Race Report
So even before the race on Sunday, this weekend was shaping up to be pretty dang awesome. On Saturday I spent a beautiful morning on the river, cheering for the du- and triathlon participants, as part of the Flower City Challenge weekend event. Then later in the afternoon, I was front row at a free Ok Go concert, as part of my campus's D-Day (an all day undergrad drinking festival). The concert rocked, and I got to eat fried oreos, so the weekend was off to a great start.
Saturday evening, I relaxed, got all my race stuff ready and made a kick-ass playlist for the next day's run. I went to bed at 10 because 5AM always comes so darn fast.
I woke up with my first alarm. (I had set two more, just so I could sleep soundly knowing that I would not miss my wakeup call). I went outside for a quick jog down the street to 1) check the weather and 2) get things goin'..if ya know what I mean. Darnit, a sprinkle. Oh well. I knew it was coming, so I was mentally prepared for rain. I ate my peanut butter and honey on toast and left for the arena.
Because the event started from an arena, it was the best pre-race organization I have ever been a part of. Chip pickup was orderly, and there were No lines for the bathrooms even with well over 2000 people between the half and the 5k.
I met up with some people from my pace group, and we started toward the finish line. We found the 2:15 pacer easily, and she gave us the low-down on the race pace and strategy. Interestingly, the pacer had just run boston last week, so I commend her for her awesome job, even though this was an easy pace for her. (I checked the results after and she finished in 2:14:58).
My strategy was to run with the pace group for the first half of the course, and then hopefully I would feel good and try to pull away for the second half. But a nagging thought was playing in my head that if I waited that long I might miss out my "true" potential based on the mcmillan calculator, which was a 2:07:54 finish, based on my last 15k time.
I felt like it took forever to start, I was so psyched I just wanted to GO GO GO!! And finally, we were going, going, going. Whoo. I think this is the time I started smiling and didn't stop the whole time :)
Running is totally psychological for me, as it is for many. So I decided to run with the pace group for the beginning, so I didn't feel like death after only 2 miles. However, after 2 miles I felt like "this is a little too easy. I don't want to kill myself, but I'M IN A RACE." You can see from my mile splits that I start to pull away from the pace group at this point.
The first miles were great. One of my favorite neighborhoods was the Susan B. Anthony neighborhood. A lot of residents were out cheering and being really supportive. Someone was even dressed up as Susan B. Anthony. haha. It was only drizzling at this point, and I was getting warm, so I ditched my sweatshirt on the side of the road.
At the 5k point, there was an a capella group singing along the route. AWESOME! I made sure to thank every volunteer that I could, and even the spectators. They rocked, and really kept me going, even if they weren't specifically cheering for me.
4 miles. I realize I'm running in the middle of a very busy road that I'm normally flying down in my car. It's a beautiful neighborhood with lots of pretty mansions, and it's nice to just go slow and take it all in. This road is mine today, sorry drivers, you're gonna have to wait for us runners to have our way with this course.
in the 5th mile they have Gu for us. Yay. I accidentally grabbed a chocolate so I quickly traded for a tangerine. It was much needed, as I knew that the course had been flat until now, but the hills were coming.
At the halfway point, I felt really good, but a little scared because I knew I was only halfway done. Who knows? maybe my wheels will fall off soon? I was hoping and praying that that would not be the case.
Mile 6 begins some hills, then a flat break, then another hill, then a break, oh wait, there's more hills? I ran the course before, but I seemed to block the bad parts out of my memory. But because of all the hill training I did, I really think I killed them. I didn't speed up at all, but I was flying past people. I must have passed a hundred people over the course of 3 hills. I felt tired, but great. There's a picture of me coming off a hill crest and hitting the downhill. I'm only a little speck, but I love it.
Mile 8ish, we enter the cemetery. It's a beautiful winding path through the park with lots of spectators. At this point though, I think about walking for the first time. I KNOW I can run the entire thing, but the whiny voice in my head tries to tell me I'm tired.
Mile 10-holy moly. double digits. I can do this, but wait I still have 5k. At this point, I challenge myself to try to run a 5k PR at the end of my first half-marathong. How cool would that be?
We exit the cemetery and run past the University of Rochester campus. I pass the building that I'm wasting my life away in, and I'm happy I'm outside running today.
