I left my PR in the bathroom line: the 2011 Parks Half-Marathon.

One of my favorite running photos: coming into the finish at
the 2010 Parks Half-Marathon.

Greetings, readers, and apologies for my long absence. For the past couple weeks, I experienced a bit of a post-tri letdown, which was exacerbated by about 10 days or gray, driving rain. Fortunately, just before I put in an order for a Seaonal Affective Disorder lamp, the sun came out and my Fall racing schedule began. Yesterday, I did my second running of the Parks Half Marathon.

Last year, I ran Parks for the first time  a mere 16 days after my appendectomy. Naturally, I took it easy, so my 2010 Parks time is my second-slowest half-marathon at 2:35. Going into this year, I hoped to run it in 2:15, which would be two minutes faster than the 2:17 PR I ran in June at the VA Wine Country Half-Marathon. Running a half in 2:15 means maintaining a pace of 10:18/mile. I expected this to be a challenge, but hoped I would be up to it.

The day started off really well. Instead of the chilly rain I ran through in 2010, yesterday's weather was sunny and warm. It was VERY humid, but I was so grateful for the sun that I barely noticed.

I ran into my first race-related problem at packet pickup, when I leared that the race would be chip-timed. This meant that I needed to attach a plastic chip to my shoelaces like this:

Normally, this would not be a big deal. The problem was that I still have tri-laces on my shoes from IronGirl:

This means that I had to tie the chip to the tiny bit of lace sticking out at the top of my shoe. The result: the chip rubbed against my ankle for the whole race. Miraculously, I stopped noticing after the first mile. When I got up this morning, though, I couldn't help but notice this lovely chafing:

Very glamorous. Next time, I'll remember to pack both Vaseline and alternative laces.

My second, more significant race problem happened at mile 4. Despite visiting the port-a-johns twice before the race started, I felt the need to go again. Mile 4 was the first opportunity and I decided to get it out of the way then. Unfortunately, when I approached the aid station, I saw a line several runners deep. I considered waiting, but I wasn't sure when I would have another opportunity. Also, I decided that it would be easier to make up any lost time early in the race.

This turned out to be a very bad call. Accoring to the Nike+ GPS app on my fancy new Iphone, I waited in that line for 7 minutes. Not only did I lose all of that time, but I also lost my position in the 10-11 minute mile pace group. When I re-joined the race, I was surrounded by much slower runners and the narrow trails made it very difficult to pass. I didn't want to give up too early, though, so I did my best to make up the time. I picked up the pace for a few miles and took advantage of every opening and wider stretch of trail to pass as many people as possible.

By about mile 8, I knew it would not be enough. I did the math and realized I would have to run the rest of  race at significantly faster than my best 5K pace in order to finish in 2:15. I had enough energy to push a little more, but not that much. I was tempted to slow down, but ultimately decided to keep running as hard as I could, just to learn if 2:15 had been an achievable goal.

In the end, I crossed the finish line in 2:22. If you subtract my 7-minute bathroom break, I was exactly on pace to finish in 2:15. So, while I am disappointed not to have the PR, I am very pleased that I did not give up and that I proved to myself I could maintain my goal pace for 13.1 miles.

I have two more halfs this Fall: the Baltimore Half-Marathon in October and the inaugural Annapolis Half in November. After yesterday, the plan for those races is to run as hard as I know I can... and to drink less coffee on race morning!