Whidbey Island Half Marathon: Killed It.

     Yep, totally killed it.  Today I PR'ed at the Whidbey Island Half Marathon by a little under 5 minutes.  I finished with an official time of 1:54:50.  It was a beautiful day and I felt great.  I conserved my energy in the beginning, I pounded the hills at the end, and I came out tired and sore, but on top of the world.

     Today's race felt really different from the Amica Seattle Half Marathon in November.  That was the first race that I was able to push my time down under the 2 hour mark (by less than 30 seconds) and I didn't feel great.  It was cold, rainy, and I walked several times.  Although I was really happy with my time, I came out thinking I could have done better.  I could have fought the discouraging voice a little more.  Today was different.  I was able to keep the voice that says "no you can't" very quiet and the voice that says "yes you can" emerged loud and clear.  I can't help but compare today's race to November's and wonder what made such a huge difference.

     I think the weather was a huge factor.  I will rally and run in the cold rain, but that doesn't mean that I'll love it.  Sunshine makes me run faster.  This is now a proven fact.  The temperature today was also perfect--a little warmer than November's race, but not too hot even with the sun out.  

     I also think the point I'm currently at in my training made a huge difference.  In November, I was not training for any other races.  I had run the Victoria Marathon a month and a half before and wasn't super motivated to go the distance.  Right now, I'm in the middle of training for the Rock N Roll San Diego Marathon in June, and today's race fit perfectly into my training plan.  I'm working hard, getting ready for a new race instead of tapering off the high of a previous one.

     As important as those things are though, I think that sometimes just to smallest of things can make or break the feeling of a race.  It can be the meal you had for dinner or breakfast.  It can be solely based on the condition of your tummy.  It can be how much sleep you got that week, or how much water you've had.  Or it can be something that has absolutely nothing to do with running that can make a race really great or really crappy.

    And so, we will now analyze the last 24 hours of my life in pictures...maybe a distinct answer will emerge, maybe not.  Regardless, I think photo montages are fun, so here goes.

Last night I started the evening off with a HUGE bowl of spaghetti and tomato sauce (with an added flare of some Chantarelle mushrooms).  And lots of parmesan cheese.  And salt.  I really like salt.  And when I run, it all ends up seeping out the pores on my face anyways, and I can just wipe it all off when it dries.

Please note the tall glass of water.  It was very
hard to not make that a glass of wine.

After that, I proceeded to have conversations with myself via text message to amuse my friends.

Bananas are extremely important
pre-race fuel.

Then I readied myself for the race by preparing a few of the essentials.  First, I pre-filled all the necessary water bottles.

I don't know why the water bottles need to
go into the fridge, seeing as they will be warm
when I drink them.  They just do.  And please
ignore the classy beers in the background.

Next I prepped and placed my on-the-run fuel in a place I wouldn't forget them.

I really like strawberry flavored things when
I run.  Not so much when not running.  I also
find this weird, but I don't question what works.

After that, I laid out my outfit for the following day.  I had to check the weather to do this and was really excited to pull out more summery running gear.  I decided on capris, my Rock N Roll Seattle Marathon shirt (it was my first marathon, so I like wearing it).  Then arm warmers, socks, watch, and sports bra.  Normally I'd put my running belt on top of this stuff, but it was already in the kitchen with my GUs.

I craftily left my underwear out of this picture
to spare you.  I added it later.

Then I pre-prepped my breakfast for the morning.  Because we had such an early wake-up call, I planned to eat breakfast in the car on the way to the race.  Hence the awesome purple lunchbox.

Don't worry, the yogurt didn't sit there all night.
That would have made for a very bad race.

Then I went to bed at this time:

Yep, super cool on a Saturday night.

Lucy obligingly went to bed too.

So cute all curled up in her bed.

In the middle of the night, I had some crazy dreams.  In one, I was running a marathon, but I was 10 minutes late to the start because of Sierra (sorry Sierra, it was your job to pick me and you were late).  When I got there, everyone was gone and I spent the whole race trying to catch up with my friends while solving weird "race puzzles" along the way to figure out where the course went next.  I had to pee really badly the whole race.  Then I woke up and actually did have to pee really badly.  I usually don't wake up in the middle of the night to pee, but I took it as a sign to mean I had very properly hydrated during the day.  I did not take a picture of this.

