Hi Marathon mommies! I ran the Ogden half last weekend and thought I'd share what went down. First off I should say I set an ambitious goal for myself to do it in 1:45. I did Hal Higdon's advanced program and I really enjoyed the speed work, tempo runs and pace runs. The morning of the race was beautiful, I was with a couple of good friends and I felt trained and confident. That changed about 3 minutes into the race. I really, really hate to blame it on the altitude (or anything for that fact) but I'm going to anyways! To put it simply; I just couldn't breathe. My lungs felt tight and my heart felt like it was racing. I train at sea level and the race starts at a little over 5000 feet. My first 3 mile splits were 9:23,9:15 and 9:05. To finish in 1:45 I needed to average an 8 minute mile. I knew I needed to pick it up big time. Luckily after mile 3 we head down the canyon. I still didn't feel my "groove" though. I started feeling a little better about mile 6 and noticed my mile splits were sub 8 minute-somewhere between 7:35 and 7:55. But could I hold the pace? I was able to hold it pretty well. I did have a couple mile splits right around 8 mintues. My last mile was 8:03 and my final time..... 1:48:35. I should have been happy. After all it was a PR but for some reason I felt really disapointed. I just didn't feel like myself during the race and I think that's what bugged me the most. But having said that, the course really is amazing and if I have some time to adjust a little to the altitude before hand I will definitely do it again. Maybe even the full marathon. Despite feeling a little frustrated I still love running! I love the race and I love the feeling of having set a goal and worked hard for it. I know I would have been even more upset had I slacked at the training and then had a bad race. Thanks for all your inspiration and support. Congrats to my friends who wanted to get 2hours ! They finished in 1:55.
Posts
4 comments:
I looked you up. And have to say, you are fast woman. So awesome. Yeah that altitude is a killer for you Oregon folk. You need to come here and run the robie creek half. It is all up hill (great for you oregon folk). If you take out the hills and stretched it out, is the length of a marathon. Toughest Half Marathon in the northwest.
Great job.
You really pulled out a great time for having a difficult time with the altitude. Good job! I ran the Ogden marathon and didn't notice a problem with the altitude - I think it is because I was in Utah for almost a week before the race so I had time to acclimatize. I definitely felt the altitude in Salt Lake last month when I hadn't been in town more than a day or 2 before the race. I'm definitely going to arrange to arrive a few days early from now on when I'm racing in Utah... you know, because I have all the time in the world! ha ha
Your time is so impressive, especially with how you felt. I am proud of your dedication to your speedwork. I am sure if you ran a race here, you would see a difference! It has been fun chatting with you about the altitude thing. I love running with you! Great job!
WOW...way to go!!!
Post a Comment