The race celebrated it's inaugural year in 2012 and I worked on the ambulance at the finish line. It was the first time I had ever really been around a running event and did a lot to change the way I thought of runners. I was guilty of stereotyping runners prior to that day. I figured everyone who ran was thin, graceful and fast.
Working at the finish line I saw who runners really were, real people. They came in all sizes, all ages, different speeds and while some where graceful, others definitely weren't. The final person to finish was a full marathoner, a woman in her 70s who had completed numerous marathons prior to that day. There were so many inspirational people I meet that day.
In 2013 I registered for the SLO Half with a friend. Honestly I was under trained and running in shoes I had bought off the shelf at the Nike Outlet. It was actually going ok until about mile 8. We had run and walked over half the distance together and then I stepped down on my left foot and got a sharp, shooting pain to the outside of my foot and ankle.
Being stubborn (and stupid) I refused to stop the race. I told my friend to go ahead and I would see her at the finish. I limped the remaining 5+ miles, including limping right past my own front door! I finished the half in 3:34:xx and the following day wound up in a walking boot type cast and out of work for 8 weeks due to Peroneal Tendonitis.
I take horrible pictures while running!
Crossing the finish line was a huge moment for me and I learned a lot from my injury. I spent month in PT learning how to strengthen and condition my legs. My physical therapist as awesome. He knew I wanted to run again so he got me back to the point where I could and drilled form, strength, training appropriately and stretching into me. I also learned that shoes matter!!!
So here we are just days away from my return to the SLO Half. All of my training since December has been Ragnar focused but since I used a half marathon training program for Ragnar it set me up for this half as well. Although my speed work has been seriously lacking my overall pace has improved.
My current half PR is from City To Sea (Oct 2013) and is 2:30:37 which is a 11:29/mile pace. My goal for that race was to finish under 2:30 and I just missed it (although I did beat the 2:30 pacer which is annoying).
Last Wednesday I snuck in a final long run before the half. It was a little close to the big day but due to a fall which turned my knee all kinds of pretty shades of blue I pushed it back a couple of days to make sure my knee was holding up ok.
Boy howdy did the knee hold up! My initial goal for the upcoming half was to run it under 2:25 which would be a 11:00/minute pace for a 13.2 mile course. I suck at running tangents so I wind up always running long races. It's a good thing I know that now though because I take it into account for planning!
Well I completed my 10 miler at a 10:31/mile pace! That's faster then my current 10k pace! The first 6 miles I had my Garmin, named Kermit because he's, set to show me just the mileage and total time elapsed. Usually I follow the mileage and current mile pace but I didn't want to obsess over my pace. Honestly I wasn't running at an easy long run effort but I was keeping it comfortably hard for those 6 miles. Kermit would beep on the mile and I was consistently running the miles <11:00. The final 4 I switched to look at my mile pace and those miles were all <10:30, although ran at a harder effort. I did stop twice to fill up my water bottle and I did stop my Garmin at the few stoplights I encountered but I really was not expecting to be able to hold that pace for that long!
Now I'm throwing around numbers for the SLO Half trying to figure out if I should change my goals. To go <2:20 I would have to run a 10:36/mile pace on a 13.2 mile course. With my last training run going so well I sould be confident I can pull that off. However the half course is harder then the training run I did. There are a few hills including a climb up Johnson Ave of about 200ft. I know I should be able to handle that, especially since its around mile 3 but of course my nerves are kicking in.
So here my goals for The SLO Half Marathon 2014:
A. <2:20
B. Average pace <11:00/mile
C. PR
D. Finish with a smile
I have never out my goals out there so publicly before! I am excited and nervous to see what happens out there this year. I'm hoping that I will be able to run in SLO on my way home from work Sunday morning and tackle the Johnson Ave hill just to build some confidence.
Additionally I got to go to yoga on Monday and Tuesday and my sister Jessica came to both of them with me! I'm still loving yoga and it still continues to be one of the harder things I have done. I do feel like I am at least getting down the basic poses!
You're gonna crush it! Can't wait to read the report.
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