This morning was one of my favorite (maybe my MOST favorite) races in Austin. The 3M Half Marathon. It's a screaming fast course that starts up in northwest Austin, then ends downtown by the UT campus. Net elevation drop of about 300 feet over the 13 miles, so you can really run fast.
I was racing, but just fit it in to my normal training week since it wasn't a big goal race. More of a barometer to see how training was going. I was a little nervous after doing 100 miles biking the week leading up to the race, on top of 26 miles running. But that's duathlon training!
My last PR for the half marathon was at 3M two years ago, a 1:32. I felt pretty good about doing better than that, but my big super-goal was to break an hour and a half. I had some good confidence after the Runtex 10 miler a couple weeks ago, but doing a 6:52 pace for 13.1 miles still seemed pretty daunting. Even with the downhills.
The weather was weird- lots of wind, sort-of cold (50 or so at the start), but it felt much colder with the wind chill. After doing a mile warmup then finding a spot in the starting corral, I waited. And waited. The race was supposed to start at 6:45. The announcer said there was a delay. 7:00 rolled around, then 7:15. Finally they said that the wind had knocked the barricades down that were supposed to block side streets on the course, and the police wouldn't let us start. Almost an hour later, they finally got everything set back up. But standing in the cold wind for that long really killed my warmup.
Once we did take off, the first mile was horrible. My legs felt dead, cold, and tight. It felt way too hard, and I was barely running a 7:30 pace. I'd hoped to go out an easy 7:10, then settle into a 6:55 for the first 4-5 miles.
I decided I just had to push a little harder at the beginning, and finally got moving for a 7:18 by the end of the first mile, then 6:56 and 6:52 for miles 2 and 3.
The crowd thinned out after the first couple miles, and I started to see people I knew, cheering for the runners. It's such a great boost to hear your name called out :)
Coach Panther ran by me in the first couple miles, and told me "wait til after mile 4, then drop the hammer". Mile 4 was after we turned onto Spicewood Springs, and where we hit the first really nice long downhill.
I picked it up a little early, running mile 4 in 6:43. And then tried to stay quick & smooth down Spicewood, doing a 6:35. Saw Matt & Amy cheering down that section, and heard the bagpiper who is always right around this part of the race. That always makes me smile!
I didn't want to blow up early in the race, so I tried to stay controlled for the next couple miles. Mile 6 & 7 were both about 6:55, and I was finally feeling warmed up.
We turned onto Burnet Rd, and the wind surprisingly was in our face. I thought we'd mostly be running with it at our backs or sides. Along this stretch I ran right alongside a girl that looked like she ran cross country for a high school (she had a T-shirt on with something about regionals). We fell into nearly the same rhythm and pulled each other along for a couple miles. Then she picked it up a little and went ahead. But it was really helpful to pace alongside someone, it pulled me to a 6:51 and 6:45 for miles 8 & 9.
As we turned off Burnet, we had a couple short climbs, then I knew we'd have 3 miles of mostly flat or downhill to the finish. I decided to run the next mile as strong as I could, then just let it all go for the last 3.
Towards the end of mile 10 I caught up with a pace group that was aiming for a 1:30 finish. I'd seen them at the start, but lost them pretty quickly. Since I'd started behind them, and now was caught up, that meant I was definitely in reach of my super-goal! I chatted with them for a few seconds, then kept pushing. Mile 10 went by at 6:47.
Now we were in the home stretch. I ignored my watch, and ran as smooth and fast as I reasonably could. We went down into the UT campus, and past the football stadium, and then by Waterloo park to the finish. I was passing quite a few people, and still feeling good. As we went by the stadium, the wind shifted and it blew right into our faces for about a quarter mile. It was like running into a wall! But I knew I was less than a mile away, so I pushed through it.
Coming down the last quarter mile I could see the finish, and I kicked it up to whatever gear I had left. I chased down several more runners, and as I looked up at the big timing clock at the finish, I saw it was at 1:29! I sprinted across the line, looked at my watch, and saw my time was 1:28:48 (it took me about 20 seconds to get to the start line from where I'd lined up), an average pace of 6:46 per mile. I couldn't believe it, I'd smashed the 1:30 goal. My last three miles were at 6:32, 6:28, and 6:30!
I wandered around in a daze for a while, ate a cookie (Tiff's Treats had hot snickerdoodle & chocolate chip cookies for the runners!) and drank some water. Then I found the results posting, and it said I'd finished 3rd in my age group! I didn't expect to place, because this race draws so many fast runners from around the country.
I waited around for the awards ceremony (they were going to announce winners of the top 10 overall and top 5 masters, then let us age group awards people pick up our awards). I was totally shocked when they started announcing Female Overall Masters to find out I'd actually placed 4th overall masters! I guess the preliminary results that were posted didn't have the top 10/5 pulled out. So I even got to get up with the other Masters women on stage and get my award :)
The only downside to the race was that I discovered it's not a good idea to run a hard 13 miles, then eat two cookies and a pepperoni roll (Austin's Pizza also was giving out food to the runners). That didn't sit so well :) But it was worth it.
Here's a picture of the award:
Fantastic!! Congrats!!
Posted by: Rachel | January 24, 2010 at 03:51 PM
Awesome! Great job, Glenda!
Posted by: amy | January 25, 2010 at 10:28 AM