My First Half Marathon

On August 15th I completed 13 miles (oh and don't forget that 0.1) running the Hobble Creek half marathon and it was absolutely the hardest thing I've ever done. I trained for about 9 weeks and made several mistakes along the way, but ultimately I crossed the finish line and got my medal. 

The night before the race, Maegan & I drove down to Springville. We had booked a hotel there so we didn't have to wake up at 2am.. Kill me! Olive Garden was pretty close to where we picked up our running packets, so we went there for dinner and carb loaded. :) soooo many breadsticks!

We stayed in the Days Inn in Springville and it was pretty average, as far as hotels go, but we didn't really care terribly.. All we needed was a bed and wifi. That night we streamed the movie "Barely Lethal" from Maegan's laptop and painted our nails.. The movie was surprisingly hilarious!

4am came waaaaay too soon. We got dressed and packed our bags with super sleepy eyes. I had shirts made for us for the race.. Pretty amazing!

Minor problem with the shirt: it's heavy cotton and a pretty normal neckline, so it didn't breathe feel well. More on that later...

Denny's was on the menu for breakfast -- aka the only thing open at 5am -- and it didn't disappoint! We ate it on the bus ride up to the race. 

The busses dropped us off 3/4 a mile away (uphill) and we seriously had to walk. Uphill. To the starting line. Suuuuucked. 

After a quick potty break and some awesome selfies, we were starting to feel the anticipation. 

Maegan and I trained together for most of the runs so we knew each other's pace and balanced each other out.. I like to go fast, she likes to go slow, so we meet somewhere in between.

We stretched out and lined up with the 529 other racers... And then we ran! 

A few things went wrong on my half marathon... Things I definitely wouldn't do and things I would do (if I were to do another half). 

First: Don't wear a camelbak. I'll repeat that.. Don't. Wear. A. Camelbak. I trained with it for weeks and totally got used to its weight, hardly even noticed it once I got going... But goodness, it was awful!! I really love the ease of getting a quick sip of water and how my hands aren't encumbered with water bottles, but it was such a bad idea for this race. It has to buckle at your chest and waist, to prevent any bouncing around, which is normally just fine. But that combined with the extreme physical exertion of running thirteen (point one) miles in the hot sun was terrible. 

Second: Don't wear a super thick cotton shirt.. Even if it is super freakin cute! Because I had the camelbak, I had to wear a t-shirt so it wouldn't rub my back raw. The problem with this t-shirt was it was a thick cotton, didn't breathe, and had a high collar with long-ish sleeves. Combine that with my camelbak that had a buckle at the chest and waist, I had zero airflow to my torso. 

So back to the race...

The first couple miles are always hard to really get into the groove but we pushed through and actually were keeping to my goal of 10-11 minute miles. Poor Maegan's music wasn't working so she was running in silence for the first while. Once we hit mile 3 I was feeling pretty good, into the groove and keeping our time. We were eating Gu's every 3 miles or so and trying to drink our water regularly too. At mile 6, our almost halfway point, we were right about at the pace time that we ran our 10k in July, of 1:08. 

I was feeling great and a photographer snapped a couple of pics of us mid-run. 

Then...

I started getting all tingly feeling like I did on my last really long run. My arms and legs were covered in goosebumps (mind you, it was 95 degrees outside) and I had the strangest and worst feeling as a chilly tingle ran from my collarbones up my neck, to my temples. I've passed out several times before and know that awful floaty feeling all too well, so I started walking. A lot. I also was drinking more water, taking the Gu's as we plugged along.. But man, the next 3 miles I felt so off and terrible. My muscles and lungs were totally fine, my body just felt so wrong, like I was going to fall over at any moment. So frustrating!!! After the race I was talking to my mom and she said it was heat stroke, that it's happened to her before too (she has been a runner for years). 

Around mile 9 Maegan ran ahead of me and I kept trying to rehydrate my body and eat the nasty Gu's to give my body some more sugar & energy (it didn't make an ounce of a difference FYI). 

At mile 10 Maegan was waiting for me at the water station. I had started running shortly after she went ahead of me so thankfully she wasn't waiting for very long. She said she didn't want me to pass out and have no one find me or have something bad happen so she decided to stick with me to the end. I was definitely grateful for the company and motivation to keep moving (cuz I felt like I could lay down on the ground and sleep forever)... But I also felt seriously awful that she wasn't running the race like she wanted to.

