Shamrock'n Half Marathon: Another 13.1 and a new PR

I raced half marathon number three Sunday. The Shamrock'n half in Sacramento. It turned out to be my best race yet.

Saturday I felt awful all day. Horrid stomach ache, slight fever and just not good. I was nervous running a half marathon would be a bad idea, but I said I'd get a good night's rest, treat the day like I would if I was surely running (hydrated ate a few carbs) and see how I felt in the morning.

I woke up Sunday feeling great. I ate a bagel with some nut butter (first time I have had a bagel pre-run) then Lauren and I got ready to go.

We got to the start line pretty easily and waited a few minutes after a bathroom stop for the gun to go off for the wave two runners. (2:00-2:20 runners were in our wave)

Off we went on a perfect weather morning where there was sunshine, a slight breeze and mild temps. All of a sudden after admiring cute houses and trees in bloom I realized I hit mile four. I felt awesome and kept my pace but had no idea how fast I was going because I never race and rarely run with a watch. I did realize I blew by the 2:10 pacer around mile five. I passed a ton of people through mile 6 and was having a great time feeling really strong into the split at mile 6.6.

 

Me and Lauren. The only photo I have of this race, sadly.

I had been drinking full cups of water through all the aid stations and walking through them which usually I don't do. After the split I grabbed water and tried to get my sports beans from my back pocket. Struggled for a moment before I got them out and tried to open them. I failed since I was carrying a water cup. I kept trying to rip them open with my teeth and dropped them. Finally I put the water down opened them up and poured them in my mouth, chewed quickly and gulped down my water and got on my way. I definitely lost a solid minute at the aid station, at least. I tried picking it up to recover some lost time.

The course had some nice rolling small inclines which was great for me because i get really tired on pancake flat runs and want to use some other muscles. I am also trying to embrace hills more and get myself all pumped about the reward of running down them.

I hit mile 10 still feeling great then made it to mile 12 where I literally said aloud "f@*% this $hi*." It seemed like another mile would be impossible but people were speeding up so I pulled it together and focused. I hit mile 13 and sprinted the best I could to the finish line where it was so congested I had to slow down and was elbow to elbow with people...narrow finishing chute for a race of 8,000? Bad idea.

At this point I had no idea how fast I ran and didn't really care too much. I just wanted a water and banana. I made my way to the snacks, stretched and decided to get a massage even though I should have been looking for Lauren.

Post-massage I ran into Jesse, Cos and Lauren. Hooray! Jesse let me know I ran a 2:05! I took two full minutes of my Kaiser race and PR'd!! Later when I looked up my time I realized I also ran an even split on the course which is even more awesome. One second faster per mile on the back end and it would have been a negative split.

We then snapped some photos, grabbed a free beer and headed back to our friend's house for showers and food. Two bloody mary's and a bacon burger later I was full and happy.

Such a great race with a nice course (though it did need one or two more aid stations) and friendly runners. I'd definitely sign up again.

Now, onto Portland training and my quest to a sub-two half marathon.

Shamrock'n Half Marathon-Sacramento, CA
2:05:27
143/614 AG (F25-39)
949/4150 (Females)
1980/6188 (Overall)