Sat morning I left Jason home with the girls and drove 20 min down the street to Westminster, CO for the Fa-La-La Half Marathon. It started at 9am and I believe it was 4 degrees F (-16 C).
We know a lot of runners who are hard core and run long distances, fast paces, over mountains, and in extreme weather. I, however, am NOT that kind of runner. I am a fair-weather runner. I have a love-hate relationship with running. I typically don't run in the winter. I don't really like the cold. (Yes, I'm Canadian, but grew up in a very mild climate with lots of rain and very little snow.) Since I didn't run last winter, I had a very inactive pregnancy and didn't feel great in May and June. Getting back into running has been much tougher (slower pace) than I expected. So I signed up for this race in order to kick my butt back into shape after having Ava.
I also really want to do the Pikes Peak Ascent next year, and in order to register you need a qualifying half marathon time of less than 2:25.
Running a half marathon in less than 2 hour and 25 minutes might sound easy to any real runner. I've done it myself a few times before. But over the last couple of months, this time seems to be about the pace I've been running. I just can't seem to get myself running faster than 11 minute miles very easily. Clearly, I'll need to do some interval training to increase my speed in the New Year. In the last couple of years as I've run on trails more and road less, I haven't really paid attention to time. I enjoy going uphill slowly and downhill faster. But this fall I've paid way more attention to time and pace, and it makes me feel slow.
I have been pretty happy with my training this fall. Jason has been really helpful in letting me get in 2 runs during the week and one long run on the weekend. We've had sitters several times. A few weeks ago, Jason ran 10 miles with me in a crazy head wind and we ran slower than the 2:25 pace, so I wasn't sure if I could do it come race day. Since then, more wind/cold/snow/ice prevented me from doing anything longer than 8.5 miles, so I wasn't sure how the last 3 miles would go on race day. 13.1 miles or 21 km sounded like a long way.
(Even writing this seems silly because on Sept 28 Jason ran over 60 miles in his UROC 100km race, so it's all relative.)
Anyway, I donned all the warm weather stuff I could imagine running in. I felt a lot of pressure on my time since I haven't raced against the clock since field hockey days of the past. I had my Garmin watch tell me every mile what my pace was, and my plan was to keep every mile under 11 min pace in order to finish under 2:25.
The course was a relatively flat, double out-and-back path. We ran 1.5 miles out and back, and then in the other direction a 5 miles out and back. The surface was hard packed dirt... except covered in snow. Thankfully, the snow was dry and crunchy and not slippery - something I'd never run in before because I've only really ever run on snow a handful of times (for short distances). I was glad not to need traction on my feet because I don't love wearing micro-spikes and haven't had much practice in them.
I spent the first 4 miles figuring out some of the things related to cold weather that are new to me. I was entertained to see what other people were wearing. I saw two lift tickets on ski coats and one lady passed me wearing ski pants. Four men wore shorts. Many people wore ski socks and I wish I'd worn mine. One (idiot!) wore vibram five finger shoes. I borrowed an icebreaker wool 'buff' from a friend and wore it around my neck/chin/ears and it helped. My feet got wet and at the end of it all, my hat was quite wet. I tried to pretend I was out skiing, because I've skied in the cold and had a great time before. But that didn't really work.
I felt sorry for the volunteers that were totally bundled up. We had 10 aid stations over the 13 miles and we were supposed to have water, powerade, and cliff gels at most aid stations. I opted not to carry anything and just had some shot blocks and jelly beans in my pocket. Sadly, I couldn't use my fingers to open the packages and what I had was too frozen to get in my mouth anyway. The powerade at each aid station froze and there were no gels to be found but they would have been frozen. The water cups were full of ice chunks, so I could get only a sip out of a cup at each aid station. We were all careful not to spill too much water so the aid stations didn't get too slippery. I wasn't sure how I would hold up with no nutrition and very little water.
I fiddled with my sunglasses a lot. It was cloudy and snowing lightly but then cleared up a little. I wore 'sport' lenses, which aren't very dark but aren't quite clear either. If I wore the glasses, it kept some glare of the snow out of my eyes, but my breath made them fog up. Then the 'fog' would freeze and I couldn't see anything. But if I didn't wear the glasses, my eyelashes froze and it felt weird to blink, so I'd put the glasses on again. I didn't mind this distraction.
