Publix Half Marathon 2014 Race Report

Published by Bethany on March 26, 2014March 26, 2014

What a fun day at Publix Marathon and Half Marathon…. at least after the racing part was over!

We managed to get an Atlanta Tri Club group pic at 6:30 AM. What an accomplishment!

I wanted to break 1:29:3x which was formerly my PR.. my Publix PR was just under 1:30. Both of those were set in 2012. In 2013, my winter and spring running weren’t so hot after an eight week running hiatus at the end of 2012. Last year, I was cramming for IRONMAN Texas and opted for a century plus brick saturday/Publix Sunday combo in a costume instead of trying to go for a PR. This year, I have been setting some PRs in shorter distances so I knew I had the goods if I could come in rested enough.

I figured I would be pretty happy to get into the next minute and a huge stretch goal would be under 1:28. With my tired legs and strength/weakness profile, I also knew that would entail running the race “my way” which means running more slowly on the uphills and taking advantage of the flats and the downhills. The more tired I am the more pronounced this is. Since I have been doing a lot of “best effort” type bike workouts, I knew that I would be chugging pretty slowly uphill and my work would be cut out for me!

My setup for the race Saturday was terrible. After a ~2 hour early AM easy brick, I had scheduled a big work day at Energy Lab, followed by working the expo for ATC and breaking down afterwards. The work day is what killed me. Lots of bending and lifting and scrubbing and sweeping. My hamstring on the right side was pretty sore and I was tired and cranky by the end of the day. Also, I had as espresso a bit too later in the afternoon, so I took the over the counter sleep aid to try and get some rest. Anyways, it ended up being this mega-dose brand that John doesn’t even take anymore, so needless to say, when I opened my eyes in at 4:30 on Sunday, I had never felt less like racing!

At that point though, it would have been silly to skip, so I managed to get going and we got to the race and the ATC tent for a big group pic. We had nearly 100 folks racing from the club, and also several folks I am personally helping with their training.. I was much more excited for everyone else’s races than for my own.

One of these folks doesn’t belong here.. hmmm

Despite being originally placed in the “B” corral, I managed to snag A bib stickers for Rich and I, so we could be with Tim, Matt, the rest of the race team guys, and some of the other fasties in A. (In other words, I was the one who did not belong in there!) The 1:30 corral was in B so I knew that for my mental victory, I needed to keep them behind me at all times. We all had different plans for how we wanted to run to achieve our respective goals.

I like to run at an even effort… no braking in an attempt to achieve a certain pace per mile, and the first three miles are downhill. Off we went, and the first seven miles did feel blissfully easy, I wondered several times whether I was running hard enough, then my watch would lap and the miles were within about 15 seconds either side 6:30 for a long time.  Dave Gill paced with me and kept me company without actual talking, which is how I like it. We got into mile 9, which I had thought was one of the hardest miles, and I clicked off a 6:16.. no big deal. Gah.. it was actually mile ten where the uphills were more and more prevalent and I did my first mile over 7 minutes and went from feeling like I was flying to being stuck in mud instead!

The average pace that I thought I could do was actually around 6:40,  there were only three miles to go, and I needed to keep it together. I slowed the bleed with a 6:52 at mile 11 but then mile 12 was a 7:11. Dying. It was within these miles that Tim absolutely flew past me, then Rich, too. I was happy to see both of them go. I really wanted Rich to get his sub 1:30 (and he did, handily) and I knew Tim was in better shape than just “barely” breaking 1:30 as was his stated goal.

I started feeling both my hamstrings at this point from all the bending and lifting the day prior.. and I know my form looked terrible.. as I was compensating by running completely on the outside of my feet. Indeed I look very duck-like in the pictures.

It was also in these miles that I started seeing Matt from a distance again. I knew he had gone out Hard, because my first mile was pretty fast.. and he had disappeared like immediately. I tried to bring that shirt in closer.. it seemed like everyone was hurting bad at that point and running slowly… those last few miles are all uphill and quite brutal.

I passed the 12 mile mark at 1:20 and change and my fuzzy math was that maybe I had a shot at getting in the 27s still.. but there is always that extra bit beyond the stated distance to run plus this race is ALL uphill after mile 11. I had also been told several times throughout the race that I was 7th female. I had been going back and forth with two ladies (one who I believe has beat me by seconds at every race I’ve done so far this year!) and they passed me again during this time. I had nothing to respond with.. I definitely couldn’t speed up much at the end!

I crossed in 1:28:16 and was more than happy to do so! My average pace was exactly 6:39 so I am getting better at predicting. I immediately had to go to the side and was sick.. sorry spectators! I hate when that happens in front of an audience of thousands!

John and I with Richard, Katie, and Eddie. Thanks for the pic, Ali!

You can’t really hang out and watch people finish at this one because they  shuttle you along. So we all went  back to the tent and waited for folks to come in. John had a great training run.. lots of Energy Lab and ATC PRs, training runs, and some disappointing runs thrown in there.

Climbing up a mountain with a fun crew last weekend. This has relevance because I swear I was still worn out from that! 🙂

I was proud of Rich, who absolutely smoked it. Also Sondra, who was so confident after her negative split, she went home and signed up for her first marathon. Katarina, who fell and absolutely destroyed her poor knees but still managed to PR, Heather, who didn’t PR, but is still on an amazing run improvement curve.. and I have no doubt she’ll break 1:40 soon. Also Dan, who didn’t have the run he wanted but kept up his positive attitude.. his day will come soon no doubt… and ALL my other friends and teammates out there.