Bournemouth Half Marathon Race Recap

I can't believe I am actually (and willingly) sitting down to write this recap before the Nike Run to the Beat Recap. (Maybe because I have all sorts of angst towards that race and everything I want to say about it sounds like bitch bitch bitch whine whine whine. I probably can't even write it at this point.)

Anyway, on Sunday, the 6th of October 2013, I ran the inaugural half marathon of the Bournemouth Marathon Festival. (There was a 5K and 10K on the Saturday, and a half and full marathon on the Sunday).

Alex and I pre-race! Note to self, race in obnoxious shorts more often!

I didn't have many expectations for this race. Sure, it would be great to PR. But inaugural races could also be quite messy. And I didn't run anything over 6 miles since Run to the Beat. So my expectations were quite low.

And damnit, if my expectations and goals were high I probably would not have PRed, but by golly I did!

Here are the Spark Notes :

1. My previous PR from Brighton was 2:24:45. My shiny new PR is 2:21:07.

2. I am the queen of positive splitting.... But we already knew this.

3. The course was gorgeous! I think this has been my favourite race so far. We ran along the beach side for probably 50% of the race, and also ran around 2 piers. The finish area was packed with amazing spectators.

4. The course was also mostly flat. One short-ish hill around mile 8 I think (you can see a dip in my splits where I walked up 2/3 of the hill. No shame.)

5. This was by far the best I have felt during a half. I remember hitting a wall in Brighton at around miles 7 and 8. And Run to the Beat was just one big freakin' wall in general. But this time, the miles flew by and I felt strong!

Here are the not so Spark Notes :

In Type-A fashion, I had everything set up and packed the night before. I had my obnoxious Lululmeon shorts set out. I had my yummy chocolate Gu in my race belt. I had my 2 water bottles washed, filled with water, and put in the fridge overnight. And in the fridge is where they remained for the entire race. Oops.

Yes, I forgot my water. Fun fact about me : I am the thirstiest person alive. If there is not water within grabbing distance I am panicking. That's just me in normal day to day life, yet alone when I am running.

I didn't panic. I didn't even say anything because I didn't want Alex, his parents, or the dog (yes, the dog came to cheer me on... Or play on the beach... Whatever.) to panic either. I just stayed positive and hoped that there was enough water on the course. And spoiler alert, there was plenty of water along the course. That's definitely a first!

See, does he look worried to you?

I listened to some pump up music at the start and decided to get comfy (as comfy as standing and stretching can be before you run 13.1 miles) since I was in the 2nd to last corral. However, I didn't even get a chance to see how many minutes it took me to cross the start line since I passed it so fast! I've never started a race so freakin' quickly before! Or on time! This was already proving to be a fantastic race!

The first few miles were actually quite spectator-less. I was very sad because I basically thrive off of spectators energy and enthusiasm. I kept thinking that if this was going to be what it was like for the entire race than I was screwed.

My goal (as always) was to start off slower than I thought, but also to not look at my Garmin. I turned the face of my watch to the inside of my wrist so I couldn't even sneak a glimpse. I did actually sneak a glimpse just at the 2 mile mark where I saw a sub-10 minute mile. 'Turn it the eff down, Taylor' is actually what I said in my head except with a more colourful word.

There was an 'out and back' I believe around mile 3 or 4, which a lot of people didn't like because I guess that makes it more daunting seeing people running the other way with no immediate turn in sight. I actually really like it because it makes the course seem more energetic and lively.

I saw the fam at around mile 4. I felt pretty okay since we just passed a water station. I annoyingly kept the water bottle in my hand from water station to water station in fear of needing water. I also wanted it in case I wanted to spontaneously take a Gu but didn't have water. (Although I ditched that idea at about mile 8 when I realised the water stations were actually quite frequent).

Obnoxious shorts, coming through!

