I Will Soar

Soaring Wings Half Marathon will forever be my favorite half to be a part of. I think if there is ever a day when I cannot run anymore, I will still go and be a spectator. I realize I've only been a part of a very small handful of half marathons, but there's just something about this one. Obviously it having been my first half does have a lot to do with it. Beyond that though, everything from start to finish is 100% special. I have yet to do a race, of any distance, that has better spectator support than Soaring Wings. The post race fuel is also yet to be beat. The medals definitely rank at the top. And I will never forget that the medals are being handed out by the precious kids who live at the Soaring Wings Ranch. There is so much to run for!

This year my training has been mostly geared toward getting ready for my full marathon in December with some speed training early on to get prepared for Race for the Cure. I have not done a speed run in three weeks, and my long runs have been very lax. I just wanted to go into Soaring Wings knowing that it would be difficult (because goodness, it's 13 miles!) but also enjoying it as much as I could. That is, until about a week ago. I got it in my head that maybe I could try and PR again. Not only that, but MAYBE I could try for a sub-2hr time. I got in touch with my friend Angela who I look up to in the running world and asked for some advice on how to go into this race that was originally going to just be another training run with benefits. In the week leading up to it I cut back significantly on my marathon training and tried to mentally and physically prepare to race myself in my 5th Soaring Wings Half.

Scott and I got up nice and early Saturday morning and went on with our regular race morning routine. Everything was going smoothly and even though I had my normal race morning butterflies I was feeling pretty good. Two blocks from the freeway Scott realized he left his race bib on the table at home! OOPS!! I'm glad he remembered. I needed him to keep me going on this course. :) We arrive in Conway about 45 before start time, which allowed plenty of time to park, walk to bag check, do the port-a-potty thing, get to the start line, and find our pacer, with a few minutes to spare before the director of the ranch begins talking. We met up with Angela at the starting line. I wasn't sure if we would see each other before hand. It was nice to chat and encourage each other before we started.

The Star Spangled Banner was sung. There was a prayer. Then the waves started. Only 4 minutes after the clock started our wave began. I felt like we started fairly fast, but I tend to struggle through the first two miles of any run I do so I just focused on my breathing and focused on the 2 hour sign our pacer was holding. Like usual I settled into my groove by the time I hit 2 miles. Coincidentally this is also where my parents surprised us for the first time and jumped from behind a port-a-potty. :) We continued following Pacer Guy (I wish I knew his name!) into the fourth mile. Mom and Dad showed up again at the top of a very difficult hill. Their cheering was a much needed reassurance at that point. A little over 4 1/2 miles into the race I had to make a pit stop. Scott and I paused our RunKeeper clocks and restarted soon after. We tried to pick up the pace to catch back up, but it was difficult. We could see Pacer Guy in the distance and I had hope. However, to catch up would mean running at an even faster pace than initially needed to finish at 2 hours and at about 7 miles I told Scott that I didn't think I could push enough to catch up. We were both ok with that and settled in to our own comfortable pace. Within two miles of that we were both in a lot of pain. Running for this long is painful no matter what, but it's made worse when you don't train properly. For me, I had not trained on hills like I usually do. I don't even know what I was thinking. :) So we talked some more and decided for the next 5 or so miles we were going to just enjoy the course. If we wanted to walk, that was ok. We weren't going to beat ourselves up over it. It's amazing the difference it makes when you let it all go. Yes we were still breathing hard, and yes it still hurt, but know we weren't pushing for time anymore made it better. Mom and Dad showed up again at about 7 1/2 miles and then somewhere in mile 9 (great timing for a fist bump :-D ). Coming into mile 11 we had a steady downhill and one more Mom and Dad sighting. Both were a welcome relief as we went into what some would call the worst hill on the course. Mile 12 is a long steady up hill. Between 11 and 12 we caught up to Angela. We have decided that all three of us needed each other at that point. I truly think we met up at just the right time to get each other through the last mile and a half. And that's what we did. We talked each other through when we each, at some point, thought we wanted to quit. With just half a mile left I told Scott I needed to walk. Just half. He flat out said, "No you don't." and we kept going. With just 1/4 mile left Angela was trying to make a deal with a police officer on a bicycle to let her have his bike. He laughed and said she was too close and to keep going. One more turn. Only a tenth of a mile to go. I think we were all talking to ourselves but at the same time to each other. Don't quit. Do it for the kids. For their kids. For our kids. We. CAN. Do. This. I never count on it, but at every race, in the last stretch something fires up inside of me and I sprint to the end. Saturday as I was picking up speed I was shouting "Go!" to Scott and Angela over and over. I saw a guy in front of me and I was determined to pass him before getting to the finish line. I did. We did. In my head it looks very glamourous. All three of us- Scott, Angela, and I- crossed together with long strides and smiles on our faces. In reality, I'm pretty sure it's not at all like that. I like my mental picture better. (But I can't wait to see what the professionals got ;) ) I walked to a beautiful little girl who was holding out an almost as beautiful medal. I thanked her and hugged Angela and then found the oranges. Those oranges are the absolute yummiest thing EVER after running. :)

