Hook Half Marathon Race Recap

I ran a half marathon this weekend. You might not have known since I have been completely slacking on my blog posts lately.

On Sunday morning I woke up at 5 and was out the door at 6 to make the drive to Rockland Lake State Park. I was super early (on purpose) so I didn't even have to wait in line to pick up my number and my snazzy race shirt.

Then I went back to my car because it was 38 degrees out and I still had almost an hour before race time. It was a chilly morning, but was supposed to get fairly warm. Most people were in long tights and long sleeve shirts/jackets. I assumed that most of them would lose some layers for the race, but most of them were still pretty bundled up when we started. There were even some people who chose to wear the long sleeve, cotton race shirt to run the half marathon.

I would have died.

I was wearing shorts, a tank top and my Legend Compression sleeves (affiliate link) - and sunscreen, because this pale skin hasn't seen a lot of sun lately.

I knew going into it that the race wasn't going to be easy - it does have the word mountain in the name - but it ended up being a lot harder than I expected.

The first four miles are fairly flat around Rockland Lake, and then there are rolling hills until the big drop down Hook Mountain. Mile 6 drops over 200 feet in elevation, though most of that drop is over the course of less than half a mile. It's not so bad, but you know you have to run back up it later.

Miles 7-10 are mostly flat along the river. It was really hot during this stretch and there was no shade and no wind. The turn around spot has an unwelcome mini-hill. I did't feel awesome at any point in this race, but this stretch was a major suffer-fest for me. It takes me a few weeks to get used to running in warmer weather, and even though it wasn't actually hot, it was still too warm compared to the temperatures I have been running in lately.

The death march up Hook starts right around mile 10. Pretty much everyone around me (myself included) walked up the vast majority of the hill. I was feeling mostly terrible at that point so I was just happy that I managed to convince myself to start running again once we got to the top. I knew my goal of being under two hours was out the window, but I didn't want to just give up and walk.

Ok, I did want to give up and walk at the time, but I'm glad I didn't.

The last two miles run back around the lake, and are mercifully flat. I managed to pick up the pace a bit and passed several people during the last couple of miles. I had a strong finish, but ended up finishing almost 10 minutes slower than my last half just three weeks ago.

They only had a finish line mat, so my gun time was 2:06:39, no chip time.

A couple of gripes: The water stations were confusing, The volunteers were all mixed together with Gatorade and water and it wasn't clear who had what. I ended up accidentally grabbing Gatorade a couple times, and each time it was a different flavor of Gatorade - I wish they had at least stuck to one flavor.

By the time I finished, there was only half a box of bananas and less than half a box of (dry) bagels left. I have no idea what the many runners behind me had to choose from, but it was slim pickings when I was there.

Overall, it is a really well-run race, and the scenery is beautiful, but it is definitely a tough course. I may have to run it again with a little more preparation (hill training) next time.

Freezer 5k

I went back through my Athlinks profile on Saturday, so I'm pretty confident in saying that I haven't run a 5k since 2009.

I didn't really have a time goal going into Sunday's Freezer 5k. I decided I was just going to run it and see where I'm at right now.

The race didn't start until 10, which felt late to me, but I guess you don't have to start so early when it's only a 5k.

We got to the race around 9:15 so we had time to pick up our numbers (Tom ran too!) and find some of my weekend running friends. It's a small race, so getting our bibs was quick and easy, and we had plenty of time to warm up a bit.

Tom and I both went out a little too fast, but stayed together until a little after mile 2. It was weird to run such a short race, and when I realized there was only a mile left, I sped up. I passed a decent number of people in the last mile, and as I was reeling in my next target, he started keeping pace with me rather than let me pass him.

I told the guy he didn't seem to be in enough pain for that stage in the race, and at the mile 3 marker he said, "Come on, let's go!" We both sped up for the last tenth of a mile and even when I pulled ahead, he kept telling me to "go!" I've dubbed him my finish line buddy. He disappeared at the finish line (which is tricky in a race of a couple hundred people) so I didn't get a chance to thank him for the extra push.

