Monday, January 24, 2011

Clearwater halfathon race report

CLW Bling 1halfathon = half marathon if you were wondering. i did this race yesterday and i’m paying for it today. I AM SOOOO SORE thanks to 2 bridges we had to run over twice each way…fun! i love and hate those downhills because they feel wonderful as you are flying down but that eccentric muscle contraction you get by running downhill just tears up your muscles and that my friends is what causes the intense, deep muscle soreness. this concludes your exercise physiology 101 class for the day. see? i still remember important things like that from exercise phys, kinesiology and anatomy.

before i give you a fairly quick race report, i’d like to point out the race blingity-bling in the above picture. first, please take note of the bib number 831 …it just so happens to be my birthday month and day. coincidence? lucky sign? who knows. the t-shirt is a short sleeve dry fit in small, however, it looks like a large on me, so happy early valentine’s day to the J-man. last but not least, the coveted, gold starfish medal. see close – up below:
Bling 3
it is a little hard to read the last 2 lines but it says from top to bottom: 6th Annual, CLEARWATER, Halfathon, January 23rd, 2011 – which is exactly 3 months since i last raced. honestly, i did not feel like i was physically ready to go hard at this race. my goal was to finish in under 1:40. i met that goal and beat a PR i got for the half marathon about 11-12 years ago. i can’t even remember if it was 1998 or 1999. let’s just say that it was long enough ago that i can’t even find an archived time but i do remember it was 1:36:?? but can’t for the life of me, remember what the exact seconds were. doesn’t matter! for all of you number geeks out there, here is a breakdown of yesterday’s times per mile courtesy of my garmin 310xt:
coursemap 1 – 7:35 (stupid bridge climb so soon)
2 – 7:05
3 – 7:16
4 – 7:29 (stupid bridge)
5 – 7:06
6 – 7:05
7 – 7:12
8 – 7:21
9 – 7:30 (stupid bridge again but this time with head wind)
10 – 7:49 (last stupid bridge and more wind)
11 – 7:28
12 - 7:28
13.1 – 6:59 (oh yeah!)
*************************************************************
1/44 Age Group (40-44 AG)

11/261 Overall Female

51/532 Overall

i basically went out to do a training run and ended up with a PR of 1:35:30, which i will gladly accept any day. the only bad part is i have another half at the end of next month and you know what that means? i will put pressure on myself to try and beat that. i sure hope it doesn’t take me another 11 or 12 years to PR again …LOL!  i’ll be totally honest with you, i would rather do a marathon or an ironman over a half marathon, 15k, 10k or 5k. they just hurt too much. i was made to hold a nice steady pace for hours and hours and usually when most people begin to fade, i turn into the energizer bunny. that’s my strength, long distances at a steady (not to be confused with slow) pace but it is good to mix it up with other distances but i’ll save that exercise phys and anatomy lesson for another day.

i want to send a big thanks to my running buddy Amy for indirectly coaxing me into running the race and to my new friend Lisa who was in front of me as my pacer almost the entire way, even though she didn’t know it until around mile 10. we helped each other run strong for the last 3.1 miles even though our quads were killing us from those stupid bridges … and the wind!  Lisa, please come do the Gasparilla half marathon with me!!

i hope everyone had a great weekend too! much love and peace out!

22 comments:

  1. You are speedy lady !! great job.

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  2. KILLER splits! Congrats on the PR. And that last mile? You totally rocked it! And the bling is pretty sweet as well. And you would think that race directors would either offer womens shirts or at least an extra small!
    PS - thanks for the sweet note on my blog. It was AWESOME and totally brightened my day!

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  3. Nice job and I think I noticed a #1 in your age group. Suweet :) Congrats on the PR too.

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  4. Again, congrats KC! That is a great PR!

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  5. Nice!! and a nippy morning at that.
    You need to run with the Carrot man. I think his time was within 1 minute of yours at his last half.
    Will be fun to see who posts the best IM this year... (my money is on experience...sorry Jeff)

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  6. KC! You Rock! What a great race report, and so fast... Don't laugh, but my goal for my upcoming half is just to beat 2 hours. You're my hero! Good luck as you recover.

    Matt

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  7. well done... bridges do suck... nice medal

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  8. Nice job on that blazing fast time. Maybe one day I will grow up and be fast like you.

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  9. Woohoo! Congrats on your PR and AG win!! That's awesome!

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  10. Way to go KC! Amazing!!!

    And the bling is great (despite the fact that you can't wear the shirt... my hubby has a bunch of double race shirts thanks to me!)

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  11. Congrats! There's nothing better (well, make that "there are few things better") than being 40 and toppling a PR that you set in your 20's. Keep it up!

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  12. Amazing run! I'm hoping to break 1:35 this year but seeing your mile markers makes me really nervous.
    Way to pick up that last mile! Wow! Just WOW!

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  13. Woah there speedy :)

    LOVED that you crushed this thing. So happy you were able to execute and get a PR.

    Love that you have to have BRIDGES as your hills haha. We have PLENTY of hills up here we can loan you ;)

    Can't wait to see your next PR this month!

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  14. Smokin' KC! That is an awesome PR and an incredible time. Way to go.

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  15. Great run! nice PR....ur back in a big way!
    Derek

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  16. Awesome job chica and congrats on the PR! We'll have to get together some time in the winter and try and blast that sub-1:30 mark - we can pace eachother to VICTORY!

    That being said I agree with you on the racing the short races - they hurt and they suck. I'd be happy to never do another 5k, 10k,or 13.1

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  17. Dude. You are freaking FAST. Congrats on the PR!!! You are awesome (we already knew that!!) Short races are hard and painful, at least that is what I think..

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  18. Excellent!!!! To top of that amazing feat, that medal is just the cutest thing ever!

    P.S. I remember this race I did last year where I was so stressed my pace wasn't hitting the targets so I turned off the Garmin and just released the pace pressure and enjoyed the race...got to the finish and low and behold, a PR. I was stunned. Maybe sometimes we just need to go in relaxed and carefree and we'll be rewarded with more surprises :).

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  19. hey KC - just found your blog...my bday is 8/31 also! great job in your recent half! i will be doing IM FL this year also...i look forward to following your progress :-). good luck!

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