 

Mile 6 was around the time we started running along the beach. It was amazing. The sun was shining, but at no point did I feel overly hot or sweaty. It was quite sunny and I desperately wanted my sunglasses, but I never got that uncomfortable 'I'm hot, I'm sweaty, I wish a cloud would permanently block the sun' feeling. It was amazing. And this is where I noticed the biggest difference in this race. These awkward middle 'you're only halfway there but not quite in the double digits yet' miles flew by.

I saw the fam again at about mile 7 and I still felt really good. Apparently I missed a real comedy moment not even 2 minutes prior where Finlay (our dog) pulled Alex's mum and sent her tumbling to the ground. It was really nice to see them so many times throughout the course!

We left the beach area and faced the only hill of the course. I took my second Gu at this point because I was half power walking half trying to get my breath back. It was absolutely disgusting (and for the record, I'm pretty good with Gu. I only really have the chocolate outrage ones now because those are the ones I can tolerate best). I couldn't water it down no matter much I tried. It literally felt like someone put a massive dollop of frosting on my tongue. It sucked.

The good part was that the top of the hill had lots of volunteers who were motivating everything to get going again. It was fantastic. And then we were back on the beach again! I could run on the beach forever I think!

This is a terrible picture from the start of the race, but look at what I'm wearing compared to the guy behind me! Emphasis on WE'RE RUNNING ALONG  A BEACH!!!

I knew I slowed down a bit from the beginning (see, queen of positive splitting) but I knew it wasn't as drastic as when I slowed down during my first half marathon. Mile 10 is when I realised a PR was definitely manageable. And I told myself that if I had a chance to PR and didn't fight for it, I would be super pissed off at myself.

The last 5K was another out and back, and we actually got a glimpse of the finishing line at around mile 10 as well. It was another one of those moments that other runners got really annoyed about but I absolutely loved. Only 5K to go! I can do that in my sleep!

I focused on not going too fast, but staying on target for a PR. I had a 3rd Gu with me just in case I needed more umph, but as my last attempt at taking a Gu was dreadful I decided the time it would take me to choke it down would be too costly. Slow and steady wins the race, people.

The turn around point could not come soon enough. I remember feeling so happy. Yes, this was in fact the final stretch and it was the best I've ever felt.

With less than one mile to go we ran onto the second pier (I can't remember where the 1st pier was... oops!). I looked at my watch for one last time and unless I went tumbling from the pier to the ocean I was definitely going to PR.

The finishing area was packed with the best spectators ever. I didn't even look around to find the fam; I knew if I saw them I would start crying.

Finish line... taken after I finished!

The best thing I ever did was train myself to run on tired legs. I can't sprint at the best of times, but I turn into Usain Bolt (yeah, I wish) when I see a finish line. If any finishing pictures were taken that day I do not want to see them, because I sprinted my way past a number of people to get my glorious time of 2:21:07 and then burst into tears. Happy tears, of course!

Awesome bling!

Not even a month prior to this race, I ran the Nike Run to the Beat half in 2:31:47. Did I really take 10 minutes off that time??! Yes, yes I did!

And when we got home, you would think that Finlay just ran a half marathon instead of me....

Pooped pup....

If anyone is looking for a good race in the south of England, I would definitely recommend this one! I plan on running it again next year!

Eastleigh 10K Race Recap

Hey! I did another 10K!

I thought this as a cool part of the free t-shirt! Gotta love race t-shirts. This does not do the color justice. It looks in the pic that it's school bus yellow. It's actually florescent highlighter yellow. I'm not even kidding.

So I'm a bit late in posting this. I started my new job last week so I took a week off from writing until I could get into a good routine. (Side note, perfect time to start a new job in England. 4 day week. 4 day weekend due to TWO bank holidays. And then another 4 day week. I'm spoiled.)

I'll keep the recap short and sweet.  

Time was 1:04:28.

No PR, but overall I think this was the best 10K I've run out of my 3. I'm counting it as a personal PR (personal personal record? Whatever.) for several reasons.

