Army Ten Miler Recap

Goal:
57:30
Top 5

Actual:
2.5 mile warmup
57:12, 3rd place overall female splits of 539, 542, 547, 532, 540, 552, 547, 547, 540, 542
1.5 cool down for about 14 miles total

After spending a week preparing for my second term of my MBA, it was a nice relief to hang out with Liz, Garrett and Meagan in the district the day before this race. I had been questioning how sound my rationale was to do a race right before heading out to China to kick off my second term, but after getting to DC, I knew that I had put in the work to post a decent time.  

Since I'm a whole month behind on my blog, I'm going to keep this short and just copy from what I posted in athleticore.  I felt really good about this race considering my lifestyle and lack of doing half marathon specific workouts. In the race, I had the pleasure of running with Meagan for about 2.5-3 miles and then after that I was solo, except for some of the men that either passed me or that I passed along the way.

I passed two Africans around 4-6 miles and then I passed another girl around mile 8. I had stomach cramps starting after mile 5, so that was a real struggle and a part of me really wanted to drop off and walk to the Lincoln Memorial instead. I really had to focus on not bargaining with myself to get a slower time, although I still fell victim to my own mind. For instance, after mile 6, I told myself "okay, you just have to keep running sub 6:00s to run sub 58." I should have told myself instead: "keep running sub 550", but I didn't want to hurt too bad. Fortunately, my body was somehow able to ignore my mind and push through to a pace faster than 5:50.  

Overall, I was very pleased with my effort and am impressed that I've been able to maintain a decent amount of fitness during my first term of my masters program.  Tomorrow, I head to China!

Army Ten Miler Race Recap

Goal:
10 Mile Race in sub-59:00

Actual:
2 mile warmup?
10 Mile race in 1:00:26 w/ splits of 5:43, 5:51, 5:49, 6:00, 6:05, 6:08, 6:12, 6:11, 6:14, 6:09
18th female
1 mile cool down

In 2011, Meagan and I used this race as a sendoff party for her move from Charlotte to Boston.  She felt out of shape and I felt fit.  The tables turned this year, however, in the attitudes going into the race.  Last year, my training had been going well and I was confident I could break 59:00. On the flip side, Meagan, as she outlines in her recap, felt unfit and unprepared to break 60:00.  This year, I felt unprepared and I knew Meagan was going to have a huge PR based on her training (which she did!).  Why didn't I feel ready for this race?  Well, my iron took a plummet in late August, and I spent most of September focused on staying positive while struggling through most workouts.  This took every ounce of mental energy and focus to stay positive, so when I say that I wasn't ready for this race, I mean it from a mental perspective.

Fortunately, on Monday this week, I was greeted with the good news that my iron supplementation program had worked its magic, and that my iron had reached one of the highest levels I've ever seen.  That information alone was a huge positive influence on my mindset going into the Army Ten Miler.  At least I knew that my breathing wouldn't be an issue.  So, that being said, I set my sights on breaking 59:00, in a similar time as to what Meagan ran last year. I kept looking at Cherry Blossom 2012 as my motivation because I surprised myself to run a 58:38 when I thought I wasn't in shape.

After a seven hour drive on Thursday, Garrett and I had two whole days in the district to enjoy with Garrett's sister Elyse, who lives in Cleveland Park and works at Georgetown as a nurse.  Having Elyse as our host not only made it much more fun, but it also greatly reduced the expensive nature of the trip. We picked up packets at the Expo on Friday, browsed one of the Smithosonian museums on the mall, and slept for 11 hours on Friday night.  On Saturday, we enjoyed the beautiful fall weather by eating outside at Open City with Meagan and Jilane and taking a stroll around the zoo, where I saw several of Cicero's long lost cousins like Tiger, Lion, Lioness, Cougar, and Cheetah.  By the time dinner came around, I was ready for the race to be there.

This year, we wanted to avoid the metro as much as possible since we almost missed the start of the race last year.  So, Garrett and I listened to George Banker's instructions for the elites, and parked in the Hayes Street Pentagon parking lot with a volunteer pass.  Somehow, Garrett and I managed to make it there without a hitch--since some of the roads were closed, we had to map out a different route in a city we don't know.  It worked.  Shortly thereafter, Meagan got dropped off and we hung out in the car, while I insisted that we take pictures to document the trip.

