A solid race today, with a bittersweet finish. My only goal was to qualify for NY, which requires a 1:23.
Hung out with Sarah's and her girlfriends at the beginning. Not enough buses, started half hour late, blah blah blah. It was relaxing to chat with the girls, but it's awkward to talk about menstruation cycles. Why do girls always want to have that conversation? Funny. They are cool girls, though- friendly, pretty, and freaky fast (runners). I still like Sarah the best. Staci said she'd run with me as we had similiar goals, and although I usually prefer running alone, I appreciated having a friend to run with. It was nice of her . We stayed together most of the race, but there was a little distance between us starting around mile 9. After I finished, I turned around and she was right there. And then came Sarah at 1:32, which is what she wanted (awesome!). The others came right in afterwards.
Anyhow, I started off at 6:16 and basically held it for 8 miles, then let my average slip up to 6:19. The second mile was actually a faster pace because my dumb shoe came untied! How frustrating is that (15 seconds down the drain).
My first 6 mile splits were steady -- 6:18, 6:16, 6:17, 6:17, 6:18, 6:16, then hit the first rollers and an aid station for 6:25, 6:21. 6:24, 6:24. At this point I am averaging 6:19 and feeling like qualifying is in the bag.
I did feel like I was laboring a bit up the rollers, and it was getting hot because of the late start. But I was still very optimistic -- my stomach was fine, I had been taking liquids at every aid station, I had choked down most of 2 gu's, and swallowed a salt pill about half way. No signs of cramping.
That's when I made a bad decision -- I decided to "play it safe" and coast in to the finish line around 1:23. Why risk blowing up or cramping? If I cooled the pace even to 6:45, I could still finish under 1:24 and qualify. The pack I was in had thinned down to me and the lead two girls and told them I was coasting in and slowed my pace. I was glad, because some of those "rollers" were full-blown "hills." Got into town feeling fine, looking at my watch and calculating and re-calculating my anticipated finish time. I jogged in at 1:23:50 with a smile on my face.
Well, Natalie broke the bad news to me about 45 minutes later that NY qualifying rules don't give you the extra grace minute that Boston does. Makes me like the Red Sox more than the Yankees, but whatever.
I wasn't upset - because I had only myself to blame. And it's hard to complain about a race where my pre-game plan went exactly right and I felt good. That was the pace I had trained for. And now I am very confident I can get it next time. I had never done a half before, and I like that distance a lot now. I guess I will have to up my training a bit and qualify at Snow Canyon, I hear it is a downhill, runner-friendly course. | 