2014 Jax Bank Half Marathon #racerecap

When we found out my daughter was accepted at Florida State and we knew we would be making the drive down to Tallahassee to check out campus, I made the (almost) impromptu decision to run the Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon again.  I ran it last year in a downpour of Noah proportions and wanted a) some retribution and b) to see my Jax friends again (not necessarily in that order).  The timing turned out perfectly to leave the family in St. Augustine while I drove up to Jax to run and hang out.

In the couple days leading up to the race, my friends and I discussed race plans and goals.  I really didn't have one other than to do better than last year's 2:26 and if I was feeling really good, shoot for something under 2:17 since that would make this race my 3rd fastest.  I knew I wasn't in PR shape (I'd need a 2:06) and I wanted to have fun.

Friday night, I drove up to Jacksonville and met my friends at Engine 15 Brewing.  If you get to Jax, head over to the Beaches area and check out this place - they have their own beers (all excellent), good food, plus about a bazillion other beers on tap or in bottles.

Me, Wendy (who crushed her full and PR'd!) and Deb (my pacer!)

A little background - after the family and I checked out Tallahassee, we spent 2 full days at Universal Studios in Orlando.  The 18 hour drive to Tallahassee, 4 hours to Orlando, 20 hours in the parks, and 2 hour drive to Jax left my legs pretty trashed.  I did a couple short runs (Monday in Nashville and Friday morning in Orlando) because those hotels had gyms, but mostly, I was pretty undertrained for this race.  Since running Detroit in October, I'd only logged a few long runs - 8, 10, and 12 in the 3 weeks leading up to Jax.  

Saturday I did a bit more touristy stuff with the family (the Fountain of Youth and the beach) but then left them to explore St. Augustine while I hung out in the room and relaxed.

Sunday morning came VERY early since it was about an hour's drive from where we were staying to the race.  I was awake before my alarm and was out the door of the hotel by about 4:30 in the morning.  As soon as I walked out of the room I knew I was in trouble.  You could literally cut the humidity with a knife and the fog was insane.

Miles 1-5

Deb had agreed to pace me when I decided to run this race. (She needed 18 miles that day, so after she was done running with me, she had a snack and then headed back out on the course to run Wendy in for her full.  Incredible.)  We lined up near the 4:30 pacers and started pretty conservatively.  The race begins with the 5k, 1/2 and full all starting together so it's hard to position yourself.    You head out from the school where the race starts and finishes, do a little loop in a neighborhood, then head past the school and across a little bridge.  We chatted about random stuff and just tried to find our groove - or I guess tried to find mine.  (10:27, 10:31, 10:38, 10:33, 10:11)

Miles 6-10

I wasn't really feeling very speedy.  The humidity was a lot for me and I realized about 3 miles in that I didn't even think to pack an inhaler.  Deb commented that she had one in her car, which we were going to pass, but I knew once I got about an hour in, I'd be fine so I said we'd just keep going.  This is basically an out and back course with a few little loops so we got to see the lead guys and girls go flying by us.  Deb commented that she always speeds up a little when she sees them but like I said, I wasn't feeling very speedy.  My legs were already feeling heavy around mile 6/7 but I knew I was half way done and the first half seemed like it went by quickly.  I had taken a Salted Caramel Gu after mile 4 and I think Deb knew I was fading a little because she encouraged me to take my next one after 7 instead of 8.  I think it helped.  As we approached mile 10, she was talking to me about feeling proud of my run and not getting done thinking I'd just phoned it in.  She was wearing 2 Garmins and one was set for her ultras, which cracked me up when she'd say "we are on target for a XX 50 miler".  Only time I'll ever hear that!  Lots of people were walking in this middle section and the crazy fog and humidity were pretty wild.  (10:27, 10:28, 10:52, 10:27, 10:23)

Miles 11-13.1

This was where my run was made and it was Deb's encouragement that got me my finishing time.  She really turned on the "pacer" and pulled me along these last 3 miles.  I kept getting yelled at (in a nice way) for looking at my watch - which was on average pace so looking didn't do me much good anyway.  We started counting everyone we passed and stopped counting at 30 or 35 with still a good 1.5 to go. Mile 11 to 12 is a straight shot and the last mile loops through a neighborhood before taking you across the soccer field and then around the track at the school.  

Deb really pulled me along, kept talking the entire time, and would not let me slow down no matter how much I wanted.  On the track, and older gentleman also got in on the "Push Bari as hard as she can go" wagon :)  I have to say, seeing those final splits really did make it all worth it. (10:09, 10:15, 9:30, & 7:58 pace for last .1 on the track!)

