Derby festival half recap

[skwcm80]

This race was originally supposed to be a training run for RnR Nashville, but since the derby course was flatter I decided to race it and run RnR.

Like I said in my pace thread my C goal was to PR, B goal was the 2:06 that Smartcoach had me training for, and my A goal was a sub 2:00 which I knew was a stretch.

I went to Louisville with 5 other women that I run with and we all woke up at 5:00, grabbed some bagels, and were at the corrals with about 10-15 minutes to spare. The race started and I crossed the mats around four and half minutes later. I lined up behind the 4:00 marathon pace group with the intention if staying behind them until the courses split around mile 8. The first mile was around 9:12 if remember correctly, and after the first 1.5 miles I kind of settled around 8:58 pace for a while. Somewhere around mile 5 or so, I realized the 4:00 pace group was behind me (I was in a zone). Once they came up behind me I felt the self doubt creep in, I knew that I'd probably already messed up my pacing. At the 10k mark my time was 57 something. I let go of the sub 2:00 goal and was determined to at least do better than 2:06. I settled in around 9:30 pace for a while, but then came the rolling hills. I haven't looked at my splits yet, but there were 2 10 minute miles in the mix.

I picked up my pace around the 11 mile mark, just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, and crossed the finish line. I stretched for 15 minutes, walked to my car, and drove 2 hours home. I'm planning to run the Indy monumental half in November because I think training for Chicago might help me shave 5 minutes off my time. But I'll see how training goes first.

Overall I am very happy with my training, and since I'm not running too many double digit miles while training for Ragnar Chicago I'll work more on my speed.

I did some reflecting on my way home, and I think the reason why I don't pace myself well is because I try capitalize on my fresh legs in the beginning of the race. I'm so used to the last few miles being so hard that it doesn't occur to me that it might not be so bad if I just took it easy in the beginning.

Lastly, it was so cool to run through Churchhill downs. Much better than running the Indy 500 track.

[patches31709]

Congrats on your race!
I think I shared my experience in your pacing thread, but I had practically the exact same experience in my half last weekend. I went out just behind the 2:00 pacers, found myself ahead of her at one point, freaked, and then fell behind at the halfway point and slipped off from there. Whoops! Lessons for next time I suppose.

[labbie]

I have no advice, but great job out there-congrats! Pacing is tough, and something I'm not looking forward to figuring out once the 'just finish' goal is achieved. Glad you had a cool venue as well!

Sent from my XT1080 using proboards

[cinco]

Congratulations on a HUGE PR! I hope your son's birthday party went well too!

[bostonmichelle]

Congratulations on a huge PR!

[sassystace]

So what was your final time? I feel dumb but I read your post 3x and I can't figure it out. Did you beat 2:06?

Congrats overall though! Pacing is tough, sometimes you luck out and start out fast and hang on for the whole race, sometimes you burn out, just have to try it and see what your legs will do.

[skwcm80]

Apr 20, 2014 7:28:52 GMT -5 sassystace said:

So what was your final time? I feel dumb but I read your post 3x and I can't figure it out. Did you beat 2:06?

Congrats overall though! Pacing is tough, sometimes you luck out and start out fast and hang on for the whole race, sometimes you burn out, just have to try it and see what your legs will do.

I did, my official time was 2:04:xx. I put my unofficial time in the Weekend racers thread and didnt think to put it in this one.

cinco everything went well. It was a very small party with family. Thank goodness because I don't think I had any energy for more than that. 

patches31709 I thought about your post when the pace group kept getting further away. That was a sucky feeling.

Thanks everyone!

[patches31709]

Apr 20, 2014 7:56:55 GMT -5 skwcm80 said:

Apr 20, 2014 7:28:52 GMT -5 sassystace said:

So what was your final time? I feel dumb but I read your post 3x and I can't figure it out. Did you beat 2:06?

Congrats overall though! Pacing is tough, sometimes you luck out and start out fast and hang on for the whole race, sometimes you burn out, just have to try it and see what your legs will do.

I did, my official time was 2:04:xx. I put my unofficial time in the Weekend racers thread and didnt think to put it in this one.

cinco everything went well. It was a very small party with family. Thank goodness because I don't think I had any energy for more than that. 

patches31709 I thought about your post when the pace group kept getting further away. That was a sucky feeling.

Thanks everyone!

Congrats on the PR! 

[enfuego23]

Congrats on the PR!!!

[kams]

That's a great time!! Congrats on a great PR! Sub 2 is coming

[hurricanedrunk]

Great recap! Congrats on the PR!

[Deleted]

That is awesome!  Congrats on the PR!  I loved that race.  I really want to do it again.

[runaways]

Congrats again on the PR! That sounds like a really fun setting for a race.

[clseale]

Congrats on a huge PR!! Sure, maybe you still have some pacing to figure out (none of us have that perfectly nailed down), but you killed 2:06, and you admitted that sub 2:00 was a bit of ambitious stretch. You'll get it on the next one! You did awesome!!

[coconutbug]

Congrats on a great race and PR!!

[gt7301b]

Congrats on the PR. I think you did a great job. You got a huge PR, I think sometimes you have to run fast to run faster. Now that you've run 2:04 you can train knowing what that feels like and sub 2:00 is just around the corner.

[shelbyann]

Congrats on your PR!

[hannahb]

Congrats!

[derbycitycook]

Congrats! The Downs are my favorite part!

[shellfish26]

Great job!  Congrats on the PR!

[thom]

Congratulations again. That really is a massive PR, and I think it sets you up for a great summer & fall!!

[sassystace]

Apr 20, 2014 7:56:55 GMT -5 skwcm80 said:

Apr 20, 2014 7:28:52 GMT -5 sassystace said:

So what was your final time? I feel dumb but I read your post 3x and I can't figure it out. Did you beat 2:06?

Congrats overall though! Pacing is tough, sometimes you luck out and start out fast and hang on for the whole race, sometimes you burn out, just have to try it and see what your legs will do.

I did, my official time was 2:04:xx. I put my unofficial time in the Weekend racers thread and didnt think to put it in this one.

Oh, got it!  That's a HUGE improvement.  You were training for 2:06 and you smashed it so you should be so proud of that achievement. You took 12 min off your PR from before, now you only have shave off 4:xx.  I've been inching toward beating 2 hrs for several seasons so I understand the draw of beating 2 hrs--we'll get there eventually!

[shauni27]

Nice job! Congrats on a new PR