"Ella corre" is "She runs" in Spanish. I'm learning Spanish. It's a good skill for a physician in Southern California to have. So to practice, I may throw a little Espanol into my posts.
It was cccccooooolllllld this morning! As we waited for the start, it was about 41 degrees. If this were any other city I've lived in (Detroit, Rochester NY, Boston), it would be expected to be this cold in December. Not in Los Angeles. We huddled in Griffith Park by the heat lamps, then shivered in the porta-potty lines before the race started.
The first five miles were in Griffith Park, which is where I've done my training runs. My goal was to run 10:30 mile splits, and at the halfway mark to pick up the pace if I felt good.. My first four were about 10:00-10:15. Part of me was excited, and the other part of me was worried that I'd lose steam.
I lost a little bit of steam, and my splits slowed down, but not too much. The scenery was nice -- Griffith Park, Silver Lake, Echo Park reservoir, and then into downtown LA.
My main issue was gastrointestinal. My stomach felt heavy, like I would throw up, or worse. And while a well-timed Gu packet gave me more energy, five or ten minutes later my stomach was getting angry at me. This is an issue I need to figure out well before Vineman 70.3 in July 2008.
Even now my stomach is screwed up. I planned to have a Tofurky sandwich on whole wheat with lettuce, tomato, and guacamole. Instead I had a banana, sweet potato soup, and two slices of whole wheat toast with Earth Balance and strawberry jam, and my stomach didn't really like that either.
So, anyway, my lackluster time: 2:17:47. I ran two half marathons last year on 2:11 and 2:12. I've slowed down this year, probably because I've cut back to running 4 times a week, maxed out at 24 miles in a week, and I'm a year older. On the flip side, I have added a spinning class each week to cross train, and unlike last season, I haven't been significantly injured. Maybe for me slower is smarter.
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4 comments:
Congrats on your half-mary! I love this: "maybe slower me is smarter." I'm going to make that my mantra for the next few weeks as I get back into running :-) Hope your stomach's feeling better real soon.
Congrats on the race. Hope you feel better soon.
Congrats! I'm very impressed. I hope your stomach is feeling better by now.
I've started adding distance to my runs--am up to 10 miles now--and my dream is to train for a half marathon. That said, I really enjoy reading about your training & races.
In response to UV's comment above... UV, I've got news for you. The fact that you can run 10 miles means that you ARE trained for a 1/2 mary. :-) Find one you like & sign up already!!!
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