Mellow trail half marathon 2019 race report.
So we signed up for Rockman 2020. In Norway. Between that and SwimRun NC in late October, I have a lot of hills on my dance card coming up. So the last two weekends, I've gone out to the Greenbelt and done Hill of Life repeats. Well, the first weekend I did 1. 1 repeat. Up and then down. The last weekend I went up, down, up, down, up about 2 minutes and then decided that was a dumb idea, so back down again.
Anyway, that's not really all that relevant to this race report, except to say that I've spent a lot of weekends in the recent past on the Greenbelt. I've been running toward HoL instead of toward Barton Springs, like I did a ton of for Rocky training, but I was getting a little tired of the Greenbelt. (Tired of the parts I know. And I don't have a tour guide my pace doing trails currently to show me other parts.)
So I pulled up Tejas Trails' website to see what trail races might be coming up, that I could use as supported training run. And lo and behold, there was a half marathon the first weekend of September! Perfect! I mean, I was a little undertrained for 13 miles, but after Casco I did 5, then 8, then 10, and declared myself ready enough.
And even BETTER, Matt decided to join me and do the 5k! We haven't gone out to a race together since the Maze 10k, and an even longer time before that. It was fun to go out together again, even if he perhaps didn't appreciation a return to really early wake times.
We drove out to Pace Bend Park dark and early, hit the portapotty a few times, took pictures of the sunrise over the lake, and then at 7:30am, the half marathon began.
And it was fun. Mostly.
This was the same area, if not exactly the same route, as the race formerly known as Paleface. A race I don't really remember, other than it was rainy when we did it.
It was not rainy this time. It was warm. Started around 78 and humid, eventually got up to 100, though probably not while we were actually out there. But it got warm. And sunny. And a lot of the course, especially the end, was exposed and unshaded.
But I felt pretty good for most of the run. I had no true goals out there other than to get 13 miles of trail running under my belt and not have to map it out myself. Or figure out how to refill my water.
I ran up most of the hills, passing a lot of people who were walking. I tried to run aggressively but smartly down the long, steep, rocky downhills. There was one hill nobody in my vicinity ran. Maybe the frontrunners ran it. I considered it unrunnable. It was just absurd. And then in the last 3 or 4 miles, I started walking some hill bits that maybe I would have run in the beginning.
I actually felt like I fell apart in the last few miles, which was fine, since I was running further than I'd run in quite some time, and so I didn't expect it to feel really great at the end. But looking at my splits, I ran pretty even splits the whole time. As much as one can on a really varied-terrain trail race. With one 14 minute mile in there that I assume was a mile that contained one of the big-ass hills. (My Garmin's elevation feature hasn't worked in ages, so I never know how hilly things were afterward.)
In the last few miles, with the sun shining down on our heads, I definitely felt like I was flagging. The course felt maybe 60% shaded and 40% sunny, which meant you couldn't really ever wear sunglasses for long, and the sun was killing my eyes. I keep telling myself I'm going to tie a bandana back to my hydration pack, but I keep forgetting. I really needed it yesterday. I had so much sweat in my eyes that I couldn't see anything at times, and that was a little terrifying on those rocky, steep downhills.
I also kept feeling like I was getting a side stitch. I took a salt pill before the race. I took another about an hour in. I didn't plan to take another, but even after a pickle juice shot at mile 8, I still felt stitchy, so I took another salt pill around mile 9. Had two gus. Felt like I drank a decent amount of water. I think it was just so gross out there, it was impossible to really keep on top of it. In the last 2 miles, I kept taking huge gulps of my water because I wanted it so badly, then feeling terrible from ingesting so much water so quickly.
For all that I felt terrible, though, I was passing people pretty aggressively in the last few miles. Lots of people walking. People even less acclimated to the weather. People who went out too fast. People who were cramping or otherwise fell apart in some way.
So even though I didn't feel stellar at the end, I actually did feel pretty strong the whole time. I felt as acclimated as one can be. I felt strong on the hills. I felt confident on the downhills. I felt sure footed. I never fell, never really twisted an ankle, only had one lurch forward from catching a toe. It felt good and natural. It felt like it would have been a stellar, amazing day if it were 50 degrees and maybe snowing.
But I felt like I had as good a run as I could have had with the conditions I was given, and I'm really glad I did it.
At the finish line, Matt immediately led me over to pet a tiny puppy, and then we waded out into the gross, smelly, warm, but amazing-feeling lake and soaked for a little while. My legs appreciated the removal of my body weight for a bit.