Even though my time was about a minute slower than the last 10K I did, I think this course was a lot more accurate for distance. Also, all of my splits in this race were pretty consistent. I didn't really negative split, but I didn't positive split either. My splits kind of looked like a bell curve to be honest. (Bell Curve... What a dork... Statistics was always my best subject in high school/college!)

There was a hill between miles 2 and 3 if I remember correctly, and I felt like I conquered that like a champ. It wasn't particularly steep, but it was long and gradual. And honestly, sometimes those are worse. But I powered forward and felt strong going up it.

Oh and not to mention I did this entire race without music! I didn't want to do it; I really like running with music! And I always thought I was so dependent on my music to keep me going. But everyone was saying how strict they were with the "no music or headphones" rule. So I didn't use my iPod for fear of getting disqualified. And I didn't hate it! It's good to know I can run 6.2 miles without some jams keeping me going. 

Lastly, I loved this race because over 130 members of my running club ran it! We took a big group photo before it started. Even though I'm in the slower portion of the club, it didn't really feel like it mattered. And that felt good. Other members were constantly cheering everyone else on, especially at the end. It was some of the best camaraderie I've ever seen.

Do you like running racing with people you know or do you prefer to go at it alone? Do you run with or without music?

Wrap Up & Run 10K Race Recap

I honestly wasn't even going to do this race. I was going to concentrate on PRing in the Eastleigh 10K (which is next weekend) because literally 100 people from my running club are doing it and didn't know if I'd be up for racing 2 weekends in a row.

But oops! I found myself signing up for it because it was super close to my house and I felt like I should take advantage of that. I mean, America finds a race for everything. I kinda miss that.

I wore green even though it wasn't St. Paddy's Day themed! Oh well! #TeamSparkle

The course was about 2.5 laps of the park that I know like the back of my hand. This kind of worked to both my advantage and disadvantage.

My slowest points were definitely when I thought "Ugh crap... I still have to run this exact spot 2 more times..."

And then to top it off, they had signs for every kilometer. So as we passed the 1K marker, we passed the 5K marker about 4 seconds later. That was a bit soul crushing. Stupid laps.

Oh and did I mention it rained poured the entire time?? I know, I'm really painting a fantastic picture of how lovely this race was.... But it down-poured. And it was kind of nice for like a minute. And then rain got in my eyes and my contacts starting cursing at me and that sucked.

Other than that, it was a great race! It wasn't very big, therefore, no big crowds or need for weaving.

Thumbs-upping to Alex, who was a lovely sport and stood in the rain! It looks like I'm going super fast because I'm a blur in the picture. In reality I'm probably like "It's raining, it's cold, and we're at .3 miles right now...."

My last 10K was back in December 2011. So going into this race on Sunday, I knew I had a PR in me somewhere.

I had no idea I had a 10 minute PR in me, though! My official time was 1:03:38!

I stayed pretty positive throughout the race. Even though I didn't train much (read: AT ALL) for this race, I knew how far I had come and felt proud to be a runner.

The worst parts, like I said before, were the parts when I realized how much was left simply by knowing how many laps we had completed. Those were my 2 mental blocks. Anything in between was more like "Yay! Running! This is fun! I'm flying!" 

I sprinted through the finish and was beaming when I looked down at my Garmin and saw 1 hour and 3 minutes staring back at me. It was a good feeling.

What wasn't a good feeling was walking through the mud as shooting pains were going through my knee. Ouch, that was no fun....

But then we went home and made green drinks in honor of St. Patrick's Day.  

Green cider... Why the hell not!

In my lovely college town, they always had green beer for the weekend. But I hate beer. So I never really celebrated St. Patrick's Day. So when Alex said the pubs were making green beer/cider for the first time (that he'd seen), I knew I had to celebrate my PR in style!

Hope you had loads to celebrate this weekend! Do anything fun for St. Patrick's Day?? Race? PR? Pretend to be Irish?

