Swim.Bike.Run.Life: B&A Half Marathon Race Report

I went to bed early the night before around 8:30ish. But I couldn't exactly fall asleep even though I was pretty tired. I didn't sleep that great and tossed and turned all night. I wasn't really nervous about this race, so I'm not sure what was up? My alarm went off at 5am and I just splashed my face with some water and proceeded to get ready. I was car pooling with Carly and she met me around 5:15ish as I continued to scramble around my house making sure I had everything needed. We were out the door by 5:30 on our way to Severna Park MD.

The start/finish line was at Severna Park High school which was nice because we had a warm spot to hang out in! Plus there was plenty of bathrooms and a real toilet always wins over the porta-potties. We meet up with Victoria in the HS and hung out stretching and talking before the start of the race.

But, poor Jason... Carly and myself were so forgetful and he had to go back out to the car three times to get stuff for us! And the big thing I left in the car was my timing chip! Hello racing without an official time. I don't know what I would do without him.

We headed outside about 10 minutes before start time and lined ourselves up. It was a small race with a total of 1000 people between the marathon and the half. We wished each other good luck one last time and before I knew it I was running across the timing mat.

Miles 1-3 ~ 7:26, 7:40, 7:58
I really went out a little too fast. I was trying to find my happy pace and I was really just trying to find some room to run. When I looked down at my watch after the first mile, I thought oh Shit! I'm running to fast! Since most of the half was run on the B&A trail the course was a little crowded at first. I ditched my gloves at the first aid station, but kind of wished I hadn't because I wanted them later. I keep seeing a guy in blue running near me for the first couple of miles and near the end of mile 3 I asked him what pace he was shooting for. We had the same goal in mind (8 min pace) so yes! I had a running buddy for the rest of the race.

Miles 4-7 ~ 8:11, 7:58, 7:51, 7:58

Somewhere during these miles I think we ran over two wooden bridges! Let me tell you about these bridges, they were scarey. They bounced all over the place and I got really light headed while running over them and thought I might pass out. Since it was an out and back course I really was dreading running back over them. I also saw my co-worker at about mile 6 and it was a nice surprise to see her out there cheering. We had another co-worker running the full and he finished in 3:09! Anyhow, most of the course was pretty flat and I think around mile 6.5 we ran down which seemed like a pretty big hill. I thought wee...running down hill is fun, but I knew what goes down must come back up. I saw Victoria as I was running back up the hill and could barley catch my breath to cheer for her. But, really the hill was not that bad and it was pretty much the only one on the course.

Miles 8-10 ~ 8:10, 8:05, 7:56

As soon as we hit the turn around we really started to run into a head wind. I actually felt cold and wished I had my gloves back. As I mentioned the course is ran on a paved trail so there wasn't much crowd support. I think I would have gotten pretty lonely out there if it wasn't for my new friend and running buddy. We talked through out the race and helped keep each other on pace for the most part. I thought it was funny that he told me the only reason he runs is so he can eat cheese burgers. Other than that I can't really remember much about these miles besides the fact my hips were starting to hurt a bit at mile 10. I thought about eating some of my honey stinger chews but ended up not eating any of them and only drank from my water bottle a couple of times.

Miles 11- 13.1 ~ 7:54, 8:01, 8:07

I looked down at my watch as mile 11 beeped at me and I was happy to see a little higher than a 7:50 pace. I started to try to do some math in my head, but yeah it wasn't working and at this point I really just wanted to have my last two miles go sub-8. But, noo.... my legs started to really die on me! I knew it was only two miles and I could push myself for two more miles, but I was really struggling. I really started to slow down as I entered mile 12 and as I started to drift farther and farther away from my new friend he stopped running, turned around as he was waving his hand and said: "Sarah lets go! We have ran this race together and I'm not going to let you fizzle out with only .7 left to run." So, I put my big girl pants back on and caught back up to him. It really helped me to have someone out there to push me along. I'm not sure if I could have kept pushing myself if I wasn't running with him. Anyhow, the course spilt for the full marathons as the half marathons made their way back to the HS. I wished my friend good luck with the rest of his race as he was running the full. As I made way to the finish line I attempted to do a small kick even though I thought I might toss my cookies.

I then spot Jason and Doug and gave a quick smile and wave and continued to run and pretended like I was having fun...

"Almost to finish! Keep Going" Jason yelled!

Finish: 1:44:13 (7:57 pace)

Once I crossed the finish line I looked for the closest open grass spot and leaned over as I thought I was going to vomit all over the place. Luckily I did not and just dry heaved a bit which is just as nasty. Jason came and found me and got me some water.

After catching my breath I went back over to finish line area and joined our cheering section so I could cheer on Victoria and Carly as they finished.

Overall:

This was a great little race that was organized well. I will def. come back again because I love this time of year to run and I liked the mostly flat course. On my own performance I did PR, but I only PRed by 43 seconds. I could have pushed myself harder at the end and wished I did.