Saturday, March 21, 2009

Three PRs in One

National Half Marathon Race Report

Things started last night with a bloggy meetup dinner to celebrate the arrival in town of the very scientific (and, it turns out, hilarious) Danielle in Iowa.


L-R: Danielle, Adam, Rebecca, Joe, Audrey, Jeanne, Ray, and Peter.

I got a private tutorial strategery session from the 26-year-old enfant terrible DCRainmaker.

The plan was to bring it home in 2:22 (I can dream, y'all). DCR suggested I try to hit 6 miles by 1:06 (my PR, until this morning), and 10 miles by 1:50 (I think that's what he said. We were boozing it up so who remembers?). Sadly, he forgot to prescribe miles 11, 12, 13 and .1. And all the other ones.

I tried hard to convince him that the way to run this thing was all out hell's bells until you can't and then you slow down. He thought that was odd.

After I got home last night, I fired up this clever little pace calculator with FADE tool, and set it for 2:22, with a 60 second fade after mile 5. (See Ray? I'm not the only one who thinks this way!)

And it told me...well, what I thought it told me was:

Pre-fade pace: 10:50 Post-fade pace: 11:13

so that's what I wrote on the back of my hand.

Too bad what it actually said was this:
Overall pace: 10:50 Pre-fade pace: 10:13 Post-fade pace: 11:13

So I thought as long as I ran anything better than 10:50 for the first 5 miles, I was golden. What it actually said of course, was I that I HAD to do 10:13s for the first 5 miles.

Reading the chart: FAIL.

But National Half Mary: PASS!

I woke up at 4:30 and all was right with the world, except for a little stomach upset. I met up with my Speed Dev partner, B., and Nancy Toby and Danielle and we waited FOREVER to cross the start (eight minutes). I love this course because it goes through so much of the city. I hate this course because it has hills. Did the earth shift since last year? Cuz I'm pretty sure D.C. has spouted more hills. The size of the field also doubled this year (I heard 8,000) and there were tons more spectators. Last year's spectators were mostly drunk people who hadn't made it home yet and some homeless guys. Last year I was alone for most of the race, behind two guys running together with their heads stuck through the top of a box. When the sag wagon decided to tail me. That was fun. This year: loads of people around me, and no sagging.

As usual, everyone annoys me when I'm racing. People breathing, CELLPHONES—can we forget the no headphones rule and please deal with cellphones?? Why do you need a cellphone in a race? WHY???—keys jangling, talking. (Unless I'm the one talking. Then of course, it annoys me if you don't talk back. It's hard being me.) This year I yelled at what I think was a D.C. Councilman for leaving his car idling. "Turn that car off! Polluter!" Then some poor soul had the nerve to yell "only 1 mile left" at 11.5 miles. That's just criminal. Arrest her.

On the good side, the cops were fun, the spectators were great. The Howard U (I think?) kids all stood in a line, blasting a boombox, and high fiving as we flew down the hill around mile 8.

As you can see, my pacing is pretty much exactly the same as it is during my training long runs: Everything and then some. I don't want any pace to ever feel left out. I am an equal opportunity pacer!

mile 1: 10:25
mile 2: 10:20
mile 3: 9:48 (30:11 at 3 miles)
mile 4: 11:09 (mile marker misplaced so this was long)
mile 5: 9:20 (which means mile 5 was short :)
mile 6: 10:50
mile 6.2 3:01 (1:04:36 10K PR)
mile .8: 11:00
mile 8: 11:38
mile 9: 12:30
mile 10: 10:22 (1:50: 10 mile PR)
mile 11: 12:01
mile 12: 13:22
mile 13: 10:56
mile .1: 1:06

National Half 3/21/2009:
58/71 2040/2281 10K: 1:04:40 10:25 Finish: 2:27:36 11:16 52 F

National Half 3/29/2008:
48/53 2:31:57 11:36 51 F

(Previous PR: Blue Gray Half Mary, Fredericksburg, VA, Dec 14, 2008:
2:28:43 11:21 min./mile (10/10 grrrrr)
)

Because there's a National Marathon as well as a National Half Marathon, that meant that the finish FOR ONCE wasn't totally dismantled by the time I got there, which also meant that for the Very First Time, I got a free massage at the end. It was an Active Release massage which involved lots of moaning on my part. Although it's entirely possible that the masseuse also moaned.