Deb and my older friend look great - I'm dying

I really can't believe how fast I ran the last 1.1 miles of this race.  I'm kicking myself a little for grabbing a water in mile 12 because if I hadn't, I think I would have gone under 2:15, but I'm still really happy with my time.

Flying as Deb shouts out times

This was such a fun race to run again.  The weather still kicked my ass and even though it never rained, I think I was still just as drenched from sweat.  Thanks to Deb's pacing, I finished in 2:15:10 with a 10:19 average pace and a nice negative split.  I was 53/119 in my AG.  I'm not sure where I ended up overall or against all women because the race website is hard to navigate. 

Happy finishers

After I got some water and walked around a bit, Deb headed back out and I hung, chatted with other runners and waited for Wendy to come in.  Being there to watch Wendy take 4 minutes off her PR in really warm conditions was so great.  Mad props to that girl!

I now have a very pink shirt to wear in 6 weeks for the Donna Breast Cancer (half) Marathon and some shiny new bling :)  Plus, great memories with some of the best running friends I've met on DailyMile.

Jax Bank Half Marathon #racereport #runchat

On the last weekend of 2013, I ran my 6th half marathon of the year and 10th overall.  I flew down to Jacksonville, Florida for what I hoped was a little sun and not too hot temps.  I ended up with rain, rain, and humidity.  Lots of humidity.

Going into the Jax Bank Half, I knew I wasn't at my best and I was in no way healthy enough for another PR.  I set some goals though, because that's what I do, and then I watched the weather report get worse and worse.

Friday night I had a great DailyMile meetup.  We met at Engine 15 Brewing and sampled some really great beers.  Meeting people that I had only known online previously was incredibly fun.  It was nice to have some friendly faces to find post-race as well.

Saturday, I decided to go out for a 2 mile shake-out run.  I'm not sure if this was a mistake or if it just solidified how awful Sunday was likely to be.  The humidity kicked my ass, although I was able to maintain about a 10 min/mile pace for those 2 miles.  The worst was how pissed off my heel was afterwards.  It hadn't been hurting much and after that 2 mile run it KILLED.  I limped my way to packet pickup (just tents outside the local running store) and then drove parts of the course.  I hit up another brewery, Intuition, and then went downtown where I had a great pizza for dinner.  I wish I could say I got a ton of sleep but I really didn't.  My hotel had paper-thin walls and I was living next door to an infant.  Who cried.  A lot.

Race morning proved to be just as hot (71*) and humid (90%) as predicted, but at least it wasn't raining.  I managed to eat some oatmeal, have some coffee, and I lined up near the 4:15 marathon pacers (which on a good day would have been a decent half marathon for me).  This was too far up but there were more people than I thought would be there so I just went with it.  The first 5k made a loop.  It was overcast and the humidity was nuts.  I was already feeling it by mile 2.  I decided to stop and take a picture as I crossed a bridge around mile 4.5 since I knew immediately my time goals were completely out the window and it wasn't raining yet. The race staff made announcements about storms moving into the area before we started, so I knew the rain would come.  Sadly, I was praying for it by mile 3.

You can't see it, but Hooters is just to my left. I should've stopped for wings.

Miles 1 - 5: 10:29, 10:41, 10:54, 11:09, 11:23.  By mile 5 my re-established goal to maintain a sub-11 minute mile (when I should have been running about a 10 minute mile) was shot.

I should note that my heel hurt from the first step.  I didn't do any sort of warmup and I'm glad.  I think it would have just made things worse.  Somewhere in Mile 5 it started to drizzle.  The light rain was actually a relief because it helped cool me off a little.  The area we ran was very pretty with the huge live oaks dripping with Spanish moss.  This northern girl had never seen trees like that before.  Somewhere around mile 7 the rain really started coming down.  I stopped at an aide station near mile 8 and put Poweraide in one of my water bottles.  The humidity was kicking my ass and I was getting pissed.  Mentally I had already checked out.  I was walking way more than I probably needed to walk and I was frustrated.  I wanted the race to be done.  I felt very lonely running through those neighborhoods and just tried my best to get lost in my music.

Get lost I did.  Along with a bunch of other runners.  We really weren't lost but someone asked if the half was supposed to go straight at the aide station and for a few minutes, I panicked that I was on the course for the full.  I've never been so happy to see a directional sign in my life as I was to see that sign telling me to turn left around mile 8.3.

Faking a smile for the camera.

Miles 6-10: 12:13, 11:40, 12:46 (this was were I was trying to figure out if I was lost), 11:27, 11:17. My splits sucked.  12 minute miles? Seriously?  I thought I'm better than this but today, the humidity proved I'm not.

As we headed back toward the finish line, I felt a little burst of energy.  Or at least I thought I had until I saw my splits.  I hit the mile 11 sign and told myself that I was no longer allowed to walk under any circumstances.  I could run 2.1 freaking miles no matter how badly it hurt.  I kept trying to figure out if I was going to be able to beat my Grand Rapids Half Marathon time but my brain didn't really want to work.  I was pretty sure I'd failed in that final, last-ditch goal.  This course is a little bit cruel.  You can see the finish area, but they send you on another loop into a neighborhood with about 1.5 miles to go. There were a lot of people walking at this point and I just started counting off kills.  I eventually stopped counting.  Then, they make you run through a grass soccer field (remember, it's been pouring now for about an hour so it's mostly one giant puddle) and then onto the high school track to finish.  I was actually surprised at how well I ran on the grass and track. Maybe it was telling myself not to fall and make a fool of myself.  I saw one of my friends as I entered the track and this gave me a huge boost to finish strong.  A girl I started to pass on the track sped up but I still beat her.  I have no clue what my pace was for the last .1 because my Garmin read 13.0 but I'd be willing to bet it might have been my fastest pace the entire race.

Miles 11-13.1: 11:30, 10:57, 10:30.

Are both feet off the ground?  That chick in blue was the one who thought she could out-kick me.

I managed to finish a very hard half marathon in 2:26:53, an 11:12 pace, 80/133 in my age group.  I came no where close to meeting my time goal.  When I first planned this trip, I was thinking PR (2:06:xx).  Then my injuries really started to act up and I wanted to finish this race in my top 3 (2:19:xx).  By race morning, I just wanted to beat my first half marathon time (2:27:52).  I barely made it.

Very glad to be in the tent with Deb's running group.

I found my DailyMile friends at the finish line and managed to snag some beers with Deb's running club.  Those beers tasted so good.  I was very thankful for the tent they had set up because within 10 minutes of my finish, it looked like we might need to hire Noah to get us all home in his ark.  I have never been so glad to not be running a full marathon in my life.  My thoughts went out to Beth and Meghan still out on the course and I hoped they were doing ok.

How do I feel about finishing my 10th half marathon?  I'm definitely proud of what I've accomplished since I finished my first only 3 years, 2 months ago, but I'm not happy with how I ended 2013.  I raced too much and I'm paying for it.  I'm broken.  I can't walk without pain.  Even biking on the 1st aggravated my heel.  I'll survive, because I always do, but I wish I could have ended my 2013 racing year on a more positive note.

At least the swag was nice and I got to meet some really awesome runners.  The sunrises, beaches and beers were pretty special, too.


What's on my race schedule for 2014?  I honestly don't know.  Until I can get healthy I can't really make a plan.  Not having a plan stresses me out.  I have it in my head to complete my 2nd full marathon this year and even that is up in the air at this point.  Stay tuned.

Jax Bank Half - Almost Go Time!

Merry Christmas Eve!!

How is it that I'm getting on a plane in 3 days to head to Florida????  The past couple weeks have flown by with school finishing up before break (with a bonus day off because of an ice storm!) and now Christmas this week.  I find myself making lists and starting to pack, but afraid I'm going to forget something in the shuffle.

The past week was a good one for training once I worked the kinks out.  I think I've figured out my shoe issue at least for the race - I'm racing in my new Mizuno Wave Elixir 8s.  My race-day outfit is yet to be determined though.  Good thing Southwest allows for 2 checked bags :)

Here was my last official week of training.

Monday 12-16-13 RUN 3.1 in 31:45 (10:14 pace)

Tuesday 12-17-13 RUN 1 mile in about 12 minutes.  I wanted to get outside after a long day but the snow and ice kicked my ass and I quit after only a mile.

Wednesday 12-18-13 RUN 5 miles in 49:40 (9:56 pace). This was actually two 2.5 mile runs back-to-back as I tried out 2 new pair of shoes.  Felt good to get a relatively fast run in.

Thursday 12-19-13 BIKE 5 miles in 21:09 (14.2 mph) then stretching for another 15 min.

Friday 12-20-13 REST (except for walking around the mall)

Saturday 12-21-13 RUN 10 miles in 1:44:44 (10:28 pace).  Another long treadmill run and this one went well.  Last long run before Jax.

Sunday 12-22-13 REST

I'm excited for my trip and looking forward to the race, but mostly I'm looking forward to getting out of the snow and ice and meeting up with some friends for beers.  Can't wait to see Marcia and BethBob, plus some other DailyMile peeps!  Gonna be a great time with a little 13.1 run thrown in.

