Monster Mash Half Marathon - Race Report!

After my major training slump this spring/summer, I made a promise to myself. I would be in shape enough to run a half marathon every year for as long as I could. Although I've run a marathon this year, I still wanted to make sure that I added a half marathon to schedule. I know myself, I know that if I start making exceptions by saying "oh well this marathon counts..." I'll start bending rules in other ways.

Since we just moved to the greater Philly/Delaware/Maryland/Jersey area, I wanted to find a local race to do up here. Timing worked out pretty well for doing the Monster Mash half marathon in Dover, DE. It supports the Wounded Warrior Project, which I would really love to support. Also, the race has sort of a Halloween-vibe, which seemed kind of fun.

Our race report begins not the weekend of the actual race (Oct. 17), but the Saturday before. I'm not exactly sure how I got the weekends mixed up, but I was up at 4:00 on Oct. 11 with my shoes laced up, my gels packed with my water bottle, my watch was all charged, and I was pumped and ready to go. I opened my computer to make sure I had the right address to plug into my GPS, aaaaaaand the date on the website said Oct. 17. "At least I figured it out before I got in the car", I said to myself, and promptly went back to bed in my running clothes.

OK - fast forward to Oct. 17. My husband woke up and made my breakfast (apple cinnamon oatmeal) and coffee, and filled my water bottle up (he's a nice guy :) ). The weather was pretty chilly, so I packed an extra long-sleeved layer just in case.  I made the drive to Dover, and finally arrived at the Speedway, and was greeted by Miles the Monster!

Miles the Monster at the Dover Speedway

When I got out of my car and went to packet pickup, there was a great music selection playing. I heard the obligatory Halloween staples, Thriller and Monster Mash, and a lot of great classic rock. It really created a vibe that was exciting, without being intimidating or too intense. It was a good place to mingle. I've never been able to chat so easily with fellow runners leading up to a race. There were some incredibly seasoned runners, some ultra runners, some people like me who have done a handful of races like this, as well as some total newbies. When we were starting to fill the starting chute, I was talking to a woman who has run several hundred milers, and was running the marathon to go towards her "50 marathons in 50 states" challenge! It was so cool to hear from her what her favorite races were, and which ones were still on her bucket list.

Oh... that reminds me.... the start! The race (both the half and the full) started on the actual racetrack.

It was so awesome. We could see the sky gradually change color as the sun rose, and it was beautiful.

Before we knew it, we heard the starting buzzer. The first mile was a lap around the Dover Speedway. The sun was just coming up, and a beautiful sunrise was visible over the stands as we ran. There was so much to look at, it made the first mile go by really quickly! After we left the speedway, it wasn't long before we were out in the city of Dover, and we were running through some really beautiful neighborhoods. I had no idea that there were so many lovely, well maintained Victorian houses in that part of town. Shortly after, we went through Wesley College, which is a truly beautiful campus.

Then, out of the blue, we were in farm country! Around mile 6.5 the marathoners and half marathoners split, and we started to run through soybean country. I felt right at home. We hit this point around 8:10am, so the sunrise was truly beautiful. It was so peaceful. I felt energized. During the last half of the race, we gradually transitioned back into the town. At about mile 11, the speedway came into view! Then we ran over the overpass, through part of the parking lot, and zipped up to the finish line. Several people who are much faster than I had already finished, and actually stood along the course leading up to the finish and were cheering us on: "You're almost there!" "Looking good, finish strong!!" It was great.

My official time was 2:17:11. About 12 minutes slower than my PR, but it is almost 40 minutes faster than the last time I ran a half marathon as a training run! Not a PR, but I still felt really good after this race. I still felt strong. I had signed up for this race to help me regain some of my confidence, and it absolutely helped me do that.

So... half marathon for 2015: done!

Reese's Cups are my new favorite recovery food

This medal was enormous, and has moving parts. It's pretty sweet.

The only downside to this entire experience is that I have had a lot of pain on the outside of my right foot, which hasn't gone away since I got out of my car after the race. I'm not sure how that is going to impact my plans for the Richmond marathon in 3 weeks, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it. I'm just trying to make sure that my foot gets back to normal, so that I can have a little longevity in my "keep Catherine fit" running career. Even if I can't do the Richmond marathon, I can't say that I regret running this race. It had a really fun start/finish line, a good group of runners that made for a really fun environment, and it helped me regain a lot of my confidence. I needed this. I'm excited to come back next year!

