Massacre Marathon Relay

Running, spending time with friends, and dressing up in festive attire are all high on my list of favorite things to do, so it's no surprise that I'm a huge fan of relays.  Fortunately my friends are like-minded, and were on board with ordering the somewhat-overpriced-but-totally-worth-it holiday sweater tech shirts, so we felt confident in (at the very least) being the best dressed team out there!

Speed-wise, I wasn't really sure what I could expect of myself.  I threw a faster-than-jogging mile and some 400s into a run on Wednesday to test out the knee, and thankfully had no pain, but hadn't done any speed work or tempo running since my injury in December so even those short efforts felt incredibly hard.  I do think the cycling has helped me avoid getting completely out of shape, but I'm definitely lacking running fitness and had no idea how the 1.6 mile intervals would go.

Fortunately, I have very fast teammates, so I figured they'd give me a big lead and I wouldn't have to worry about it too much.  Last year we were edged out by four cross country girls, who, thanks to their homemade shirts, we referred to as the Puffy Paints.  Sure enough, the puffy paints were back, and we were determined to take them down this year.  Allie started us off with leg 1, which is a little longer than the others at just over 2 miles (to get the total to an even 26.2), and to my surprise, puffy paint #1 came in a few seconds ahead of her.  Allie is crazy fast, so that was not a good sign, and I hoped that, like us, they'd put their speediest woman first.  Caren ran leg 2, and kept even with her puffy paint girl, so I started leg 3 a few seconds behind.  As expected, they'd put their slowest runner in 3rd position as well, and to my pleasant surprise, I found that I was actually running faster than she was!  The first part of the course includes a relatively big uphill, some flats, and then another uphill section.  The great part about the course layout is that the corresponding downhill is at the end of the loop, so you can see the finish as you come out of the woods it's all downhill from there.  I was happy to hand off to Ellen showing an average pace under 7 on my watch, and even happier to have put a few seconds on the puffy paints.  

The remaining laps went by in similar fashion, with Allie, Caren, and Ellen pretty evenly paired with the fast xc girls and blasting laps at near 6-minute pace.  Though I was by far the slowest runner on our team, I was able to put additional time on Puffy Paint #3, who was finishing each lap in about 12 minutes while I kept it close to 11.  By lap 3, I felt that our lead was safe, but was inspired by my super fast teammates to not slack off too much, and was thrilled to average under 7 minute miles for all 4 laps.  Happily, redemption was ours, and we finished as the first women's team (5th overall) in 2:48:33. 

Victory!

Overall, I was really pleased with how the race went.  I didn't think I'd be able to run sub-7 but my body is responding to returning to running pretty well.  I am not where I had hoped to be and have a lot of work to do, but the last couple of weeks have me feeling pretty optimistic.  When we did this race last year, I had a lot going on and was preparing to fly home to visit my mom in the hospital, so it was a very emotional time and I didn't really race well, but I decided to compare this year's splits to 2013.  While I expected this year to be quite a bit slower, my splits for laps 1 and 3 were actually exactly the same, and 2 and 4 were faster this year!  I'm definitely taking that as reason to be optimistic, and hope that all is not lost for my spring racing season after all!

2014 Splits

Lap 1: 10:55 (6:49; 2013: 10:55)

Lap 2: 10:48 (6:45; 2013: 10:57)

Lap 3: 11:02 (6:54; 2013: 11:02)

Lap 4: 11:06 (6:56; 2013: 11:17)

Big thanks to my awesome friends/teammates for being supportive and encouraging through everything! 

RNR New Orleans Half Marathon

I still haven't run much and am trying to gradually come back from my knee injury, so this was to be my first longish training pace run in about 2 months, and the goal was to run about 8 minute/mile pace and just stop along the way whenever the mood struck us.  The result: the most fun run ever, as evidenced by our race photos, which tell the story better than I could write (and in far fewer words)... 

Sarah and Ellen before the race 

We had to stop because of the irony

Donuts and beer?!
Clearly they knew we were coming.

Giant inflatable = excuse to pose in the middle of the street

Running into the fog in the French Quarter

More inflatables, more posing

I think they made these just for Ellen

King Cake!

Jello shots
(we had to do 2 because the first photo was blurry)

Signs for Sarah

Mile 25
On her way to a new PR of 3:13!

Mission accomplished!

My knee started to feel a little sore before mile 2, but thankfully the pain never got worse than a bit of discomfort, which is good news for my hopes of getting back to marathon shape in time for Boston.  Of course I'm not where I'd like to be training-wise, but 13 miles is a good place to start, and I couldn't have had more fun doing it!

Charleston Half Marathon

Other than a spectacularly miserable 2 mile test run a week ago, I hadn't run in a month and wasn't sure how my knee would fare, so I decided I'd just walk the Charleston Half rather than skipping it altogether.  As the race approached, I changed my plan to starting with my friends Emily and Robert, sticking with them as long as possible, and then walking if and when the knee pain was more than I could tolerate.  I was wearing walking shoes rather than my running shoes and had done absolutely nothing in terms of pre-race nutrition/hydration/preparation, but it was really cold, so I was extra motivated to keep running, and as we set out I had some tightness in my leg but the knee felt ok.  We settled in at a nice comfortable pace, and the first mile split clicked off at 11:11, which I thought might be a lucky sign.  

Emily (in black) and Robert (in green) on the prettiest part of the course

The first few miles of the race were quite scenic, running along palmetto-lined water front streets and through historic Charleston.  Miles 2-5 were similar, and I distracted myself by chatting with my friends (thanks, Emily and Robert for letting me tag along!), checking out the scenery, and taking some pics, as we continued to average low-11s.

As the race left Charleston, it was more industrial and not particularly pretty, but my knee was still ok with the pace and shortened stride.  We took little walk breaks around miles 5 and 7, and it was a little harder to get going again after walking, but thankfully I didn't experience any of the stabbing knee pain that ended my test run a week ago.  

At mile 8, my friends decided to make a pitstop, and the portajohn line was fairly long, so I decided to keep going, not knowing if I'd be able to start up again after stopping.  Once I was on my own, I figured I'd try to pick up the pace a little, and see if my knee could handle a bit of a faster pace.  This was motivated by several factors, including curiosity about my ability to resume Boston training at some point in the near future, a desire to warm up, and recognition of the fact that the faster I ran, the sooner I would finish.  I was passing so many people that I felt like I was flying, but a glance at the garmin showed I was actually running high-8s.  Not exactly my goal half marathon pace under normal circumstances, but close to my suggested long run training pace, and though my glutes and calves were really starting to feel tight (not surprising considering my shorter stride/slower pace and the fact that I have only run 2 miles since Christmas), the knee was fine.  I maintained that pace for the remainder of the race, finishing feeling cold and tired but thankfully knee-pain free!  Official time: 2:18:05

Unfortunately I wasn't able to find Monte (who was going to meet me at the finish) or Ellen and Caren (who had finished the race about 45 minutes earlier), but I walked back to about mile 13 to cheer Emily and Robert on to the finish.  Thankfully they were smart enough to have their phones with them, so we were able to reunite our little group for some post-race shrimp and grits, beer, and photos.  

Garmin data

Race summary...

Pros: Driving distance, flat course, ran with friends, no knee pain, and the food in Charleston is amazing (as evidenced here) so it's worth the trip just for that! 

Cons: The majority of the race was less scenic than I anticipated, it was freezing, the race shirt design was pretty whack, and the delayed onset muscle soreness is reminding me that 13 miles is still a long way, especially on zero run training.