3M half marathon 2018 race report.
Some time last year, Matt signed up to do the 3M half marathon in January. I looked at my macro and saw that I was supposed to do 12-13 miles that Sunday, far off in the distant future, so I went ahead and signed up, too. I was also supposed to ~24 miles on Saturday, so I figured it would definitely be just a supported long run, not a race.
Fast forward many months, and Matt is wracked by sickness and allergies, manages to eke out 8 miles with me on Saturday, but decides, especially given the weather, that 3M is a bad idea.
And the weather is just terrible. It was terrible for my 23 mile run on Saturday, and then even warmer (65) and just as humid for Sunday. Did I mention it was 18 degrees on Wednesday? 4 days earlier? Crazy.
Anyway, I was on my own, which was fine. I had no expectations other than getting in 13 miles of "running", after which my taper for the Rocky 100 would begin!
I hit the portapotty once I got to the start line, roamed around a bit, hid behind a tree from the wind, and then decided since I still had 30 minutes before the race started, to use another portapotty. Which had ridiculous lines, and I ended up finally exiting the portapotty around 7:26 (race started at 7:30). I waded into the start chute, and could only push my way up to the 2:25 pace group. Which was fine, because I didn't want to get sucked into the energy of people running fast at the beginning.
I crossed the start line and started running nice and easy, and my legs felt pretty okay! Definitely not light and fresh, but nothing particularly sore or damaged from the 23 miles the day before. I chatted with Summer as we crossed paths, and then saw familiar shapes up ahead! I had to push a little bit to get up there, but I slowly made my way up to Belle, Brenda, and Joe! I fell in with them late in the first mile, and decided they were running a great pace for my purposes, so latched on. Brenda lives in Colorado now, so we had a lot of catching up to do, and she basically carried the conversation for many, many miles. Which was fabulous!
I wasn't carrying water, so I got water at most aid stations, and then we'd regroup after the aid station, so I had a few seconds of standing and waiting at most aid stations. Then on Great Northern, Belle and Joe both needed a portapotty, so Brenda and I waited for them. It was definitely a different sort of race than my normal 3M, where I'm trying to go as fast as possible. But it was SO NICE to have company for so many miles, because even though I was trying to take it nice and conservative, the weather WAS terrible, and my legs were definitely fatigued. Having someone to talk to kept my mind off those things, mostly.
Some time later on Shoal Creek, maybe around mile 9, Belle started to fall back a bit. We slowed down to let her catch up, but eventually Brenda fell back with her, and I lost Joe, and I decided I really wanted to be DONE, so I just started running my own pace. I thanked volunteers and spectators and cursed the weather and told people that mile 10 was too early to start saying "you're almost there".
Then near the end of Duval, I passed someone and they said, "Amy Bush!" and it was Vicki! We ran together for a bit, catching up on how her race had gone the day before, and how my weekend was going, and Rocky plans. Then as we entered campus, she told me to go finish, and dropped back a bit.
I carried on, and tried to enjoy the run through campus as much as I could. I was anticipating an uphill slog to the finish line, but when we turned off MLK, I could see the finish line was actually BEFORE the hill starts! That was a nice surprise. I gave a half hearted push to the finish line, and crossed that line, so happy to be done.
Certainly not my fastest 3M ever, but not a Personal Worst either! I got out of it exactly what I needed. A conservative, fun, supported long run.
9:55, 10:12, 10:00, 10:29, 10:08, 10:24, 10:16, 13:31, 10:33, 10:19, 9:38, 9:51, 9:32
And now.. taper begins! Yikes.
Fast forward many months, and Matt is wracked by sickness and allergies, manages to eke out 8 miles with me on Saturday, but decides, especially given the weather, that 3M is a bad idea.
And the weather is just terrible. It was terrible for my 23 mile run on Saturday, and then even warmer (65) and just as humid for Sunday. Did I mention it was 18 degrees on Wednesday? 4 days earlier? Crazy.
Anyway, I was on my own, which was fine. I had no expectations other than getting in 13 miles of "running", after which my taper for the Rocky 100 would begin!
I hit the portapotty once I got to the start line, roamed around a bit, hid behind a tree from the wind, and then decided since I still had 30 minutes before the race started, to use another portapotty. Which had ridiculous lines, and I ended up finally exiting the portapotty around 7:26 (race started at 7:30). I waded into the start chute, and could only push my way up to the 2:25 pace group. Which was fine, because I didn't want to get sucked into the energy of people running fast at the beginning.
I crossed the start line and started running nice and easy, and my legs felt pretty okay! Definitely not light and fresh, but nothing particularly sore or damaged from the 23 miles the day before. I chatted with Summer as we crossed paths, and then saw familiar shapes up ahead! I had to push a little bit to get up there, but I slowly made my way up to Belle, Brenda, and Joe! I fell in with them late in the first mile, and decided they were running a great pace for my purposes, so latched on. Brenda lives in Colorado now, so we had a lot of catching up to do, and she basically carried the conversation for many, many miles. Which was fabulous!
I wasn't carrying water, so I got water at most aid stations, and then we'd regroup after the aid station, so I had a few seconds of standing and waiting at most aid stations. Then on Great Northern, Belle and Joe both needed a portapotty, so Brenda and I waited for them. It was definitely a different sort of race than my normal 3M, where I'm trying to go as fast as possible. But it was SO NICE to have company for so many miles, because even though I was trying to take it nice and conservative, the weather WAS terrible, and my legs were definitely fatigued. Having someone to talk to kept my mind off those things, mostly.
Some time later on Shoal Creek, maybe around mile 9, Belle started to fall back a bit. We slowed down to let her catch up, but eventually Brenda fell back with her, and I lost Joe, and I decided I really wanted to be DONE, so I just started running my own pace. I thanked volunteers and spectators and cursed the weather and told people that mile 10 was too early to start saying "you're almost there".
Then near the end of Duval, I passed someone and they said, "Amy Bush!" and it was Vicki! We ran together for a bit, catching up on how her race had gone the day before, and how my weekend was going, and Rocky plans. Then as we entered campus, she told me to go finish, and dropped back a bit.
I carried on, and tried to enjoy the run through campus as much as I could. I was anticipating an uphill slog to the finish line, but when we turned off MLK, I could see the finish line was actually BEFORE the hill starts! That was a nice surprise. I gave a half hearted push to the finish line, and crossed that line, so happy to be done.
Certainly not my fastest 3M ever, but not a Personal Worst either! I got out of it exactly what I needed. A conservative, fun, supported long run.
9:55, 10:12, 10:00, 10:29, 10:08, 10:24, 10:16, 13:31, 10:33, 10:19, 9:38, 9:51, 9:32
And now.. taper begins! Yikes.