Brighton Half Marathon Race Recap

In case you didn't know (sarcasm! I know I've been spamming your Twitter feeds...), I finally ran my first half marathon yesterday in lovely Brighton! It was everything I expected and more!

If you just like stats and don't care about the aches and pains or when I coughed up water at mile 3.5, here's the Spark Notes version:

1. I didn't negative split like I intended..... Actually, I positive split the hell out of this race! But I kind of don't really care about that.

2. Lovely (mostly) flat course! Just 2 inclines towards the beginning of the race that weren't too difficult.

3. I only really announced it once, but I did have a time goal. Most importantly, I just wanted to finish. But I did beat my time goal with minutes to spare (and not seconds like I anticipated!!)

My goal was to finish around 2:30:00.

I finished in 2:24:45!

I forgot to stop my watch at the end!! I was too busy focusing on the pain in my legs and trying to find my hard earned medal!!

See! Queen of positive splitting.... But I'm okay with that.... It didn't ruin my race.

And my Garmin was mostly accurate throughout the whole race which I am super thankful for! The road signs weren't too far off from what my Garmin said. I read this article a day or two before the race and I am so glad I did! It just gave me a lot of insight that probably saved my race yesterday.

With the Spark Notes out of the way, here's how it all went down.

First, let me just say that I don't get nervous.... Ever.... I wasn't nervous to move across the world. I wasn't nervous the day of my wedding. But thinking about running this half was making me nervous. I think it's because my last 2 weeks of training were kind of messed up. When I say "kind of messed up", I really mean "I didn't run for 2 and a half weeks because I was sick and then my family was in England and then I got married".

I thought, "well there goes all my awesome training down the drain..."

(I tried making up some training this past week.... I had to skip my intended long run of 12 miles and just do a kind of taper week instead. Don't follow the Taylor fever wedding training plan; I had no idea what I was doing.)

Yep... Combined 2 weeks of training into 1.....

Needless to say when I woke up yesterday, I felt more confident than I should have. I wasn't feeling as nervous or negative as I was before. I thought of my great 11 mile run (from close to a month ago...) and just said, "If I could do it then, I can do it now!" I forgot to tell myself that I'd need to add on 2.1 miles more than that, but whatever.

Selfies at 5 in the morning!

I wrote 13 on my hand. Taylor Swift writes 13 on her hand when she performs, so I always said when I ran a half marathon I would write 13 on my hand, too. 13.1 miles in the year 2013! How perfect?! (And no, I didn't accidentally wipe the permanent marker on my face or something totally embarrassing... Come to think of it, that's quite shocking I didn't make more of a hot mess out of myself...)

The drive there was nice and relaxing. I ate 1 and a half slices of toast with peanut butter and cinnamon and a pack of fruit punch sport beans.

I thought I had used up all of my weather luck getting perfect wedding day weather.... I was wrong! Yesterday's weather was absolutely perfect! The sun was shining but there was a chilly breeze. Which is why I changed my outfit about 8 times while waiting to start.

Squinty from the sun!

I ended up wearing a tank top and shorts without the jacket, but made a last minute decision to wear leg warmers. (You know, as one does when they think leg warmers are cool...) I definitely could have done without the leg warmers (I ended up pulling them down to look like really awkward socks at mile 11), but compared to what everyone else was wearing, I looked pretty comfortable! Yes I was freezing at the start line. I actually heard people talking about how crazy I was and pointing out the goose bumps on my arms. I wanted to be like "Oh you are so cool, people! Talking about my goose bumps like you own the place!" but refrained... Anyway, the people who were bundled up like we were in the arctic looked like they were regretting their hat, gloves, thermal shirt, fleece jacket, trousers, and electric blanket (kidding about the last one) at about mile 1....

A little past the start line! Not me... faster people...

