Friday, April 20, 2012

Friday, April 13, 2012

My First (Two) Half Marathon(s)!

Here's a really late report. But I realize I haven't had anything going on in this blog for a while. Time to wake it up!

I was planning on doing the Seabook Lucky Trails Half Marathon for a while, particularly since I got an Active.com Schwaggle deal on it for cheap! I thought it would be a good first race because it was on trails, and it usually has good schwag. But it it turned out that I reached 10 miles in my training faster than I thought! So I signed up for the Galveston Mardi Gras Half Marathon the week of the race. So here are my late race reports!

Galveston Mardi Gras Half Marathon 2/5/2012

Race morning the weather was definitely not cooperating. It was less than 50 degrees, raining, and very windy. YUK! But having signed up for this at the inflated last minute prices, I definitely was not going to skip out on this one. I wore a bike rain coat that Donna had picked up for the MS-150 before, nothing we were worried about in case I decided to ditch it along the way. With my favorite Under Armour long sleeved shirt and compression tights, the cold wet rain was really not too bad after I warmed up. I even pulled the jacket off and tied it around my waist after a couple of miles, once the rain eased up a bit. I kept it in case the rain picked up harder again and it got colder. The hardest part was the middle 7 miles along the Galveston seawall, all with a cross headwind!

Nutrition: Too long since the race for me to detail my race morning... I think it was an Ezekial English Muffin with eggs, and maybe a Powerbar. I think I also drank some Scivation Xtend, which I think is fantastic stuff. For the race itself, I took four bottles of water with about 400 calories worth of EFS Liquid Shot mixed in across the four. This worked perfectly for hydration and nutrition all in one, with roughly one bottle per 5K. A constant flow of energy since I sipped some each walk break, and no stomach issues!

Results: Not quite what I had hoped for, but given the conditions I am just glad I finished it. I am glad I did it though! 67th in my age group 2:40:37 for 12:16/M. Garmin details here.




 Seabrook Lucky Trails Half Marathon - 3/17/2012

Weather was nice but on the hot side. Leading up to the race, I wasn't even sure I was going to be able to do it. I was fighting IT band issues since Galveston. I went on a trip to visit my mom in Alabama and ran some trails back home the weekend before. That went pretty well, so I decided I could survive another half. I was hoping I would still beat my Galveston time and PR, but that didn't happen.


The trails are really tight in a lot of places, particularly with traffic in both directions since we were running two loops.That certainly didn't help things. I did and felt pretty good the first loop, but then I started fading. Between the heat and the lack of training since Galveston, I was just fizzling out.

Nutrition: Same as Galveston, but more water from the water stations.

Results: 30th in my age group, 2:42:31 for 12:24/M. No PR. Garmin results here.