Scott and I met up with my parents for hugs and pictures before they had to head home. There are certain things that we always make sure to do. Post race pictures with our support team are a must. Seeing my parents (and James and Evie if they are there) are the absolute biggest highlight of my races. I never know where they will be, but knowing they will show up not only makes each mile seem a little faster, but also more motivating and more fun. I've mentioned before about the great comments we get after passing Mom and Dad. They are by far the loudest spectators out there. And I love it.

Official times were posted within a few hours of finishing the race. I knew had finished under 2 hours and 10 minutes, but beyond that, for the first time, I almost didn't care about my time. Almost. :) I generally will base anything on what Runkeeper says because that's how I base my training runs also. So for comparisons sake here's the break down.

Official Chip Time:
2:09:53/avg pace 9:55

RunKeeper Time:
2:08:23/avg pace 9:40

Overall I placed 494th! I don't know the actual number of participants, but I do know there was a cap at 2000 allowed to register. :)

Just to give you a visual, you can see where we started to struggle and also where the hardest hills were. This course is brutal when it comes to hills. There are a few major ones, but it's pretty much up and down through out the whole thing.

I assume that next year I will not be training for a full marathon and maybe I can really focus on training for a sub-2 at Soaring Wings. I never thought I'd say that. It goes along with the rest of my running journey though. I never thought I'd run. I never thought I'd run a race. I never thought I'd run a half or a full. When I decided I loved running crazy long distances, I never thought I'd go for speed... Such a crazy journey I've been on. :)

Next up: VERY long training runs all leading up to the St Jude Marathon in SIX WEEKS!!

Running for a Legacy

I participated in the 4th annual Micah Rine Wildcat Legacy run 5k this year. It's been a couple weeks, but I have not had a chance to sit down and write about it. This 5k is local which is nice. I loved being part of this legacy run. I've never done this one before, but my good friend Jessie was going to be in town and she decided since the 5k happened to fall during her visit, it was a good 5k to make her first. It was a rainy Saturday morning. Enough so, that the start got pushed back by about 30 minutes. I was excited for Jessie, and thrilled that she asked me to be a part of her first race. There was a very quiet and laid back feel through out the course. I had worked this 3 miles into the rest of my long training run for the day. It ended up being a nice break between the 3 I did on my way to the course, and the hard 6 I did afterwards. Selfishly I'm glad I had the time alone with Jessie. When she makes her quick trips to Searcy our visits are very short (because she's so popular ;) ). So to have uninterrupted time with her was nice. We enjoyed our walk/run together and before we knew it we were about done. My favorite part of the morning was seeing Jessie push herself and run to the finish line and then see her beaming smile afterwards. I look forward to seeing her PR next year... :)

PR-ing in Pink

Race for the cure will always have a special place in my heart. For obvious reasons like, I have friends and family who have battled breast cancer (also friends and family who have battled other cancers. I run for them all at RftC) but also because it was my very first 5k. It seemed fitting that I would get a PR- a Personal Record- at the same 5k. Last year I tried and didn't quite make it. So this year I adjusted my training and tried to push for a faster pace. As a part of my marathon training I have set one day a week as a speed training day. I have a play list that has certain songs that, if I run to the beat of the music, I will reach my goal pace. It was rough. All I wanted was to finish the 5k with a 9:00min per mile average. Most of the songs are faster than that but I had to adjust to it. It was rough at first. However, over the last month and a half or so, I've been at 9 or under every time.

