Training Log Archive: furlong47

Event: DVOA French Creek State Park North
 

D&L Half Marathon

So, I signed up for this back in January imagining that by November I would have lost a bunch of weight and spent the entire year training. Well, life happened and those other things didn't. But I have covered this much distance in orienteering/rogaine events before and figured I could walk the whole time if necessary.

It was actually not as hard as I thought it would be. I ran more than I thought I would. Given my physical condition, I set my goal at 3 hours and I did beat that. Despite being advertised as net downhill, it almost never felt like it was going downhill. But there was only one large hill and it was within the first 2 miles.

The first 5K was around 33:51 which is about the time I've been doing those in lately. And surprising because I walked up the entire big hill. So probably going out too fast, but I felt good and was moving ok.

Within the 4th mile or so, the 2:30 pacing group passed me and I was able to hang with them for a while before dropping off.

The first 10K was around 1:10:48 which is a PR (ok, if you want to get picky, all of my previous 10K were on trails, but I was also a lot younger and skinnier).

I was halfway through well under 1:30 which I thought was good, knowing I would slow down toward the end.

I started to have left hip pain around mile 7 and right hip in mile 8. After about 9 miles my hips gave up and I walked most of the rest. At this point I figured I would need to walk 15 minute miles to finish under my goal with some leeway. So I would keep in mind what time I needed to reach each marker. Amazingly, I was still moving well under 15 minute miles and hitting each mile early.

I managed to run it in the last 0.1. At finish my Garmin read 2:49:53 and that matches my chip time, which came in an email almost immediately after finishing. Which is also a PR because I've never done this distance in a running race.

Aside from the hip thing, I got a few blisters (one of which I think popped in the last mile, as it felt like my toe had exploded, but didn't look too scary once I finally took my shoes off at home). I used the same foot protocol as for the last rogaine - vasaline, sock, baby powder, sock, shoes. I probably could have done without the baby powder as we didn't go through any water aside from a few puddles.

My hands and wrists also swelled fairly significantly, which always happens when I run or walk long distance (it doesn't happen in something like a 5K or a typical orienteering course, but might if I spend all day walking around an amusement park, and of course in longer races.) At one point I had to loosen my Garmin strap. This went down pretty fast after finishing.

They had a free beer or wine for us, plus lunch, then a shuttle bus back to the beginning to get the cars.

Food/meds - naproxen and calcium/magnesium/zinc in the morning for past 2 weeks (and today), oatmeal and fruit cup for breakfast (at some crazy hour like 4 AM) with orange juice, had water and a gel about 30 min before starting (they had other food but I thought it was too close to eat more). I drank a cup of Gatorade at each of the 6 hydration stations. After finish, the beer and food, then back at the car acetaminophen and Tums.

Results - this is only the runners. They had separate results for walkers (not allowed to run at all, but some were super fast race walking) and some of them did finish before me and obviously many after as well.

Overall - 452/549
Females - 256/333
F 35-39 - 43/47

C • Great job!! 3

Lesson on Shorty