Sam Costa Half Marathon 2017 Race Report

I’m trying to do a quick weekly recap of my workouts just to keep an eye on what I’m doing and how I’m progressing. And if anyone is interested in the post baby running progress, it might be fun to follow along. I took it easy on all the miles this past week coming off the half marathon last week.

Let’s talk about the half marathon real quick though. My plan was going to be to run hard, but start out conservative and progress hard in the second half. I told Glenn my plan and he told me I was trying to wuss out of seeing what I could REALLY do.

I was thinking I would run somewhere around 1:35-1:37 depending on everything. Glenn said based on my workouts I could do more like 1:32-1:33. Alright then.  So we went out and I was determined to just work hard the whole time and see where it got me.

This is what it looked like: 7:05, 7:05, 7:10, 7:05, 7:05, 7:20, 7:30, 7:25, 7:25, 7:37, 7:51, 7:32, 7:27.

Positive Splits anyone?!

It got real windy around mile 5 or 6 and the 7:20-7:30 effort felt like 7:00 for sure. Around mile 8 I knew I was done and I had the thought I could just jog it in. I knew I wouldn’t actually do that, but those end miles starting feeling like a jog and I am actually surprised they weren’t any slower that they were. I felt like we were crawling. Those are the times you have all the thoughts- why do I do this to myself? I could just run slower and not put myself through this misery. Why am I choosing to make it hurt? And we all know the answer to that. Because of the reward is that amazing sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when you complete your hard work.

Glenn kept telling me to just keep working hard. So I worked hard. He kept telling me to smile and that would make it feel better. I tried a couple times, but it feels funny smiling while in so much temporary pain. The real problem was my legs; they felt like lead.

I was a little annoyed at Glenn toward the end there when I was crumbling, because I remembered back to my first half marathon after Louis when I ran somewhere around a 1:38. (that race I was 4 months post partum- this race I was 5 months post partum) I went out very conservatively (like chatting it up easy pace) and raced in the second half. The racing in felt hard but not crumbling.

Two thoughts on that- I’m a big believer in negative splitting being the way to race (especially long distances). However, I liked that Glenn was encouraging me to be gutsy and believe in going big. Do I think that 1:32-1:33 was an impossible goal for me last Saturday? No. It was aggressive for sure. But it wasn’t impossible. Last Saturday wasn’t the day for me to do that though. The wind was crazy and my legs weren’t having it. I didn’t really “taper” and I started my period 3 days later. Those are all excuses of course, but my point is, if things had lined up just right and I also had a great day running, I still think I could have pulled it off.

So I’ll make that my goal again for my next half. Alright then. Stalk my Carmel time. As long as we get a babysitter lined up- I’l be there. Glenn’s pacing the 3:15 group for the full marathon, so he’s got first dibs on the morning.

Here’s a look at what my last two weeks looked like. (RIP swimming) Easy runs have been landing around 8:45-9:15 pace.

03/20-03-26

Monday: 7 Mi Easy

Tuesday: 6.8 Mi with 30 Min @ Progressive Tempo (7:05 down to 6:50)

Wednesday: 3 Mi Easy + Massage

Thursday: Rest

Friday: 4 Mi Easy

Saturday: Sam Costa Half Marathon – 13.1 Mi @ 1:36:52 (7:21ish per mile) + Short Warm Up

Sunday: Rest

Total Mileage: 34 Mi

And at the end of the day. These boys are waiting for me and they could give two shits how fast I run. 🙂 Though Marshall did ask me what I won.

03/27-04/01

Monday: 6 Mi Easy with Glenn

Tuesday: 5 Mi Easy with Molly +Strength

Wednesday: 7 Mi Easy in Bloomington

Thursday: Rest

Friday: 6 Mi Easy on Treadmill

Saturday: 7 Easy with Glenn

Sunday: 15 Mile Easy with Leann

Total Mileage: 46 Mi

(sort of big jump in mileage from the last few weeks, but they’re all a little skewed since I’ve been doing longer cycles with long runs more like every 10 days recently) I’ll likely hang anywhere between 35-45 in the next few weeks)

PS – Have you listened to the most recent episode on I’ll Have Another Podcast? It’s with Sarah Canney– check it out!