The road to my first ½ marathon…

2011 Get In Gear - Half Marathon Minneapolis, MN
SHAWN BLAESING-THOMPSON
Time 2:20:37, Splits 10 Mile 1:45:17, 4 Mile 41:24
Ave Pace 10:45 per mile

Overall Place 870 out of 1030, 407 out of 533 Females, 162 out of 201 Females in F30-39 AG

The road to my first ½ marathon…
So if you had told me two or three years ago I would run a ½ marathon I would most certainly have laughed in your face. Running more than a couple of miles always used to leave me beat up and unhappy until last summer.

I have something like 8 sprint triathlons, one team Olympic and one solo Olympic triathlon under my belt over the last four years. Last year was the first year I really did any consistent training for my races as I had two Olympic races on the schedule as well as a 10k run. I did a 10 week triathlon class in the early spring to give me a kick and help me meet other crazy folks like me. Part of my process was also learning how to run better. I was a competitive swimmer through middle school and high school so for me the swimming is the easiest part of the triathlon. With the bike I just need time in the saddle to keep things going, but the run was kicking my butt.

So I did a little research on running technique and came across the book chi running which goes through the principles of correct running form. There are four key points I focus on:

Don’t heel strike but rather hit with your midfoot or whole foot at one time.
This requires a shorter stride so your feet actually hit pretty much under your body.
Run relaxed. I always tensed up my upper body and got headaches from running so I focused on keeping my shoulder down and back.
Add a slight forward lean to let gravity move you forward faster.
Strengthen your core and use that instead of your leg muscles to propel you.

So within a couple of months I was easy running between 3-5 miles a couple times a week. I wasn’t doing the core work last summer and could tell once I hit the five mile mark.

This winter I added a yoga/Pilates class to my mix which works all the core muscles, adds an upper body and leg strength workout and all the sudden I am up in the 8-10 mile run range and feeling good.

My average training week usually looks something like a 2.5 – 4 mile run on Tuesday and Thursday. Sometimes a short 2-3 mile run on Saturday and a long 6-10 mile run on Sundays with my average distances miles per week around 15 – 22 over the last two – three months. Now I have to tell you I am not real fast when it comes to sustaining over a long run so on my week day runs I have been focusing on an intense hill workout and a speed workout and last week I actually was able to do a 5k on the treadmill in around 26 minutes. I now need to build that speed into my open run and 10k times and then figure out how to bring down my ½ marathon time.

Race day I was pretty jittery even though I kept telling myself just go out, enjoy the experience and try to hit your goals along the way. We had to park about a mile away and with a light rain falling I jogged down the hill to the park where the race start was. I hopped into the shoot about a minute after the gun went off but because there were around 8000 folks (mostly doing the 10k run) in the chute with me it still took me about four minutes to get to the start mat and get some jogging momentum.

It was overcast and around 45 degrees with a drizzle that came and went the first 10 miles or so. There was a wind that wasn’t insignificant, but didn’t really bother me. The first mile was spent with the usual careful picking to try and find a clear path so I wasn’t tripping over people and eventually was able to focus on finding a comfortable pace and enjoy the course. It ran along the Mississippi river to the north for 3 miles or so and then crossed a long high bridge over the river and wound south for about 7 miles before doubling back on itself and crossing a different bridge into Minnihaha park to finish.

I was about three miles in before I found another woman who was going about the same pace and doing the ½ rather than the 10k so we kept each other on track as best we could using the splits I was pulling off my watch. She picked up her pace with about four miles to go so I did the next three miles solo and then came across another woman going about the same pace and we motivated each other to the finish line. We were all first timers so it was nice to have a little outside my head voice to keep me moving.

My splits came from my GPS app on my phone and were similar to the splits I pulled from my watch…

Final time 2:20:37
Mile 1 = 10:15, Mile2= 9:45, Mile 3= 10:05, (had some Gatorade) mile 4 = 10:16, mile 5 = 10:05, Mile 6 = 10:14, mile 7 = 10:45 (had water with gu pack),Mile 8 = 10:20, mile 9=10:23 (turn around point), mile 10=10:37 (had some water), mile 11=10:56, (uphill grade) mile 12=11:19 (uphill grade had some Gatorade), mile 13.1 = 11:42

All in all I hit my target time because I hadn’t done any training runs over 10.5 miles and hadn’t implemented any nutrition intake on my long runs either so I wasn’t sure how I would perform over time. Goals for the future would include keeping my splits between 9:45 and 10:30 and working on the mental part of the last three miles to the finish line. I had some hip irritation due to a tight IT band in my left leg for about half of the race and my IT bands in both legs screamed at me the rest of the day so I need to work on getting those to release better. All in all my soreness is pretty much gone on day three out and I did opt to rest Sunday and just do my yoga/pilates class on Monday. I ran Tuesday and felt it some but pushed through to get almost 4 miles in.

So goals beyond that. I have two Olympic races on the books this year plus am going to attempt my first ½ Ironman in late July. I hope to do another half marathon run in October to close out my season and see where all this running can take me.