Soon it was time for us to make our way through the masses of people and through the baggage check. Garrett wasn't allowed through since he didn't have a race bib and I hope that we would find him eventually.  Meagan and I began our warmup together and discussed a brief race plan, which was to go out in 5:45-5:50 and then for me to try to maintain that while Meagan probably picked it up.  Right when we finished cooling down, Garrett found us as he was exiting a porta-john, so Meagan and I dropped our pants and gave it to him to carry until the finish.  I did some hip swings, and immediately felt my hamstring pull with tightness as soon as my leg reached hip level.  Not good.  I tried to disregard the feeling and headed to the start.

Once the cannon went off, Meagan shot forward like a bat out of hell and I was left in the dust, wondering how fast we really were going.  I kept myself a safe distance from Meagan, maybe ten to twenty meters back, hoping that what my body was telling me--that we were way too fast--was right.  While she thought that I was starting conservatively, I was thinking, "damn, she's going out for a 5k."  Sure enough, I almost couldn't see Meagan when she came through the 1 mile mark, and I came through entirely too fast as well in 5:43.  Mistake #1

Through the next two miles, I was doing great.  I relaxed into a steady cadence of 5:50 for miles 2/3, and then missed the 4th miler marker, but came through 5 miles in 29:30, which meant that I had slowed down considerably. I told myself that if I just maintained 6:00 pace, I would still break 60, which would still be very respectable given all that's been going on.  I felt pretty optimistic at that point.  Then, things changed.  My leg didn't want to cooperate and I felt the tightness seize the left side of my leg in a way that prevented me to get the leg lift I needed.  The last 5 miles were a very slow, painful death for me.  Every time I passed a race clock, the seconds crept closer and closer to being above my goal pace.  I was hitting over 6:10s.  Dozens of men passed me; eight women passed me.  it was demoralizing.  I couldn't help but think that my last 10k at Twin Cities Marathon was faster than this.  I questioned:  What has happened to me?  Am I the same runner that I was 2 years ago?  Where is my confidence?  Clearly, not in this race.  I fought every urge within my body to drop out.  A part of me wanted to see the (in)famous Grim Reaper as we made it onto the interstate ramp, so I kept going. I even encouraged one guy that had helped me a lot and finally made it to the finish, not out of breath at all.  Good, at least I knew it wasn't an aerobic thing.  I looked for Meagan and hoped that at least she made up for my lackluster performance, which she did, setting a HUGE pr and placing 6th overall.

What I love about this blog is that it allows me to reflect on my running, both in training and racing.  To be clear, I'm not totally injured.  I can still run.  My leg is like 95% healthy, but I need to be 100% healthy to be race ready.  My butt doesn't have enough strength, okay.  But in the end, I think that 95% of my race result today stemmed from my mentality. Having low iron always wears me out physically, but even more so mentally. It's a game against yourself, believing that you are still in great shape even though your workouts would indicate otherwise.  Over the past couple of months, instead of practicing positive self-talk, I have been practicing negative self-talk.  My mind isn't in race shape, and that's the bulk of the issue.  The other slim issue is getting my hamstring back up, but I don't think that is where my attention should be focused right now.  It should be focused on getting back into the mindset where I am fired up to race and where I believe that my training has been quality.

Army Ten Miler Recap

Goal:
10 Mile PR...58:5x something

Actual:
~1 mile warmup
10 mile race in 58:33
Mile Splits: 551, 551, 551, 548, 554, 555, 553, 549, 553, 543
Half Splits:  29:18, 29:15
10k Split:  36:28
Results
~3 mile cool down


I guess you could call this race a success, not just because of my PR, but because of the PRs that both Meagan and Boriana achieved, after an adventure that included plenty of time in the metro underground and little time warming up above ground.

The night before, Meagan and I had spent an ample amount of time strategizing over our meeting places and the best modes of transportation.  After consulting her friend Jilane, a three-year resident of DC and therefore an expert, we determined it was best to ride the Metro.  Further affirming our decision was the Army Ten Miler packet itself, which proclaimed confidently, "The recommended option for transportation is the metro.  Additional lines will be run to accommodate the racers."  Everything seemed like it would work out flawlessly: Boriana and I would meet at the Rosslyn Metro, go two stops away and get off in the Pentagon Station, where we would meet Meagan.   Little did we know that our plan would immediately be trampled by the crowd of people stuffed below ground in Northern Virginia.

So, what really happened?  Well, Garrett and I met Boriana at the metro at 630AM and when we reached the platform, it looked like this, but fill the empty spaces with more and more people until you can't see the concrete:

When a train finally arrived, we didn't make the cut to get onto the first train.  When the second train arrived, we all fit in and I checked my watch:  6:50AM.  We still had plenty of time to get to the Elite Tent in time for a full warmup.  Life was good, except for being packed in like sardines with several hundred other runners who were complete strangers to me.  I was relatively calm.  After 5 minutes, the train began to slow and I glanced through my neighbor's smelly armpit to look out the window, expecting to see the Pentagon platform.  Just darkness.  The operator came on and told us that the train ahead of us was experiencing technical difficulties.  Great.

