Part of me wants to dwell on how slow I ran the Skinny Raven Half Marathon this past Sunday, but truthfully, even though I ran 5 minutes slower than last year, I am still happy I was able to run at all–and I know placing second for the women isn’t a bad day either.
I get caught up in the trap of comparison all too often. Sometimes it helps put things in perspective, other times it causes me to wallow in my performance even when the performance wasn’t really that bad in the grand scheme of things.
In 2016, I wasn’t able to run this race because I was dealing with my hip flexor/torn labrum injury.
In 2017, I was first place at this race with a time of 1:24.
This year, 2018, I was able to run with no pain (the positive), but I ran 5 minutes slower than last year (the negative). As bummed as I was to run that much slower, I was still second place for the women, and I know a lot of people would be happy to run a sub-1:30 half marathon.
Official results:
1:29:51
6:52 average pace
2nd place – women
1st place – age group
With my hamstring/glute/hip injuries this past spring and summer, I’ve only had a short period of time to build up for the Skinny Raven Half Marathon, so I was pretty much expecting to run right around 1:30 for a finish time. My longest run was 14 miles the weekend before, so I didn’t have very much volume on my legs either.
I started out at what felt like a comfortably-slow pace, but as usual it was still my fastest split of the morning. (The first mile has a lot of downhill, so it is hard to run slow.) I let a few other women take the lead though and dis my best to hang back. At mile two, I passed a couple of them, and I was behind the eventual winner. She was only about 15-20 seconds ahead of me, and while I wanted to catch up with her, I knew I didn’t have a lot of fitness to waste and blow through so early in the race.
Splits:
Mile 1 – 6:28
Mile 2 – 6:44
Mile 3 – 6:47
Mile 4 – 6:43
Mile 5 – 6:48
Mile 6 – 7:05
I hung with the leader through the half, but she took off after that, and I just couldn’t keep up anymore. I felt like I picked up the pace on the way back since there is a slight downhill grade, but my splits don’t reflect that. Ha! Since the course is an out-and-back course, it was a nice distraction to see so many people out running and hear cheers along the way.
Mile 7 – 7:01
Mile 8 – 6:52
Mile 9 – 6:45
Mile 10 – 6:51
Mile 11 – 6:54
Mile 12 – 7:01
Mile 13 – 7:04
Total time: 1:29:51
Most of the race went by pretty quickly probably because I know the Chester Creek Trail like the back of my hand. The last couple of miles got a little lonely as I was running by myself and there wasn’t anyone out cheering, but that’s when I focus on going for a good time since that’s almost more important to me than a certain placing.
I knew I was going to be close to 1:30, and when I saw the clock at 1:29:3X, I knew I had to book it in order to run sub-1:30. I crossed the finish line knowing I had given it my all, so I can’t be too disappointed in my performance. I’ll keep training and challenging myself every day trying to build back to where I was. I get such a high from racing that this little taste of performing well–but not quite good enough, keeps me coming back for more. (Can you say overachiever?) I’m hoping my fitness comes back a little more quickly this time around since I’ve had good build-ups recently, but my injuries have kept me from having longer training blocks. It is what it is, and at this point I’m just glad to be running pain-free.
