Half Marathon Training – Week 8: Mar 8 – 14, 2020

Monday I decided not to hike to save my legs.

Tuesday morning I went for a nice 5.00 mile run at 10:35 pace, 52:56 overall, followed by a 0.50 cool down walk. I sure do feel good!

Thursday morning was raining was going to rain all day. I really don’t like to run in the rain but the half marathon is Saturday and I can’t adjust the short run this week. Out I went into the rain. I ran 3.00 miles but couldn’t stop my watch until I got inside the house to dry it enough to be able to stop it so the pace is a little long. Ended up 3.05 miles with a 10:32 pace, 32:11 overall. I am really excited for Saturday! I may even get a new PR (personal record)!!!

There has been an COVID-19 outbreak in the US over the last month or so, and they are saying we have to practice social distancing (stay 6′ from other people) and we are not sure that will apply to the race Saturday so we wait.

Friday – the race is on!!! The powers that be of Arizona stated that it was an outside event and when we started running everyone would spread out as they hit their own paces. That is such a relief. It would be a bummer to do all the training for naught! Went to my favorite running store, Roadrunner Sports to get my 4 packets of GU for the race tomorrow and the clerk just smiled and told me that I could have them at no charge! I about fell over. What a nice thing to do!!

Saturday aka RACE DAY!!!! Woke up and had my typical banana that I eat before I run and my legs, lungs and mind were all feeling so fresh! We lined up for the half marathon but there were no corral numbers which seemed odd to me, but hey, just rolling with the flow! Ate my GU and jogged in place waiting for the gun to fire. I ate GU at 3.5 miles, 7 miles, 10 miles and that interval was perfect for me. There were a few areas I felt a little tired but the GU would kick in and I never went slower my goal pace of 10:20 – 10:30 and usually kept it faster than my goal pace! In the beginning I keep checking my pace about every 0.50 miles and about mile 7 I start checking about every 0.75 – 1.00 miles because I am pretty locked in at that point. When I hit mile 10 I increased my pace by 5 seconds/minute which had me catch up with the guy in front of me who had just started walking. About 0.50 miles late that same guy passed me and at mile 11 I increased my pace by 5 seconds/minute and during that mile, that guy would walk and I would pass him and then he would run and pass me. At mile 12 I just increased my pace as much as I could because I only had a 1.1 miles left and as I passed that guy he shouted “get it girl, I can’t catch you now” and I just gave him a thumbs and went on with that encouragement! I saw 2 girls and 1 guy ahead of me and focused on the first one and managed to pass her, then set my sights on the second one and passed him, and then saw the last person in my sights and passed her. I turned the corner and there was 0.10 mile left and I could see the finish line. I started running faster and then I 2 shadows coming from behind and in my mind I thought “oh hells no are you passing me! I just busted my butt and I will not let you pass me now” and I dug deep and gutted out some more speed and when I crossed the line I was at a 9:57 pace with that last little burst. I did a 0.12 mile cool down walk and went to find my man and my dear friend that ran in the 8k that started after the half. Check out my final stats!!! I am soooooo excited and loved this course and will be running this half again next year!! I need to start recruiting now so I can get others on board and hoping to get a running group with people of different paces so we all have someone run with during our training runs!!

13.1 miles. 10:15 pace. 2:14:24 overall. 7th out of 33 in my age group (50 – 59). 53rd out of 159 of females. 145th out of 298 overall. So very proud of myself and a dear friend of mine had texted me before the race and said he predicted I had a 10:18 pace and I told him thanks and thought I could get that and how cool it would be and I even beat my best expectation!!

Half Marathon Training – Week 7: Mar 1 – 7, 2020

Monday’s 2.00 mile hike/run went much better than I had expected. On our 0.12 mile cool down walk, my sister-in-law reminded me of other times in our past training we have stopped a mile early because our bodies were not feeling as good as they should have. There is a balance between pushing yourself to get stronger and stopping before you get hurt.

Tuesday did the GU and hit the running path for my last week of pushing hard, because next week is an easy run week to make sure that I am fresh for the half marathon. Had a GU at mile 3 and this run felt good and didn’t have more trouble than normal on the hills! Finished 6 miles with a 10:18 pace, 1:01:50 overall and was smiling for my 0.39 cool down walk because after the tough last long run, I was on my goal pace for this semi-long run!! I may be back in the groove 🙂

Thursday morning I went for a 3.01 mile run and ended with a 9:47 pace, 29:26 overall. Can’t believe how great of a pace I managed to keep and feel so good!! Later that afternoon I met my sister-in-law and we ran a 1.00 mile at a 11:53 pace and had a nice walk for 0.92 miles. Looking forward to my long run Saturday!

Friday morning I woke up feeling a little sore so I decided that I needed to take a short walk. After 0.85 miles my legs felt soooo much better! Now I feel ready for my long run tomorrow!

Saturday morning I did the GU and hit the path. At 3.5 miles I did the GU and the hills weren’t too bad! I took did my last GU at mile 7 and finished the 10.01 mile run with a 10:26 pace, 1:44:24 overall. Stayed in my goal pace for my last long run so I felt pretty good about that as I finished up with a 0.24 cool down walk. Next week will be a nice easy run week 🙂 I feel ready to kill it!!