Tale of Two Race Reports: Frosty 5k and Disney Half Marathon

I'm back... again.  I am fighting tooth and nail with myself to not let this blog turn into a portfolio full of race reports.  Unfortunately, over the past year I have grown extremely frustrated with Blogger and do not enjoy using the Blogger format.  Often I will spend 2 hours writing up a post, inserting pictures, making sure that the texts wraps neatly around said pictures, hit submit... BAM! Blogger completely changes the format, erratic spacing is rampant, text doesn't wrap, etc... I will then spend another hour trying to edit out all of the erratic spacing in HTML before throwing my hands up and issuing an "apology for the spacing" as a footnote.

So there you have it.  My goal is to migrate over to Word Press, but I'm scared.  This blog is old and the posts that I made during 2008 are some of the most important journal entries of my life.  I don't want to lose them (easily remedied by backing them up on my computer), but I also don't want them to be read by myself or others out of context.  If I move to Word Press, I would like everything to move to Word Press.  More on all of this later... onto my most recent race reports and two new PRs!

First up... the Frosty 5K!

DECEMBER 17, 2011
    TWIN LAKES PARK, SARASOTA, FL
NEW 5K PR: 22:06

I had been looking forward to the Frosty 5k for the better part of the prior 6 months.  It's one of the more interesting 5k courses because it's a mixture of asphalt, grass and packed shell terrain.  Members in my running club spoke very highly of not only the course, but also of the race direction.  Finally, it's held in Sarasota and is a pretty large event for a local race, so I knew that some really great local runners would be there.  There's no better way to push yourself than to give chase!


It had been well over a year since I had run a 5k that wasn't attached to a sprint triathlon and even with all of the slow marathon training, the fact that I had just finished my first marathon 3 weeks earlier and the fact that this would not be the fastest of courses (with the grass and shell components), I was hoping that my open-5k PR from April 2010 (23:14) would go down.


It did!  The morning wasn't particularly conducive to good running, but in South Florida we take whatever break we can get.  It was 64F with 90% humidity... not ideal, but doable for a 5k. Although I was hoping for a small PR, I did not have high expectations nor did I really have any clue what I could race at.  I had taken nearly two weeks off after the marathon to let the flexor tendons of my foot rest, so I had really only been back to running one week prior to this event.  I felt a little bloated and a little out of shape. Nevertheless, I figured I would run a high 22:XX and so I seeded myself about 4 rows back from the starting line.  Off we went... all 637 of us!


I love watching the rabbits at the beginning of a race.  They run like wild fire, huffing and snorting away, and then collapse at precisely the 1/2 mile mark.  I've done this in the past... more times than I care to admit, but over the past year (really since Disney 2011), I've gotten much better at understanding my RPE and how it relates to the outcome of an event.  Interestingly enough, I think I may actually be short changing myself now... but more on that later.


I really tried to keep things in check during the first mile of this course.  I let plenty of runners go by me and maintained my RPE.  The grass portion of the course came upon us right before the 1 mile mark and I was surprised at how swiftly I moved over that part.  I actually passed a fair amount of people on the grass.  About 0.1 of a mile after the 1 mile mark clicked over, I did a quick pace check... and discovered that I was running about a 6:45 pace.  Yikes!  I immediately backed off. I felt OK, but I decided to reign it in anyway.  My lack of 5k experience over the previous year left me confused.  I really didn't know what I was capable of running for 3 full miles.  I figured that at that point, I was definitely going to PR and that there was no point in trying to stretch my limits. 


The final two miles were uneventful.  I tucked in with a group of 3 men and we ran steady at around a 7:08 for quite sometime.  My effort remained comfortably hard and I soon left the men and began to work on catching the two girls that I saw up ahead of me about 1/10 of a mile.  One was wearing a tutu!


The last portion of the run is on packed shell.  I love running on packed dirt and the shell was just as nice. Cushy!  I run on concrete and asphalt 99.9% of the time where I live, so ANY change in terrain is wonderful!  As we came around the lake, I inched closer and closer to the two girls ahead of me until all three of us were neck and neck at the sprint to the finish line (see picture below).  Of course there had to be a dude in the way, so I decided to go around him... on the inside lane!  Boo-ya!  Lift those legs... sprint!  I managed to out-sprint the the girl in the purple and the two dudes.  Miss tutu beat me to the line by a mere second, but what a fun finish!  I looked at the race clock and let out a big WOOO as I crossed the line!  Feeling great!


Once in the finishing chute, I was able to gather myself and look at my watch.  I had a new 5K PR... but dang, I was only 6 seconds from going sub-22!  I then proceeded to recover from the sprint super quickly and of course, promptly chastised myself for not giving a bit more in miles 2 and 3. I wound up 3rd in my AG (with two insanely worthy competitors taking first & second-- girls I will never be as fast as unless I attach rockets to my back) and 13th overall out of 348 women.  I smiled all day after that race, satisfied with the knowledge that I can absolutely run sub-22 and freakishly excited about what the Disney Half Marathon in 3 weeks would bring.


Race Splits:  7:13, 7:10, 7:07, 6:05 pace (.1 to the finish).  Average pace: 7:07.

I managed to out-sprint everyone in this picture, except the tutu.  Dang.

WALT DISNEY WORLD HALF MARATHON
JANUARY 7, 2012
NEW 1/2 MARATHON PR: 1:41:46

This race belonged to MSL!  He is the biggest Donald Duck fan you could ever meet (he even has a Donald Duck tattoo) and he had been looking forward to this race since I brought home my Donald medal in 2011.