Mile 11-We're running on a nice path along the river. I'm feeling strong. I'm starting to be really thankful for all my training. I know I'm not the fastest, so I'll always be a back of the pack runner. But the training helps me immensely with pacing myself and knowing my abilities. For this reason, I'm still running strong, and passing people that are fading.
Mile 12-OMG. I'm almost there, this is the same leg of course I ran on St. Patrick's day. We cut across the river on a bridge, and I see a girl down with EMS approaching her. I think she just tripped and cut herself, but I hope she was ok and got to finish.
I come up behind a girl I play soccer with, who I thought would kick my butt. I'm glad I caught up with her, but she's walking. I yell some encouragement at her. "come on girl, half a mile..we GOT this." And then I take off. I can see the finish line. I haven't looked at my time until this point, but I know my average pace puts me way ahead of my 2:15 goal, and I'm close to my secret goal of 2:07:xx). I ran as fast as my little legs could carry me. I crossed the finish line under 2:06:00!! I got my medal. Saw my friend waiting for me at the finish line with a waterproof sign. Took photos. Ate banana and bagel. Congratulated friends. Cheered people in.
It was such an awesome day. I had such a runner's high that I didn't even care that I locked my keys in my trunk after the race:)
official time 2:05:39 (9:38 pace)
56/106 F 25-29
761/1290 overall
mile, pace, heart rate
1-10:00 153
2-10:02 154
3-9:54 159
4-9:41 157
5-9:37 160
6-9:48 160
7-9:25 168
8-9:43 169
9-9:28 166
10-9:19 168
11-9:10 167
12-9:15 169
13-8:38 174 (<---holy crap. where did this pace come from?)
.24-7:33 pace 182
Oh, and if I add up the last 3.24 miles..I think it's a ~28:50, so I did get a 5k PR for the last bit of the race. wooo! Can't wait to run a real 5k and see if I can demolish my current PR 29:50.
I'm in the blue (second from the top).
After the race with the awesome sign my friend made for me. It says: Congratulations Cho. You're now a Half-Marathoner.
Xin and I. Xin is the best spectator a girl could ask for. She took some awesome pics, and she saved me after I locked my keys in my trunk. We went out for brunch (mmm banana bread french toast) and then she took me home to get my spare key.
This is one of Xin's pictures, and the caption reads "yes, I did it, baby! I beat my secret goal! ^^" (haha, I guess it's not a secret goal anymore, when you meet it and blab about it to everyone!)
Still on a runner's high. Wearing my race shirt and my medal ALLLL day.
Saturday evening, I relaxed, got all my race stuff ready and made a kick-ass playlist for the next day's run. I went to bed at 10 because 5AM always comes so darn fast.
I woke up with my first alarm. (I had set two more, just so I could sleep soundly knowing that I would not miss my wakeup call). I went outside for a quick jog down the street to 1) check the weather and 2) get things goin'..if ya know what I mean. Darnit, a sprinkle. Oh well. I knew it was coming, so I was mentally prepared for rain. I ate my peanut butter and honey on toast and left for the arena.
Because the event started from an arena, it was the best pre-race organization I have ever been a part of. Chip pickup was orderly, and there were No lines for the bathrooms even with well over 2000 people between the half and the 5k.
I met up with some people from my pace group, and we started toward the finish line. We found the 2:15 pacer easily, and she gave us the low-down on the race pace and strategy. Interestingly, the pacer had just run boston last week, so I commend her for her awesome job, even though this was an easy pace for her. (I checked the results after and she finished in 2:14:58).
My strategy was to run with the pace group for the first half of the course, and then hopefully I would feel good and try to pull away for the second half. But a nagging thought was playing in my head that if I waited that long I might miss out my "true" potential based on the mcmillan calculator, which was a 2:07:54 finish, based on my last 15k time.
I felt like it took forever to start, I was so psyched I just wanted to GO GO GO!! And finally, we were going, going, going. Whoo. I think this is the time I started smiling and didn't stop the whole time :)
Running is totally psychological for me, as it is for many. So I decided to run with the pace group for the beginning, so I didn't feel like death after only 2 miles. However, after 2 miles I felt like "this is a little too easy. I don't want to kill myself, but I'M IN A RACE." You can see from my mile splits that I start to pull away from the pace group at this point.
The first miles were great. One of my favorite neighborhoods was the Susan B. Anthony neighborhood. A lot of residents were out cheering and being really supportive. Someone was even dressed up as Susan B. Anthony. haha. It was only drizzling at this point, and I was getting warm, so I ditched my sweatshirt on the side of the road.
