Flower City Half Marathon race report

This is the 2nd annual running of this race, which is run entirely within the city limits of Rochester. Remember when I posted about this last week and said it was flat except for a hill in the middle? I lied. It's flat in the beginning and the end, with the exception of THREE MILES of hills before and throughout that %&*#-ing cemetery. I forgot how hilly horrible that shit was.

Anyways, I came into this race well rested and tapering. I did not have a long ride on Saturday; instead I had a 1.5 hour recovery ride. I chose to do this ride outside because it was sunny and beautiful out. Although I had good intentions at doing this at recovery pace, I didn't. I didn't hammer it, but I didn't go easy like I should have done.

My race plan for Sunday was to run the first 10 miles with the 1:40 pace group and then try to drop them for the last 5K. Goal time: sub 1:40. This goal time has been on my radar since my last half marathon in 2009 where I ran a 1:41 on a nice flat course. I pulled that 1:41 out of my ass and I KNOW that with some legit training I could go sub 1:40 for sure. I was skeptical that I would be able to do it for this race given the fact that I have done no speedwork whatsoever and my running has been lagging behind where it was last year due to time off for my hamstring injury. So I went into the race drooling over the sub 1:40 but not super cocky that I could get it.

Sunday, I got up at 5 am, ate the typical breakfast of banana, protein shake, toast, and applesauce. My gear was all laid out from the night before so I just put on my race gear and grabbed my bag. I parked in a parking garage downtown where I immediately ran into Solveig. We walked inside and found Ken, Greg & his fiancee Amanda, and a few others. I did a quick warmup and lined up practically on the line so I could be right behind Andy, the 1:40 pace leader/exboyfriend/pacing buddy. You think that would be awkward, but it's not. I set my Garmin to show "average pace" so that I could keep track of where I was (I needed to maintain a 7:37 pace) when I was slowing down through the cemetery section.

can you find me?

The gun went off and we started running. The first couple miles wind through a not-so-nice part of Rochester that I would probably never run in by myself. I had talked to Andy on the phone a few days before the race and we had discussed pacing strategies, since he had never been a pace leader before. We both knew that the course slows way down at about the halfway point, so he had a plan to bank some time in the first half. This is exactly what happened. For the first 6 or so miles, my Garmin showed an average of 7:30 pace. This pace was easy for about 5 miles, and then the 6th mile I really had to work to keep it up.

Once we hit the hill on Goodman, I knew I wasn't going to be able to maintain that pace because the hill is pretty long, and that's exactly what happened. I fell right off the back of the pace group on that hill. My average pace fell to about 7:35 going up that hill. I regrouped and brought my pace back to where it needed to be once I got into the cemetery because those hills are rolling, but I just could NOT catch Andy. The cemetery was awful. It has steep rolling hills, lots of twists and turns, and I had to go to the bathroom. Oh wait, that happened last year too! Mother f-er. Last year I stopped at a portapotty, this year, I was just going to hang on and RUN. I felt like I was going to die, which was appropriate since I was running through a bunch of graveyards! I managed to get my average pace back down to maybe 7:33 through the cemetery by working the downhills hard.

down the finish stretch

K-Dub passed me at mile 9. We exited the cemetery and I got a slight 2nd wind at mile 10. I passed K-Dub back and was running right with one of the Fleet Feet guys named Robbie. I told him I was trying for a 1:40 and I was right on pace, but I was slowly slowing down the last 3 miles. I could see my average pace drop from 7:35 to 7:36 to 7:37. I knew it was going to be right down to the wire. The last 2 miles were torture. We headed over the Ford St. bridge and down the long stretch through Cornhill that I HATE. You know the finish is so close, yet so far. Robbie was running right in front of me and told me to pick it up because I was almost done. I turned the corner and saw the finish. I knew at that point that I was not going to come in under 1:40. I saw Greg on the left and he started running me in, yelling at me to sprint in.. thank god for Greg. What a great guy!

I finished in 1:40:55.

That's a PR for me by about 40 seconds. It's hard not to be happy with that. The course is harder, it's early in the season, and I PRed! I may not have hit my ultimate goal, but I was only 55 seconds off. Mary told me that if I had done my recovery ride the way I was SUPPOSED to do it the day before, that I could have gone under 1:40. For the record, I ran this race in a 1:50 last year. So.. 9 minutes faster.. NICE!

I guess that sub 1:40 is for another day!

I ended up 8th in my age group out of 199 women, and 35th woman overall. Everyone else had a great day as well!

Nutrition: I ate 1 shot block every 2 miles. I almost choked on a shot block once, and I did not eat one at mile 12 (thought it was pointless and I was too tired to chew by that point).



Greg, me, Solveig, Kenny - the lovely members of Train-This post race!

I have fantastic teammates. Thanks for everything you guys! And now.. over 48 hours later, my quads are STILL WRECKED!

PR time?

I am running a half marathon this Sunday (the Flower City Challenge). The race is held within the city limits of Rochester and is put on by the local Fleet Feet. I also ran this race last year, its inaugural year.

Last year I ran a 1:50. I was plagued with some "bathroom issues" midway through the race and I did a big ride the day before. The course is relatively flat except for one decent hill up Goodman St. (I have run this hill 100+ times since I lived in that neighborhood for 3 years) halfway through that brings you into a large cemetery that you then run though (sadly enough, this cemetery is actually an attraction of our city). (Check out the elevation profile). Seriously.. 100 ft elevation gain - that's it.

My current marathon PR is 1:41 from 2009. As is everyone else, I am always gunning for PRs. However, I am realistic and know that it's not always possible. Depending on where you are in a training cycle, the race may be better suited as a training run at tempo pace. Sometimes, you race either having run beforehand or knowing you have to add on miles afterwards. Sometimes, the weather sucks, or you have equipment failure, or you have an off day. Sometimes, it's just not possible to PR. Last year, it was not possible for me to PR. I was coming off a big bike ride and my legs weren't fresh. Add to that the fact that I barely made it into a porta-potty in time.. yeah.. not a PR day for me. And I didn't expect it to be.

But this year?

I am coming off a rest week last week. The week before that I ran 40 miles. 40 SOLID miles. I am practically tapering into this half-marathon with NO long ride on Saturday (seriously, how is that even possible). I am friends with the 1:40 pace leader.

I think I am gonna go for it!