Half Marathon #2: For the Love of the Kids Virtual HM

So today I ran my second half marathon. Now, it is not considered an "official" race because it is a virtual run in which people register and participate in their own town or favorite running route. I registered late last Friday so I hadn't received my bib to wear during my run. With that being said I knew I was going to be in for a rough day when I woke up a 4am after only 2½ hours sleep. I tried to get back to sleep but it just wasn't happening. Not too long after 6am I went to go buy my pre-run breakfast items that I was out of...Bagel Thins and bananas. Instead of the Bagel Thins I ended up with whole wheat English muffins...which I promptly burnt when making my breakfast! I tried going back to sleep but only ended up in bed tossing and turning. After an hour I decided that it was just time to get up an run...I had already been awake 6 hours. I had taped up my knees during breakfast so all I had to do was tape up my turf toe on the left foot and taping for turf toe on my right foot as a precaution.

I was finally out of the door at 11am. The first challenge...getting my Fuel Belt (a waist belt that holds 2 bottles for water, has a small pocket for energy foods, a holder for energy gel in a flask and a large pocket for my phone). It usually takes me the first 3 miles or so to get into a rhythm and I found that at mile 4 I was actually right on page to finish at my 2:45 goal. Mile 5 found me 30 seconds ahead of pace and I downed roughly the equivalent of one caffeinated Gu energy gel and water at five miles to try to keep the flow going. (I also made a mental note not to run this route on Tuesdays or Wednesdays because apparently the livestock auction is on Wednesday...people were bringing in their stock and the manure was rank!) I managed to keep ahead of pace by 1 minute in miles 6-8 but after that (and the equivalent of another Gu gel at mile 8) I started to loose several seconds with each subsequent mile although I managed to stay about 15-20 seconds ahead of pace for most of the rest of the run. By the time I hit mile 12 my head was telling the body to back off since I'd be finishing the distance okay...that's not what I wanted to do, but for the whole mile it was a battle between resting (walking) and trying to run (which ended up breaking down into shorter and shorter intervals). I just happened to look at my phone a little before I was to reach home and was surprised to find that it read 13.11 miles already...luckily I did catch the time which was 2:44:52!! Yay! An unofficial personal record (PR)!

I've reached out to some of my friends on Facebook running groups to work out how to push myself to work hard in that last mile, how to improve my speed through speed workouts and the science of snot rocketry. Thanks to a lot of input I've got some idease as to the first and last item, but working on speed is going to take some time. I have another half marathon in 10 days...so I'm gonna rest tomorrow (except for PT exercises) and on Thursday do a short 2 mile run or walk...probably with the grand pup. Then just my classes at the college and a couple of short runs until the race 2 Saturdays from now. Hopefully recovery will go smoothly...I really hope so!! lol!

100 Days Challenge:

• Day 45
• Virtual half marathon (13.1 miles) for For the Love of the Kids/Association of Hole in the Wall Camps
• 60 minute Hatha Flow yoga class

What I Ate Today:

• 1 Whole wheat English Muffin
• 1½ Tbsp super chunk peanut butter
• 36 oz G2
• 10 oz water
• 2 Gu energy gels - Chocolate Outrage
• 2 fried eggs
• 1 sausage patty
• 24 oz low fat chocolate milk
• 1½ cups Rosemary potato soup
• 6 chocolate chip cookies

Alkalete Review Days 6-8:

For the last few days things have been pretty much status quo. I've taken my doses today (including an extra dose post run) and will see what things feel like tomorrow after having run the distance today. No major changes to report.