I started about 9 minutes after the gun went off. I remember it was pretty crowded at the start which slowed everyone down. I remembered the article I read and tried not to weave at all. I knew we would spread out eventually, so I just waited patiently until we got to bigger roads.

The first 3 miles went by super fast. A few times throughout the race I remember going "OMG I'm running a half marathon!" I knew I was going faster than I should (goal was to stay around 11:30 miles... I was doing about a minute faster) but I felt great. There was a water station at mile 3 that had pouches of water called "rip and sip". Best idea I've seen so far in a race! The tops were like fuel wrappers (like Gu or SiS) and they were easy to drink from.... Almost too easy.... Between miles 3 and 4 I ended up coughing up loads of water that just "went down the wrong pipe". It went everywhere. I should have stopped running and pulled to the side, but didn't. Oops! I had already spilled it everywhere; the damage was done.

The first turnaround point was probably one of my favorite spots. I knew that once we got back to where we came from, we'd be about half way. I loved watching the runners coming the opposite direction both before and after the turnaround. I thought that they all looked like they were working so hard. I thought maybe that's how I looked, too, instead of thinking I looked sweaty and disheveled.

I think Alex took this while looking for me between miles 6-7. I could be wrong though.

I saw Alex and his mom and dad around the halfway point. I screamed my head off and was so excited! I still felt really good at that point, so was excited that I was able to give them a thumbs up instead of looking miserable.

The crowds were definitely the biggest at the half way point, which was also close to the finish (so you could see the runners twice throughout the race). The best part was that we had our names on our bib numbers. I would hear random people shout my name or saying "Go Taylor!" (but in British accents, so it was more like "Go Tay-laaa!") and it made me smile and power forward. I don't think I ever want to do a race without my name somewhere on my shirt/bib. It definitely made running that much better.

Pretty pic of Brighton that Alex took

Mile 8 is where I hit my wall. I actually thought mile 6.5 would be where I would tank because we would "only be half way". But no, mile 8 was killer.

The amount of spectators had significantly decreased. It was also one of the first times where most of what you saw in front of you was "one way". Throughout the race you could almost always see runners going in another direction or making turns. This was just straight. And everything was between buildings. I could see runners going the opposite way (towards the finish) in the distance to my left between the buildings, but the turnaround point was nowhere in sight. This was the point that was most daunting to me.

I slowed down a lot. There were no spectators cheering you on. There was no pretty beach side to look at. It was hard.

I skipped the first Lucozade station earlier on in favor of water, but I took a bottle of Lucozade at around mile 9 out of sheer boredom I think. I tasted it and hated it, but just needed something to occupy my time so I just kept it in my hand. I probably only got through a quarter of the bottle before just throwing it to the side. I didn't want crap Lucozade; I wanted a finish line.

The second turnaround point finally came what felt like 7 hours later! Finally, we were running the last stretch of the race all along the beach. The sun was beaming down and it was definitely the hottest point of the race, but it was also quite breezy. The wall I hit was slowly coming down (even though my pace doesn't reflect that).

I had broken the race up into 5 miles, 5 miles, and then a 5K. When we got to mile 10 I thought, "this is it.... Just a Park Run left. I can do this."

I stopped once around mile 11 to pull down my legwarmers and walked a bit to take my last gel.

The last time I ran 11 miles (my longest run before the race), I did it in 2:03:04. This time when I looked I my Garmin at mile 11, I hadn't even hit 2 hours yet.

I decided to stop regretting going out too fast the first half of the race. I knew that even if I did 12 minute miles, I'd still be comfortably under my time goal. And plus, everything after 11 was a new personal distance. I had made it this far; I was not about to give out!

So I just kept going. And going. Seeing mile 12 was amazing. The crowds of spectators were increasing drastically. Everyone was screaming and shouting. I didn't think I'd want to hear the phrase "you're almost done!" at all throughout the race but hearing it was actually kind of spectacular.