And now I have to actually go back to land of coached workouts! Trista and I picked up a coach to take us through Rockman smartly and safely. We started last Tuesday, except I completely moved all the workouts around and skipped one, in preparation for this half marathon which was definitely not on my schedule. Now back to the regimented world of doing what I should instead of what I want, which is exactly what we need to get us to the startline at Rockman feeling like we have a prayer of being prepared.
Anyway, that's not really all that relevant to this race report, except to say that I've spent a lot of weekends in the recent past on the Greenbelt. I've been running toward HoL instead of toward Barton Springs, like I did a ton of for Rocky training, but I was getting a little tired of the Greenbelt. (Tired of the parts I know. And I don't have a tour guide my pace doing trails currently to show me other parts.)
So I pulled up Tejas Trails' website to see what trail races might be coming up, that I could use as supported training run. And lo and behold, there was a half marathon the first weekend of September! Perfect! I mean, I was a little undertrained for 13 miles, but after Casco I did 5, then 8, then 10, and declared myself ready enough.
And even BETTER, Matt decided to join me and do the 5k! We haven't gone out to a race together since the Maze 10k, and an even longer time before that. It was fun to go out together again, even if he perhaps didn't appreciation a return to really early wake times.
We drove out to Pace Bend Park dark and early, hit the portapotty a few times, took pictures of the sunrise over the lake, and then at 7:30am, the half marathon began.
And it was fun. Mostly.
This was the same area, if not exactly the same route, as the race formerly known as Paleface. A race I don't really remember, other than it was rainy when we did it.
It was not rainy this time. It was warm. Started around 78 and humid, eventually got up to 100, though probably not while we were actually out there. But it got warm. And sunny. And a lot of the course, especially the end, was exposed and unshaded.
But I felt pretty good for most of the run. I had no true goals out there other than to get 13 miles of trail running under my belt and not have to map it out myself. Or figure out how to refill my water.
I ran up most of the hills, passing a lot of people who were walking. I tried to run aggressively but smartly down the long, steep, rocky downhills. There was one hill nobody in my vicinity ran. Maybe the frontrunners ran it. I considered it unrunnable. It was just absurd. And then in the last 3 or 4 miles, I started walking some hill bits that maybe I would have run in the beginning.
I actually felt like I fell apart in the last few miles, which was fine, since I was running further than I'd run in quite some time, and so I didn't expect it to feel really great at the end. But looking at my splits, I ran pretty even splits the whole time. As much as one can on a really varied-terrain trail race. With one 14 minute mile in there that I assume was a mile that contained one of the big-ass hills. (My Garmin's elevation feature hasn't worked in ages, so I never know how hilly things were afterward.)
In the last few miles, with the sun shining down on our heads, I definitely felt like I was flagging. The course felt maybe 60% shaded and 40% sunny, which meant you couldn't really ever wear sunglasses for long, and the sun was killing my eyes. I keep telling myself I'm going to tie a bandana back to my hydration pack, but I keep forgetting. I really needed it yesterday. I had so much sweat in my eyes that I couldn't see anything at times, and that was a little terrifying on those rocky, steep downhills.
I also kept feeling like I was getting a side stitch. I took a salt pill before the race. I took another about an hour in. I didn't plan to take another, but even after a pickle juice shot at mile 8, I still felt stitchy, so I took another salt pill around mile 9. Had two gus. Felt like I drank a decent amount of water. I think it was just so gross out there, it was impossible to really keep on top of it. In the last 2 miles, I kept taking huge gulps of my water because I wanted it so badly, then feeling terrible from ingesting so much water so quickly.
For all that I felt terrible, though, I was passing people pretty aggressively in the last few miles. Lots of people walking. People even less acclimated to the weather. People who went out too fast. People who were cramping or otherwise fell apart in some way.
So even though I didn't feel stellar at the end, I actually did feel pretty strong the whole time. I felt as acclimated as one can be. I felt strong on the hills. I felt confident on the downhills. I felt sure footed. I never fell, never really twisted an ankle, only had one lurch forward from catching a toe. It felt good and natural. It felt like it would have been a stellar, amazing day if it were 50 degrees and maybe snowing.
But I felt like I had as good a run as I could have had with the conditions I was given, and I'm really glad I did it.
At the finish line, Matt immediately led me over to pet a tiny puppy, and then we waded out into the gross, smelly, warm, but amazing-feeling lake and soaked for a little while. My legs appreciated the removal of my body weight for a bit.
And now I have to actually go back to land of coached workouts! Trista and I picked up a coach to take us through Rockman smartly and safely. We started last Tuesday, except I completely moved all the workouts around and skipped one, in preparation for this half marathon which was definitely not on my schedule. Now back to the regimented world of doing what I should instead of what I want, which is exactly what we need to get us to the startline at Rockman feeling like we have a prayer of being prepared.