We continued at a pretty slow pace, alternating between running and walking (more walking than running) and got to mile 12 when Maegan pulled off to run on her own ahead. 

The next mile took an eternity and I fought back tears the whole way.. A couple snuck their way out but I quickly wiped them away. I had such high expectations, goals for the race, and absolutely never thought my first half marathon would be so disappointing. I trained for 9 weeks, ran regularly, bought new shoes, stocked up on Gu's, and read just about every article I could find to prepare for the race. The one thing I couldn't train for was heat stroke. I didn't anticipate how my choices to wear a thick shirt and camelbak would ruin the entire run. 

As I neared the end, a darling old man ran up to me and slowed to walk next to me. He said "we're almost there!" and totally made me smile. He was 79 years old. We walked together for a minute then he started running again. 

At the last corner I started to run again and Maegan joined me for the last stretch. As I crossed the finish line I was relieved to be done but also so upset about how long it took me and the circumstances.

I walked over to the volunteer who was cutting the timing chips off the shoes and then grabbed a t-shirt. Micah and the kids were waiting for me and while it was great to see them, I was also embarrassed and frustrated at my results. 

We took some pics, got our results printed, and had the boys go get the cars so we could go grab some food. 

Back at the car, I took my shoes off and saw this massive freakin blister!

 

Kill me!!

I popped it with the safety pin from my running bib.. So gross! That was one of about 7 blisters I got. We then drove to the restaurant Malawi in Provo and ate a ton of delicious pizza, then went our separate ways home. 

Ultimately, the race was a good check off on the bucket list and I enjoyed the first half of the half... But the second half was absolutely miserable. 

I finished the race in 2:54:59 minutes, 13:21 per mile, overall placed 528/531, in women 304/307, and in my age group 34/34. I was 3 away from last place, the very last in the 25-29 age group. It's absolutely heartbreaking to me that I sucked so bad. If I ever do another half marathon, here's what I'll do differently:

First: Get really comfortable with 10k's. I've only run two of them, and only one this year. Also, regardless of what other runners say, I will run the full distance multiple times before the actual race. I'm a pretty visual runner and really like to see the progress, and if I run on a course multiple times, I love to know where the mile markers are and how much longer I have to run. 

Second: Wear the right gear. I won't do another race with a backpack or a full t-shirt again. It's too constricting and far too cumbersome to deal with.. And apparently I don't do well being hot, but I'm pretty sure I already knew that. ;) 

All I can say now about the race is I'm SO glad it's done with so I can start enjoying running again. :)

xoxo

Mandi

Training For A Halfie

My goal this summer/fall is to run a half marathon and I made it official by registering for the Hobble Creek Half Marathon last week..

So in 9 short weeks I'll be trekking along on a 13.1 mile course. Kill me.

I first made up a training schedule for the coming weeks..

The only change to it I'll be doing is probably only running 10 miles max before the race. That advice was given to me by some serious running professionals on a FB page, simply that on race day I'll have more energy/adrenaline and the 3 miles won't affect me much. And Micah made the point that even if I run to the 10 mile marker and I'm done.. I still have to finish somehow so I'll have to power through it.

So I'm going to post and update as I go my progress with the training program. 

Week 1

Run 1 -- 6.15.15 -- 3.5 miles

I ran with Maegan (she's doing the halfie with me) at her house and it was the worst run ever. There is a very long straight away road that doesn't have any curve or hills on it so you'd think it would be great.. However it also is by a farming field and the only visual marker to see progress is a good 1/2 mile in the distance. Apparently I am motivated by visual cues to see my progress or varying landscapes.. Because it totally felt like I was on a treadmill. Kill me. My other problem was I decided to try out a camelbak with the run because we were trying to do 4 miles and I know we need to rehydrate ourselves if we go further than 3 miles. That was a mistake because it bounced all over my back & unfortunately I wore a tank top sooo I have a really painful rug burn spot on my shoulder blade now. Awesome. 

Anyway, it also was a super intense lightning storm that night with crazy bolts striking so close we felt the electricity in the air.. All the hairs on my body stood on end and it freaked me out! Growing up in Washington I was around storms my whole life and heard about a lot of deaths from people being out during them.. So we cut our run a little short and only went about 3.5 miles instead. This run was long, slow, and painful. It had me genuinely regretting signing up for the halfie so let's hope the next run is better. 

