Rehoboth Beach Marathon

The goal was to negative split. Glenn called this race a training run for me. I still thought of it as racing in a way. I was racing the second half against the first half.

Reasons for this race-

1. My sister, Ericka, who lives in DC signed up and begged me to come for a visit and run it too.
2. To prove to myself that I CAN negative split.
3. To enjoy the race.

Ericka and I ran the first half mile together. When we parted, I reminded myself with every step that I was to control my pace and hang tight for the first 13 miles.

Around mile 4 I started running with a woman who came up behind me and asked me what my goal for the day was. I told her I wanted to negative split, she told me she was looking to break 3:35. (she is pictured with me below) In my mind, she was the perfect person to run with. We talked and had a good time for the first 14 miles. Her husband jumped in and ran with us miles 6-12, at mile 12 her husband was swapped out for a friend, who planned to finish the race with her.

Feeling fresh around mile 10.

We crossed the half marathon mark somewhere around 1:46. A far cry from the 1:38 half marathon time at the Monumental Marathon five weeks ago.

I felt much better than I did at that point in the Monumental, but my legs surprisingly felt a little heavy. While I wasn’t thrilled about that, I did still feel good otherwise and was determined to stick to the plan. Around mile 14 we entered a park with a few tiny, but noticeable hills. (for someone who runs on the monon in Indianapolis for most of her runs… any hill is noticeable!) At that time, I slowly started parting with my new friend. She was maintaining pace and I needed to start speeding up if I was going to accomplish my goal.

I was tempted to pick it up more than I should at first. The leg heaviness had me worried that if they felt heavy now, so early how bad would they be at mile 20?  I looked down every mile to catch my splits, which were a little under 8 minute miles. I REALLY really, wanted to be able to “race” that last 10K. Through miles 14-20 I was just kind of waiting for it. I was ready for mile 20 to get to me so I could see if I could do it. At mile 14, my journey to start passing people began.

If you read my Monumental Marathon race report, you’ll remember that the name of the game was “pass Lindsey the entire second half”– I was on a mission to reverse that this time. I wasn’t focused on only passing people, I was focused on running strong and it felt really good to run by people at such a steady pace.

I got to mile 20 and hesitated a bit, worried that if I took off too quick, I’d find myself in a world of hurt at 24. I knew 24 was going to hurt regardless, but I wanted it to be a POWERFUL kind of hurt. Like how you feel on your last mile repeat… it hurts, but you  finish strong.

Around miles 21-24 we ran through a trail that was kind of sandy/rocky. It was really nice ground to run on. I was hurting, but I was picking it up. I started focusing on females in front of me. It felt good to pass the males too, but seeing as this was a smaller race, I figured I might as well try to work on picking off the females so I could place better. I knew I wasn’t going to be anywhere close to placing in the top, but one person closer is always a good thing.

I would spot the girls from pretty far away, and it felt daunting at times, because there was so much ground between us. At times I would tell myself to just hang behind them, but it was clear I was running faster than they were and I reminded myself that I’m passing so I probably feel better than them and I do not need to slow down.

My last female pass was with about a half mile to the finish line. I had been approaching for quite a while and was so close to throwing in the towel, thinking I’d just hang on to the finish. But, I knew I had more in me than her though (I’m going to go ahead and thank her for helping me out with that quick split for mile 26). I just put my head down and kicked. Somewhere around mile 20 I had decided I’d try to break 3:30. At that point I figured it was going to happen, but I needed to make sure I didn’t slow down to an 8:30 mile.

During that last 10K, I played the mind games, but I kept telling myself I had a goal and I am strong. If I wanted my last 10K to be my fastest I could do it. I was literally running over a minute (close to two) per mile faster in this last 10K than the last 10K at Monumental. It felt good.

I crossed the finish line in 3:29:21.

This was my second fastest marathon. 5 minutes slower than my PR.

I think I am more proud and excited about this race than I am my PR. I had never ran a negative split. I did that by 3 minutes on Saturday. I needed this confidence to prove it is possible to run faster in the second half.

Now- if I had been racing this marathon for a PR, ideally my splits would have been more even. Clearly I had more leftover at the end of this race and I could have ran a faster total time if I had been more even. That being said, on that particular day, it would have only taken a minute or so off my time. This was all about building confidence. I never had that feeling you get in marathons sometimes where you ask yourself why the heck are you doing this?

Below are my splits…. it’s so fun to look at them and not see that scary mile 22 or 23 where your splits just get ugly. 

Slowest split – Mile 1 – 8:16
Fastest split – Mile 21 – 7:21

As I look back and analyze- it’s like at miles 14 and 20 I was telling myself, wait for it, just one more mile and then go.

Mile 1 – 8:16
Mile 2 – 7:54
Mile 3 – 7:50
Mile 4 – 7:59
Mile 5 – 8:00
Mile 6 – 8:05
Mile 7 – 8:02
Mile 8 – 8:03
Mile 9 – 8:04
Mile 10 – 8:05
Mile 11 – 8:02
Mile 12 – 8:07
Mile 13 – 8:06
Mile 14 – 8:09
Mile 15 – 7:48
Mile 16 – 7:54
Mile 17 – 7:54
Mile 18 – 7:56
Mile 19 – 7:50
Mile 20 – 7:55
Mile 21 – 7:21
Mile 22 – 7:37
Mile 23 – 7:34
Mile 24 – 7:40
Mile 25 – 7:43
Mile 26 – 7:29

Here is the video, my sister Shelby took of the finish. 

We are happy to be done and ready to sit down and chow. This is right after I had to pump in the parking lot at Crabby Dicks. What can I say, I’m a classy mama.