After about 15 minutes, we finally were able to get off our train.  Turns out the "technical difficulties" for the train ahead weren't even "technical difficulties."  It was more an overcrowding difficulties thing.  Once we got off the train, we couldn't even leave the platform because the three thousand people ahead of us still had to put their metro pass through the gate exit.  While the three of us struggled to get up the escalator, I texted with Meagan to see how her metro experience was going.  She experienced her own adventure, which I'm sure she'll document on her blog soon.  In the meantime, eventually we finally made it back out to the real world...around 7:20AM.

Just when you thought we had solved all our problems, we hadn't.  Next we had to go through a bag check and then figure out how the heck to get to the Elite Tent.  I threw all my stuff into Garrett's arms and told him I'd see him after the race and sprinted off with Boriana and Meagan to find the North Parking Lot.  We ran lopsided through crowds of thousands of people, shoved innocent bystanders out of the way, and cut people in the bag check line to finally jump on the road to the tent.  We made it to the ten by 7:35AM and immediately jumped in the bathroom line.  We made it!

Immediately we all resolved that our quick jog to the Elite tent would have to qualify as our "warmup." I was pissed that I couldn't do my normal work out routine, but I rationalized that I didn't warmup for Twin Cities Marathon and was still able to run strong.  I would be fine.

Just when I thought things were beginning to be like normal race day, I couldn't find Meagan in the start line, which looked like this:

The Uber-Crowded Start

 She had scattered off to make a last minute bathroom stop at some random porta-john.  I looked around and then suddenly I heard my name.  Meagan somehow found me and squeezed her way through huge army dudes to stand next to me.  Then we waited for five minutes, packed in like sardines for the second time that day, in anticipation for the start cannon.

Now that I've already written way too much information about our initial adventure, the race just doesn't even seem that exciting in comparison.

Essentially, Meagan and I made the most of our last 2011 race together and ran together for as long as we could.  In the first mile, we let the lead pack of women sprint ahead of us.  We both figured they would fall back to us, but in the end, they didn't.

My breathing in the first mile was much heavier than normal, most likely due to the cold and congestion I had, and I was a little worried about my race.  I figured it would pass and decided instead to say good job to the wounded warriors were passing.  Running past a solder who has lost a leg in combat definitely put my own running into perspective.  I made a mental note to be grateful for every day that I have the opportunity to go outside and just run.

Meagan and I stuck together through 6 miles, even though Meagan fall off a little bit before the 5-mile mark, she caught back up and said "I'm back" with the energy of a little kid on Christmas.  I wanted to ask if we should hold hands through the finish line, but instead I decided to push the pace.

When we ran through the Mall, I was so grateful for all of the crowd support (including Brian, Jordan and Jilane) and especially for the slew of men that were around me that served as motivation to run faster.  It seemed like after each guy I passed, there was another one right ahead to keep my eyes on.  I realized around mile 7 how much I truly do thrive off of competition.  I also couldn't help but think about how much fun it was to pass all these people!

Around mile 8, the Grim Reaper stood holding a sign that read: "The End is Near."  I hated and loved this guy.

I finished with my fastest split of the day and with a total time of 58:33.  I was happy and tired.  I turned around to see where Meagan ended up and she was really close behind.  She came in 10th with a time of 58:55.  She had definitely surpassed her own expectations for her race, and we both helped the other to run smart and fast!

At the finish line

Garrett found us and showed us the way to the Elite tent before heading off to go get 30 free samples of Muscle Milk and Detour bars.  He was in heaven.

Boriana showed up a couple minutes later, with a new PR of 1:04:xx!   Before we all parted ways to cool down, we were able to capture a picture of the three CRC women who PR'd!  Shortly after this picture was taken, Boriana took off with Julie, Garrett ran off to get even more free stuff, and Meagan and I cooled down on the interstate back to Rosslyn.

We definitely made the most of our situation today and I am proud of us for remaining relatively calm while it seemed like everything was going completely wrong.  Now I feel like if something unexpected happens at the Olympic Trials, I will be prepared to handle it.  That's the spirit....

PS Many thanks to Boriana for being the best hostess ever to Garrett and I over the weekend!!

In the elite tent with Meagan & Boriana