I ended up being pleasantly surprised by my finish time: 25:01! It's definitely a PR for me, and I don't think I completely hate 5ks anymore. I can actually see some benefit to running a 5k from time to time.

Tom has only really been consistently running for the last month or so, but he wasn't very far behind me. Give him a few more months and he'll be beating me in the 5k!

We came home and ate a bunch of Liège waffles and sausages. I could say it was because of the Super Bowl, but really we just wanted waffles.

Please ignore the waffle crumbs all over the counter. It's a messy business.

We ended up being so full from our lunchtime waffles, that our Super Bowl dinner ended up consisting of a buffalo chicken dip that Tom made, carrots and celery, and chips and salsa. I'm not sorry.

I had a 4 miler on my training plan for today, and wow, it was slow. Apparently you can't expect to be at the top of your game the day after running a PR, even if it was just a 5k.

Did you watch the Super Bowl? 

What's your favorite game day food? Chips and guacamole. Always.

Nuun Year Dash!

We woke up to snow this morning. The weather forecast called for a dusting to an inch, but we ended up getting enough snow to cover the roads and cancel school in the area. 

Buddy made sure to warm his nose up by the fire. It's actually already noticeably warmer in the house with the new insulation, and it isn't even all in yet!

Nuun hosted a virtual race this weekend, and I signed up to run the 10k. All the official goodies arrived last week. They don't skimp on the swag!

I planned on running my race today, since we have a 5k on Sunday, so I waited for the roads to clear and hit the pavement.

I wasn't sure what kind of pace to expect since I had a cold all week (and haven't raced in a couple of months). I kept my watch on distance and just focused on running harder than I would for a regular training run. That plan seemed to work well, sometimes I get frustrated when I check my pace too often, but I felt strong and ended up being pleasantly surprised when I uploaded my run.

10k in 55:42, an 8:57 pace.

I celebrated with a double dose of watermelon Nuun with a dash of vitamin c powder, because I like it a little sour.

The insulation guys started putting up drywall today! It's hard to see because there aren't lights in the room yet, but look, walls!

The plumber is coming this weekend to get the heat hooked up in the addition, and then the rest of the drywall will get installed next week. It's exciting to see so much progress!

It's Only 13 Miles

So, I'm running a half marathon (The Putnam County Fall Classic) tomorrow. It's weird, because it sort of feels like a non-event after my 20 miler last weekend. I mean, obviously I am planning on pushing and seeing what I can do, but it's only 13 miles.

It's all relative.

I'm so disorganized that I almost ran out of GU and had to go in search of a local store that would have it. Luckily, I remembered that I had one stashed in my car and I found one in the bottom of a box, so I'm good to go. Now I just need to get some before next weekend's long run.

I also realized that it will be my 10th half marathon, and my 4th for the year. This is definitely my biggest running year so far.

I had a pretty terrible run today. On the plan it was supposed to be an 8 mile pace run, but I was going to take it easy because of the race tomorrow. Then I didn't leave the house forever, it was humid, and I felt like I was running through water. I was moving pretty slowly and my heart rate was through the roof.

It was dumb.

I ended up running 5 miles, and I was grumpy the entire time.

Now I'm charging all my electronics, updating my playlist, and deciding which shoes to wear.

The  nice thing about tomorrow's race is that it's only about 20 minutes from our house, so I don't have to wake up insanely early to drive anywhere.

Buddy has been enjoying the break in construction activity and catching up on his sleep today. He's not a big fan of all the change.

Walkway Half Marathon Recap

I ran the Walkway Half Marathon this morning!

Friday afternoon I made the drive up to Poughkeepsie to pick up my bib & shirt. It was kind of a pain, but there was no race day pickup, so what can you do? The drive was over an hour, and then it took me another 15 minutes to successfully make my way into the correct parking area.

The expo was actually pretty big for the race size (2500 runners between the 5k, half and full marathon), and packet pickup was a breeze. I wandered around for a few minutes, but wasn't really in the mood to chat with expo booth people.

This morning I was up at 4:45. The plan was to leave as close to 5 as possible (they wanted people there 90 minutes before the race), but I didn't end up leaving until almost 5:20. The drive up was pretty uneventful and they had lots of volunteers to keep parking organized.

