The Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon, Or Why I Didn’t Stop Smiling for 13.1 Miles

It’s hard to believe, but yesterday I ran my 7^th half marathon. Less than 10 months ago, I ran my first. Every 13.1 has a special place in my heart, but yesterday’s is now at the top of my “favorite half marathon” list, which is funny because I didn’t set a new PR, the course wasn’t the prettiest I’ve run, and I could have done without the high humidity.

So, what made the Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon so amazing?

My uncle and I crossing the finish line.

These few things:

1. I got to run my uncle’s first half marathon with him. Early this year, right after my first half marathon, I challenged my uncle to run this race with me. At that time, he didn’t run. The months went by and I kept asking him if he’d signed up yet, and he told me he would soon… was he going to leave me hanging?! Luckily, when I visited my family in early August, he told me not only had he signed up, but he had started training that month. I was so excited! As he kept me updated on his training, I became more and more impressed. He was dedicated and getting quite speedy. Though I was nervous about running with him after suffering an injury a few weeks ago, we decided to still run together and we did just that. He was on my heels the whole race, and I’ve never been happier running 13.1 miles. As we finished, we could hear our whole family cheer, making it even better than it already was.
2. The Running Circle of Life – I introduced my uncle to the person who got me into running back in high school. One of my closest friends’ older brother was a talented high school cross country runner who embodied everything great about the sport, and his passion for running influenced my friend and me so much that we decided to join the team our freshman year. Even though I wasn’t very good, he inspired me to stick with it all four years, and has been incredibly helpful as I’ve gotten back into it recently. (Also, he dominated the race, running a 1:13:37 and coming in 6^th overall in a talented field – unbelievable!).
3. It’s my hometown race, one that I volunteered at four consecutive years with my high school cross country team. One year, we handed out water to runners as they approached the 24-mile mark and I remember thinking, “Wow. I’ll never be able to do that.” Now, I’m in the middle of training for my first marathon.
4. I got to see so many familiar faces cheering along the course route, from former teammates to close friends to my family.  Spectators really do make such a difference.
5. This is a flat, fast course with few turns, a lot of shade, and a track finish. The First Place Sports team executed a well-organized race, as always. Basically, this race is everything the Runner’s World article said it would be (including the extremely humid temperatures at the start, but it wasn’t as bad as last week.)

This picture that my aunt captured really shows how happy I was this whole race:

 

RESULTS:

Final Chip time: 1:51:20

Age Group: 17^th Place

Overall: 99^th Place (My uncle and I were in the “Top 100″ – yeah!)

Evaluating Your Training to Overcome Burn-Out, or, How to Learn From My Mistakes

This year, every time a new month appears on my calendar, I find myself thinking, “How is it already [fill-in-the-blank]?” 2012 is going by quickly, which means that the fall racing season and my upcoming first marathon next winter will be here soon.

I’ve been spending a lot of time reflecting on how my training has been going so far, and thinking about what I need to do in the coming months to make sure I’m ready to toe the line at my “A” race this fall and be healthy for that big 26.2-miler in February 2013.

A few weeks ago, I ran the Lawyers Have Heart 10K here in D.C. I did not have a good race. At all. I was almost three minutes off my PR at that distance, and just two months earlier I ran the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler at a pace that was 40 seconds faster per mile.

After dwelling in negativity about running and myself for a couple of days, I realized I’d suffered my first bout of “burn out.” Packing my spring schedule with race after race (3 half marathons, 1 10-miler, 2 10Ks, and 2 5Ks) finally caught up to me, and on June 9th, I bonked – big time.

The biggest battle I lost that day wasn’t physical, though, it was ALL mental. Excuse after excuse overpowered my thoughts, and it took all my strength not to stop.

I crossed the finish line, but it’s been a long time since I was that happy for a race to end.  That got me down.

I love racing! I love setting out all my gear the night before, I love envisioning my race strategy before falling asleep, I love not being able to sleep because of nerves and excitement, I love  the adrenaline of race morning, I love getting to a start line and seeing how many other people love doing these things, too.

At every race I ran this past spring, I felt those unabashed “true love” emotions. Until the Lawyers Have Heart 10K – I had absolutely no love at that race…

With countless running highs still in my recent memory, I forgot that there are also lows in this sport. It’s how you handle, and eventually overcome, the valleys that makes you a stronger runner at the peaks.

When I realized I’d burned myself out on racing, I ordered a “cease-and-desist” on clicking any “Register Now” buttons. I took time to go through my training log, really reading and evaluating my entries to see exactly when things started straying from smiley faces and sunshine to repeatedly selecting the depressing “alright” icon on DailyMile.

I read some popular running books about proper training, and dove into articles I found online about reversing burn out.

