2 mile w/u
Target: 13.1 miles @goal MP (6:00-6:05)
Actual: 1:19:04 (6:02 pace); 2nd place female
Results; Dallas Morning News article
I could write my own report of this race, but why bother? That's what I keep The Trailer's Jon Gugala around for! His article, which recounts his own experience of racing in the Karhu bear costume and details Karhu Airstream driver Joe Moore's dominant half-marathon victory, is far more entertaining than reading about how I ran marathon pace for 80 minutes. (On the other hand, my efforts netted me $500 and all Jon got was some bizarre head chafing and the punishment of dressing up in Hooter's hot pants, so who's the real winner now?)
Oh, and by the way, my dad ran 1:35:57. He is 63 years old. This is officially more badass than anything your dad has done this week. The end.
~1.5 mile w/u
13.1 miles @1:19:58*
3rd female, $250; Results
Total: 14-15 miles
*includes bathroom break (oops)As is always the case at 13.1 races, I was up way too early for a Saturday morning to help set up the Craft and Karhu tents. Fortunately my parents arrived yesterday, which means I was able to stay with them at the Marriott mere blocks from the start instead of at the ghetto LaQuinta with the external rooms where I had the pleasure of sleeping with one eye open on Wednesday and Thursday. So I got to sleep in until the indulgent hour of 4:45, which was lovely.
Immediately upon stepping outside into the early morning darkness, I was chagrined to discover that the air was significantly warmer and more humid than any other day since my Wednesday arrival. Earlier in the week I'd run in capris and long sleeves, but with the temperature hovering around 65 and a humidity percentage in the 80s, I was already uncomfortable in my lightweight jacket. This did not bode well for my upcoming race performance, but there wasn't exactly anything I could do about it. I jogged over to the start/finish area and spent the next 90 minutes setting up our space and preparing for a morning of sales. Before I knew it there were fewer than 30 minutes until the start which left little time for dawdling. I quickly warmed up with my friend Andrew, then hustled over to a construction site with the hopes of finding a port-a-potty without a line 30 deep. Victory attained, I stripped down to my skivvies under the Karhu tent and then made my way to the start. I recognized several familiar faces from my previous time in the DFW running community, as well as a few speedy ladies who I knew would be contending for the prize purse. One was Melissa Cook, a multiple-time All-American from Texas A&M and a multiple-time Olympic Trials qualifier as well. She's been around for years and is legit. I also spotted Justyna Mudy, whom I recognized from her 1:17 performance on the horrific hills of 13.1 Atlanta a few weeks ago. No question they were both fit, and likely out of my league. I spotted a few other potential contenders but was confident I could run with anyone else in the field.
Once the race began, it quickly became apparent that the placing would be anticlimactic, at least from my perspective. A relaxed 5:58 first mile put me at least 20 seconds behind Melissa and Justyna and the same distance ahead of all the other women in the field. Though a considerable gap would form on either side of me as the race progressed, my placement would not. Around mile 2 I caught up to a group of guys and inquired if I could tuck in for a few miles. "Sure!" they enthusiastically replied before sprinting off and leaving me alone once again. For much of the race this is how I would remain, though I didn't mind much. Years of living in this area enabled me to recognize almost every street on the course, which was surprisingly comforting. Though my legs were heavy, my breathing felt calm and relaxed, and I made it through the early miles by repeatedly reminding myself that the Katy Trail section would begin at mile 7. This would mean a straight, gradual downhill for almost four miles, and I knew I could use that real estate to make up for some slower early miles as we gradually meandered to the top of the trail.
