Coming in Hot: Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Half Marathon!

The short:  I executed my race plan, finished in a PR of 1:21:26, snagged a spot in the top 10 women (8th overall), and won my age group!  Official results are here.  I also had an AH-MAZING trip to Arizona with my AH-MAZING dad!

Preparing to either fly or die!

The long:
Even though the big reasons for this trip were to practice making the trek before the Phoenix Marathon in February and for my dad to go to the Barrett-Jackson car auction, I wasn’t going to Arizona for this race to NOT go for a PR.  My workouts told me that I was in PR shape, and after a particularly confidence-inspiring 8 mile tempo run and evaluating the race course, I formulated a race plan.  I wanted to run my first mile in 6:20, keep miles 2-7 around 6:15, maintain even effort on miles 8-9 (meaning slower splits due to the course elevation), then hammer my final 4 miles, banking on 6:10 or faster on them.  That would get me in at about 1:21:58, or 6:15 average pace.  I hoped I could pick up a few seconds here and there so I wasn’t quite so close on the line between 1:21-1:22.  I really wanted a time starting in 1:21, so 1:21:59 was magnificent sounding, but 1:22:01 would have been quite bittersweet!

This plan may have been overly ambitious considering that my current official 10K PR is 38:43 (6:14 pace).  My Garmin told me I ran a 37:39 10K (6:04 pace) during my recent 8 mile tempo, but that’s not a certified course time so doesn’t technically count.  I thought I had 13.1 at 6:15 pace in me, though, and I was going to go for it!  I knew I could play it safe and go for 6:25-6:30 pace, but why?  I told people that I was going to either fly (PR) or die (bonk); I knew I would be unhappy if I didn't try.  I tried not to think about how the White River half, where I ran my now second best half time ever, was more like a 12 mile race since the first mile was all downhill, or about how the White River course was easier than Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona's course.  I put faith in my training and I believed in my ability to perform when I had other women in the mix with me (something I did not have at White River).  I’ve always run better with competition.  That's not to say there wasn't any pre-race panic!

Hotel room pre-race mirror photo

On race morning, everything went smoothly and I had plenty of time for a warm-up jog, a few minutes of uptempo running, drills, strides, and peeing multiple times before the start.  I was able to keep warming up until the last minute and then front-load into the corral, which I really appreciated.  I loathe standing on the starting line waiting for any significant period of time, and Jon always gets worried that I’m going to miss the race start because I stay out to stay moving as long as I can.  In this race all of the other elite runners were doing the same, and the starters let us then called us back in at the last minute.  Kudos on this, Rock 'r' Roll race organizers! 

I was surrounded by women in professional racing kits; half tops and bun huggers.  I suppose the elite men also looked professional, but I wasn’t paying attention to them.  I positioned myself in the back of the elite corral, just in front of the corral 1 runners, and also just a bit behind Neely Spence Gracey.  Some of the other “commoners” were talking to her, but I was too afraid to!  I pretty much just waved to my dad and tried to pretend I did not look like a complete amateur in my mishmashed outfit, also ensuring that any potential doubters could see the elite bib number pinned on my tank.

Where's Sara?

"Hi, Dad!"

And we're off!

Although I was intimidated on the starting line, I wasn't running for place and I was confident that I had the best race plan for me and for the course.  Everyone else could do as they pleased, and I was doing my thing!  We were sent off at the gun along with corral 1, and many people went out blazing fast.  I stayed controlled, aiming for 6:20 pace.  I looked at my Garmin about a half mile in and I was at 6:18 pace – perfect.  I am pretty sure I was last, or certainly near last, of the elite women at that point, but I was confident about sticking to my pace plan.  Sometimes I think it takes more confidence to not go out too fast; and I guarantee that if I had been in that situation when I was in my 20’s I would have run my first mile too fast.  I came through mile 1 in 6:18, and I didn’t even have to look at my watch to know that because the course mile markers all had large clocks on them, which I loved (more kudos, race organizers!)!