They put up signs for how many meters were left starting at 1 KM and decreased every 100 meters (900, 800, 700, all the way to 100). Again, I thought these signs would be an ugly reminder of how little was left, but they were really quite exciting.

I saw Alex and his parents close to the 400 meters left sign. I started laughing and crying and threw my arms up in the air. I don't know what I was trying to accomplish by this. I think I was signaling I wanted a hug, or to be carried across the finish line.

I can't believe I am openly showing this picture to the world! It's dreadful. I swear I'm laughing, not bawling. And there are those cool legwarmers scrunched down like I told you..... And my arms half in the air... Maybe I'm trying to fly?

I didn't even see the mile 13 sign which I'm disappointed about. But I had looked down at the 13 on my hand enough times to remember what my fave number is and how many miles I was running.

I had enough energy in me to sprint to through the finish line. I almost didn't want to stop running. I knew if I stopped, I'd ache. But everyone else had stopped and I didn't want to look like an ass. So I stopped. And ached. I didn't even want a space blanket. I wanted my medal.

New bling!

I knew my time was where I wanted it to be. I dug deep for that. I didn't even care that I went out too fast or that I wanted the second half to be stronger than the first half so I didn't "hit the wall". I didn't care about anything. I just thought, "when can I do this again?!" 

Alex's dad said if I finished below 2:30, we'd have tea at The Grand Hotel, and if I finished over 2:30, we'd have tea at Ted's Cafe. He owes me tea at The Grand Hotel!! (Which we are standing in front of)

And I will do it again sometime soon!

But for now, some thank yous to Body Glide, the makers of the rip and sip pouches, Nando's (which I demolished for lunch), Alex and his/our family, and YOU!

Pathetic Race Recap And More Racing News

In case you didn't hear my rant on twitter, Saturday's Big Fun Run didn't go exactly as planned.

I did it and finished! That's always a good thing!

But there was no clock/stopwatch at the end to see my time. If I would have known that earlier I would have timed myself, but of course I wasn't so lucky.

And of course, this on the website was a bit misleading....

Not sure about you, but I thought that meant I would receive a text message from the organizers after the race......

I'm like 99.9% certain I PR-ed too. I made sure to run my little heart out for 3.1 miles.

Oh Well.  My hefty new PR will forever be unknown.

Shouldn't really complain too much, though. It was for charity, and I got a medal! 

See? A shiny new medal and I only had to run 3.1 miles to get it. I had to run twice that amount last December to get a medal!

(End rant)

I have more important things to focus on now.

Besides having a winter wedding to plan (eeeeeeekkk!), I also have a half marathon to train for!

And I'm saying this out loud (well, out loud in blog form) for everyone to see so that it's official and I am forced to stick to it: Training starts this week for my half marathon on February 17, 2013!

I'll try not to bore anyone to death with daily training posts, but I would like to post a "sum up" at the end of the week, kind of in the style that Meghan from Little Girl in the Big World does it. 

I think this will always be first and foremost and expatriate blog. But to be honest, I like running! And I love running blogs. And I'm not trying to be someone I'm not by saying "hey, I run, I'm cool, blah blah blah..." because I will always get excited about sheep in the road and drowning my chips in vinegar. I will also get excited over my slow running accomplishments, as well. 

 

(Thanks for sticking by to hear everything I have to gawk about!)

So tonight, I'm trying something new. I'm going to run with a local running club (which I wanted to do in my expectations list. Hopefully, I'll enjoy it and want to join! If not, well at least I tried! I kept saying to the membership woman that I don't want to slow anyone down. But I've read that joining a running club is the best way to improve your running despite your preconceived notions about yourself. So I'm going out of my comfort zone (that's saying a lot coming from the girl that just moved to another continent) and going to join them in their group run tonight.

Wish me luck! 

Do you ever get worried about joining new groups even though you know it will be for the best? Tell me about a time when you left your comfort zone to do something you ended up loving (or hating!).