Sunday, February 26, 2012

Hyannis Half Marathon Race Report

Lessons learned is what I'm filing this race under. My first half marathon since having the kid, so we an check it off the list and move forward. I'm rusty at long distance racing, happy to recognize this early on.

Sleep - not much at all the night before, maybe 2-3 hours. I don't ever sleep well outside of my own house, race or vacation it doesn't matter.

Nutrition - Night before I ate well and felt great. Morning of things started to go south. We stayed with the hotel buffet and it wasn't enough, fruit salad and peanut butter toast. It was also too early, we ate at 7 and the race was at 10. No snacks in between = big mistake. I also had nothing on the course and really could have used cliff blocks or some gu.

Race - Started out strong, my form was good and I felt strong. My garmin got left in the hotel room so I had no idea what my pace was. Things got ugly around mile 6, kicked my own ass by not having enough to eat and bottomed out. Stomach cramps, leg aches. The race was great with water stops, too many too count and all well stocked. Crowd support was thin but where there were crowds they were enthusiastic. The course was nice other than the wind. After being told it was a flat course, I would argue that it's rolling hills. I finished and again am happy to have crossed it off the bucket list. My biggest critique of this event was the management of the finish line. It was a bit crazed and hard to find where the water and food for runners was.

Lessons learned - it's time to bring back race day nutrition. I know what has worked in the past and just need to reincorporate it. The body seems to be tolerating the training well so far, I think that if I had been better fed, I would have been less sore. Also having Miles at the finish was fun, but having a baby post 13.1 mile sucks and bring a babysitter for the afternoon might be worth considering.

Miles raced today: 13.1

No comments: