Cliff Notes

I ran the Columbia Half Marathon this morning. Official time 2:04:58, which is a PR. My Garmin says the course was 12.98 miles, I mapped it on RA and came up with 13, so, not counting it.

Background

I registered for this race back in December when I got a discount code for doing a 10k that the same group put on. Ironically, the 10k measured long. I was already registered for the Atlantic City half on 4/3, but figured this gave me a fall back if the weather sucked in AC (and it did). I had used the Hudson half 1 and 2 plans as guides for the AC half. I wasn’t sure what to do in the 3 weeks between. I did a hard long run with intervals the Sunday after AC, I feel like I never fully recovered for the race, then did that and the next 2 weeks were a struggle. My legs hurt, intervals were a challenge and holding HM pace for more than 2 miles seemed lol. I got a blister on the side of my right foot and my right ass cheek started to hurt. I am not sure which came first, the blister or ass pain; this happened 3 years ago, same exact thing. Not sure if I get the hot spot & blister & alter my gait or if my butt starts hurting, I alter my gait & then get a blister. I put some K Tape around the side of my foot and hoped it would stay.

Unlike AC, the weather today was nice, although maybe a little warm towards the end. Low 50s to start, low 60s at the end, sunny, only a little wind in one spot. I went with a tank and capris with homemade arm warmers from old socks.

I debated back and forth just how I was going to approach this. They had pace groups. I thought about starting with the 9mm group, if I crashed and burned, oh well. My other thought was start with the 9:30 and see how I felt mid way. I decided on the 9:30, that would get me a PR.

I got there about 30 minutes early. I had noticed right before I left that the number on my bib and the number on the bag with my chip were different. The last 2 numbers were the same, first one was an 8 as opposed to 3 on my bib. I stopped by the packet pick up table, turns out it was ok. Whew! Caught up with my friend who was also running, found the indoor bathrooms and then lined up. My friend was going out with the 8:30 group, I told her wait for me at the end.

The race

9:23, 10:04, 9:25, 9:07, 9:29, 9:28, 10:05, 9:46, 10:06, 10:02, 10:21, 9:05, 8:50

There are no distinguishable landmarks in Columbia. Despite growing up 20 minutes from there and living even closer after college, I get turned around every single time I am there. Without carrying my phone & dictating, it seems damn near impossible to divide this race into any sort of sections.

I started with the 9:30 pace group. The pacers wore white t-shirts and were carrying a sign. Well, they carried the sign for less than ¼ mile. Um, ok. I tried to stay near them in the first mile, with the crowding, it was a little difficult and I felt too hemmed in. Then on a slight hill in the 2nd mile, I said f this. My butt already was hurting. I had thoughts about turning around and going back to my car. I wasn’t about to kill myself to try to run at someone else’s pace and I was back to thinking this was a really stupid idea and running is dumb.

Around mile 3, I ditched the arm warmers. I was actually feeling a little better about the whole thing, like maybe this wasn’t such a dumb idea after all. I wound up catching up with the pace group again, I think close to mile 4. Then went past them on a downhill. I think she was trying to keep almost equal splits, which sounds good in theory, but I just can’t do that on hills. It’s pretty easy to pick out which miles had a net downhill from my splits.  The times I was near the pace group, it felt too easy on the flats and downhill, then too hard on hills.

Just after mile 6, we went down a pretty steep downhill, which ended along the Middle Patuxent River. I was silently cursing in my head. I knew the river was likely going to be at a low or lowest elevation point on the course, so we would have to go uphill. After a brief flat section paralleling the water, yep, uphill. Up until this point, my butt hurt, but not horribly. The uphill, and I am pretty sure my poor form didn’t help, made it throb. So I walked up the steepest part of that hill (and most of them). Not sure that I really lost all that much time walking, it was a steep hill out of the river area.

Around mile 8 or 9, the part of my foot with the blister started feeling hot, especially on the uphills. From here until mile 11, it was more of a struggle, my foot and butt hurt. The walk breaks seemed to take a little pressure off my foot. I was just ready for this to be over. When I hit mile 11, I started the same countdown as AC, every time I checked my watch, which was many, I told myself, ok, you only have to do this for less than 20 minutes, ok, 15, 10, etc. By this point, it was a net downhill, although there was a final uphill at mile 12.5. It was on that hill, that I started to get that uneasy feeling that this was gonna be short. The finish was downhill, so felt like I finished looking strong.

Post race, I hung out with my friend and her DH & kids for a while. Got our results. We had talked about getting lunch, but neither of us were actually hungry.

Final thoughts

It was probably a bit ambitious to do the 2 races three weeks apart. Despite doing more mileage (for me at least), I think I hurt myself doing AC at a weird pace, not quite racing but definitely not easy. Then trying to jump back into harder stuff just didn’t work.

I had an uneasy feeling about the course distance last week, I had mapped it out on RA, but was unclear exactly where the start/finish area was. That time I got 12.75 miles.

Would I do this race again, probably not, unless the get the course certified. It’s one thing to do a $25 5k that comes up a few hundredths short. It’s another when I pay more & there is far more recovery time involved. I’ve looked on Facebook and haven’t seen any posts on the event company’s site about the distance.

That all said, I at least feel ok with the fact that on what definitely was not my best day, when I was not feeling it and on a much hillier course than my last 2 halfs, that my overall pace was within 4 seconds of my PR pace. Now I just need to go find another half where the race elevation chart looks like AC: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nice job.  I was surprised you mentioned this case was not certified, as I thought both this one and the full were.  I travel there once a year for work and always wanted to run it.  But if it's not certified and short, maybe not.

 

Great job on your PR.  Even if short, at least know you will PR on your next one for sure.

Columbia, Maryland? Or SC? This is in MD, 2nd year race and no full.

It sucks that the race came up short, good job on the pseudo-PR.  When are you looking to race again?

I have a 5k Saturday and then possibly the following weekend. Longer stuff, don't know. May gets too iffy weather wise. I swore 3 years ago I would never train for a fall half after struggling through every single long run in the heat. However, the running club has a fall half on the rail trail that is $2. I would hope theirs is measured close to accurate, although I don't think I could complain too much at that price.

Columbia, Maryland? Or SC? This is in MD, 2nd year race and no full.

Haha, SC.  Didn't even know there was one in Maryland!

Looks like you raced well. Good thing you got your mojo back not too long into the race.

Congrats!

Annoying when a course comes up short.

I ran 2 half marathons within 3 weeks once. Pretty much ran the same time for both and hated the second one. I never did that again.

Nice job running so close to your PR.

Congratulations on the kinda PR. The blister sounds very painful. Mine are always nice enough to burst and bleed all over my shoe when I get them in races. It's a drag the course was short but you know what your potential is.

As far as training for a fall half, I personally find it much easier to run in the evenings in the summer. The temperature is warmer but the humidity is usually quite a bit lower. I don't know if you already run in the evening or what your schedule is like but I thought I'd throw that out there.

Nice job on the 12.98-mile PR. Sucks about it being short - you'd think measuring the course properly would be the #1 job. The hilliness sounds awful. And, as Coach from Cheers once said to Diane when she mentioned her time spent at the Sorbonne: sorry about your sore buns.

 

I ran 2 half marathons within 3 weeks once. Pretty much ran the same time for both and hated the second one. I never did that again.

I ran 2 halfs in 4 weeks last fall. The first was 4 weeks after a marathon; the second is my PR. So, you never know, I think it was worth giving it a go.