Sandy Point half marathon, race report
So, a week ago I did my first half-marathon! Sandy Point at Mordialloc. Official time was 2:09:57. (route is on RK)
(Man that photo on the left is probably the best photo I have of me running. I need to do high-knees sprinting past photographers I think.)
I find doing any new distance quite nerve-wracking. I was quite nervous and stressing about this in the week before. Would my lingering cold interfere? Would it rain (UGH)? Would my legs hold up? Would I get my "nutrition" wrong and have to take a loo break? Would I forget to take my runners and show up to the event in my thongs? (That was a nightmare which thankfully didn't eventuate.) Would an hour be enough time to find a park? Would I get a parking ticket? (Didn't foresee that one but it did unfortunately come true.)
Happily I can say -- it was a great race and basically went perfectly to plan. Or even better, actually. My plan was to run a pace in the range 6:10-6:20 and hopefully break 2:15. Instead I started out below 6:10 pace and never really went above it.
On my long runs my legs would go basically completely stiff after about 1h30, or 1h45, but in the race this never happened! Woo hoo. I did some short walks through the drink stations but apart from that ran the whole thing.
I ran a quite even split, with the first half done in about 1:05, but this was relatively easy to do due to a big head wind in the first half and the equally big tail wind on the way back.
I ended up taking 6 gels in total (one at the start of the race, then every 20 minutes). At around 11-13km my stomach was feeling a little wobbly and I was a little concerned it was going to end badly. But I just waited (not many other options!) and it seemed to settle a bit. I probably drank a little too much water around the middle, as you pass the water station near the turnaround point twice in a short period of time.
I had a funny experience with the 2:10 pacer. I was ahead of her for the first 3km or so, then she suddenly sped right up and disappeared in front of me (seriously seemed like sprinting). I was a bit confused and saddened by this, because I was on time to stay with her, but just shrugged. Then, I caught sight of her again around 17km and ended up overtaking her again - with quite a way to go!
When I finished I felt euphoric for about a minute. Then I rapidly felt like sobbing. I tried to get my things and food and disappeared under a tree at the back to have a bit of a cry. I felt like crying all weekend, but I couldn't pinpoint anything to be properly upset about which hampered my attempts to be upset and then actually move on. I cried a bit more standing in the ocean soaking my legs in 10 degree water (not many out there with me). There was maybe 10 people from my club there but I didn't see any of them after the event - undoubtedly because I am a Penguin and they are not - which I was glad about given how I was feeling! Eventually over the day the stress subsided and by Monday I felt back to normal (emotionally). Physically, I felt quite good - until you actually touched my legs. The front of my shins was super tight, and after a massage on Monday my entire shins felt bruised. This feeling has now almost completely gone, thank goodness. The small muscle at the top of the calf behind the knee was also super tight - so much so that even touching the skin felt like sharp needles inside. I spent lots of quality time with my foam roller and spiky ball this week, as well as another massage on Friday, and no running.
Training:
Here is a comparison of my prescribed 12 week training program and what I actually managed to do. (There is a lot more details in the actual program, I've just included totals here.)
It's pretty funny to look at these photos because I felt like I was taking my running quite seriously for a solid two months or more, yet the graph would suggest otherwise.
Most of the Tuesday/Thursday figures are a lot lower than the training plan recommended, for which I actually blame the training plan - I think they are written for someone who does 4:00min/km. There is simply no way to do 13km including T2 warm-up and cool-downs, and drills, and intervals, with rests, in an hour, or even 90 minutes -- at my speed.
I think the graph is revealing some truth here, because around weeks 9 and 10 I started to have sore hips basically all the time, like throughout the day and throughout the week (although not noticably while actually running). This was a little concerning but I hoped it was just my body adjusting to the longer distances and this seemed to be the case, because it went away.
I quite enjoyed training for this - I think it is quite achievable if you are running a couple of times a week including a long run around 8-10km. And a HM is long enough to feel like a significant achievement, but short enough to avoid the need for skin grafts due to chafing. :P
It's funny how psychological running is. On the last week when I did a 15km long run, I felt there was no way I could have run even one more kilometre. Whereas for the 18, 20, 21km runs, I felt they were quite achievable - albeit with a lot of mental prep.
What next? I would like to do another one before it gets too hot, and the Melbourne Marathon in October would be ideal, but their HM is already sold out. Boo. I think I will try and get a late entry to that, because the only other contender seems to be the Sussan women's fun run in early December - but this will be too warm for my tastes.