Gear:
Oh also - this was my first race in my Topo Fli-lytes, they were definitely up to the job! I've gotten a lot of mileage out of those shoes so far, and I've been incredibly happy with them so far. I also used my Amphipod handheld, which I really like. It had plenty to keep me hydrated between aid stations, and had room for one or two gels (I only took one). I wore a Nike technical t-shirt, but the goodie bag contained a really really nice New Balance shirt which might be my new favorite running shirt.

How I got to my first marathon

I started running in March of 2013, and on Sunday I completed my first full marathon.

Couch to 5k

When I started running, I was pretty flabby. I don't just mean that I had gained weight (I totally had), but I also frankly had no muscle tone of note to work off of. I started with a pretty good couch to 5k plan recommended to me by a friend. I found pretty quickly that rather than keeping track of time with a watch (run for 60 seconds, walk for 30 seconds, etc), it found myself keeping time with songs. Here's how that works: I broke songs down into units (1 unit usually consisted of a chorus, or bridge, or verse of a song). I would run for a unit, walk for a unit, run for a unit, walk for a unit, etc. For me, it helped being able to ride on the energy from the song for the running bursts. I eventually worked through the program, and even found myself getting impatient during the walking periods, and accelerating through the program faster than I had expected. I completed my first 5k on May 11, 2013 (http://www.montpelier5k.com)

5k to 10k

After the 5k, I just kept increasing my weekend long runs to get to 6 miles. Honestly the only thing I changed is that on the weekends I incrementally increased my long run mileage. I ran my first 10k in September 2013 (http://www.pepsi10krun.com).

10k to 13.1

My race registration/goal strategy can really only be described as impulsive. I'm not sure what happened, but I signed up for my first half with no real sense of whether or not it was something that I could accomplish. I signed up, printed off Hal Higdon's Novice 2 Half Marathon training program, and stuck to it (for the most part). As I had with the previous two training periods, I pushed my long run mileage farther than the training program had suggested. I finished my first half marathon on April 5, 2014 (http://www.charlottesvillemarathon.com). Fun fact: I registered for my second half, which took place 3 weeks after the first half (http://www.runthevalley.com/park-to-park-marathon/)

Half to Full

Remember what I said earlier about being impulsive? I registered for my full marathon as soon as I had finished my first half. Originally, I had planned to to the Anthem Richmond Marathon (http://www.richmondmarathon.com), but due to scheduling conflicts I needed to change my plans about 3 weeks before the race. I deferred my registration until 2015, and signed up for the Outer Banks marathon, which was one week earlier. I had been working through the Hal Higdon Novice 2 Marathon training program, and with that change in schedule, something had to give. In my case, it was the 20 mile long run.

I'll save the actual race report for another post, but I want to talk about how my training and how I feel about my preparation.

1. My long run peaked at 18 miles, that I did 4 weeks out from the race. I ran most of my long runs outside, but I actually managed to run one of my 14mi runs, and a couple of 12-13mi runs on the treadmill. Boring? yes. Tedious? yes. Invoking strange images from gym personnel? yes. However, it was kind of cool to mess with pace and incline in a way that I would not have been able to on the road. For example - it was fun to mimic hills once in a while by adding an incline. When I'd do this, I would keep the speed the same, forcing me to practice climbing faster than I would have otherwise.

2. Working up to my long runs, I would bring several gels (either Gu or Hammer gel), and a water bottle. After a few epic bonks on my 15, 16, and 17 mile runs, I finally figured out how many calories I needed and when. Turns out the magic formula for me is about 1 gel about every 4 miles. I really like Hammer Gels (chocolate and banana) and Gu (salted caramel) for during the run. Afterwards, however, I prefer to have peanut butter flavored Hammer gels for before and after. They tend to be a little thicker, and have some more protein than the other gels, it's just easier for me to eat and digest while I'm not running.

3. After my harder effort workouts (either long workouts or higher intensity workouts), I would drink shakes after the workout was over. After hard workouts (both hard running workouts and weight workouts), I would follow it with whey protein. I wanted to make sure that I was giving myself all of the amino acids I would need to help out my muscles. After long runs, however, I would drink a Recoverite shake (Hammer nutrition). Recoverite is more carb heavy in addition to having protein, so it helped me start to reset my glycogen stores. Once I started incorporating this into my post-workout routine, I felt much better the next day, and I was able to work better during the next workout.

4. Where I'm training is, in general, much hillier than the majority of the Outer Banks course. I think this was helpful for some portions of the race, but didn't get me as far as I had expected. When I got to the race there were hills, and they were very different than I had prepared for.  I think I need to prepare for my next marathon 'smarter' with respect to terrain, definitely.

First marathon - check! I cannot wait for the next....