Twilight 12K – Race Recap 2021

The Twilight 12K is one of the premier races in Anchorage. It often draws the best of the best talent here in town, and that talent can be very deep some years–as this year proved to be.

Going into any race, I am really nervous and definitely have some anxiety about racing. Luckily this fades as soon as the gun goes off, but I definitely spend a lot of time thinking about the race and possible outcomes the couple days before the race. When I am at home, it doesn’t affect my sleep, but I have struggled with sleep when I travel out of state for races. (That’s why I am glad to be doing one of my marathons in Anchorage this year.) But this year I really tried to change my mindset.

Prior to this race, I was really working on channeling more positive energy, less nerves and reminding myself to be thankful for the opportunity to race: that races are back “on,” and I am not injured and able to race. I still had some anxiety going into this race, but there were moments of being more calm than usual. My gut told me I was going to have a good race, and thankfully my gut proved to be right. (A text from my coach also helped give me a boost of confidence too!)

Somehow the weather for this race always ends up being the most beautiful summer night as this race happens at 7p.m. on a Friday night. Once again, the weather was perfect–low 60s, sunny, no humidity (There’s virtually no humidity in Anchorage.), a slight breeze, and overall perfect. (Some said it was ‘hot,’ but I was not one of them.)

Going into the race, I was pretty confident I could PR. I knew the average pace for my PR was 6:27, so I was hoping to target at least 6:25 but closer to 6:20. The first mile of the course was downhill, so I was okay going out a little hot. I ran a 6:02 for the first mile, but I also felt like my effort was appropriate for 7.45 miles. The second mile has a long gradual incline, so I focused on maintaining the same effort on the way up. No surprise it resulted in my second slowest split of 6:24, but I was still happy with that because it was within my goal pace. The third mile we go back down that hill, so I did my best to let gravity carry me down the hill and try to regain some of the time lost on the way up. As we went over the bridge during that same mile, the winds can be really strong during this point some years, but luckily it was not bad at all this year. I hit a 6:19 split for mile three and 6:20 for mile four. The next couple of miles are along the coast, so nice and flat, and I was cruising in some parts seeing 6:05/6:10 on my watch at points. Mile five and six were 6:15 and 6:19, respectively. The final mile has a long gradual hill that everyone hates, so that slowed me down a bit, and I ran a 6:32 pace, but I knew to expect that. Then I pushed as hard as I could over the last grassy section to the finish with a new PR of 47:12, which was 1:14 faster than my previous PR!

This race was really the confident boost I needed as I have about 10 weeks until my marathon in August. I felt so strong the entire time, and I am learning how to hurt again but still stay mentally strong. I am not in sub-3 shape quite yet for a marathon, but I am getting oh so close!