Then I woke up at this god-awful time:

Nothing else to say.

Lucy did not so obligingly wake up.

She likes to sleep in as much as I do.

I grabbed my perfectly pre-prepped items and drove to meet my friends by 4:45.  I hopped in the car, happy to not be driving, and started the 1.5 hour trek to Whidbey Island.  It was actually timed quite beautifully.  We hit Deception Pass just as the sun was rising, which is impossibly gorgeous.  Unfortunately, we did not stop for pictures.

We got to the race almost 2 hours early, picked up our bibs, and then sat in the warm car until 15 minutes before the start.  Here we are, happy at the start:

Yes, I tower a whole head above these ladies.  I'm a giant.
And I wear my water belt really high on my waist.  So cool.

The race started, and we tried our best to hold ourselves back to a 9:00 pace for the first few miles.  I'm glad we did this, although according to my final mile splits, we kind of failed.  Our watches were a little up and down through the first miles.  Mine and my friend Erica's usually agree for the most part, but they were being funny.  Oh well.  I all turned out great in the end.  We even had enough energy at mile 6 to pull out the phones and snap a few shots of the gorgeous views the island has to offer.

Here's a picture of me running.  I think this
is obligatory if I'm writing a post about me
running a half marathon.

The race was pretty smooth sailing until just past mile 9.  We kept things steady, but then we hit the hills.  There was one big hill at the beginning, but at the beginning hills don't matter so much.  The hills at the end were pretty killer.  We had some pretty substantial ups and downs between miles 9 and 12.  I've been doing about 5 weeks of hills training for my marathon, so even though these hills were hard, I was able to keep my negative voices to a minimum and push through.  By the time I hit the top of the last hill at the mile 12 marker, I was able to sail down the other side of it and push myself through the last flat stretch to the finish.  My splits say I ran this last mile at an 8:10 pace.  I didn't know I had that in me after 12 miles.  But I did.  It's crazy what your body can do when you command it to be uncomfortable for a little while.  I realized from this race that I probably couldn't have gotten the time I did without these hills.  Although the uphills were more than challenging, I made up a lot of time by cruising on the downhills.  If it were all flat, I don't know that I could have pushed that hard.  And as a result of this conclusion, I will love hills for ever and always.  Really.  Seriously.

Mileage splits according to my watch.  See that huge fail
of a 9 minute pace the first mile?  And the awesome
8:10 pace final mile?  I'm pretty proud.

Here are happy finisher faces:

Notice that Ana (on the right) is standing on her tiptoes.
I am still a giant.

And here are some delicious post race snacks provided by the race organizers.

Do you see that little single package of Tilamook
Cheddar cheese?  Best post race snack ever.

After those snacks, we stayed on the island to eat some really yummy fried food that included pickle chips and fish and chips for me.  But the most important part of the meal was this:

See the pickled green beans?  Even more
awesome than Tilamook cheese.

After breakfast, we took the ferry back instead of driving back over the pass.  We partially regretted this because there was a long line that caused us to miss the first ferry, so we had to wait around for another half hour.  But it was ok, because it was a gorgeous day and there was less driving this way.  We got to see more pretty scenery from the ferry.

Seagulls creep me out but they make really pretty pictures.

When I got home, the first thing I did was add my numbers and new medal to my wall of accomplishment.

It's hard to see, but there are 2 medals on the
first hook now, because 5 hooks plus 6
medals equals not enough room.

I also inspected the small blister that formed at the base of my big toe because a tiny piece of plastic had been somehow fused to the inside of my sock, causing it to rub through the whole race.

Can you see the blister?  I swear it's there.  And
it really hurts.  And is really attractive.

And the bonus at the end of the day: My friend Cristin, who loves Lucy almost as much as I do, took her for a 2 hour walk while I was gone today.  Thanks to Cristin, Lucy was just as tired this afternoon as she was this morning:

I can't take enough pictures of her in this
position.

Despite the blister, and the hills, and the ferry waiting, today was a great day.  November was not as great, but it was still good.  Maybe it all came down to the banana.  Who knows?  I could try to analyze all of this, but in the end it wouldn't really matter, because the next race I do will be completely different.  Every race is a new experience, a new accomplishment, a new test of my physical and mental limits.  I can't wait to go again.