Even though there wasn't any race day packet pickup, the race did not start on time. We were about 15 minutes late - pretty common with the races I've run lately.

People are not good at lining themselves up according to pace time. There were people in front of me who walked the first hill in the first tenth of a mile - stopping to walk in the middle of the pack of runners - at least move over before you stop!

There were a couple of narrow areas in the first mile, and that, combined with the walkers, made the first mile my slowest. After we got off the road and onto the (paved) trails I started making better time.

Speaking of time, I broke the #1 rule of racing today - don't try anything new on race day. I tried the goal pace setting on my watch for the first time and quickly learned that the only stat I had available to me was my current pace. So, for the entire race I had no idea of the time and was dependent on mile markers. Not ideal.

The course was really pretty and very well organized (it was the first year for the half and full). There were water stations (and NUUN!) every 1.5 miles and lots of volunteers along the way to make sure no one got lost. The race claims to be "fast and flat," but according to my watch, it was hillier (938 feet!) than my last race!

I felt pretty good for most of the race, but at mile 9 I was hit by a killer side cramp. It hurt so bad I actually stopped for a few seconds to try to get it to stop.

The rest of the race was good, though it was starting to get hot out (not that it was cold at any point, I think it was around 70 degrees when I left the house).

I finished in 1:59:24! It's not a PR, but considering the heat (and the side cramp), I'm happy with it.

Aaaand I didn't take any pictures until I got home.

The medal is pretty cool - it's wood!

And now back to our regularly scheduled packing.

Long Island Adventure Race

I was up extra early this morning to meet up with a couple of my usual Saturday running buddies. They were putting in some extra miles before the group run, and since I was going to otherwise miss my group run for the week, I decided to join them.

We ran about 4 miles at around a 9:00 pace, in lots of humidity and sunshine. It was really hot for 7:30 in the morning.

The reason I didn't make it to the group run was because Tom signed up to run an adventure race on Long Island. It was SO different than the races I'm used to.

The course was just under 4 miles, and there were over 20 obstacles. There were big groups, teams, families and individuals running. Tom ended up running with a 19 and a 22 year old who were very impressed that he was keeping up with them.

There was a lot of running through the woods, so I missed a lot of obstacles, but I took pictures of the ones I could get to.

These were dumpsters filled with ice water. The one on the right had boards across it so people had to get completely under the water.

I would have looked more like the girl on the right if I had tried to run this race. Tom landed safely on the other side.

There was some rope climbing.

 

Some tire flipping.

And a crazy plank walk.

Then some monkey bars over a mud pit, naturally.

And a giant bubble and water pit at the bottom of a ramp/wall. I have no idea how I managed to not get any bubbles in the picture because they were everywhere! This is where having a group was helpful. Part of the time there were race volunteers at the top to help people up. All the obstacles were optional, so if things got too tricky, people could go around.

Then there was some (more) mud.

And a little more mud.

They had finishers medals, bananas and water waiting at the finish line, and the fire department was there to help take care of the mud.

Tom had a great time and I managed to only get a little sunburned. A pretty fun day overall!

Have you run an obstacle course race? Would you want to?

I haven't, and I don't know that I would want to - I'm not big on rope climbing and dumpsters full of ice water :)

Rhinebeck Hudson Valley Half Marathon Recap

I ran the Rhinebeck Hudson Valley Half Marathon this morning! It's the first year for this race, and it was tiny - like, less than 100 people ran the half, tiny. There was also a marathon (which was pretty much just running the half course twice - no thank you) which less than 30 people ran.

Tom was super nice and drove me up to the race early this morning. It rained most of the drive, but let up before we got there. Packet pickup was a breeze, and for the first time ever at a race, there were no lines for the restrooms.

The marathon started at 8, and the half followed around 8:30 to help keep some separation between the hordes of people running - ha!

It was a really pretty course, and it was mostly rolling hills, nothing major.

