Swanzey Half Marathon Race Report -A PR and a lesson on mental training

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while are aware that my race reports tend to be long. Since I love all my readers, I am giving you two versions of the race report

Short version:
Perfect weather conditions, hilly course, well organized race
Gun time: 13.1, 1:39:51, 7:37 pace, 5th overall, 1st age group 30-39.
Garmin time: 13.2, 1:39:39, 7:33 pace.
Yay, PR by 3 minutes and change...

I would like to thank the weather Gods for giving me such a beautiful running day, my mom in law for taking over the little guy, and Chris for being my supporter extraordinaire.....

Long report:
Chris and I did the drive from New Castle, NH (my mom in law's house) to Swanzey, NH on Saturday afternoon. Having grown up in a small country, I still need to mentally remind myself that if a race is in NH, it does not mean it is going to be close to my mom in law's house. We got there in about 2 hours, grabbed some lunch and found a hotel room right in Swanzey. Since we got there so late and it was dark outside, I did not have a chance to drive the race course. I was later thankful for that.

I had mixed feelings about this race. I did not taper for it (I actually ran a pretty fast 12 miler on Wednesday), and had been sick the entire week. There was also the mental part - more on this later - and I did not truly believe that I could run a 7:40 pace, which was what I was hoping for. The night before the race I was feeling great, so I told myself to just go for it, and see whether training for a 3:30 marathon is realistic, based on the 1/2 marathon time finish.

Since the race was so close to the hotel, we slept in (til 7:00am). I made my oatmeal in the microwave and Chris went out to get some gas station coffee, which we both deemed to be way better than Dunkin Donuts, the other available choice. We got to the race around 8:00am, and chatted with some runners about the looooooong line to pick up the packet. I also heard that there are hills, rolling hills on the race course, nothing too steep, though. Hm, that's not what I read on the website... I did a 1.5 mile warm up (I am learning about how important warming up before a race is), said good bye to Chris, and went to the start. Although we did have timing chips, there was no timing mat at the start, which meant that we would all go by gun time. The race was pretty small, so I positioned myself around the middle of the pack.

Miles 1-2 "Are you crazy, slow down!"
Although I tried hard not to start too fast, I failed. Mile 1 was 6:45, after which I worked super hard to get on pace - 7:40 at that point. Not such luck. We went under the first Covered Bridge around 1.9 miles, and somehow my GPS got screwed up because in a matter of 100 feet my pace went up to 7:48.

Miles 2-5 "Just keep up the pace!"
By mile 2.5 I was down to 7:40, and planned to stay there. We started mile 2 on a trail, which was very muddy, with many pot holes. That helped me keep my pace down. Then we ran on sand for a while; I had never ran on sand before, but that was tough. By mile 5 I was running with a group of guys, and there was no woman in site. I knew that there were some ahead of me, but there were none in my site.

Mile 5-8 "Where did they come from" and "There is no way you can keep up this pace"
At mile 6, all of a sudden, I got passed by a group of 3 girls in their 20s. In retrospect, that was what I needed, a little competition. We all started running faster, so that by mile 7 we were at a 7:35 average. And that's when I freaked out a bit. 7:35 is fast. Although my legs felt great, by brain was not comfortable with such a fast pace so early on. I panicked a little - what should I do? Then I remembered that part of the race plan was to suffer. I was not suffering, so I decided to ignore the watch and see what happens.

Mile 9-11 "Darn hills! Keep going legs!Stay in the mile you are in!"
At mile 9 it was only me and one of the 20 y old girls. The other two were trailing back. She was still in front of me, and I was gauging my pace by hers. Legs started to burn a bit - this is what typically happens to me, I never get out of breath, it's the legs that start complaining and make me slow down - but nothing too concerning. At this point I decided I was going to listen to each song on my playlist and not look at the pace or distance on my Garmin until the song is over. This was a great strategy and made the miles go by quickly. I also decided not to think about how much more I have to run, but to stay in the mile I was in. That worked well, too.

Mile 11-12 "See you 20 y old! I can do this! I feel great"
By mile 12 I passed the 20 something year old girl, while thanking her for running such a great race. My legs got a second wind after mile 11. I am not sure what happened. Was it Madonna's "Holiday" on my I-pod, and memories of my 17 y old self watching her videos and dancing along? Was it the risk I took passing HARD and FAST the 20 y old girl in front of me? Was it that I could smell the finish line? Was it that my brain was getting used to the pace? Whatever it was, I was feeling great.

Mile 12-13. 3 "Go, go, go"
I started going faster. I stopped looking at the watch. I started focusing on passing more people. I saw Chris at mile 12.5 and he cheered on. I saw the finish line around 12.9 and I went into an all out sprint. I saw the clock showing 1:39:30 and sprinted even faster. I crossed the finish line at 1:39: 39, gagged a few times (but did not puke, yay!) and looked around for a chair to prop myself onto. I typically get dizzy when stopping quickly after a run.

Summary:
1)Great race overall.
2) I think I might have broken a mental barrier here. For my next race, I am going to try to get my brain used to a range of paces, including some that might seem unrealistic for me.
3) I also think I may need to start racing without the Garmin.
4) I am a bit too cautious. I think I could have gone faster than I did today, had I not slowed myself down in the beginning miles. I was lucky with the 20 something woman who actually helped me by going faster than I had planned to go.
5) Sometimes it is better NOT to know the race course. I would have not raced as well had I known about the hills.
6) I need to run a few races with the sole goal of "suffering" rather than having a PR. I think part of me is scared of suffering during a race. It will be key to get over that.