Run 2 -- 6.17.15 -- 2.5 miles

Tonight's run was amazing! I actually had that runners high and stoked on life feeling afterwards and enjoyed the run during. Seriously huge difference from my last run!

Maegan and I ran 2.5miles, as slated on my schedule but I changed up our pace a bit. I found an article that recommended doing a run/walk routine to help lengthen and strengthen runs to make a half marathon more doable.  

We are in week 3 on this schedule ps. 

I decided to try it out and incorporate the run 5 min walk 1 min idea. 

Our run was in between my neighborhood and Maegan's, doing a decent downhill, big uphill, steady downhill then flat straight away, and then turning around to come back... And I've gotta say, I had SUCH a good run!! The uphills made my muscles burn but then the downhill was an amazing motivator to just slightly give me an edge to keep moving. 

That loop was really fun for me and it taught me that I am motivated by little accomplishments along the way.. Like making it up the whole hill without stopping. And the run/walk mentality really helped me keep running even though I felt like stopping.. I'd see the 1 or 2 minutes remaining in that split and knew I could power through till the time ran out. I'll definitely be implementing this style on my Saturday run too. 

I'm SO happy this run was as fun as it was and motivated me again to keep with it!

Run 3 -- 6.20.15 -- 5 miles

Tonight's run was SO much fun! Maegan and I ran 5 miles, incorporating the run/walk ratio of 9:1 and really stuck with it. The course we took was flat with some decent hills (up and down) and was genuinely a really good run. It was challenging, don't get me wrong.. But it was still a good run because we both felt like our bodies weren't tired or giving our, the one crappy thing was we were SO thirsty! Around then 2.5 mile marker we both realized we were parched. Next long run we will have to bring water.. Just maybe not a camelbak. ;) 

It isn't showing mile 5 for some reason (and now the app completely deleted this run.. awesome) but each mile was really on pace because of the run/walk plan we're doing. Totally has me pumped to think we ran almost half of our halfie distance and if we had water we could've gone further! 

Week 1 Total Miles - 11

Week 2

Run 1 -- 6.22.15 -- 4 miles

Tonight was hilarious.. Maegan and I met at Blackridge Elementary again and were about to cross the street to start our run, when a minivan pulled up to the red light.. The side door rolled open and a high schooler boy was sitting in the doorframe, staring at us. He did a Bieber flip of his shaggy hair and yelled "you're hot!" and seriously stared at us for the entire red light hahaha! The driver yelled something too but we couldn't hear & they then drove off. So funny. We ran almost the same loop as on Saturday but with a slight variation. Our goal was 4 miles and we did a 4:1 run/walk ratio. It was a really good solid run, our miles averaging at 12 min.

My right shin started hurting this weekend & I attributed it to being out of the running groove and just my muscles warming up.. Well it started hurting pretty badly during the run. Hello shin splints. So stupid. Hopefully with the ibuprofen I took when I got home & the super long & hot shower I took while I massaged my legs helps work out the angry shins. 

Week 4 Total Miles - 4

Week 3

Run 1 -- 6.29.15 -- 5 miles

Tonight was the first time I ran since last week. I had Olive's 2nd birthday party prep going on and my right shin was just achey enough that it made me a little nervous. So instead of doing the scheduled 4 miles, I did 5, with a camelbak. 

This time I wore a shirt, cinched it really tight, only filled the pack up to 20 ounces, and I sucked all of the air out of it. I didn't even feel the weight difference and hardly thought of the pack.. Except it rubbed a bit on my right side of my neck because I tightened it just a little bit too much. Overall though, the pack saved me because my 5 miles was long & hot but I had the water to help out. With about 1/2 mile to go, I ran out of water. It was a motivator to get up that stupid hill by the gas station haha! 

I started using Strava for the running app and I've gotta say it's pretty sweet.  :)

Run 2 -- 7.2.15 -- 3 miles 

We ran by Maegan's house this time & I've just decided that I'm not a fan of that long flat road! It is totally unmotivating to feel zero progress and see the markers sooo far off in the distance. But we made the run, handled the whole thing and it was pretty enjoyable, despite that long annoying road. 