I focused on staying in rhythm and around 6:15 pace, which felt brisk but controlled that early.  Around the mile I started slowly picking off other runners.  I focused on the next ponytail in front of me and on reeling her in.  The game was pick a ponytail, move up.  The miles clicked away right around 6:15 pace and I kept playing the game, only slightly foiled by one woman with short hair and no ponytail.  I used the course mile clocks to gauge my pace and didn’t really use my Garmin at all.  The math on 6:15 pace was easy to do for the first 7 miles, and I was always right on or slightly under!  My Garmin usually beeped just slightly after each mile marker, meaning that my Garmin splits were just slightly slower than my course miles (in the end it read 13.09 on a 13.11 mile course, so it was really close overall).

I came through the 10K in 38:42…and since there was an official timing mat there I guess I get to say I ran an official 1-second 10K PR!  That was confidence-boosting, because it was still a controlled effort at that point.  I passed two more women right after the 10K, and I got excited about that because I thought that my friends and family tracking me would see that I’d moved up at least two places between the 10K and the next mat.  I’d moved up a lot between the 5K and 10K mats, but since there had been a man frantically calling out the elite women’s bib numbers at the 5K mat when we passed, I suspected that mat wasn’t working.  In the end, the runner tracking was off and different for everyone who was tracking me, so no one actually knew much (or anything) about my time/place until afterward, and some received incorrect information.  My husband and dad didn't get a single update!

During mile 7 I continued to feel good about meeting my goal, and reminded myself that I was over halfway done!  Mile 8 was all incline, and ended up being into the wind to boot.  I wasn’t close to any ponytails at that point, but focused on a man ahead of me.  I looked at my Garmin during this mile because I could tell I was slowing down, and I was 6:25ish.  This was a hit to my confidence, because 6:25 felt much harder than usual, but I reminded myself that I’d planned for that mile to be slower because it was incline.  Then the race started feeling hard, too hard.  Mile 9 had quite the long hill in it, and I started to worry about my goal time slipping away based on how I was feeling.  I even took a quick shot of sports drink at an aid station hoping for a little boost. 

Once I started up the hill, I saw a bike coming down and realized that it was Neely Spency Gracey running with the lead cyclist!  I didn’t think the out and back on the hill was long enough that I would see her, but once I did I knew I would see all of the women in front of me, so I started counting.  When I got to the hair pin turn at the top of the hill, I knew I was in 10^th or 11^th female position (there was one runner I wasn’t sure on the gender of, but now I know that was a guy with a ponytail).  I wasn’t too far behind two of the women, and my competitive juices were flowing and I decided I was going to gun for a top 10 finish.  Then I turned around and saw that there were 5-6 women quite close behind me; certainly within striking distance if I didn’t finish strong.  My thoughts vacillated between, “I’m going to catch those two and get in the top 10” to “Everyone is going to pass me because I’m dying!”.  

However, once I turned around and started coming down the hill, I felt much better.  Before the race I’d thought of miles 8-9 as an “investment”, because we climbed around 120 ft in them (compared to about 50 ft total in miles 1-7), but then we got to come back down that elevation in the final 4 miles.  When I passed the 15K marker in 58:33, I smiled because that was an unofficial 15K PR for me (no course mat though, boo).  I passed one woman who I could tell was hurting much more than me, and came through mile 10 in 5:58, for a 10 mile split around 1:02:35 (another unofficial PR - there was a mat there but it apparently wasn’t working either!).  I was ready to roll for the final 5K!  Keeping my final 5K at or under 6:10 pace felt at the same time very intimidating and like something I could do.  If I missed it, it sure wasn't going to be due to lack of trying!

I kept working on pulling in the next lady, who had on a Oiselle racing kit.  She was coming back to me, and I was keeping my pace under 6:10.  I came through mile 11 in 6:05 and pressed on.  It was hard, but I knew I could do 2 more miles at that pace.  Around 11.5, I pulled up on and passed Oiselle girl.  I passed in a manner to convey that she was not going with me, and she did not try.  I told her "nice work" as I went by.  I couldn’t see any more ponytails at that point, so I focused on a man in a white singlet and on keeping my pace down to the end.