I started out feeling good, which lasted until about mile 7, when I started to cycle through feelings ranging from "I got this" to "I'd like to stop now." I was shooting to stay at/under 9:00 miles, but that was just not happening. At around mile 11 I started to drag, which was aided by the fact that I realized there was no way I was going to PR. By the last mile, I was really pushing for some speed, but I just couldn't get my legs to move any faster. I didn't even do my usual sprint to the finish. I definitely let my mind get the best of me on this one.

If I didn't spend the last half mile of the race throwing myself a pity party, I would have broken 2 hours. Don't let the clock confuse you, it was started at 8 when the marathon started.

I finished in 2:00:03, a 9:10 pace.

Once I finally got over my pity party/tantrum and checked my time, I saw that I placed 3rd in my age group!

Ignore the fact that there were only 7 or 8 people in my age group. That's what I'm doing :)

It's also my second best half marathon time, so I really shouldn't complain. I've got another half in 27 days, maybe that will be my PR day!

Trail Race Recap

Saturday morning I was up bright and early to head to the Blue Mountain Reservation for a trail race.

 I rode up with one of my weekend running buddies and we got there with more than enough time to check in and pick up our bibs. The race was so small, we probably would have been fine showing up about 15 minutes before the start.

I don't know the official number of runners, but there was a 5k and a 10k that were capped at 150 between them. I would guess the actual number was somewhere closer to 75 or 80 runners.

We spent a good 10 minutes watching a guy try to fix the start/finish line banner after the wind snapped one of the zip ties that was holding it up. It was a very complicated fix that involved a picnic table, two sticks and some rope. It was pretty entertaining.

The race started a few minutes late to allow some stragglers to get their bibs, and then we were off through the muddy start line. The trails were really beautiful, but definitely more trail-like than most of us are used to. There were loose rocks, tree roots, a couple of very steep climbs (and descents), and lots of mud and water. The man in charge declared that it was "the cheapest mud run you'll ever find."

The course was a 5k loop, so those of us running the 10k ran the loop twice. I'm not a huge fan of running the same hills more than once, but it was generally a fun course.

There were plenty of post-race snacks and drinks, though the promised REI branded swag turned out to be a pair of shoe laces and some lip balm. I don't know that I would call that swag, but with a registration fee of $15, I guess I can't complain.

I started my watch at our official "everyone count down from 10" start and stopped it a few yards after the finish line. It came up with 5.85 miles in 58:00. The clock at the finish was right about at 1:00:00, so I'm not really sure what time to claim. It wasn't chip timed, and who knows how accurate their course measurement was (and there weren't mile markers).

It's ok though, the point was to run a fun race someplace new. You can't really compare trail race times to normal race times anyway, we were all running a minute and a half to two minutes slower than our usual pace.

My shoes may be dry by now, but they could definitely use a run through the rain to clean up a bit.

I spent Saturday night babysitting. The three year old I was watching told me I was bad at puzzles. Thanks kid.

Today was amazing weather. It was sunny and warm! We finally brought the cushions up for the patio furniture, and Buddy and I had a nice morning lounging on the back deck.

I just finished reading Wild. It was pretty good, though I never had a hard time putting it down. I want to see how the movie turned out, I've heard mixed reviews.

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Race Prep and Lounging with Buddy

Happy Friday!

I was a lazy slob this afternoon. I planned on doing a little PiYo, but ended up being randomly really exhausted, so I lounged with Buddy instead. He was pretty happy.

 He was sleeping like this for a while this afternoon. With his eyes open. Creepy dog.

I laid out running clothes for my trail race tomorrow before I even bothered to check the weather. That seems like a good idea, right? I did check the weather after the fact and I don't think I'll make any changes. 

It's strange for me, but I know pretty much nothing about this race tomorrow. It is being put on by REI's Outdoor School, and I've seen a basic course map, but that's about all I know. Usually I do a lot of research before a race, but since this is a "just for fun" race (and it's a 10k), I'm not too worried about it. 

Several of my weekend running buddies are also running tomorrow, and there's a club meet up at the Peekskill Brewery after the race, so it should be a fun morning!

Buddy is very excited for me, can't you tell?

Any exciting weekend plans?