Boston's Run to Remember Half Marathon Race Report :)

There wasn't any crazy training for this race, more like consistent runs a few treadmill speed workouts and I actually ran off the spin bike thinking a "brick" workout may actually help train me for some fatigue in the race.  The gory details: my longest run was 9 miles (once), but, I also ran 6-7 miles a few days a week.  The spin classes i've been going to have my heart rate hovering around 168-170 for the entire class, so I felt confident on race day that even though my training hasn't been all "running" specific, I had been working my body hard in different ways and I just had to hope like hell it would all come together.  And by some graceful force: It did :)

I had an awesome race.  My goal for the race was to really try to "race" it.  I've never really done that, most of my half marathons were either too flat to really "count" (think Silver Strand out on Coronado, CA, terrific course, super flat, but not all that realistic in terms of terrain for most half marathons).  I wanted to see how hard I could push myself in a half marathon.  Starting out feeling good, let my lungs settle (hoping that my asthma didn't kick in!) and see what would happen.



I was also sort of desperate to get some speed back.  Since having Soren it just hasn't been there and granted, I hadn't up until now, really been able to work on speed, the first year after having him, I worked on building up my endurance and just feel good at racing again.  This race I really wanted to see if I was anywhere near where I had been prior to giving birth.

I woke up race morning pretty ready----ate some oatmeal, mixed in some First Endurance EFS with water and Dave and Soren dropped me off.  True to toddler form, Soren had a fever, so they were going to watch me run by at mile 5 and 8 and Dave was going to take him back, no need to stand around in the heat at the finish line!

I used some of my favorite Tri-Slide on my feet and arms etc to prevent any chafing.  Not that that *ever* happens to me :). Checked my bag and lined up at the start...gave a final tug on my awesome Avi Quest Lite's and I seated myself at the 8:15-8:30 corral, my experience tells me as long as i'm not walking, i'm better off starting out with a faster pace and settling in there than having to weave my way through people.  It was pretty awesome, the race starts out by the World Trade Center Boston which is a bridge away from downtown Boston, so you have a gorgeous view of all the tall buildings and just a great scenic way to start a race.

The horns sounded and we were off!  I'll just go through some miles here:
1-3:  settling in, felt pretty good, didn't start off too fast, kept thinking about the last race wondering if my stomach would bother me, it felt fine.
4-7: just looking for leg turnover, wondering if my stomach would bother me.  Still fine.  Didn't see Soren and Dave, just hoped it meant I was running so fast they missed me.  They did :)
*Took a huge swig of First Endurance Liquid Shot in Vanilla...this stuff is like downing caramel.  Heavenly on a hard run!! 
8-10:  Saw Soren and Dave on my way back (you run through the whole city, down the Charles River and into Cambridge by Harvard..very cool!).  I was starting to breathe harder here but my legs felt pretty decent, but I knew I couldn't move faster.
*Another yummy swig of liquid shot. 
11:  Ok, I wanted to push harder here, but just had to keep myself steady.
12-13.1:  Energy pretty spent, but rest of course was flat so I geared up and found some last minute speed to sprint the finish on my toes.

I was pretty elated when I finished, I kind of teared up a little bit.  It's no surprise obviously as i've said in this blog, I always see myself as a slow runner, but not in this race, I finally give myself permission to say that I felt as though I was fast!  :)

Finish time: 1:50
Average pace: 8:25/per mile
Average heart rate: 168 (yowza, this is kinda high for me to maintain at a half marathon....but, I did it!)

Super excited to have had a solid race and honestly without some really amazing support, I wouldn't have been able to have had such a smooth race.  Huge Huge thanks to: Avia, First Endurance, Recovery Pump and SBRSports!!!