This past Sunday I finished another half marathon- I ran the Love Run in Philly. I had big goals in mind and while the short synopsis of my race is that I did not accomplish them but overall I am happy to have run another race. Training and getting out there is really half of the fun and not every race will be a personal best so I’m happy with how things went.
Now onto the details and full race recap… Typically the Love Run is a pretty chilly race since it is March. Most of my training runs were done in 30 degree temperatures. Race day was a balmy 60 degrees. Not sure if that played a huge role in my performance but it’s definitely worth noting since I felt physically and mentally great. One of the nice things about the temperature is that waiting for the race to start wasn’t bad, I arrived 30 minutes early, used the porter john, ate half a bagel, and chilled. I got into the green corral which I believe was the second corral. Unfortunately I think I was one of the few people that lined up in the correct corral. I also happened to be in the back. All this to say I spent a lot of the first mile working on passing people. It was annoying.
Miles 1-5 (average pace 8:07)
So after spending mile 1 trying to pass everyone I really took off mile 2 to make up for lost time and was flying! I slowed down and was feeling good heading into mile 3-5. In hindsight I was going to fast, but maybe in the moment I thought I could keep up that pace. I don’t remember feeling super warm here or anything but I was definitely really thirsty!! There were not enough aid stations for the warmer weather in my opinion.
Miles 6-10 (average pace 8:26)
Well I suppose I start unraveling here. Miles 7 and 8 included hills and I slowed wayyyy down (I’m the worst hill runner pretty much ever). It didn’t help that a water stop was on a hill and it’s really hard to take in hydration in general but on a steep hill it’s almost impossible. Mile 9 I picked the pace back up but the heat and my tired legs started slowing me down again in Mile 10.
Miles 11-13 (average pace 8:33)
I just didn’t have it in me. At Mile 10 I decided a PR was not happening… and that negative talk certainly didn’t help me go any faster. I was hot and getting passed left and right. I think I was mentally defeated and pretty much gave up. When I saw Pat after mile 12 I gave him the thumbs down but managed to sprint it out the last quarter mile. Wasn’t enough. Missed my PR by about 70 seconds. Overall time was 1:51 though so I can’t be too disappointed.
Overall I’m not sure what happened and why I missed my PR… my stomach felt great, I was well trained, pretty well rested despite being in the midst of half ironman training. Honestly I think I started out too fast and thought I could hold that pace, and then after slowing down on those hills I just didn’t have it in me to pick it back up. Oh well. I still had a good time and feel great. The nice thing about a half marathon is there will be plenty of opportunities to PR later this year and I’m determined to make it happen!