As for training, I cut back my mileage for a few weeks and incorporated more cross-training and scheduled (because I’m really bad about giving my body a break), complete rest days, both of which I plan to keep in my program as I gear up for the fall. My revised program now follows this weekly pattern:

• One Tempo Run
• One Day of Speed Work (Track Intervals or Hill Repeats)
• One Long Run (some with goal pace miles, many without)
• Two Recovery Runs (one short with drills & strides and one medium-long run)
• Two Strength Training Workouts (paired with cross-training or recovery days)
• Two Cross Training Sessions (one is almost always free community yoga at Lululemon)
• One FULL Rest Day

There’s enough variety to keep me challenged and entertained, which I know I need to stick with any sort of plan. And, now, I understand the importance of flexibility in training. There are days where some workouts haven’t happened, and I’ve accepted that rather than berating myself.

Reviewing my training log also made it clear the areas I needed most improvement so I tried to find “fun” ways to work on them. For me, this included finding local groups I could join for organized track workouts, tempo runs, and bootcamp-like strength training. I always thought of myself as a solo runner, but I noticed a pattern in my logs – every time I ran with a group, I pushed myself harder and ran more consistently. Plus, not ONE of those runs had been designated a “blah” or “alright” run. So, I sought out more ways to run with other people using good-old Google.

Another big change I’m made is that, much to the dismay of my boyfriend who loves waking up before 6 am to cheer for me, I WON’T be signing up for every single race this fall. Right now, I’m aiming for no more than one race per month and a couple of those will be disguised as training runs for the marathon.

Now, I feel like I’m back on track (looks like I picked an appropriate name for my blog…) with my training. I’m excited to see how the changes I’ve made affect my running leading up to the fall racing season because even though it’s only the first week of July, September will be here before we know it.

I Didn’t Set a Personal Best… And I’m Learning That’s Okay

I’m still getting the hang of this racing thing. My biggest challenge so far is realizing that not every race is going to come with a personal record… and being okay with that.

It’s no secret I’m competitive, more with myself than others. I am Type-A, constantly striving to improve and exceed expectations. This is why running is a great sport for me.

It’s also why running isn’t a great sport for me… sometimes.

When it comes to races, a lot of external factors can have an impact on performance. Even if you’ve trained perfectly, you still might not run your fastest time or win the race (heh, winning a race…). With my personality type, this is hard to grasp.

On Sunday, I ran my third half marathon and fifth race in less than 90 days. Going into the Iron Girl Clearwater Half Marathon, I knew I shouldn’t go for a PR. The course is infamous for being challenging. The forecast predicted heavy rain and strong wind along with higher-than-I’m-used-to temperatures and humidity.

image credit: Meals and Miles

You probably figured out that I did not set a new personal best in Sunday’s Iron Girl. In fact, I finished 3-and-a-half minutes off my PR and ran my slowest half marathon.

A part of me is honestly (and surprisingly) fine with this! My family came to cheer for me and it made me so happy every time I saw them along the course. I had fun running the gorgeous route with stunning views of the gulf, and the steep causeway bridges didn’t kill me. I saw runners faster than me stop to walk the bridges, but I kept powering up them. The storm held off until I crossed the finish line (literally, the second I stopped my watch it started to pour). At the end, I received a sparkly, beach-themed medal that makes an awesome addition to my collection. Overall, I finished in the Top 5 for my age group and 32nd out of 1500 finishers.

All said, I should be thrilled with Sunday’s performance.

But, it’s hard not to get down when I feel like I trained well for this race and still didn’t run my best time. As I lined up at the start, I felt strong. I put in more miles and got in some quality long runs over 15 miles. I focused on hill repeats to prepare for the mountain bridges.  I didn’t go out too fast, though I paced myself right, and never hit a wall.

Yet, that finish time has me questioning my training and, worse, my abilities.

Did I push myself to my limit on Sunday? What if I didn’t try hard enough? The race certainly didn’t feel easy, but there were times when I felt like I might be holding back in an attempt to save energy for the bridges. My boyfriend said I was “smiley-er” than in the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler or Disney Princess Half, that I looked “too happy to be running hard.”

So, of course, the past few days have been filled with some seriously ridiculous self-pity and self-doubt:

Did I get too overzealous with my spring racing schedule? Did I not try enough in the race? Did I count myself out because of the weather and difficult course before I even gave myself a chance? Did I push myself too hard or not hard enough in certain workouts? Did I peak too early? Did I give myself too few recovery days? Were the other races just flukes? OMG, am I never going to be fast(ish)?

And, now, it’s time to stop fretting over the race and accept it’s okay NOT to PR, that you can run a great race and still not hit your fastest time. Reading Lisa’s post, 7 Ways to Rid Yourself of Negative Thoughts, helped me get back on track, mentally.

The bottom line is I love running and enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes with racing. Even though I didn’t break any records on Sunday, I still had fun. Until that feeling goes away, I’m going to keep filling up my bank statement with registration fees.

When it comes to racing, there are a lot of unknowns and this is what keeps the sport fun and challenging. As the old saying goes, “If it were easy, everyone would do it.”