Last week, leading up to Race for the Cure I was feeling mostly confident. I thought, if I have hit my goal pace, or better, every week for over a month, surely I can do it at the race. Each day that passed my confidence shrunk a little. I was worried about the course. It had been changed due to construction. I was worried about the hills. I had not really trained on hills. A couple days beforehand I saw the weather. I was worried about that. I had not run in cold weather in a long time.

I also had things to keep me excited though. A new course means not knowing what's around the corner. For some that's a problem. For me it tends to make the run seem faster. The upper 40 degree temperature I'd be running in would mean breathable air. Much better than the warm and humid air that makes running more difficult. Best of all, one of my best friends was visiting from Canada. Roxanne knows every detail about my running journey because I met her through the website I used when I first started changing my lifestyle. She's is one of the people in my core group of supporters and I love so much that she could be here for this amazing day.

We woke up early Saturday morning in order to get to Little Rock and make sure we had time to walk around and see the fun stuff set up near the course. By the time we made sure we knew where the new start and finish lines were, there wasn't too much time left. The competitive run started at 7:30. Following that was the main run/walk 5k. Our plan was for Roxanne to see me off at the starting line and then she would head over to the finish line a few blocks away. She graciously agreed to be my photographer for the race. After I finished we would head back to the start line and walk the 5k course together. (And following that I would head away from the race festivities and run another 6 miles so that I could get my training run in for the marathon!)

Back to the starting line. I was let past the barricade into the corral for the competitive runners and all of a sudden it really hit me. I was standing among some incredibly fast people. And there were a lot of them. It's hard not to compare yourself to other runners when you're all there for the same purpose. To be among the first 300 women (and 100 men) to finish and earn that medal. Roxanne gave me words of encouragement every time I turned back to her. Trying to take deep breaths and not cry I also tried to convince myself that she was right. I could do this. One of the MC's said a prayer and then gave a one minute warning. I put in my earbuds and set up my running app. The next thing I know the start gun goes off. I took one more deep breath for confidence and off I went.

I had my music turned up louder than normal to drown out anything going on around me. The sideline support is some of the best of any race I have done, but I couldn't even take the time to enjoy it this time. I was focused on one thing, and one thing only. It was a challenging course. More so than I expected. I hoped with the change it would mean less hills. It may just be me, but I think there were more. Or maybe less time to regroup before the next uphill came. Either way, there were a lot. With the beautiful sun rise also came almost a mile of blind running. I did my best to keep pace to my music while hoping I would not trip on a crack in the road or run into someone ahead of me. Time seemed to pass quickly which I was thankful for. Before I knew it I had reached the fastest song on my playlist. I was already breathing hard and not sure if I could make it through the whole song without slowing my pace down. I hoped if I could just make it through that one I'd be good. As I finished mile 2 I realized I was slightly ahead of where I normally would be for the song that was playing. That gave me hope that I was doing better than I thought. I also knew I had a pretty big hill coming up and probably another gradual climb at the end. I pushed through. Almost walking a couple times on the big hill. I had one Heather on one side saying "It will be ok to walk. You don't have to PR this time", and another Heather on the other side saying, "Keep going! Less than a mile and you're don." I gave the negative Heather a little mental flick off my shoulder and pushed some more. As I turned the last corner my fastest pace song came back on. I had added it to the end of my play list hoping I could use it for my final boost at the end. I cranked it up and went for it. I heard cheering. I saw other finishers. I saw medals. I knew I had placed. I saw Roxanne. I tried to smile... I don't think it happened. :) When I looked down and stopped my app I was almost sure I had PR'd. I met up with Roxanne and we walked back to the start line to do it all over again. I was surprised at how excited I was to go again. Knowing we were walking and that I would be able to actually enjoy the sideline entertainment made a big difference.

It wasn't until late last night that I was able to truly believe I had met my goal. Not only met it, but smashed it. All I wanted was a 9 minute pace and a medal. Even if it meant placing 300th. The chip time results were posted and I saw that I placed 182nd out of 426 women (250th overall- 517 total competitive runners). My finish time was 28:09, but since I've been going by pace through all my training I'm basing it according to my app which says my average pace was 8:46 for 3.2 miles. Almost 15 seconds per mile faster than I had hoped for! And 30 seconds per mile faster than my average pace at last year's race.

Yep. I'm a little happy. :)