Former Bad Ass
George brings up the same points I was going to. Picking up the pace probably lead to the fade out. I'm sure you would've hit 1:55 if you had paced a bit better, but I wouldn't worry. The first race at a specific distance is always an unknown but now you know and will pace much better for the next. Still a great job!
Damaris
uʍop ǝpᴉsdn sǝʇᴉɹʍ ʇI
Zel: Be proud of yourself!! That was a nice race. Until your fade, your splits were fairly consistent. You were probably excited and pumped up and maybe you went out a bit too fast? That is something that experience will help. It was your first HM and you were great. Guess what? In your next one, you will do even better.
What a fantastic debut! Also -- huge congrats on your weight loss and 2 year running journey to get where you are today. What you did takes real dedication and hard work. Well done!
It's always hard to know exactly what went wrong when you don't hit the times you thought you could. Some days your legs just seem to lack their running mojo. It might have been overly aggressive pacing -- but until you become more experienced as a racer, it's very difficult to know what's being overly aggressive vs. too conservative. I think you have to fall over the edge at least once to learn where that edge is. In addition to setting realistic goals pre-race, there is also a real art to listening to your body during a race and figuring out exactly how much gas is left in the tank, and whether you should be easing off, or throttling up. It's something I am struggling to master. It's kind of shocking how much negative impact going just a couple of miles too fast a can have.
Life is good.
Barking Mad To Run
Nice report, Zelanie! Congrats on your half marathon and on beating your goal! You rock!
Wow, hard for me to imagine you at 236...even at 155! You have really made huge progress in your life/running life! Very inspiring!
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt
Healed Hammy
Amazing job Zel, and an excellent result. I am gonna echo much the same George and D above, as I am also a new runner and lack the wisdom they all have.
I would not obsess over the race and your results just yet. You have not been running/racing long enough to be able to control you splits as well as you would like. Experience in a race helps you gauge your "effort" and then how hard to push. Next time you run a HM you will have a greater sense of when to hold back, when to push through some pain, when to let the "feel" of the race guide you. So don't get all OCD over the training plans and workouts, get some more racing under your belt and give us some more fantasic RR like this one!
Zel, regarding your worries about the training:
I would say, from my relatively inexperienced perspective, that March 27th seems a bit early for your last real LR. I would think about a week out would have been good. That's just going by my feeling from the one HM that I've done.
I did an 11 mile LR a week out. My overall training mileage was WAY insufficient, but that LR gave me confidence that I could at least complete the actual miles without falling apart. That will be more like 15 miles next cycle (November) and I will still stay with about a week out.
Zel, first I just want to say that you did amazing! Don't sell yourself short, you are a big inspiration to a lot of people. I've read all the responses, and there's not much I can add. But I will share some of my experiences and thoughts.
I had a very good training cycle for my Feb half, except for the last two weeks, I run way less miles than my plan called for. I was worried sick that it would hurt me, but it didn't. So maybe you didn't taper enough???
Next is, after my Feb half, I felt certain that I could just pick up in week 5 of the plan, have another good cycle, and do even better at my April half. This didn't happen though. I did a 16 mile LR, 6 days after the Feb half for Jenny. Then I went to 5 straight weeks of nightshift, and couldn't complete one single quality run, I managed to get in the miles though. So my thought here is, my legs were very heavy( just didn't feel right), after the hard race in Feb combined with the 16 mile LR 6 days after. I think I needed more recovery. Maybe you too fit this bill as I did about trying to do too much with high expectations. I know you said the 10 mile race seemed too easy, but in all reality, your body probably needed more time to recover.
I hope all this makes some sense, I'm no expert, that's for sure, but I think we all get better by listening and talking with each other, and sharing our experiences.
5K Specialist
Those last couple miles are always tough. You did a great job Zelanie.
Personal Bests:
800M - 2:38 (5/28/13) | 1 Mile -5:54 (5/28/13) | 3K - 11:55 (12/29/12) | 2M - 13:00 (12/1/12) | 5K - 20:00 (4/12/13) | 13.1M - 1:37:24 (2/3/13)
SheCan
Excellent job! All that training totally paid off. You really are speedy! Even though you looked tired in the video, you didn't look totally beat. You're obviously a strong runner, and should be super proud!
Cherie
"We do not become the people who this world needs simply by turning our backs on anyone we don’t like, trust, or deem healthy enough to be in our presence. " ---- Shasta Nelson
Luke- I meant to do a 10 mile LR that my plan called for, one week pre-race. But my hip started hurting after one, so I only ran two that day and took it even easier the following week.
Mitch- I'm wondering if I had both "too much" AND not enough recovery, if that makes sense. As in, not enough recovery for bones and ligaments that are still new to running, but the drastic cutback was too much rest for the cardio system, which left me kind of flat in that area even though the bones felt beat up.
It was my right knee that was bothering me the most during the last couple of miles during the race, and that's what's been hurting since the race. Of course I had no trouble at all from the knee before race day. I guess I'll give it a bit of rest and rolling. Can't wait to get back to "normal" running, though!
I am a sucker for race photos I guess. Here is me almost to the finish line.
Your pictures always turn out good, nice!
Mine always suck.
Very nice photo! You look both happy and strong!
And now verified that you really do have Great Legs!
Nice pic!
One Half So Far
Same here.
Your pictures always turn out good, nice! Mine always suck.
PR: 5K 26:34 (Would have been faster if I hadn't had to tie my shoe), 5M: 43:10, 10K: 54:51. First HM 4/14/13 2:03:23
6/1: Moonlight 5M, Springfield 43:10
7/4 Butte to Butte 10K, Eugene
7/21 Run in the Country HM, Coburg
Another HM sometime in October or November. Several to choose from.