying that my calves are probably pretty strong and that it's probably more like how our ancestors ran. And I started thinking about persistence hunting and said (to a total stranger) something like "it's like I'm chasing down a buffalo; it will collapse from exhaustion and then I will fucking stab it to death. And drink its blood." ... he didn't seem too weirded out by that, somehow.
Almost broke 3:30! In my defense, my watch says that I went 26.3 miles overall. So there's that.
Great race, yeeaaahhh! Compare with my previous one this year, especially the splits.
Things that went well here: the pacing, clearly -- staying relaxed at the beginning was good. Nutrition: before the race, I ate two Clif bars (and a multivitamin -- my supplementation is ON POINT), and had a Gu like a half hour before starting. Then I ate a Gu roughly every 45 minutes during the race, which I think was about the right amount of calories. Drank mostly Gatorade along the way, but sometimes water if I was feeling thirstier. My training leading up to the race was pretty good running-wise (although I've put in more weekly mileage, sometimes), but I've also been doing more strength training than before. I started doing a fair amount of bodyweight strength training since the spring, and that probably helped. I wore some toe socks with my VFFs (which are just a touch looser than I would like), and I didn't get any blisters, which is rad.
OK, cool :)
( the stats, if you want even more detail )
