Bittersweet Half-Marathon

Race Update! I set a new PR for the Half-marathon distance, and took 2nd place in my age group! The Norwalk, WI half-marathon race went well, but not without some dissapointment. My goal was to run a 1:31 and I ended up running a 1:38. You might say, that's only 7 minutes difference. You are right, but a 1:31 is right at 7 min/mile pace and a 1:38 is 7:30 min/mile, which to me is a big difference. I ran a half-marathon way back in early May and did it in 7:37 min/mile pace. After a whole 6 months of training I was expecting to run an amazing time. Only a month ago I ran 10 miles in roughly 7:10 pace, what's 3 more miles??

After a lot of thought and discussing the end results with Coach Rick, we concluded that it all came down to poor timing. The training seemed to be there, the taper and nutrition seemed right on, and the desire certainly was there. We believe that a down performance was due almost completely to trying to do too much in what is supposed to be a low training period. All the experts will tell you that trying to have 2 peak seasons in a year is pushing it, if not impossible. I never thought of it as trying to peak. All I wanted to do was run my best time ever...which if you think about it is...well, trying to peak. We just came off an excellent summer of training. A lot of effort and was put to good use as I had my best year ever as a triathlete. However, we all need some down time to rest up, recover and start building for next year. I believed that I was rested and recovered, so when I started training for this race I thought I could just pick up where I finished off from race season. As we found out, it doesn't quite work like that. I'm still confident that I will run a 1:31 or even faster in the future, but I need to give my body more time to build back up.

You should always come away from a race with something positive! I did in fact set a new PR, and I did win an award for 2nd in my age group. I'm very pleased to have done both of these, and just think about it...the next time I run a half-marathon I will be 100% ready, and will be ready to hit that 1:31 goal, but this time with more experience and another race under my belt.

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