During mile 9, however, a situation arose. Had my personal race been closer, had a championship of some sort been on the line, perhaps I would have tried to fight through it. Instead, with several minutes separating me from the next woman on either side, I didn't think twice about scampering into a port-a-potty near the side of the trail a few minutes later. Ironically, my split of 6:26 for this mile (including the stop), my slowest of the day, would've actually been my fastest had the brief detour not been necessary. Oh well. Mentally the break did nothing to dampen my spirits as I knew the finish line was within reach, and once we exited the trail near the American Airlines Center I had no doubt that I could push through for two more miles. It certainly didn't help that the last of those miles was almost entirely uphill, the steepest and longest grade in any direction on the course, and with mere minutes to go I got passed by two guys who had been trailing me for the entire race. I desperately tried to latch onto them, succeeding for a few strides, before watching helplessly as they pulled away. Frustrated, I almost shut things down and shuffled in until I rounded the final turn and saw that I could still edge under the 1:20 barrier. I crossed the line just a few ticks under, happy to set a new (admittedly weak) PR and score a few bucks. The last time I raced a half in Dallas was at the 2007 White Rock Half-Marathon, when I was pleased to run 1:26:30 and just barely miss a then-personal best. It's easy to get discouraged now when the top women finish leagues ahead of me, but looking at how far I've come helps put things in perspective.
Karhu Sisu congratulates me, Melissa and JustynaBut enough about me. Let's discuss the real noteworthy Nedlo performance of the day, that of my dad John. Not only did J-Ned win his age group, but he also ran his fastest time in years, a blistering 1:36. Oh, and did I mention he is 62?! Simply incredible. I wish I could've seen the faces of the guys half his age as he left them in his dust. After several years of struggling with injury and motivation, rarely breaking 1:45 in his half-marathon attempts, my dad has finally been able to string together an entire year of solid training (and, not coincidentally, an entire year of solid training in Karhus), enabling him to absolutely crush his goal for the day. Congrats, Dad!
Me, Andrew and my coworker Tinley slinging shoes post-race
2+ mile w/u
Target: 5xmile @5:35-5:40 w/2-3 mins. jog
Actual: 5:41 (2), 5:34 (2), 5:38 (3), 5:34 (2), 5:36
2 mile c/d
Total: 10 miles
Ah, the best laid plans.
I woke up at 6am on Tuesday morning with every intention of completing this workout on the high school track in Marblehead. Only problem was, once I jogged over to the track I discovered it wasn't a track at all, just a football field with nothing around it. Awesome. By the time I realized where the actual track was I didn't have enough time to run over there and utilize it before work. Fail #1. My fallback was the Beverly High School track which is located a mere 400 meters from our office. However, they're currently redoing the infield so when I jogged past on my second run at lunch there were men in hard hats and bulldozers and the like making a mess of the place. Fail #2. This left me with only one option, and that was to attempt to squeeze this in mid-day Wednesday after waking at 5am and flying until noon and before working all afternoon at the 13.1 Dallas packet pickup at Luke's Locker. That the pieces all fell together in such a way that I was afforded a full 90 minutes to squeeze this in was a miracle in itself. So, while feeling as though I'd already lived through a full exhausting day prior to a solo hard effort might not be ideal pre-workout protocol, it was all I had.
Originally, when the workout plan was Tuesday, Jordan had prescribed six faster intervals with two minutes rest. Given the switch to Wednesday and my upcoming half-marathon on Saturday, the decision was made to decrease the volume and intensity slightly with the intention of preserving my legs. But if I'd thought that mid-5:30s would feel easy, I was wrong. The fact of the matter is I'm just a horrible solo pacer, particularly on a completely straight stretch of pavement such as that of the Katy Trail. At least it was marked every quarter mile, though I question how precise some of those measurements are. I'd like to blame my erratic splits on the potentially erratic markings, but the reality is just what I stated earlier. I'm a horrible solo pacer, and traveling for eight hours before working out sucks.
As alluded to in my blog title, the highlight of this working was beating Troy Aikman. (Just in case you, like Caitlin, are one of two people on earth who doesn't know who he is, see here.) To be precise, he had no idea we were racing. We just happened to be covering the same ground at the same time. Although--and I'm being completely honest here--it really wasn't a race because of how fast I blew past him. The first time I thought, "Hmm, that guy looks a lot like Troy Aikman." The second time, when we made eye contact, I amended that to, "That guy is definitely Troy Aikman. And I'm definitely kicking his ass."
So no matter what happens at 13.1 on Saturday, at least I have that going for me. Which is nice.
