Monday, August 25, 2014

Race Recap: Run Elevated 2014

Yes, it's true!  I'm doing a race recap! 

My friend Jen Q is running one half marathon a month this year.  She's crazy and that's why we "get" each other.  I signed up for a couple of them with her.  This was suppose to be a long run in my running plan, but with my leg pain I hadn't ran in a week.  I worked on a lot of strength training, rolling and stretching but no running.  Fell into that "I can't run so I can't blog and I'm just going to sit here and get fat and out of shape" depression.  I was nervous about this run.  

This was the Run Elevated Half Marathon. 

It starts up Little Cottonwood canyon at Alta Ski Resort and heads downhill.  Pretty awesome eh?  

Well, we live in Utah and it's difficult to tell how the weather will be.  It's August and we do get a lot of thunderstorms.  Of course in the days before the race it was clear that it wasn't going to be clear.  There was rain on the forecast!

I ran with Jen Q, Ashley and another girl they work with, Sam.  When I say we ran together I mean we started together.  

Looking out the bus windows.  RAIN!  Cold!

Bathroom break?  Yes, snow.

Jen is just SHOCKED!  SNOW?
I bought that blue jacket at Savers for 4.99.  Best purchase ever!  Kept me warm and dry until I could toss it.  

Bunches of snow bunnies.
Sam, Jen, me and Ashley.
I'm pretty sure Ashley was trying to spoon. Haha

Funny thing.  The snow and rain stopped IMMEDIATELY as the race started.  It was beautiful and magic!  The weather stayed cool throughout and I was able to shed my layers and stay relatively comfortable.

The city comes into view

My leg was sore.  I had moving pain.  I'm stumped by this crazy injury.  First my shin hurt then it moved to my ankle and lastly my quads.  Knee did ok.  I wore a knee brace and compression sleeves.  It feels like nerve pain.   I plan on taking some time off again and continuing with the ice, tens, core work and stretching.

Despite that, my race went pretty well.

I came in at 2:15.  My Garmin read 13.34 miles.  My average pace 10:08.  
My plan was to keep it around 10:30 but the downhill was very tempting.  I kept the pace down and was able to run with only 3-4 walk breaks.  

Mile 1 9:53
Mile 2 9:18
Mile 3 9:19
Mile 4 9:10
Mile 5 9:40
(walked through water and had GU)
Mile 6 9:05
Mile 7 13:00
(I had to pee :) )
Mile 8 9:28
Mile 9 9:21
Mile 10 11:17
(walked up the one hill)
Mile 11 11:31
Mile 12 10:10
Mile 13 10:35
Mile .1 9:39

I obviously slowed down at the end when we moved to flatter land and a few hills.  I still felt great!  It wasn't until the last mile that my head started to get out of the game and I wanted to start walking.  Such a HUGE improvement from my first half of this year.  When I ran the SL Half I was mentally and physically DONE at mile 8.  So this training is working, lets just hope I get back on track asap.

Ran into Martina, a burn nurse, half way through.  


Finished!!

Me and the Q.  Her 8th of 12 for the year!
Congrats!

Later it was home for an ice bath

Felt awesome.  Unfortunately my right big toe had a blood blister on it and it looks like a blood blister under the toe nail.  So infuriating.  I know I'm going to loose it and I lost it last September.  It was completely grown in for exactly 3 weeks.  It's a weird toenail, always bailing on me. 

It's day 2 after the race and I'm still sore as crazy.  Stretch and roll and ice, repeat.  Hoping that once all the soreness goes away I can re-assess that leg.  Right now it doesn't really bother me.  The muscle fatigue overwhelms any other pain now.  

Love these summer races!!

How is your racing going?

Ever run a race as a training run?

Blog on...........





2 comments:

  1. Good job on your finish time, especially since this was a training run! Hope you are back to 100% very soon.

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