Jax Bank Half - T minus 12 days!

Some of you may be counting down the days until Christmas (for the record, it's 8).  But I'm counting down the days until my next half marathon and trying not to freak out about all the snow we've been getting and whether my flight on the 27th (10 days!!!) will take off as planned.

Training while injured has resulted in some re-evaluation of race goals.  Basically, my only goal at this point is to have a great weekend and come home with some new bling.  I will not be posting any time goals for this race.  Whatever happens, happens. (Although, for the most part I'm doing ok - shit hurts after I run to varying degrees but during the actually running parts it's tolerable.)

I'm even planning to start my vacation a day early now by hanging out with my friend Nancy and her family.  Super excited to see her again because it's been WAYYYY too long, snuggle her cute grandkids, and have a 2 hour shorter drive to the airport the next morning.  It takes a really special friend to open her home the day after Christmas and Nancy is that friend.

Onto my weekly recap (from now until the race, all of my running will probably be done inside - I'm trying to acclimate to FL weather and would prefer to not kill myself on the icy roads).

Monday 12/9/13 - RUN 3 miles in 31:20 (10:26 pace).  This was my first run in Mizuno Wave Inspire 10s. It was not love at first run.

Tuesday 12/10/13 - BIKE 11 miles on the basement trainer in 46:48 (14.1 mph).  I think I'm faster outside, probably because the trainer might actually be more boring than the treadmill.

Wednesday 12/11/13 - RUN 2 miles in 20:40 (10:20 pace).  Total clusterf*ck at work left me zero time to get in the 4 miles I was supposed to do.  Did a quick 2 on the mill at my girlfriend's before kid duties took over.  Got to try out her Hoka One Ones.  Went home and ordered a pair in what I thought was my size but they ended up HUGE.  I'm obviously getting desperate and I feel like I'm never going to find a shoe that doesn't hurt.  It's looking like my 10th half will be run in the same shoes I ran my 5th half marathon in. Kids - don't try this at home.

Thursday 12/12/13 - RUN 4 miles in 39:44 (9:56 pace).  This was a 2x1600 tempo that was basically a fail.  Nowhere close to hitting the goal paces (8:40s) but at least I was in the low 9s (9:10 and 9:03).  I'm officially back to my old Asics 2170s for now. They are probably close to 2 years old and starting to hurt my knees, but I have no other options at this point.

Friday 12/13/13 - BIKE somewhere around 8 miles in around 40 minutes.  My Garmin died within about 10 minutes of getting on the trainer, so I just biked through two DVRd sitcoms.

Saturday 12/14/13 - RUN 10 miles in 1:44:47 (10:28 pace).  I set a treadmill PR today.  Thanks to everyone who "voted" last Friday - I watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.  At least it kept me from total boredom, but this was still a very long morning.  I wouldn't recommend treadmilling it for 10 miles but at least I got my run completed.

Sunday 12/15/13 - SHOVELING.  It sucks. My arms were so sore on Monday.

I'm hoping the next 2 weeks go well and I get to Jacksonville no worse for the wear than I am right now.

Fitness Friday: going for a PR!

Got a little email today :)

I was a bit concerned because the site said confirmations would come out on Dec 2nd and here it is, Friday the 13th.  At least now I know I'm registered!

As for that PR?  I'm going to attempt my longest treadmill run ever tomorrow - 10 miles.  The weather here has been awful and while I'm fine running in snow, I have to draw the line at ice.  Also, I learned a huge lesson while training for Disney's Wine and Dine Half 2 years ago.  Running all my long runs in 30* temps and below did not acclimate me to what the temps would be in Florida on race day.  As of right now, Jacksonville is downright chilly by their standards (as I write this, it's 59* but it was in the 40s earlier this morning).  While 40s are the perfect running temps, that's still a good 30* warmer than it is here.  As much as running 10 miles on a treadmill in a hot gym is going to suck, not being used to running in warmer temps will suck even more.

I've selected 3 movies I currently have hanging out in my cloud that are long enough for me to finish 10 miles.  You get to vote for what I watch :)

Night at the Museum
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Twilight

(I tried to be all techie and use a poll but none of them would work.  Just vote in the comments. Thanks!)

Training Tuesday: is it too early to taper?

Monday 12-2-13 BIKE/RUN Brick, for no reason other than I felt like doing a brick.  20 minutes on the bike (7.2 miles) and a 2 mile run (10:23 pace). Decided today that the 2013 Newton Gravitys I was so in love with are evil and will be getting returned.

Tuesday 12-3-13 STRETCH 20 minutes during lunch then BIKE 7.36 miles on the basement trainer (14.6 mph).