When I saw my mile 12 time, I knew I would finish in the 1:21s even if I ran a 6:30 last mile, but I sure wasn’t going to let myself do that!  I gunned for a sub-6:00 final mile, and my one regret of this race is that I couldn’t find 3 more seconds to do that; my final mile was 6:02 (I never looked at my watch during it, though, so didn’t know how close I was until reviewing my splits afterward).  For most of the mile, the finish line seemed so close yet so far.  We took a turn onto the final stretch with probably around 0.2 left, and I could see the mile 13 sign and the finish.  I sprinted with all I had, knowing I had a PR and top 10 finish coming.  My Garmin said my final 0.1 was at 5:13 pace.  I could hear my dad cheering, “Go Sara!!!!”, and after I ran over a chip mat on the home stretch, the announcer said my full name (pronounced correctly!), hometown, and that I was coming in for a top 10 female finish.  I was absolutely glowing inside.  I for once remembered to run through the finish line before stopping my watch (to get a good finishing photo), although my dad got so excited that he didn’t get any finishing pictures and ended up taking a video of the ground instead of my finish, haha!

The only picture of me racing, coming down final stretch (I'm on the left behind two men)

I teared up walking into the finish shoot!  I didn’t know my official time yet, but I’d stopped my Garmin at 1:21:29 so I knew it was a bit under that.  I also didn’t know if I had been 8^th or 9^th female, but I knew I’d netted a top 10 finish, which I sure didn’t think was possible beforehand.  I had my professional photo taken with my finishers medal, then continued through the finish shoot, grabbing one of everything (water, sports drink, protein recovery drink, banana, granola bar, pretzels – some of this I had to stuff under my tank top straps – surely looking like a pro there, haha!).  I was very eager to find my dad!  I got to the family meeting area before him, and put my drinks/food on the ground by the letter “I” sign while waiting for him.  When I saw him, he was running towards me in excitement!  I think he may have been even more excited about my PR and place than I was!

Happiness

Like a kid at Christmas!

After sharing excitement with my dad and a brief phone call to Jon (which was mainly me telling him I couldn’t hear anything over the band and would call him again soon, but that I finished in 1:21:2X and in 8^th or 9^th female), I found my dad a place to sit farther away from the band and went out for my cool-down on a dirt path I conveniently found after a porta-potty stop.  It ran right along the river, and on it I ran into Neely Spence Gracey and second place female Maor Tiyouri running their cool-down in the opposite direction!  In my post-1:21 I-conquered-the-world high, I was no longer timid.  I told them, “Nice race, ladies!” and Neely said, “You too!”

I have a pretty bad case of “never satisfied syndrome”, so it’s rare I have a race that I don’t want to put “buts” or “*”s with, but this was one.  I don’t think I could have done anything better, and I put my mind to getting a 1:21 and I did it!  I do feel like there are factors that show I can go faster in the future --  the course was not flat, it was 55 degrees, I was in a 55 mile training week, and I have room to increase my mileage – so I have hope this was not the end all be all, but this was my best race performance at any distance up to this point hands down.

The race also served its purpose of boosting my confidence for the Phoenix full marathon on February 25.  It showed me that my fitness is there, and also eased my fears about performing off of traveling (I expect to take it easier the day before the marathon as well, as the day before this race we gallivanted all around the Barrett-Jackson car auction and the Desert Botanical Gardens).  I haven’t recently run a full marathon consistent with what my half performances indicate I should be able to run.  Before I got my half time down to under 1:25, my half and full performances were always almost spot on by this calculator, and often my full would actually be a little faster than my half predicted, while my shorter races would be a little slower.  I believe that is in part because I haven’t ever run a fast marathon course, but maybe also in part because I didn't believe I could (also I may need more mileage).  But my chance is coming!  I have a big goal, and some might call it overly ambitious, but so was my goal of running a half at the same pace as my 10K PR - and as it worked out, I ran my half faster than that.  A big part of accomplishing a goal is believing you can, and I really think I have it in me – and if not at Phoenix, at the next one.  Here’s to controlling the controllable, and to accepting the uncontrollable that race day brings.  Here’s to 5.5 more weeks of miles and of avoiding the treadmill!  Here’s to God who makes it all possible!  He delights in the details of our lives, and gives us victories like this that we certainly don’t deserve.

If your goals don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.  Seriously, not long ago my average pace in this half (6:12.7) was my 5K pace in a really good 5K.  I'm just a normal person, with a full-time job and a family, and if I can do this so can you.  Set a lofty goal and chase it!

How else will it come true?

Garmin splits

I made it!

Truth