Remember how I was having IT band issues? If you don’t, it’s cause I’m a horrible blogger and never post anymore #guiltyface
A few weekends ago, I ran the Kaiser SF Half Marathon with Kyle’s mom (L) and his aunt (R)! Technically I didn’t run with them- this was Kyle’s aunt’s first half (!!!) and they wanted to walk it. Kyle’s aunt had tons of fun and verbally committed to another half marathon. Verbal contracts are binding in some states, and we’re going to pretend that it is true in California too.
We all met up at Kyle’s parents’ house on race day (which also happened to be Super Bowl Sunday = epic post-race eating) and drove to the city. We cut it kind of close, forgetting how much time it would take to park and line up for pre-race peeing.
Before I knew it, the race started. We took off and I knew this would be a hard one. My legs already felt heavy around mile 2. I was getting grumpy because this race doesn’t have assigned starting waves. People line up near minute/mile signs and it’s based on the honor system. And let’s face it, the world is full of lying SOBs. Weaving. Lots of weaving.
Then my IT band started hurting (not as severe as usual because I had my Rock Tape on) around mile 3 and I knew this was going to be a long race.
Miles 1-6: 8:57, 8:49, 9:21, 9:15, 9:31, 8:45
I tried to focus on the amazing scenery (you run through Golden Gate Park) and have fun! I kind of got in the “I’m-spacing-out-zone” which helped with the pain, and before I knew it, I was running along the Great Highway (we were running on the street portion).
Miles 7-10: 8:59, 9:05, 9:12, 9:11
Running along the Great Highway is really pretty, but then it starts to mentally toy with you. A few miles down the Great Highway is where you turn around and head back toward the finish line- which means you see all those fast, leggy, athletes in runder wear running past you on the other side of the road. All you think about is, “When do I get to turn around????” and “I want her legs!”
As I was getting frustrated with IT band pain and being a grumpy gills cause all those gazelle-like creatures on the other side were seemingly gliding along the road, I remembered how much this portion of the race during last year’s Kaiser SF Half Marathon SUCKED (It was cold, raining, and I had tossed my gloves to Kyle early on and I could no longer feel my fingers). I realized I should be thankful for good weather and then decided to finally look at my watch (I was trying to ignore it because I knew this race would not be a PR with leg issues + lack of serious training).
I tried to do that hard math called “addition” and “division” and I realized I might be able to finish in under 2 hours (my watch didn’t start on time so I knew my watch time was off). Finally that series of college calculus classes were paying off ;)
I tried my best to pick up the pace and ignore that damn IT band pain.
Miles 11-13: 9:16, 8:57, 8:44
Official Time: 2:00:34
Balls. So close. Even though I was super close to finishing under 2 hours, I didn’t feel bad about this one. I knew at the end that I had given it my all. There was no way my bad leg was going to let me run faster that day. Another half marathon down!
How do you power through a bad race?
Do you like out-and-back races or point to point?
