Indianapolis Half Marathon

In a very smart move I decided to run a second half marathon this year. The past three years I have only run the Mini Marathon (which is in May), and, every year without fail, I would quit running for a period of time after the Mini Marathon. I decided this year that I would sign up for a second half in order to keep myself motivated throughout the year. It worked. The only thing I didn’t count on was how much time my triathlon training would take away from my half marathon training. My longest run prior to the half was 9 miles (and that was not a pleasant run).  I think I really paid for this.  As you will see below, I did really well the first half and not so hot in the second half.

I chose the Indianapolis Half Marathon. It is at the beautiful Fort Benjamin Harrison park in Indianapolis and has a lot of not so beautiful hills! (another thing I didn’t count on or train for):

At some point during mile 7 I let myself walk. Until this point I had felt very strong

• Mile 1: 9:11.3
• Mile 2: 9:11.3
• Mile 3: 9:29.5
• Mile 4: 9:26.4
• Mile 5: 9:29.7
• Mile 6: 9:26.7
• Mile 7: 9:30.7
• Mile 8: 9:49.7
• Mile 9: 9:51.2
• Mile 10: 10:15.5
• Mile 11: 11:18.6
• Mile 12: 10:55.3
• Mile 13: 10:23.8
• Last .15: 1:17.6 (8:34 pace)
• Overall chip time (is a few seconds shorter than above which was from my Garmin): 2:09:35.  That’s a 3 minute and 15 second PR! Although I was hoping for a six minute PR (and a 13 minute one if I’m being really honest). I’m happy to say I PR’ed.

My pace for the first 7 miles was 9:23.7. My pace for the next five, however, was 10:25.7.  Unfortunately, I think my big error, besides walking, was going out too fast. This was not my plan but I was feeling okay. I was also freezing so I was trying to get warm. I eventually ended up running in my normal tank top and capris (ditching my long sleeve shirt at around mile 3).

I learned a lot of important lessons from this race:

1. For me, I need to get in those long runs before the race. I am already mapping out the next 10 or so months (through my “goal” triathlon, which is the Indy Tri, where I plan to run the Olympic distance), so I am making sure I get in lots of opportunity for long runs prior to the Mini Marathon (the goal there is clearly to beat 2 hours).
2. I need to run my long runs at race pace. I went into this race and didn’t have a good idea of what my goal pace felt like. I really fell in love with running outdoors this season so I think that will help a lot while training for the Mini. But I really want to work on pacing myself and feeling the pace.
3. I want to run faster! I know this is what everyone wants to do, but I’m finally going to commit. This is a two step process (although both steps are going to take place at once). I plan on discussing these goals and how I’m going to achieve them a lot in the next few weeks/months on the blog. Weight loss was the reason that I started the blog and I think going back to that will help.
   1. Lose the last 30 pounds.
   2. Speed work, speed work, speed work
4. I am a super sweaty runner, who loses a lot of salt when I run. I sort of wish I had taken a picture of my face after the run. I had salt EVERYWHERE. I think I may need to start thinking about taking a sodium supplement while running. I’m going to start researching this.
5. I want to run a marathon. This race was also a marathon. I am sure that watching Spirit of a Marathon last night didn’t help but make this feeling more present, but it is definitely here. I think it is going to be my post two-hour half marathon/drop the last 30 pounds goal, so I will either shoot for Chicago next October or a winter marathon next winter (i.e., a year and 3 months from now).

Overall, it was a good race. I learned a lot, got a lot of motivation that I needed again, and am confident that I can break the two hour mark in May.

Also, sorry for my lack of posting. I’m desperately trying to find my voice still. One would think that as I approach the year mark for blogging (about a month and a half away) that I would have found my voice, but I haven’t.  I am sure the voice in the next few months will be the obvious: weight loss and speed work.