Week 3 Total Miles - 8

Week 4 

Run 1 -- 7.11.15 -- 5k

I totally threw things off with my trip to Disneyland on July 5th - 10th but it was soooo worth it! I didn't run again until my 5k race, the Bubble Run. 

Micah ran the race with me and that was just about the ONLY redeeming quality to the race. Seriously. It was on a dirt path, there were SO many strollers and kids we were forced to walk SO frequently, there was a massive bottle neck when we had to cross a teeny tiny bridge, and the foam aka bubbles was barely even a factor.. Terribly organized. I definitely won't be doing this race again. My feet and shoes were pretty jacked unfortunately.. Stained blue! But it came off on the wash thank goodness. Micah and I grabbed breakfast together afterwards and had a good time together, so that was fun. :) 

Week 4 Total Miles - 4

Week 5

Run 1 -- 7.13.15 -- 3.5 miles 

We began our downhill training, taking a trip up to Yellow Fork Canyon. It's a pretty curvy and rolling hilly course so it's similar to what our halfie will be. The one major downside is the lack of a shoulder to run on, so we were forced to hug the side of the road and jump off the road altogether if a car came behind us. The run was good though & I think we both really enjoyed it. 

Run 2 -- 7.15.15 -- 4.1 miles

We ran from my house over to Butterfield Park, a 4 mile loop. It was a HOT run but actually really fun. My feet definitely were feeling the miles unfortunately. New shoes were going to have to be bought soon. 

Week 5 Total Miles - 7.6

Week 6

Run 1 -- 7.20.15 -- 6.1

This run was great but SO frustrating too! We started up Yellow Fork again and planned on rocking an 8 mile run. We unfortunately were tricked by the gps and thought the course we found would be 8 miles, when in actuality it was barely over 6. Awesome. The run was hard but good. It was the longest distance we had run together this season and man my feet were NOT happy about it! 

[side note, I bought new shoes!]

They are the Asics Gel Kayano 21 shoe and holy crap lemme just say I'm in LOVE with them! I tried on 8 or 9 pairs of shoes and this was the pair that was the most firmly fitting and yet gave me a really soft squishy support for my pronation with my lack of arches. Seriously coziest ever. 

Run 2 -- 7.24.15 -- 10k RACE

Our Deseret News Classic run was on Pioneer Day in the heart of downtown.. SO much fun! My new shoes arrived in the mall the day before the race [thank you Brittany for your Amazon Prime!] and I wore them on race day. I knew I'd get blisters in my new shoes but I also knew I'd get them with my old shoes.. Might as well break them in a little!

It was a great race! Tough and exhausting but great! Maegan and I ran across the finish line arm in arm, placing 27 & 28 out of 48 in our age bracket. Not great but hey, not last!

Run 3 -- 7.25.15 -- 1 mile

I went for a quick little 1 mile run the day after the race, just to warm up my muscles and help stretch out the kinks a little. Thank goodness it felt amazing and it actually helped my muscles a TON!

Week 6 Total Miles - 13.3

Week 7

Run 1 -- 7.27.15 -- 2.3 miles 

This run was supposed to be a longer run, 6 miles, but Maegan had killer shin pain so we had to cut it short. Total bummer since I wasn't sore or tired at all! Ah next time. 

Run 2 -- 8.1.15 -- 9.4 miles

Longest run to date and MAN it was tough! We started the run pretty late into the morning [8:30am] so we were unfortunately running when it was hot and sunny outside. Yuck. It took us forever, I felt like I was going to pass out at one point [I do that kinda all the time so it was legitimately scary for a minute] and Maegan was exhausted. It was a hot hot hot run. But we did it, logged the miles and fought for every stupid step. Ugh. 

Week 7 Total Miles - 11.7

Week 8

Run 1 -- 8.6.15 -- 3 miles

I ran without my camelbak this run and I felt amaaaaazing! Totally had a ton of crazy energy and seriously had to fight to slow down my pace so Maegan wasn't left way behind. We finished the run and I still has so much energy to spare, it made me consider not bringing the backpack for my halfie. Seriously contemplating it. We'll see. But one week away from the race!

Week 8 Total Miles - 3

Week 9

Race Day!

Check the next post for my first Half Marathon details. 

xoxo

Mandi