Jersey Shore Half Marathon

First, before I talk about the race...

I just want to mention that I went for a short bike ride on Saturday afternoon and it was AWESOME. I felt more comfortable on a bike than I've EVER felt before, and I just had a blast. The Brielle Bike Shop is amazing and set me up absolutely perfectly. I can't wait to get training on the thing...I think I've finally met my match on a bike. That 'WEEEE' feeling that you get when you're riding downhill or with the wind is so much fun. I love running and swimming, but the exhilaration you can get from a bike ride is just incomparable. It's being a kid again, but now we can ride further than the end of the block.

And so onto the race...

I don't really mind out-and-backs, but I gotta say...this course was really boring. There wasn't even ever a view of the ocean, which would be a big part of running a 'shore' race, right? The race wasn't organized very well and it was incredibly low tech, with no chips or timing mats or split clocks. I kind of like that because it feels less commercialized somehow, but it also can make for an annoying race now that we're used to such luxuries.

But, I still had a really good time racing (it's been a while!), and I even ran a bit better than I thought I would. I didn't come anywhere near my best (1:47), but I was closer to that than the 2:00 mark I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hit. I averaged an 8:38 pace, and kept the splits pretty close to that the whole time...I might have pushed it a bit too fast in the first few miles, but I think I did reasonably well. I was happy with the race considering how not-fast I feel right now, so now I just have to get faster...

I want to do a couple more halves before Philadelphia. I know I need to get the longer distance runs in too, but I really think racing is important to see what you can do and to just make you run faster than you would normally. You've got to run fast to run fast, right?

Here are the splits:
mile 1- 8:44
mile 2- 8:37
mile 3- 8:26
mile 4- 8:19
mile 5- 8:29
mile 6- 8:40
mile 7- 8:34
mile 8- 8:47
mile 9- 9:06
mile 10- 8:42
mile 11- 8:48
mile 12- 8:50
mile 13.1- 9:08
total - 1:53:16

The official results have me about 24 seconds slower, but since there were no chips, and I did a good job with starting my watch right at the line, I'm going to go with my time. I finished 15th out of 62 in my age group of Females 20-29 regardless, eh?

The night before, I went to a friend's house for a Mexican meal and drinks. It was fun, but I ate WAY too much because I was stupid hungry when I got there. I think I shoved an entire bag of lime chips down the hatch, plus 2 drinks, plus chicken and rice and vegetables, plus lots of cookies. We're talking two days worth of food. I don't know what got into me...aside from the food, of course. I was so full I couldn't move and my friends all thought I was drunk and didn't want to let me drive. Nope, not drunk, guys...just too full to be able to function properly. Kind of disgusting, I know, but also kind of funny.

So, I didn't sleep very well the night before because of mass quantities of food in my stomach and also because of a horrible sore throat. I thought I just had allergies ('tis DEFINITELY the season), but considering the amount of snot currently pouring out of my nose (where does it COME from??), I'm thinking I just have a cold. I didn't teach spinning this morning, so I got 12 freaking hours of sleep. Hopefully I'll get over this soon.

After the race I went to a party for my coach in celebration of his recent IronMan Wisconsin finish. They had driven me to the race as well, so I spent the whole day with them, it seemed. I hope they don't get sick of me! It was a beautiful afternoon and despite feeling like my head might explode from sinus pressure, I had a good time. So, a nice weekend training-wise and otherwise. I didn't get enough practicing in, so I'm a little uptight about my lesson today, but hopefully my teacher will take pity on me and my running-faster-than-I-can-run nose.

Hope everyone else's weekends went well too...

PS--Check out the picture--As Rainmaker pointed out, Type A strikes again...