Running Down the Dream: Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover or a Half by Its First 5 Miles: Prairie Fire Spring Half Marathon

I went into this race kind of feeling like it was doomed! It was one thing after another all spring, and when I ended up with food poisoning after eating Indian food out the Thursday before the Sunday event, I was about to throw in the towel. However, my husband was also entered in the half, my daughter was entered in the kids’ mile, we were planning to visit my parents for the weekend, and I needed to finish the race for my Prairie Fire Back to Back entry (spring half plus fall full), so I gave it a try – and I’m glad I did!

I decided I would start around 6:50 pace and see what happened. I hoped I could at least run a 1:29 (a.k.a. goal marathon pace), but I wasn’t so sure! I figured at least if I died after starting at 6:50 pace I would fade a lot less hard than if I tried starting at 6:30 pace! I eyeballed my competition at the start, and as I went out conservatively, after the initial sprinters died off, there were 5 women in front of me. One took off very quickly, then 4 were running together. They probably went through mile 1 about 10 seconds faster than me, and it took all I had not to chase them, but all considering I knew it wouldn’t be smart at that point.

I pretty much ran alone for the first 4 miles, although I could see the female pack and the moves that were being made in it. I passed one of the women and moved up into 5^th overall around the 5K point. I didn’t feel bad, but I didn’t feel good, and I questioned my ability to maintain the 6:45-6:50 pace I’d started at for all 13.1. Around 4 miles, a man pulled up with me, and I told myself to sit on him. It was crazy windy and he was tall, so I thought he would make a good wind block. I had to push a little too hard to hang with him, which also worried me. When I passed my parents and daughter at mile 5, I was to the point of talking myself out of dropping out. I just didn’t feel comfortable or strong, but I when I have mental arguments about dropping out versus continuing, continuing always wins. I told myself that if I had to slow, I would slow; a slow time would not be the end of the world.

I continued pacing off of the man who had passed me, and shortly after mile 5 (with my slowest split of the race) we turned out of the wind. I instantly felt better, but was still pressing a bit to stay with the male. I knew if I let him go I’d be running alone so talked myself into hanging on it. Little by little, during mile 6 I started to hit my stride. I exchanged a few words with the male I was running with, and I found out he was hoping for a 1:27:59 or better to qualify for New York. By the time my watch beeped for 6 I was actually feeling good – and ready to chase!

Stride for stride with the man I ran with for several miles

I could see one woman ahead of me, so set my sights on her. My pace buddy and I switched roles – now I was pushing ahead and he was hanging on. We were out of the wind for awhile and I felt strong. I got a little too excited for mile 7, coming through in 6:25, but I was in pursuit and felt newly confident that I could maintain 6:45-6:50 pace or better to the end.

I was gaining on the woman in front of me (4^th overall), but ever so slightly. However, we were both gaining on the woman ahead of her (in 3^rd overall position at that point), and by mile 9 I could see 3^rd. The wind continued to be insane and to affect our splits, so my mile 9-11 splits don't necessarily reflect me feeling great, but at that point I was trying to chase down the women I could see and not looking at my watch at all. At mile 10, a spectator told me, “Those ladies in front of you are tired! Go get ‘em!” I gave him an enthusiastic thumbs up and knew I was going to give it my all to do that.

Around mile 11, the woman running in 4^th overtook the woman running in 3^rd. I knew I would do the same if I could keep pushing, but the new 3^rd place wasn’t letting up so I knew she would be a lot harder to get.

Many times during the race, I reflected back on my race in 2015 at this event, and after mile 6 on how much better I was feeling. Last year I felt good for the first 6 miles and ran with a lead female pack of four, then had a horrid side cramp from about miles 7-9 that cost me a good 30+ seconds per mile. After that, I was able to get back closer to pace but still not where I wanted to be, and I jockeyed for 3^rd female position through the last few miles. In the end, I managed to get 3^rd and finish in the money, but barely; and partially because I thought I was coming up on mile 12 when I was really coming up on mile 11 (amazing what those mental tricks will do!).

Back to 2016! I pulled up on the now 4^th place female a bit before mile 12. I thought I would sit on her for a bit and then pass at the mile 12 sign. Once I pulled up on her, I felt like I had to slow up too much to do that, so I told her “nice work” and moved up. She couldn’t go with me at all, so I felt solid in my new position. Gauging the distance from myself to the 3^rd woman at that point, I knew I would only catch her if she had a disastrous final mile – and since that is always possible, especially in a long race – I kept pushing. She did not have a disastrous end, so I maintained my 4^th position. The final stretch before turning towards the finish felt very long! I ended up with a 6:33 final mile, and once I could see the finishing clock I realized that I needed to kick to get in the 1:27’s, so my final 0.12 was 5:51 for a 1:27:52 and 4^th overall female.

Splits - I was pretty proud of my Garmin being really close on the certified course

Last year at this event, I had a poor race and ended up with a 1:30:15 – so this being my second time on the course made it a course PR. Really, I couldn’t be happier with how it went based on my inconsistent training this spring and food poisoning (I was certainly in better shape in 2015!)! I ran smart and negative split, gave it my all, and finished strong. Although 3:19 slower than my half PR, this was certainly my best half that I went into under-trained. I’ve run more halves in the 1:30s than in the 1:20s, so all in all I will call it a victory! Plus, I am injury pain-free – wahooooo!

The race “placed” the top 4 overall, so I was the first called up at the awards ceremony in 4^th female. The top female ran a 1:18, and I couldn’t do near that fully trained, but second ran 1:26:01 and I feel confident I could have bettered that if I had trained all spring instead of been sidelined for 7 weeks. But, this was a good confidence-booster about where I’m at now, and gives me something to build on towards the fall!

Awards ceremony

My husband exceeded his goal of 1:47 with a 1:45 with really smart pacing, and my daughter ran a PR mile of 10:56 in the Sparky Kids Mile! Some day I am going to make a meme about "Mom runs a half marathon..." with what happens the rest of the day vs. "Dad run a half marathon...". Any guesses how that would look??