Race Report ~ Watermans Run Leg

Well as you know already, I was part of an awesome relay team at the Watermans Half IM.

This was my first time participating in a triathlon relay and I must say that it was so much fun and I can't wait to do another one! It was a lot different than doing the whole tri on your own and I felt so much more relaxed!

Since I was doing the run leg (which was 13.1 miles of running fun) I had a lot of waiting and sitting around to do before my leg actually got under way. I wasn't sure how to approach the food situation with all the lag time before my run. I didn't want to eat to much and didn't want to eat to little because my stomach is weird and is the main cause of all my bad runs. I went with eating a yogurt in the car on the way down, then had a bagel during the swim and a banana right after the swim. Then while Jason was biking, I munched on some pretzels and fruit snacks.

The Run
Jason came flying to the bike dismount line 10 minutes earlier than expected and I had just got out of the port a potties. I basically sprinted to our bike rack and waited for him as he came running in behind me.

how do I get this on?

I fumbled with getting on the timing chip and off I went. I didn't have my watches ready... yes watches... I was wearing two! My Garmin was low on battery because I was stupid head and forgot my charger in the hotel room in CA and didn't realize this until Friday night. My watch had 33% life left. So I wore a back up old school one just on case. Well, with all the hurry and not being ready for Jason, my watches weren't ready. I couldn't get the Garmin to start up and I played around with my old school one because it was still running Jason's bike split on it. I got that one going probably 30 seconds to a minute into the run, so I knew right there, that there wasn't really a point in looking at my watch because the time was off anyhow. Plus I was just happy to finally be out there on the course!

On my way to 13.1 miles

I had no real goal in mind on this run, besides to finish in under two hours and to kept a positive attitude since the other people out of the course have been through a lot harder day than me. The run course starts up a nice steep hill and throws you out onto the road where there was no shade and you were running on the side of the road. It was hot by the time I start the run (maybe around 80 +) but I wasn't going to let this bother me. We ran on the hot road for what seemed forever before turning around at about the 5k mark. I felt bad passing people because they had swam and biked and looked tired/death marchish and there I was feeling good with nice fresh legs.  At this point, the 5k mark was the only marker I saw, and I loved the fact that I didn't see any mile markers and that I wasn't looking at my watch! I was just running by feel and this always seems to make a run go by faster for me. I thought there needed to be more water stops though. I only remember seeing three on them on the whole course. It wasn't too bad for me, but for the others who were doing the full half, I really think needed more water stops. At about mile 4 something they had us turn onto a gravel driveway. This was the same drive that we drove up two weeks ago when Jason and I came down to preview the bike course. I thought ... oh shit... when I kept running down the drive way and saw two houses and no running paths or arrows or anything. There was no runners in-front or behind me! I stopped and turned around to see if I could see anyone, nope! Shit .. I had no idea where I was suppose to run?!??! I then saw a small grass path with some worn in tire marks in it. I guess this is where we are suppose to run?? I took the leap of faith and ran down it. This was actually the awesome part of the course because it was all wooded and once again you had no idea what mile marker you were at? Some people would hate this, but I loved the no mile markers (or maybe I just missed them all because I wasn't looking for them). I could see another runner in the distance at this point and knew I was headed in the right direction!

Before I knew it, I was running across a small wooden bridge and about to finish my first lap! I saw, Jason, Steph, and Emily cheering and I was happy to see them! One lap down and one to go and I felt good! 

One more to go!

I did look at my watch at this point and saw 48 something on it and knew I was running a 8:30 something. The second loop was tougher because I knew what was in store for me and nothing (aka hills) was a surprise. My left hamstring started to give me issues going up the hill out of the park. I had demonstrated some gymnastics on thurs. night that made only my left hammy really sore. I pushed the nagging pain to the back of my head and kept running. The turn around point seemed longer on the second loop and I was so thirsty! More water stops, please! I has happy when I was running up the last hill into the wooded part of the course. Time was flying by and before I knew it I was running towards the finish line! Which I thought was at the top of a little hill, but was actually through the parking lot. ops.

At the finish!

Nope a little farther to go!

My Offical time was 1:51:47 ... which is actually a PR!!!

Overall
This was seriously so much fun being part of a relay team! And the run really seemed to fly by for me. I had no stomach issues at all and felt pretty good the entire run. I think not having a goal in mind and not looking for mile markers or my watch made me really relaxed, which allowed me to have a good run! During this half marathon I felt so much better than I did last week when I was trying to get under 1:50. It was hotter and a hell of a lot hillier than San Jose, but somehow I managed to have fun the entire run and still PR by a minute. Had I actually been paying attention to my watch I would have pushed myself harder for the last 5k to get under 1:50, but not a big deal. There is always next time.

And as I mentioned earlier, I had so much fun!!! I will definitely be doing another relay some time. Check out Steph's blog to hear all about her super fast swim!

Happy Wednesday All :)