mermaid half race report

[Leah Russin]

I've never done one of these so cut me some slack if this is not the right way to do a race report.

Exactly one week after the half marathon up in Humboldt County, I set out to do another half.  I'd registered for it months earlier, not realizing it would be two halfs back to back.  But I'd done 13+ milers each week when training for a marathon, so no biggie, right?  Thinking that perhaps I would put my head down, and try to set my pace and PR, that's what I did.  I thought that doing the Ave meant I was perfectly trained for this, and had a good shot at a good time.  Unfortunately, though, I sort of had blown off the stuff necessary for a good race that you do twelve hours before, like eat dinner.  and drink water.  I ate a bunch of cheese and had some wine and a banana.  It was just one of those friday nights and I wasn't really focusing on what I was planning to do the next morning.

So, I got up early, drove to the quarry lakes reservoir in Fremont - which is surprisingly pretty, by the way, and lined up with a bunch of other women for the mermaid half.  Really fun group, well organized, and great t-shirts!  (only issues were no gatorade or other energy drink on the course until mile 9, not enough portapotties along the way given how exposed the course was, and LONG line for banana etc at the finish).

And I set off.  For me, 10:15 pace would lead to a PR (at least, fastest since I was 21), so I'd set my "virtual race buddy" on my Garmin to a 9:55 as a check.  By mile five, I was about 2 minutes ahead of my buddy.  Go me!  right?  yeah, not so much.  The picture attached was taken at about that point.  From there, though, it went down hill.

I started cramping.  Yucky bad cramping.  Thought maybe I'd had too much water (I'd drunk and refilled my 500 ML water bottle once already, and drunk a full one before even starting.  Grimaced and continued to run.  And didn't really slow down much either until the portapotty just before mile 7.  At which point I realized that a PR was not going to happen.  And then the cramps got so bad I actually had to stop and double over in pain a few times.  I stumbled over the finish feeling slightly dizzy, but I still didn't realize that hydration was the problem.  I grabbed two water bottles, got into my car and drove home, where I proceeded to empty my stomach completely.  Couldn't keep anything down for hours.  Finally managed to sip at gatorade and not lose it starting around 9 pm that night.  

In any event, I DID finish (and my time was still ok - not as fast as for The Ave or Santa Cruz, but faster than my times for 2008-2011 races).  I have learned to respect even half marathons as a serious workout.  You'd think I'd know that after all these years, but this was the first time I actually TRIED to run faster than normal.  I've always treated races as regular runs with fun people handing out water!  Becoming a "real" racer, and trying to improve pace, is apparently not something you can just wake up and do.  Go figure.  See you next time at the pre-race dinner!!  I'll click water glasses with you.

Leah

[Phil Oreste]

Hey Leah, Congrats on slugging (or was it chugging) it out to the finish.  The picture was all you needed for the race report anyway! Phil --- On Thu, 5/24/12, Leah Russin <leah....@gmail.com> wrote:

[Barbara Lutes]

Great race report!  Glad you survived and lived to tell the tale.

Barbara

---

From: Phil Oreste <por...@yahoo.com>
To: GoldenGate...@googlegroups.com; leah....@gmail.com
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2012 1:37 PM
Subject: Re: [GGRC] mermaid half race report

[Holly Pepper]

Lessons learned, another race in the books, and I know you'll be
getting that PR soon! PRs are hard no matter how you prepare.
Hopefully the next will feel better though! :)

Holly