Good News/Bad News

So this morning was the Alexandria Running Festival Half Marathon. Up until this weekend I thought I was setting myself up to PR (1:30 is what I was aiming for) then when it was ungodly hot, I know I'd have to rethink that. I was pleased to find out at the starting line that there were no Kenyan/Ethiopian women (or actually no men either) and so I knew it'd come down to me and Jill, an awesome woman I met trying to find our way to where the race was held. She runs crazy good times and I was lucky enough to have caught her during a race when she hadn't been training as much.

I still tried to go out on pace, only to find that there were not really any mile markers and the few there were were inaccurate. For someone who has only been racing for 2 years that can be very difficult if you're trying to run a good time because while the pace should feel familiar, it is probably still off by 5-10 seconds per mile, especially as the race goes on and it feels like you're keeping pace when you're slowing down.

The course was out and back TWICE on Eisenhower Avenue and I wasn't a fan of the park it had us run through that was very windy, had a lot of turns, and a few hills. I wouldn't have called it fast and flat. However the park version did provide some shade that we didn't have on the road. I also decided to forgo my usual "I don't need every aid station" and drank at ALL of them given how hot it was. Although I did manage to get about half of every gatorade cup all over my chest.

So anyway, to make a long story short, I won! I was pissed there was no tape to break, but I guess it was a tiny race. My time was about 4 minutes off what it should have been, but I guess there's no need to be upset considering a) the weather sucked b) I won (250 bucks!) and c) everyone else's times were off today.

One thing I need to work on is relaxing the night before a race. I get so hyped up when I stay in a hotel that I can never fall asleep! Then of course I'm up thinking "now I only get ___ hours" which coincidentally keeps me up longer! Anyway, time for Army Wives. I think that was a good race recap.