The Race:  Fox Cities Half Marathon.  I chose this race because it is a flat and fast course, decent sized race (3200 half marathoners), and fairly close to home.  Also late Sept meant I had a good chance for cool weather (and got it - a perfect 40 degrees at the start, sunny, no wind).

Goal:  I’ve been feeling like I haven’t really made much progress this cycle (following Hansons Advanced for the second time) and after a string of disappointing shorter races, I wasn’t sure what to expect for this one.  My last three races have basically predicted the half marathon time that I ran last March (1:43) and a marathon time of 3:37.  I’ve been using 8:00 as GMP for my workouts but lately have been wondering if I’m just delusional.  I knew if I was planning to run sub 3:35 (my BQ time) that I should be able to at least run a 1:40 half.  To add to that, my legs have felt pretty dead the past week so I was really doubting I could pull it off.

Pre-Race:  Got up around 3:45am and had some coffee and Eggo waffles with maple syrup (don’t judge – I had a weird frozen waffle craving and figured they were simple carbs so it can't be bad right?)  Got dressed and headed to the race.  By the time we found parking and stopped for a bathroom break it was only 15 minutes to race start so I headed out to do my warm up.  Ran about a mile with some strides and my legs were actually feeling pretty good.  Finished with just enough time to duck into my corral and within a few minutes the race was starting.

(I'm actually in this photo - you can see the corner of my green shorts and my left shoe (pink).

Splits:

Miles 1-2: There was a tiny bit of congestion at the start but that cleared up pretty quickly.  Plan was to go out at a 7:35 pace and see how it felt.  I found myself running around 7:30 and the effort felt right so I was feeling optimistic.  7:30, 7:34 (this mile ended with a bit of an uphill - overpass).

Miles 3-7: These miles went by fairly quickly. I was trying to run by effort and feeling pretty great about my pace.  I was running faster than planned and I felt decent!  7:17, 7:29, 7:27, 7:23, 7:17

Miles 8-9:  Starting to struggle a bit. Legs feeling tired and having to work harder to maintain pace.  I had my name on my bib and so many people were yelling ‘Go Jennifer!’ which kept me from slacking off too much.   My plan in a half marathon is always to make it to mile 10 and then deal with the remaining 5k.  So that’s what I kept telling myself.  7:27, 7:27

Miles 10-11:  I was working pretty hard at this point. My legs were feeling really fatigued and I felt like I was starting to fade badly. I just tried to focus on keeping my legs turning over.  7:31, 7:32

Miles 12-13.1:  Girl in the pink tank top who I had been following most of the race and had passed around mile 8 catches back up to me.  I decided to try to stick with her and that helped me a lot here – we ran together about a mile and a half before she pulled ahead. I couldn’t catch her but I sure tried.   Legs were ready to give out and my right quad was really hurting.  I knew I had the sub-1:40 but I didn’t know by how much. I was in no position to do math during the race so when I saw 1:37 on the clock I was surprised – I was expecting more in the 1:38 range.  7:22, 7:25, 6:28(final .1)

My official time was 1:37:06, 7:25 average pace.  3^rd in my AG out of 371.  And an almost 7 minute PR from last March.  Pretty thrilled with this race.  And I’ve never earned half marathon hardware before!  (Of course I didn’t find out until I got home so I didn’t actually get the award).

So this has me feeling pretty optimistic for Indy and my 3:30 goal.  And I am back in love with the Hanson Bros

Congratulations, Jenny!  Great job on the race and a very promising prediction!

Wow, congrats on the awesome race and the AG placement!

Congratulations, Jenny! Awesome performance.  And 3rd out of 371???  You killed it!

This race report needs more cowbell photos.

Congratulations, Jenny! Awesome performance.  And 3rd out of 371???  You killed it!

 

This race report needs more cowbell photos.

yeah, where are the rest of the photos???

No photos yet, sorry!

DTF - they had a ton of post race food. Chocolate milk, bananas, cheese, oranges, apples, cookies and even Arby's sandwiches.  It was quite the spread.  I didn't feel at all like eating though.