Sandman Extreme 1/2 Marathon 1/13/2018

I was on the fence for awhile about doing this race because of budgeting my money and because of it's timing at the beginning of my marathon training.  But, it's hard to pass up a half marathon that's less than an hour away, and even harder to pass up a half marathon with a giant mountain climb in it! 

I questioned my decision again when I woke up this morning to find out that the snow that was supposed to have stopped early in the morning had not stopped.  And then all of my car doors were frozen shut and I had to dump out half of one of my water bottles to get a door open.  But, I had already paid for the race so I wasn't going to let snow or frozen doors stop me.  Thankfully the drive was almost entirely on interstate, the snow was not sticking, and I did not hit any icy patches on the drive. 

When I planned out my long run schedule from now til the marathon on May 6, I scheduled a 16 miler for today, even knowing that I would probably do this race.  I've never liked the idea of needing to keep going after a finish line, but it's how the timing worked out in my schedule.  Last week my planned 12 mile long run became a 15 mile run, so I decided that if I really wasn't feeling it, I could skip the 16 miler today.  But I like to stick to my schedule (unless I'm doing extra...), so I ended up just making sure I had energy left at the end of the race. 

I used the first mile of the race as my warmup, then picked up the pace when I hit the bottom of the 4 mile climb around mile 1.3.  I had been about 10 ft behind the 1st place female until that point, when I gained on her and passed her.  She kicked it up a gear and passed me again not too long afterwards.  I held my pace and waited for her to slow down and it wasn't too long before I was in the lead again.  I ran strong all the way up the mountain, at race effort or slightly below.  Once I turned around to go back down the hill, I backed off to an easy effort.  I knew the downhill was going to hurt my hips since I have neglected to do yoga for about a month or so, and I also remembered that last year after pushing the downhill I found myself unable to push the remaining uphills. Today I wanted to see if taking it easier on the downhills would enable me to do better on the uphills. 

I lost my 1st place about halfway down the mountain, but I had expected to lose it sooner, and I had promised myself I wouldn't listen to my competitive side and try to hold on to it.  I never traded places with anyone else for the entire race.  My strategy of taking it easier on the downhills did pay off when I hit the remaining uphills, as I was able to take them all at race effort and not feel like I was dying, as I did last year.  Strava tells me I ran every single uphill just a few seconds slower than I did last year, but I felt so much better, so I'll take feeling stronger over being faster!  I crossed the finish line around 1:40:45 (2nd female, 4th overall), and had no trouble continuing on to run the 16 miler I had planned.  I started getting hungry around mile 14 or 15, but other than that I felt fine. 

I never ended up using my inhaler other than before I started.  I don't know how much it was due to not pushing the entire race, and how much it was due to maybe my lungs being a little bit stronger, but either way, it was nice not to need it!  I did end up coughing a bit after the run, so I know my lungs did work a little too hard for the cold air.  I don't think I wore them out too hard, but I'll try to be careful the next few days to make sure they are alright before I push them again.  Don't want to set myself back!

I was invited to go out for pizza with some of the other runners, but declined because eating out isn't in the budget right now.  (Thanks to having ceiling heat and no downstairs neighbor, my heating bills are atrocious right now).  After I started driving home I realized the more important reason not to stay for lunch was that if I did, I would not make it home before the post long run crash happened.  Driving is no bueno when I'm crashing from a long run, so I'm glad I drove straight home!  I started to crash about 15 miles from home, but I was close enough that I made it home before I got too tired to drive. 

I'm hoping to be able to actually race this course next year, and see if I can beat my course PR of 1:34 from 2014.  January has been an awkward time of year for me to race a half marathon, as December tends to be a recovery month, but I'm currently not planning a November half marathon, so maybe my training will be different and I will be in a place to run a strong race next January. 

I saw several people taking photos during the race, I'm hoping they get posted so I can see them!  If I find them I'll post them here.