Last November right before Thanksgiving I ran 1/2 marathon in Pinehurst, NC. This was somewhat of a whim. Since I am a teacher I usually do more miles in the summer and then once school starts up again my miles decrease so come November I really wasn't doing as much as I should have been to get ready to do this run. I also tried to cut back on eating sugar. But I ran it and there Matthew and PD were, cheering me on right at the last mile or so. I was doing good until I got to mile 7 where I needed some fast energy and ate some GU, some sugary, carb stuff. I was beat and really needed something but the GU gel stuff gave me bad stomach cramps and I felt really lathargic. I finished the run and got a pretty nice t-shirt out of the deal. I ran at an ok pace which I was really happy about but to be honest, I wanted to get faster. I honestly thought I'd run alot slower so I was pleasantly surprised but it got me thinking about working on my speed. Matthew got me the Garmind Forerunner 201- about 2 years ago and I was slow to using it- it was a little bulky on my wrist but now it's hard to find me without it on. Matthew found me a killer half-marathon training schedule in Runner's World-March 2006. Since January, I have been doing yoga, swimming and running but then he found this training schedule and it really gave me something to shoot for. I figured it out- I really like intervals, love going fast, then slow then really really fast and then a little slower but I'm not crazy about pace runs. Interval running is when you go fast for a short distance and then slow down to let your heart rate slow down and then pick it up again. Pace running is when you set a pace and stick to that. Anyways Saturday is the big race day and we'll see how my training has helped.
The half a marathon was in Charlottesville, VA. It was an incredibly hard race- having never really been to Charlottesville before I didn't know what to expect. To be honest, the run wasn't much fun, the course description said rolling hills, they weren't rolling they went on and on and never seemed to end. Who would put a tough hill at mile 11 of a race? I found myself asking that question- and then I asked that question again at mile 12. I did ok, slower than the first half a marathon but this race was by far alot harder. So does training help?I'd have to say yes, because without the training I probably would have run slower-alot slower. Would I do this half a marathon again in Charlottesville? No way. The joy of the race was taken out with the number of hills and where they were located. It's not that I minded the hills, but having so many tough ones really at every mile made it a race about hills. I just found myself dreading the next hill but there were some postives-Oh yeah and you get a really cool t-shirt and you get to say you finished it. I really like the t-shirt. There was this really cool lady that had a sign that said Conquer the Hills! I cheered after seeing that. But the absolute best part of the marathon was seeing Matthew and PD right at the beginning of the race and then later on at mile 12, just before one of those killer hills. Seeing them right before that hill made me run up it smiling. Then I saw them cheering me on at the finish line. That made the whole race and all of the training worth it.