I went faster than planned for the first 3 miles, but felt ok with it and couldn't imagine slowing down for fear of the cold. I purposely slowed down some until 6 miles, and felt fine. I was quite confident during all this time and imagined myself finishing in a much faster time, like maybe 2:15.
I knew that miles 7-10 would be tough mentally, because it's the boring middle of the course. Each mile I just focused on getting to the next mile sign. The turn-around came at about mile 8, but the distance between mile 7 to mile 8 seemed horribly long. It seemed to take forever to get the turn-around, and I had slowed considerably. All visions of finishing in a faster time disappeared and I wanted to walk and be done. I wasn't actually aware of how cold I was. My left hip was getting sore, but nothing serious. I finally hit the turn-around, and then mile 8, and then I did walk a bit on the uphill parts toward mile 9.
When I hit mile 9 I started losing confidence, as I was moving very slowly. I looked at my watch and saw many 11:45 pace times and every time I walked, I felt like I was race walking but really it was over 15 min mile pace. I couldn't afford any extra time to walk much. All the people around me were suffering. Loads of people were walking.
I started passing people. I was still moving slowly but I was running more than they were. I only let myself walk up the short inclines and then forced myself to start running again. I thought getting to mile 10 would be a victory and I would just make it through the next 3 miles to get to the finish. But each step became a battle in my head.
At mile 11 I really started telling myself I'd have to keep going or else I wouldn't make the 2:25 time. I knew I could finish, but I wasn't sure if I could run to the end in time. There was one other girl ahead that seemed to be walking a lot more than me but I couldn't quite catch her. I finally did, and this gave me a boost. I wasn't confident that my chip time on my watch would be exactly the same as the real chip time that would serve as my qualification, so I didn't want to cut it too close. I really didn't want to have to do this again, so I forced myself to keep going.
The finish line never seemed to appear. I saw the '1 mile to go' sign and I didn't celebrate like I thought I would. I wasn't actually sure I could finish in time until I saw the finish line and it wasn't that far away. But it was uphill and it was a tough hill (in reality, it was a very small hill). People cheering were trying to say nice things, but nobody left racing looked good anymore.
I crossed the finish line in 2:22, in tears and very emotional. I hadn't taken a single second of the race to look at any scenery (there wasn't much, especially in the cloud and snow) and I really don't think I enjoyed any of it after mile 4. I was very proud of myself because I had kept going when I had really wanted to stop.
I limped and shivered my way into the rec center and got out my phone to call Jason. I couldn't talk much yet, and my fingers didn't work very well. But my phone was frozen and wouldn't work. My strava app on my phone had stopped working at mile 3. So I visited the hand dryer in the bathroom for a few minutes. Women came in and out muttering things like 'Miserable'.
Then I texted Jason, got myself together enough to drive home, and started really being very happy that it was over and I had done it.
I don't think I would have run much faster had the weather been better. My body just isn't used to going much faster yet. I certainly would have been more comfortable and I would have enjoyed myself much more.
I plan to run half marathons again. I will do a half ironman in June and the Pikes Peak half marathon ascent in August. I plan to run a half marathon in under 2 hours some day, hopefully sooner than later. But I will not be signing up for a winter race with cold temperatures ever again.
Despite all my complaining, I'm glad I did it. All of it. I'm in much better shape than I have been in the last year and my pregnancy weight is coming off. Being fitter makes me happier, empowered, and more confident. Succeeding in this race is another thing to help me feel stronger. The training process has been a great experience for me - physically and emotionally.
Now I plan to spend the next month focusing on strength work, swimming, and balancing some running with some time on the bike trainer.
Thanks for the support with this process. Lots of friends and family shared in my pride as I finished the race and achieved this goal. I feel very lucky to have the support of all of you.
When I got home, Ava needed milk, so I bundled up and nursed her before taking a shower. This is the only picture I have of the race day so far, but later there may be some official race photos to share.
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