2 half marathons in 2 weekends

[bostonmichelle]

So I'm officially a half fanatic (well not quite but the hard part is over).

I ran Boston's Run to Remember last week for an amazing time of 1:50:5x which was a 15 minute PR over my first half last year. It was an amazing race with fan support throughout the race. If anyone has a chance to run it I would definitely recommend it.

I went into the race knowing I had put the training in and was going to do the best I could. I wanted sub-2 hours and had attempted in Kiawah but didn't put the training in and lost sight of that goal shortly in the race. But this race was the opposite of Kiawah, I felt good, I wasn't too nervous and felt I had put the training in. I followed a Runner's World plan instead of HH this time just to change things up a bit. I went in thinking I could get sub 2 but had secretly wanted 1:55. I lined up and out of sheer luck they had three pulse/wave starts and lucked out that I decided to line up near the 9 min/mile sign. This was the start of wave 2 which made it that I started out with no issues with slower people or congestion. I was cruising the first few miles at 8:30 pace and it felt hard but doable. It was getting warmer so I figured bank some time and slow down in the second half since it was heating up quite a bit. I hit the halfway point around 55 minutes and started to do some math in my head to figure out if I could break 1:50. I saw my cousin go by and then scm1011 and lori19 cruising by on an out and back and was so excited. So I decided to keep chugging along and clipping off 8:30 minute miles and doing mental math hopefully in my head. I rounded mile 13 and got so tired because I hit the uphill of the bridge but just kept chugging along and saw melmel48 screaming at me at the finish chute! I finished and stopped my watch and was so excited. The end was nice since they make you go into the WTC to get your medal and water and food. So by the time I came back out I got to see lori19 cross the finish line. All in all a great race and I think I laid it all out there for the race. I go back and think maybe if it was cooler or I did something else I would've broken 1:50 but I'm still over the moon excited about my finish.

Fast forward to today and I ran a small race probably about 1000 people in the half. It was an even that my running club put on their schedule so there was probably a dozen of us between the half and 5k. It was supposed to be rainy and humid so I had no real goals going into the race. I had told lori19 I would run with her most of the way and we would split off at mile 10. She ended up feeling under the weather and we parted ways at about the halfway point but she still ran an amazing race. It started raining which actually felt amazing due to the heat and humidity. We were running about 10:15 minute miles up to this point so I figured I would see how close I could get to finish with 2:11 or faster. I caught up to one guy from our running group around mile 8 but his leg was bothering him so I kept going and running along. I was running a comfortable 9:30 pace or so and just settled into a grove. Around mile 10 I caught up with another guy from our running club. I told him he was still on pace and to keep pushing. It felt great being able to talk to these people for glimpses. At mile 11 I caught up with another friend. She was struggling but I was able to pull her along for another little bit. Around mile 13 I saw one guy from our running club that did the 5k and I started really hustling at that point. At the end was a nice downhill so I gave it everything and finished with my teammates cheering me on at a time of 2:09:1x.

It was great to be able to run back to back weekends of half marathons with two totally different race size/styles. Now to take a 2 week break of intense running and then start marathon training. Sorry this ended up being a novel.

[fluffycookie]

Great job!!

How did you like the runners world plan compared to HH?

[runaways]

Congrats! That's a fantastic time!

[sadlebred]

Great job!!!!

[cole]

Congrats on 2 great races!!

[libbygrl109]

Great job on both races!

[pinkpeony6210]

Awesome job...congrats!!

[shauni27]

awesome job! how great!

[sweetiesparkles]

You are freaking strong! Way to go!

[shellfish26]

Great job! Congrats!!

[taratru]

You're awesome! Congrats on a kickass fortnight!

[bostonmichelle]

May 31, 2015 20:21:12 GMT -5 fluffycookie said:

Great job!!

How did you like the runners world plan compared to HH?

I had previously used HH's intermediate plan and went with the intermediate RW's plan. It felt like a small jump up in difficulty which was nice. I like both honestly but really just wanted a change since I felt like doing the same thing for a 3rd training plan in a row was getting boring and redundant.

Thanks everyone!!

[itsme]

Congratulations on back to backs and a huge PR!

[MrsE]

Yay! Welcome to the half fanatics club!

[melmel48]

I am very proud of both you and lori19. I am sad Lori doesn't want to do halfs anymore and I am not ready for a full yet.I talked to S last night and I decided I am just not ready. Oh well. We will just have to continue cheering for each other in whatever races we all do. 

[mandiespharm]

Nice job!

[judyramone]

Congratulations!  A 15 minute PR is incredible!  And congrats on your fanatic status, too!

[thom]

This is so awesome. I'm still so impressed by that 1:50!! Congrats on maniac status.