Let me explain.
My first ever half in the whole wide world was the Steamboat Half Marathon in Steamboat Springs in 2009. I literally had no idea what I was doing and I think my longest training run may have been around 8-9ish miles. I can’t be sure because I did all of my training with the Nike+ app on my phone and I found out during the race that, although I had calibrated it, the accuracy was way off. When I finished the race, it told me that I had completed almost 16 miles…..yeah, not so much.
Even better? The temps pulled a random Colorado maneuver and plummeted right before the gun went off. A few miles in, the rain started to come down and I just remember freezing. In short, I was undertrained, freezing, and not having a lot of fun. I’m pretty sure I walked at least 4 miles during that race, so I was happy with my time of 2:45. Yes, that’s a 12:35 pace 🙂
My second half was the Platte River Half in Littleton in 2010. Again, I had used my Nike+ for training because I’m not entirely sure I knew that something like a Garmin existed! I did some serious calibration on the track during my early training runs, so I was positive that my longest training run had been 10 miles. Alas, I think that wasn’t true again because this time, my finishing distance, according to the app, was 15.62 miles. Sigh. So who knows how long my training runs really were, but I’m not sure they were long enough!
I managed to fall into step with two girls during this half that matched my pace perfectly. The three of us hung together for 10 miles and I remember seeing the 10 mile mark around 1:50. Not fast, but pretty decent for me. Unfortunately, they stopped to use a Portapotty, I kept going, and the wheels fell off!
I think my lack of training, again, annihilated me because those last three miles killed me and again, I walked a substantial portion. Around mile 12.1, my music cut out and I was so pissed and irritated that I swear, I almost threw my phone at a spectator 😉 The bright side was that the weather was beautiful, but that didn’t help my legs feel any more prepared. I finished that half in 2:35 with an 11:49 pace.
The point of my long winded ramblings of bad races past? I think I can do better this time around, and that makes me happy! I did my 10 miler on Sunday in 1:47, so unless I can’t cough out a 5k in 45 minutes, I’m looking at an automatic PR.
Is it a fast PR? Nope. But with life as crazy as it has been and my training derailing the way that it has, I will be super happy if I completely this half quicker than I have in the past. That’s improvement and regardless of how much faster it may or may not be, I’ll TAKE IT! 🙂