(Man that photo on the left is probably the best photo I have of me running. I need to do high-knees sprinting past photographers I think.)
I find doing any new distance quite nerve-wracking. I was quite nervous and stressing about this in the week before. Would my lingering cold interfere? Would it rain (UGH)? Would my legs hold up? Would I get my "nutrition" wrong and have to take a loo break? Would I forget to take my runners and show up to the event in my thongs? (That was a nightmare which thankfully didn't eventuate.) Would an hour be enough time to find a park? Would I get a parking ticket? (Didn't foresee that one but it did unfortunately come true.)
Happily I can say -- it was a great race and basically went perfectly to plan. Or even better, actually. My plan was to run a pace in the range 6:10-6:20 and hopefully break 2:15. Instead I started out below 6:10 pace and never really went above it.
On my long runs my legs would go basically completely stiff after about 1h30, or 1h45, but in the race this never happened! Woo hoo. I did some short walks through the drink stations but apart from that ran the whole thing.
I ran a quite even split, with the first half done in about 1:05, but this was relatively easy to do due to a big head wind in the first half and the equally big tail wind on the way back.
I ended up taking 6 gels in total (one at the start of the race, then every 20 minutes). At around 11-13km my stomach was feeling a little wobbly and I was a little concerned it was going to end badly. But I just waited (not many other options!) and it seemed to settle a bit. I probably drank a little too much water around the middle, as you pass the water station near the turnaround point twice in a short period of time.
I had a funny experience with the 2:10 pacer. I was ahead of her for the first 3km or so, then she suddenly sped right up and disappeared in front of me (seriously seemed like sprinting). I was a bit confused and saddened by this, because I was on time to stay with her, but just shrugged. Then, I caught sight of her again around 17km and ended up overtaking her again - with quite a way to go!
When I finished I felt euphoric for about a minute. Then I rapidly felt like sobbing. I tried to get my things and food and disappeared under a tree at the back to have a bit of a cry. I felt like crying all weekend, but I couldn't pinpoint anything to be properly upset about which hampered my attempts to be upset and then actually move on. I cried a bit more standing in the ocean soaking my legs in 10 degree water (not many out there with me). There was maybe 10 people from my club there but I didn't see any of them after the event - undoubtedly because I am a Penguin and they are not - which I was glad about given how I was feeling! Eventually over the day the stress subsided and by Monday I felt back to normal (emotionally). Physically, I felt quite good - until you actually touched my legs. The front of my shins was super tight, and after a massage on Monday my entire shins felt bruised. This feeling has now almost completely gone, thank goodness. The small muscle at the top of the calf behind the knee was also super tight - so much so that even touching the skin felt like sharp needles inside. I spent lots of quality time with my foam roller and spiky ball this week, as well as another massage on Friday, and no running.
Training:
Here is a comparison of my prescribed 12 week training program and what I actually managed to do. (There is a lot more details in the actual program, I've just included totals here.)
It's pretty funny to look at these photos because I felt like I was taking my running quite seriously for a solid two months or more, yet the graph would suggest otherwise.
Most of the Tuesday/Thursday figures are a lot lower than the training plan recommended, for which I actually blame the training plan - I think they are written for someone who does 4:00min/km. There is simply no way to do 13km including T2 warm-up and cool-downs, and drills, and intervals, with rests, in an hour, or even 90 minutes -- at my speed.
I think the graph is revealing some truth here, because around weeks 9 and 10 I started to have sore hips basically all the time, like throughout the day and throughout the week (although not noticably while actually running). This was a little concerning but I hoped it was just my body adjusting to the longer distances and this seemed to be the case, because it went away.
I quite enjoyed training for this - I think it is quite achievable if you are running a couple of times a week including a long run around 8-10km. And a HM is long enough to feel like a significant achievement, but short enough to avoid the need for skin grafts due to chafing. :P
It's funny how psychological running is. On the last week when I did a 15km long run, I felt there was no way I could have run even one more kilometre. Whereas for the 18, 20, 21km runs, I felt they were quite achievable - albeit with a lot of mental prep.
What next? I would like to do another one before it gets too hot, and the Melbourne Marathon in October would be ideal, but their HM is already sold out. Boo. I think I will try and get a late entry to that, because the only other contender seems to be the Sussan women's fun run in early December - but this will be too warm for my tastes.