So first and foremost, my mind was set on making sure that MSL was ready and that he would absolutely PR at this race.  His training had gone beautifully.  He was nailing all of his pace runs and I was confident that he would do well.  As for myself, much like the Frosty 5K, I really didn't know what to expect.  When you come off of marathon training (which in my case consisted of a low of easy, slow mileage and pretty much NO speedwork), any sort of race that might push you out of that comfort zone is really a big old question mark.  You just don't know how your body will react.  My half marathon PR was set on this same course in 2011... a 1:48:21 over 13.32 miles (yes, I ran the course long).  My goal for 2012 was to PR the course, but my goal was ~1:45 with a super-secret goal (the one that you don't dare tell anyone) of ~1:43.  Unfortunately, I had done 2 HMP-focused training runs after the Frosty 5K and was really doubting if 1:43 was even a remote possibility.  Those pace runs felt so dogone HARD!

The weather for this race pretty much mimicked that of the 2011 Philadelphia Marathon and even though I would have preferred it to have been cooler and dryer, the fact that the conditions were the same as Philly provided me with a sense of confidence.  At least the weather would not be an unknown.  It was 51F at race start with 96% humidity.  Nice and cool, but definitely sticky.  Typical Florida winter morning.

Disney is a really large race and this year there were 27,000 people running the half marathon. It is also a walker-friendly race, so it tends to attract a wide range of abilities.  Thankfully, I was once again seeded in corral A.  Scott was with me (doubly thankful).  Last year I started about 3/4 of the way back in corral A thinking that the people in front of me HAD to be much faster than I was; this year, I did not make that mistake.  I started myself about 1/4 of the way back from the starting line which was a really good move.  I still had to pass a lot people in that first mile and a half, but it wasn't nearly as bad as last year.

It's no secret that I love large races.  I love how I have a built in pace manager (there's no chance of going out too fast when you are packed into a corral like cattle) and I love using the energy of others out on the course.  I thrive on it!  I used the congestion of that first mile to my advantage and ran at an 8:04 pace.  I felt good, everything felt loose, I was high-fiving the Disney characters on stilts, passing people right and left and moving forward.  I knew that if I averaged around an 8 min/mile that I would make my 1:45 and PR; I felt good.

And then I felt better...

In true Sherry-style, it takes me no less than 4 miles to really warm up and I seem to be trending towards negative & even split races, with my fastest cluster of miles coming late in the race.  I did this at Philly and I did it again at Disney.

I felt really good during this race.  Comfortably hard, right where I should be.  I peaked at my watch here and there and often saw either 7:40 or 7:35 pace being displayed.  I knew that this was going to lead to a faster time than even 1:43; I just didn't know where it was all coming from and every now and then my confidence would be shaken a bit.  Could I really reach the finish line at this type of pace without blowing up somewhere around mile 12?

I could and I did. Yahoo!

By mile end of mile 11, the only real thing bugging me was the fact that I was running this course long again... by 2 tenths of a mile.  In a half marathon, that's really a lot of time.  When I hit mile marker 12, the clock flashed 1:34 and change, of course, I was at mile 12.32 by my watch.  Argh.  A bit of quick calculation (it's always a good thing when you can still do math at mile 12 in a half marathon) and I realized that if I had run this course at a true 13.1 distance, that I would be able to finish ~1:40.  Holy cow!  Math also told me that because I was running the course long, that I was going to have to be happy with something around a 1:41.  No crying from me though... this was a huge milestone and I was determined to run as close to that 1:40 mark as I could, so it was time to turn on the afterburners.

Afterburners... sometime during the last 0.3 miles. A very rare "airborne"
shot of me.  I have such a high cadence when I run (up around 94-96 rpm), that
I usually never get a shot a like this. One foot is always on the ground.

The word elated does not cover it.  I was beyond thrilled with my performance at the Disney Half.  It was very unexpected and I know now that I can be a sub-1:40 half marathon runner.  Way back when, I remember thinking to myself that there was no way in heck that I would ever be capable of running under 1:40.  No way!  That was for people with a heck of a lot more natural ability than me.  Yet, here I am.  On my Garmin, I ran 13.32 miles (ironically, the same distance as last year) in 1:41:50 (av of 7:38 pace).  A 7:38 pace actually puts me at 13.1 miles in 1:40:04.  Being that Disney is not necessarily the type of course that a person sets a PR on (it's way too crowded and not entirely flat), sub-1:40 was truly right there.  Oh my!

I love having all of these new goals to work towards now.  Just when I thought that I might be plateauing, here I am setting new personal bests at distances that I hadn't even specifically trained for.  I think that makes it even sweeter!

Race Splits:  8:04, 7:38, 7:43. 7:36, 7:41, 7:46, 7:36, 7:42, 7:39, 7:43, 7:36, 7:40, 7:10, 6:47 pace (for .32 miles to the finish).  I finished 22/1925 in my age group (top 1%) and 123/12322 in gender (also top 1%).  I forgot to set my watch to capture the half-way split, but I did gather some good HR data from this race, averaging 175 bpm which is 7 beats more than what I averaged at the Philly marathon.  I don't train with HR, but I do love utilizing a few of the really good HR spreadsheets out there.  Data geek!

Voila!  A new personal best... and a new goal to shoot for!

MSL, born to run the Duck (as we affectionately call this race), had a huge PR himself.  He knocked 6 minutes off of his previous half marathon PR (from 2010) and took nearly 10 minutes off of his Philly Half Marathon time from this past November.  Not too bad for a guy who pretty much spent 2011 in the saddle.  I expect to be chasing his booty soon! So proud of you sweetie!