Two weeks ago I ran the Leavenworth Half Marathon and I felt AMAZING. I pushed myself, saw splits on the Garmin I never expected, saw a total time a good 10 minutes faster than what I HOPED, and just plain felt great.
Yesterday (okay at this point it was last weekend!) I ran a half marathon and I felt HORRIBLE. Okay horrible might be exaggerating a bit, plenty more could have been worse, but I did NOT feel good. If I had been by myself I 100% would have stopped at 5 miles (if I even got that far). That's how far my body felt like running. And no wonder - since I struggle to fit in weekday runs at all and they are all only 3 miles - 5 miles is practically a "long run" for this body.
Let's back up a bit. Coming off of Leavenworth, I have Ragnar Vegas and the Seattle Half coming up - and I REALLY want to be in good shape for both of those. I want to not let my team down at Ragnar and I would love to sub-2 at Seattle. But I also really want to baby my hamstring. If you've been following along for a year or so you know coming off of Ragnar Northwest Passage last year I came back too quick - wanting to get right back to training for Hood to Coast and an ultra I had planned (that never happened), and high hamstring tendonitis plagued me despite all kinds of treatment until pregnancy (and the related rest) cured it. But I still feel it waiting in the wings sometimes, and I want to majorly baby it.
How you baby a baby. And a hamstring.
ANYWAY that was a tangent off of a tangent. So I rested the week after Leavenworth, but knew I needed to get right back to it. When Lindsay and Robyn suggested a very small, very cheap half marathon in Robyn's neighborhood (hellloooo opportunity to play with her new kitten) I debated a little (I also didn't want to be away from Baby J that long since this was my first full week of work away from him and I was majorly missing him), but knew it was the best thing since there is no way I'd probably tough out a long run on my own.
So - I signed up for a race 2 days before and there we were on an incredibly foggy (i.e., no beautiful West Seattle views) day ready to run the Salty's Half Marathon. Seeing the very small crowd I instantly started begging Robyn to try to win.
I couldn't find the exact clip I wanted but you better believed I referenced Katniss' promise to Prim.
And the freaking rockstar got THIRD PLACE OVERALL!!!!!! Someday when I grow up I want to be as fast as Robyn. Too bad that will never happen.
Meanwhile while Robyn got top 5 pretty sure Lindsay and I got bottom 5. Not exactly sure how many people came in after me (I wasn't dead last) but it was NOT VERY MANY PEOPLE. Nearly last place over here. Woot woot!
I totally stole this picture of the medal from Lindsay because I'm too lazy to take my own. Mine looks slightly different.
There's not much else to say except it was pretty much a death march after the turn around. It felt like we were never ever ever ever
Total Time: 2:12:05 (this is an average pace of EXACTLY 10:00 somehow)
Splits: 9:54, 9:29, 9:53, 9:36, 9:50, 10:34, 9:56, 11:05, 10:03, 10:07, 10:03, 10:13, 9:22, 9:12 (.22)
How's that for a positive split?!
A few last thoughts:
- Robyn's kitty Jasper is the cutest kitty ever.
- We got little glass fish as our "medals".
- I was starving in the last 3 miles which added to my pain, so at the finish I scarfed down some stuff and then proceeded to feel sick for several hours afterwards.
- How could I ever run a marathon?
- Baby J is precious. I need a part-time job (that pays the same) so I can hang out with Baby J way more.
And now ends the post of 10,000 tangents and no "race" pictures (major blogger fail!). Sometimes you feel