2 mile w/u
Target: 8k race @don't drop out, don't embarrass the brands
Actual: 29:57 (5:58, 5:54, 6:07, 5:54, 6:03)
2nd place female, 4th place overall
2 mile c/d
Total: ~9 miles
I must admit, I had literally no idea what to expect going into this race. This is only my fourth week back running, and since I hurt my foot at Greek Fest two months ago I've done exactly zero workouts. Wait, I take that back--I did two strides after my run at White Rock Lake yesterday. Does that count? As you can imagine, this type of race preparation doesn't exactly inspire self-confidence. But, given that I was already going to be at the Uptown Run working the Craft and Karhu tent, I figured I might as well take advantage of the free entry and try to earn some exposure for the two brands.
Contrary to the weather that my Charlottean friends have been enjoying this week, the weather in Dallas is warm, muggy and windy. When I left my parents' hotel room at 5:30 this morning it was 72 degrees and 88% humidity. I knew it wouldn't exactly be ideal racing weather, but to be honest that was the least of my worries. At the top of the list? Not going out too fast, not dying and not embarrassing myself, in that order. I honestly had no idea how my body would respond to a pace it hadn't so much as hinted at in several months, but I didn't exactly have anything to lose by lacing up the boots. Might as well give it a shot.
I warmed up just after 7am with Brett, a new friend of mine who works at Lukes; Andrew, an old friend of mine I haven't seen in a few years; and Dawn, a speedy local runner who I knew would be the woman to beat. (Turns out she was almost the man to beat too, but I'll get to that in a minute.) I spotted my pops (representing with his Karhus) and our family friends who'd also come up for the race, but there wasn't much time to chat. After warming up and waiting in line for 10 minutes for the bathroom there wasn't even time for a few strides before lining up at the starting line. Ready or not, it was time to test out these rusty legs of mine.
The gun sounded promptly at 8:00 and we were off in the Uptown direction. Within the first 800 meters it became apparent that, simply put, there were no fast dudes in the race. My friend Andrew was just tempoing the thing and he was already far ahead of the next male, with Dawn and myself close behind. Allow me to say again just so we're clear: Dawn (a girl) and me (another girl) were in third and fourth place overall. This would not change for the remainder of the race. Now guys, I get it that there was no prize money to be had and that the Uptown Run no longer carries the prestige it once did (hence why it will become a 13.1 race next year). But seriously? We girls weren't exactly running world beating times here, so it was a bit of a surprise (at least to me) to find ourselves front and center from the gun.
Approaching the first mile marker, I still had no idea of my pace, but I was relieved to find myself feeling somewhat comfortable. Seeing 5:58 on the clock gave me a slight confidence boost and armed me with the conviction that I could finish in a respectable time. At this point Dawn was only a few meters ahead and I harbored some hopes of her coming back, but midway through the second mile she started to pull away. Unsure as to how my body would respond as the race progressed, I was hesitant to follow. I kept reminding myself to stay relaxed and focused and to take the race one mile at a time. Sure enough, the second marker loomed before I was expecting it, and I was pleased to see a slightly faster split accompanying the downhill mile. The third mile was a series of turns and a gradual incline, and at that point I felt my legs and breathing begin to labor. Dawn had pulled even farther ahead and I was right in the middle of no man's land, flanked by the Uptown buildings and accompanied by a brisk headwind. Things had the potential to go downhill fast if I didn't keep myself together. Fortunately the fourth mile was solely flat to downhill, which meant I was afforded the opportunity to accelerate slightly while collecting myself mentally. Just past the fourth mile marker was a 180-degree turn and the promise of retracing the hill we'd just coasted down, which made for a physically and mentally draining final mile. With 600 meters to go I made the final turn--no thanks to the cop who allowed me to run five meters off course before halfheartedly calling after me to turn around--and could see the finish line straight ahead, and a quick glance at my watch confirmed that I could dip under 30 minutes if I hustled in. I made it with just a few seconds to spare, hot and exhausted but also pleasantly surprised at my performance.
Without question, the positive takeaway from this effort is that all has not been lost over the past few months. I've obviously forfeited a bit of fitness but not nearly as much as I'd feared. Houston Marathon is a full 13 weeks away, which should be plenty of time to whip myself into respectable shape. I view today's race as a great starting point on the path toward much bigger and better things.
