The opportunity presented itself. I had been doing 13 mile long runs the previous few weekends. I wasn't injured. Seemed like I might as well go for it! I was terrified about the fact that I had never run 15 miles before, though.
And then got more terrified as I stalked the weather and it was going to be in the low 70's with 90% humidity at 7 am.
Did I mention it was a hilly course?
I mentally prepped for an 8:30 pace time, with plans to abandon that pace if it became evident this was unattainable. Under no circumstances was I planning on pushing faster, unless it was the last couple miles.
I started out with a friend, first mile, 8:26. Ok. Then we hit a hill. Hills kill me. She pulled ahead by the top of the hill and I let her go. Somewhere around mile 2 was a water table, I slowed briefly for a drink and went on my way.
Around the third mile I caught up to a guy that seemed to be running my pace so I ran and chatted with him a while. Things felt pretty good and then we came to a slow, steady hill. We stuck together, and towards the top of the hill there was another water table. I walked through it again, and then as I started running again, I passed by the guy I had spent the last couple miles with and that was that.
It was around mile 4 ish and I was on my own for the rest of the race.
The first half of the race was all on highway, with a couple decent size hills and quite a few rolling hills. Most of my mile splits were 8:30 ish with a couple closer to 9 minutes. Shortly before mile 7, we finally turned and headed south towards the Woodward High Trestle trailhead. This was the end of the rolling hills. A lady I had been keeping my eye on stopped and walked right as my watch beeped mile 7. I ran by her, saying "8 more miles!" and she wished me luck and said she was giving up early.
I'm already forgetting where all the water tables were, but they were 2 - 3 miles apart and just local families and boy scouts. Only water, no gatorade, which was a bummer for a warm, humid morning. I was eating a power bar energy blast gummy every couple miles.
I had been determined to not turn on my music until mile 9, thinking that mentally this was really more of the half way point (as the first miles would seem easy). I made it til 8.5 miles and decided I needed it.
I won't lie, the small field of participants was a bit discouraging, there was a bit of a pack up ahead, with my friend, but it wasn't reasonable to try to catch them. I was just hoping to keep people in sight and try to not get lost at this point!
Around mile 9 we turned and got on the trail head. I tried to smile at passing bikers. I hit mile 10 and thought crap, I am only 2/3 of the way done with this!
It fell apart when I hit the High Trestle Trail bridge. This is supposed to be a really cool bridge and is especially awesome when lit up at night.
The problem with those angular arches, and being up so high, is it gives the illusion of movement. Between that, and being up so high, and being tired from running, I felt a little woozy on the bridge! Plus it was really windy. Someone asked me how far across it was, I said I thought it wasn't quite a mile, since looking up these pictures, I find it's only a half mile. I had to stop and walk going across it. Twice.
Once past the bridge, it was back on paved trail and trees, shading from the wind. A guy in front of me was also struggling and taking walk breaks. I was determined not to walk until he did and to not take as long of walk breaks. I eventually passed him, but then got passed myself by another girl.
While this was motivating, there wasn't enough in my legs to catch back up to her. I sucked it up and ran the final two miles, albeit slowly. When we got back into town, there were several turns throughout the streets. I passed a guy on a bike cheering people on, and he told me that I had to turn right ahead and it was just a couple blocks after that.
As I turned down the final street, I saw my friend that had finished and was coming back to cheer on the rest of us. She told me just a couple more blocks, and I took off for the finish line. To my surprise, the Hubs and my son were there waiting for me! They had run the 2 mile, but I had plans to ride home with my friend so they wouldn't have to wait around for two hours.
I finished in 2 hrs, 14 minutes, and some seconds. I forgot to stop my Garmin, as always, and can't remember what they said the seconds were, and the results aren't up yet.
I did finish third in my age group, but I'm willing to bet there were only three of us :) I can't wait to see the results and find out if that girl that passed me around mile 11 - 12 was in my age group. I will be super annoyed if I gave up second place for being a wuss!
In the end, I was proud that I completed it, but a little bummed that I wasn't closer to my time goal. I wish there had been gatorade on the course, but for a small town, one woman organized event with a $20 entry fee, I guess what can you expect? I'm definitely coming back next year to see if I can do better.
Oh and my mantra? Can't say it was terribly effective, but for what it's worth...
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