There was also loads of food and drink, but long lines. You all know how I feel about long lines. My feet hurt. I only needed Powerade. So I did what any normal person would do and cut in line to grab one. (Yes, I am that woman.) Then it was off to the Hawk and Dove for a DC Tri brunch. French toast, and lots of it.

Here I am at mile 13,000: My legs! I can't feel my legs! Or see them! Photo courtesy DC Rainmaker

28 comments:

21stCenturyMom said...

Congratulations! What a great race and you PR'd. Woot!

Rhea said...

Love your race report. Congrats on the PR - that's huge!

scmorgan said...

Excellent!!! YOu are amazing!!!

Kelly said...

Great job on the finish!

I love that you guys all met up ahead of time. It sounds fun (but I think I would have a crazy anxiety attack beforehand).

Your race-rant is great. I'm the same way... EVERYONE annoys me!

Molly said...

Jeanne! Congratualtions!!! Awesome race report and way to go on the PR!!!!

Lesser is More said...

Well done! See, that training program you've been doing helped after all. And amen to the cellphone people, key janglers, and talkers. I had to listen to some girl blab about her 6 Ironman conquests (impressive, yes)...but for 10 miles of the marathon? One can only take so much.

LBTEPA said...

Yay!! Congratulations!!

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you failed to mention that we all have the herp now that we have chugged water out of the same water bottle as all of DC.

Anonymous said...

Oh and congrats on the PR!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!! That photo is an optical illusion...when your legs are moving at the speed of light, they can't be seen! You know like in Road Runner cartoons!
Amazing!!
You're the BEST!

Calyx Meredith said...

Way to go on the PR! I love your race reports. "Equal opportunity pacer" - totally cracked me up. My partner and I decided yesterday that we want to come up and do that race next year.

Rainmaker said...

Awesome - you rocked it! Congrats again. You put in all the hard work with the speed workouts, long runs and everything else. See, wasn't so bad?

Now...to just signup for that half-iron.

MJ said...

Woo HOO! Way to go!!! Was thinking of you yesterday and sending good thoughts during my short "long" run. Way to go, congrats and remember to have some extra carbs today (pancakes, doughtnuts, cupcakes) to replenish your stores. :))) Now I want to do the race next year. "equal opportunity pacer" - I'll have to remember that.....

peter said...

Congrats on yet another PR! You rock. You even had a thumbs-up for Rainmaker in the last qurter mile of a long race.

Petraruns said...

Great race - bloggers meet up, drinkie-poos, running-talk, PR and then best of all - good breakfast! Nice one girl!

Thomas said...

Well, congratulations! One day we're going to get you on a full marathon as well!

Neal Carlton said...

Well done, Jeanne! Very proud of you. I'll echo Ray and tell you to sign up for a half iron.

Anne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anne said...

Niiiice. Love it when I read about an improvement, even with the handwritten misreadings.

Now, about the cellphones. I remember first seeing this in the MCM, circa 1999. I thought, WTF?! when I saw all these people running and talking. If I'm not supposed to meet someone after a race, I carry the cellphone but don't pull it out until I'm done.

Jack said...

Great report, I hope we can run together sometime...that would be awesome!

Congrats on your PR!

ShirleyPerly said...

Woohoo! Thee speed sessions have been working!! Congrats on your PR. Never heard of a race calculator that accounted for fade. I thought the point was NOT to fade in a race, actually, but what do I know.

Black Knight said...

Another PR, this is only the first for this year! Congrats. Wonderful report.

a.maria said...

OMGOMG!! thats so awesome, GREAT pr lady!!!
(see.. i did come see your blog!!)

IHateToast said...

i think you run best on piss and vinegar. congrats!

but this danielle woman. she's shifty. is she in IA or Sea? i'm onto her. i'm watching her like a seahawk.

good on you for yelling at others. when i walk/run, i usually yell the ever classy "Oy! your dog just shit. pick it up!" best part about moving here is the use of "oy" before you insult someone. watch: oy! when are you getting your lazy arse to australia?! see?

Anonymous said...

You did awesome and am so glad to see that you PR'd. Your 10 mile PR is going down at Pike's Peak. You are an inspiration with doing the other training (swimming and cycling) and still doing great with the running. Some day I hope that I can do the same.

Dori said...

Way to go, Jeanne! Whatever you ate at mile 3, I want some of that. Great job. :-)

iJuls said...

Yeah Jeanne. Congratulations on your PR.

price per head said...

It was a pretty busy days but at least you are keeping it up with you training that it is the most important thing.