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Ann Gaffigan's Steeplechics.com Blog:
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Houston Half
(posted on 01/16/07 at 1:26 pm EST, updated on 01/16/07 at 1:31 pm EST) | First of all, I'd like to say congratulations to Ryan Hall for destroying the AR in the half on Sunday. Truely amazing, especially since he did it completely alone almost from the gun. Amazing. I can't wait until he runs a marathon.
As for me, the race did not go as planned, although even if it had, I would not have placed nearly as high as I thought I would. The field was very strong. Congrats to the women who did well.
Despite the fact that I was sick last weekend and took a day off, I was feeling strong and running well for the first 9 or 10 miles of the race on Sunday. My first 3 miles were 5:40, 5:50, 5:45. I was trying to hit 5:50's or just under. A guy started running next to me right before mile 3 and when we hit the 3-mi split at 17:15, he asked what pace I was trying to hit. I was annoyed that he wanted me to talk during a race so I just said "This", meaning "The pace I'm running right now, thank you, now leave me alone!" He said "5:40's?". I said "No". He said "5:50's?". I said "Yeah". He said "You doing the full?". I said "No". He said "Well, I am, and I'm trying to hit 5:50's too". I thought "Oh great, he wants to run with me and he'll probably be speeding up and slowing down and trying to talk the whole time. Great". But I just say "OK" and we keep running. Well, I was dead wrong. We ran almost exactly 5:50's for the next 5 or 6 miles. We would hit a mile mark and he'd tell me what we ran and that I was doing well and that I would catch the girl ahead of me by the next mile. When we got close to passing someone, I would be straining a little bit to get to them and he would say "Relax, they're coming back to you, don't worry". He was awesome. He had his own race to run--twice as long as mine--but was helping me out; I felt like I had a personal pace-setter. I felt bad for being so short with him in the beginning! Around the 9-mile, he kept going straight because he was doing the full and I turned around with the other half-marathoners. He said "Stick with that girl, you'll be fine". I was sad to see him go. I never got his name, but if you read this, thank you and I'm sorry I was mean at first!
I was still going strong but I noticed my calves were starting to hurt. I didn't see the 10-mile marker so it wasn't until I got to the 11 that I realized how much I had slowed down. I hit the 11 at 1:04:45, meaning my last 2 miles had been in 12:16 or so. Not good. My calves were really hurting now and my hamstrings and glutes were tightening up. I could feel myself leaning forward but when I tried to straighten up, the pain was so much worse, so I just went ahead and leaned. This had never happened to me before. I wondered if I was crossing over the line from tough to stupid because I felt like my calves could rip open at any second and then I could kiss my steeple season good-bye. But I figured if I was still running 6:10's or so, I shouldn't be quitting after coming all the way out here.
The last 2 miles seemed so long and the last straightaway seemed like an eternity--an eternity of people passing me and the finish line not getting any closer. Somehow I still managed to squeeze past the line under 1:18. Not bad, but I had planned to break 1:16. I just wanted to lay down and feel sorry for myself. But I had to walk to the elite athlete area in the convention center to get my bag. I changed my clothes and then had to walk about a half mile back to my hotel, as I didn't get a room in the HQ hotel, which was right there connected to the convention center. It was a long walk. Calves cramping, quads cramping. Plus I was trying to figure out what the heck just happened and how I could be feeling so miserable and have nothing to show for it.
I spent the day in bed. Slept a little bit but for the most part couldn't sleep because I was in so much pain. I had a nasty headache too. Ibruprofen wasn't cutting it. I took an ice bath which helped a little, but not with the headache.
I talked to my coach on the phone and he said "Well, it is a lot more humid there than it is in Nebraska right now. And there's only so much you can do to fight that humidity when you're not accustomed to it. And the half is something you were working towards, but it's not your main focus anyway. The steeple season is still to come." He's good at putting things into perspective, especially when I am feeling like the world has come to an end. He's right--we decided I should run the half since I was doing plenty of training for one anyway as my base training phase. Might as well capitalize on it. It just didn't work out as I planned. I have to admit though, I'm getting sick of races not working out as planned, whether I have a valid reason or not. It's frustrating to know you have so much more in you, and not be able to show it (yet). I just have to keep believing it will come...it always does, eventually...somehow.
www.chevronhoustonmarathon.com
P.S. On a positive note, the Houston Marathon/Half-Marathon is a great race. I don't think there was one stretch of that race that did not have spectators lining the course and cheering and holding signs. As a runner, I really appreciate that encouragement. With a mile to go, I was feeling terrible and it was probably pretty obvious by how I looked, but I ran by a couple of women and one said "You're doing great, honey, and you still look beautiful". I really appreciated that. It made me hold up my chin a little higher. | | Send a Comment |
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