Wednesday 12-4-13 RUN 4.18 miles in 44:10 (10:23 pace).  This was supposed to be a 5 mile tempo but instead ended up a warm then torrential downpour hilly run.

Thursday 12-5-13 STRETCH 20 min of roller and stretching at lunch.  Feeling burnt out.

Friday 12-6-13 SWIM 1 mile in 58 minutes.

Saturday 12-7-13 RUN 14 miles in 2:38:32.  I had my longest training run for a half marathon EVER this past weekend.  For the first time I trained past race distance and did a 14 mile long run.  It was the cap to a not-so-great training week, but the miles count.

Not crazy about the pace but it's supposed to be ok.

The middle 5 miles were part of a group run. The weather was abysmal. 

It's not just a figure of speech.

Sunday 12-8-13 REST.  I vegged out and watched a lot of football.  I'm ok with this.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Training Tuesday: Jax Bank Half T-25 days

It seems a bit odd to be starting a countdown for this race, but I really have no clue what training week this is.  All I know is I'm supposed to run 13.1 miles as fast as I can in a little less than 4 weeks.  This week's training was ok.  I have a plan for the running pieces but the rest is lacking.

Monday 11/25 - REST (oops, not a great way to start the week).  I actually did Monday's workout on Sunday, so I didn't exactly skip it.

Tuesday 11/26 - RUN 3 miles up "Treadmill Mountain".  It hurt and was really slow.

Wednesday 11/27 - STRETCH Did a yoga workout for my hips.

Thursday 11/28 - Happy Thanksgiving!  RUN I didn't participate in any organized runs so I just headed out for 5 miles on my own. Frankly, they sucked.  It had snowed and I was slipping and trudging all over the place.  Took 1:02:23 (12:28 pace) to cover those 5 miles.

I'd forgotten how hard it was to run in snow.  Ugh

Friday 11/29 - RUN Met a friend for the week's long run a day early.  10 miles and they were fantastic.  We chatted the entire time and even saw a bunch of deer along the river.  It was one of the best runs in a long time and I didn't even really care about my pace.  10.16 in 1:49:24 (10:46 pace).

Saturday 11/30 - REST

Sunday 12/1 - REST

Still too many rest days but I needed them after running 15 miles in 2 days.

Training Tuesday: Jax Bank Half week ???

Well, since I announced yesterday that I'm running one more half marathon this year, I can now label these training posts for the race :)  I've had this one on my radar for awhile now but wanted to get to double digits and have some solid long runs before I pulled the trigger.  Sadly, this past week's runs left a little to be desired, but I've been running around this block long enough to know that crappy runs happen.

Monday 11/18 - RUN 3.12 miles in 32:19 (10:21 pace).  We had a huge wind storm and didn't have school, so this was a weird time of day run to check out some of the damage.  It's always a bit odd to see a truck on my running trail - the park service was there cutting up trees that had fallen on the trail.

Tuesday 11/19 - REST.  Watched my daughter qualify for the Division 1 State Diving Championships at her Regional meet :)

Wednesday 11/20 - RUN 4 mile tempo in 38:53 (9:43 ave pace).  This was a tough run.

Thursday 11/21 - LONG RUN 8 miles.  This was supposed to happen on Saturday but I knew we'd be traveling for divegirl's state meet.  I had to do this run after school and I was poorly fueled and not well hydrated.  Basically, this run sucked balls and I even stopped my watch and sat down at mile 4, wondering who might be home to pick my sorry ass up.  I got my shit together and finished but it wasn't pretty.  8 miles in 1:28:31 (11:03 pace).

Friday 11/22 - REST while I spectated my daughter's awesome diving.  She finished 33rd in the state in Division 1 and I couldn't be more proud.

Saturday 11/23 - RUN Treadmill Mountain.  I have a friend who has started doing these workouts and I thought I'd try one.  2 miles at 10% incline in 30 min.  It was hard as hell.

Sunday 11/24 - RUN 3.1 in 30:00 (9:40 pace). This was Monday's run done a day early since I had an appointment with my sports med doc and then my girl's swim/dive banquet.  Very cold, windy morning and I finished with exactly 30:00.00 on my watch.  So bizarre.

I couldn't do that again if I tried.

So, one of my highest mileage weeks in a long time, but an epic fail where crosstraining is concerned. This week was all about the run and watching my girl dive.

Motivation Monday: another race!

How do you motivate yourself to finish the year strong? You sign up for your 10th half marathon!

Sunny Florida - here I come!

I was a bit surprised when I realized Jax would be my 10th half, especially considering my first one was only 3 years ago.  Must have been all those shiny things :)