Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Holiday Half Marathon Race Recap

Sunday was my last race of 2012.
This was my 16th race of the year and that is without counting Hood to Coast.  I did not realized I had done so many this year.

This race is like Long Beach, a weekend race.  We have the kids race on Saturday and the Half Marathon on Sunday.

I love Run Racing events.  Super well organized, FREE kids race with bibs and medals.  REALLY nice medals!

We had to be at Will's soccer game at 11:15 so I made the kids run in the first wave with the bigger kids.  I told them to just line up at the very back and go.  There were other smaller kids in that wave running with their siblings so it was no big deal.

Kids did great! It was a mile run.  Jonathan came in first beating big brother in 9:04!


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Starting at the back of the wave!

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When the MC said "here comes a Santa Hat" I did not expect to see this little guy!! He beat a bunch of older kids and he started dead last!!!

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He has side ache....poor Will.

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Sunday was my turn.
It was a cool morning...in the high 40s at the start with the sun out,  no complain.
I was not prepared for this one,  I did not put the miles to be ready and I was very tired.
I just wanted to run and participate and not go over 2:30.
I had acid reflux before the start...that is always bad news...
This course is not easy.  It is very HILLY.
I knew I would walk part of it and that is OK.

At the start I saw my friend Sandy who blogs here

I did not do my homework and did not notice in the emails that the course changed a little.  That meant seeing Bill 2 miles later than last year and then just at the finish line.  I thought the changes made the course even harder.

The race:  Well I had no plan other than LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT for 13 miles the best I could that day.  I tried to "bank" time on the flat and down parts.  It was mostly hills though....and some were just a killer.

Mile 4 something exiting the race track.  Will came running to catch my gloves and arm warmers!

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I felt tired during the race but I was happy to be there.  I was fun to see the people in festive outfits.

I had not done any double digit run since my last half and when I hit mile 10 I had to dig deep.

I started to get dry heaves at 11.5.  Merry Christmas to me.  It was not the worst I had so I was able to run after a little walk break.  I knew I would get them again after I finish and I did....those just suck...they hurt, they are embarrassing, they suck.

Getting to the finish line, Will ran for a high 5!


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Pretty snowflake medal!

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So I finished.
And I finished under 2:30.
2:27:42
Not great but it is OK.

I have ran 3 half marathons this fall.  All while I was still recovering from a groin injury.
Running post or during injury is a lesson of humility for sure.
In June I ran my PR Half Marathon in 2:19:xx.  I got injured that day.
This fall my times were much slower: 2:33, 2:25 and 2:27.   It is frustrating on paper to see this but it is what it is.  It could be worst.  I could have had 3 DNF or DNS...so I will take these 3 slower times and count my blessings.

After Sunday's race I felt so tired and like I had been hit by a truck.   Time to rest I think.
I rested Monday and Tuesday and today I went for 3 miles.

2012 race calendar is closed! I will do a year recap post soon.

Did you enter my Holiday Giveaway?
See previous post for that!!!

15 comments:

Kate Geisen said...

Love your socks! So fun. And what a great medal!

So cute to see the pictures of your boys racing. :)

giraffy said...

Your boys are adorable!

Congrats on finishing another, and hitting your sub-2:30 goal! Hopefully you can let the injury heal up now :)

Anonymous said...

Great medal! So sorry it was a tough race. I think you really need some time off from racing and just recovery fully from your injury and also just run for fun. Sometimes a little racing break helps physically but also mentally.

Big Daddy Diesel said...

Congrats on a successful race and a great season. Its time to rest and heal up and start thinking of 2013 (which you probably already have)

middleagedrunner said...

Your socks are awesome, the medal makes me jealous and your kids are JUST adorable! Happy Holidays to you all- you've had a solid year of racing in 2012, for sure :-)

KovasP said...

Great medals - way to dig deep and finish!

Elizabeth said...

love your medal and the boys medal too! you always capture such great moments (or your husband does). congrats on the race and finishing out 2012-i know it wasn’t as fast as you hoped-but you did it! :)

Elizabeth said...

love your medal and the boys medal too! you always capture such great moments (or your husband does). congrats on the race and finishing out 2012-i know it wasn’t as fast as you hoped-but you did it! :)

Raina said...

Your boys did fantastic with all those older kids!
Way to stick it out with the course changes and all that you have gone through this year with the groin injury. Beautiful smile and medal, Caroline :)

Lisa J said...

love both the penguin and snowflake medal!!! I find it amazing how one of your little ones had the perfect stride... i feel like as I get older the more lackluster my stride gets... one of the many things i can learn from kids

Christy @ My Dirt Road Anthem: A Runner's Blog said...

Love the medal! Great job despite the injury, is it getting better? I seem to have developed some type of groin/ hip flexor injury and am supposed to start half marathon training this week.

Christy @ My Dirt Road Anthem: A Runner's Blog said...

Love the medal! Great job despite the injury, is it getting better? I seem to have developed some type of groin/ hip flexor injury and am supposed to start half marathon training this week.

Christina Williams said...

Congrats on having a 3 half marathons under your belt just in the Fall! And the snowflake medal is a very nice looking one! Love the pics of the kiddos :)

Nelly said...

Nice job to you and your boys on the race! They have some nice airborne pics!

You may have saw this already, but in the latest issue of Runners World (Jan 2013), on page 61 at the bottom, I saw they used one of your tweets "Don't panic, don't puke". Cool to see someone I know in there!

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