At the 5k point, there was an a capella group singing along the route. AWESOME! I made sure to thank every volunteer that I could, and even the spectators. They rocked, and really kept me going, even if they weren't specifically cheering for me.
4 miles. I realize I'm running in the middle of a very busy road that I'm normally flying down in my car. It's a beautiful neighborhood with lots of pretty mansions, and it's nice to just go slow and take it all in. This road is mine today, sorry drivers, you're gonna have to wait for us runners to have our way with this course.
in the 5th mile they have Gu for us. Yay. I accidentally grabbed a chocolate so I quickly traded for a tangerine. It was much needed, as I knew that the course had been flat until now, but the hills were coming.
At the halfway point, I felt really good, but a little scared because I knew I was only halfway done. Who knows? maybe my wheels will fall off soon? I was hoping and praying that that would not be the case.
Mile 6 begins some hills, then a flat break, then another hill, then a break, oh wait, there's more hills? I ran the course before, but I seemed to block the bad parts out of my memory. But because of all the hill training I did, I really think I killed them. I didn't speed up at all, but I was flying past people. I must have passed a hundred people over the course of 3 hills. I felt tired, but great. There's a picture of me coming off a hill crest and hitting the downhill. I'm only a little speck, but I love it.
Mile 8ish, we enter the cemetery. It's a beautiful winding path through the park with lots of spectators. At this point though, I think about walking for the first time. I KNOW I can run the entire thing, but the whiny voice in my head tries to tell me I'm tired.
Mile 10-holy moly. double digits. I can do this, but wait I still have 5k. At this point, I challenge myself to try to run a 5k PR at the end of my first half-marathong. How cool would that be?
We exit the cemetery and run past the University of Rochester campus. I pass the building that I'm wasting my life away in, and I'm happy I'm outside running today.
Mile 11-We're running on a nice path along the river. I'm feeling strong. I'm starting to be really thankful for all my training. I know I'm not the fastest, so I'll always be a back of the pack runner. But the training helps me immensely with pacing myself and knowing my abilities. For this reason, I'm still running strong, and passing people that are fading.
Mile 12-OMG. I'm almost there, this is the same leg of course I ran on St. Patrick's day. We cut across the river on a bridge, and I see a girl down with EMS approaching her. I think she just tripped and cut herself, but I hope she was ok and got to finish.
I come up behind a girl I play soccer with, who I thought would kick my butt. I'm glad I caught up with her, but she's walking. I yell some encouragement at her. "come on girl, half a mile..we GOT this." And then I take off. I can see the finish line. I haven't looked at my time until this point, but I know my average pace puts me way ahead of my 2:15 goal, and I'm close to my secret goal of 2:07:xx). I ran as fast as my little legs could carry me. I crossed the finish line under 2:06:00!! I got my medal. Saw my friend waiting for me at the finish line with a waterproof sign. Took photos. Ate banana and bagel. Congratulated friends. Cheered people in.
It was such an awesome day. I had such a runner's high that I didn't even care that I locked my keys in my trunk after the race:)
official time 2:05:39 (9:38 pace)
56/106 F 25-29
761/1290 overall
mile, pace, heart rate
1-10:00 153
2-10:02 154
3-9:54 159
4-9:41 157
5-9:37 160
6-9:48 160
7-9:25 168
8-9:43 169
9-9:28 166
10-9:19 168
11-9:10 167
12-9:15 169
13-8:38 174 (<---holy crap. where did this pace come from?)
.24-7:33 pace 182
Oh, and if I add up the last 3.24 miles..I think it's a ~28:50, so I did get a 5k PR for the last bit of the race. wooo! Can't wait to run a real 5k and see if I can demolish my current PR 29:50.
I'm in the blue (second from the top).
After the race with the awesome sign my friend made for me. It says: Congratulations Cho. You're now a Half-Marathoner.
Xin and I. Xin is the best spectator a girl could ask for. She took some awesome pics, and she saved me after I locked my keys in my trunk. We went out for brunch (mmm banana bread french toast) and then she took me home to get my spare key.
This is one of Xin's pictures, and the caption reads "yes, I did it, baby! I beat my secret goal! ^^" (haha, I guess it's not a secret goal anymore, when you meet it and blab about it to everyone!)
Still on a runner's high. Wearing my race shirt and my medal ALLLL day.