A freezing cold day. There were many people in shorts and I'm not sure how they did it. I was in tights, hat, gloves, and two long sleeve shirts. I had a really rough week leading up to the race with very little sleep. I had done one 10 mile run and one 11 mile run in the weeks preceding, so I didn't feel completely prepared and it was just going to be one of those Let's Just See How It Goes...It was something I felt like I had to do mentally to help get over CDA. It was still only my second race since and it had been months since my last race. I was hoping it would help jump start my brain to get back into training mode and back into distance mode. It was also a course I had done twice before and was hoping I'd do similar times, even though it had been 8 or so years since I had run the course. By the time race day arrived, I was just hoping for sub-2, but recognized that this might be pushing it.
I wasn't expecting as large of a crowd (what was I thinking...it's Boulder!). The last time I ran this course, the start line was out on the road outside of the Res. I assumed that was where it still was. We parked in the field. I wanted to use the port-a-potties before the start and headed over to the parking lot with all of my warm clothes still on - I figured the car was midway between the bathrooms and the start so I could drop them off on my way back to the start. About halfway over to the parking lots, I realized that the start had moved to inside the Res by the parking lots and bathroom. Being that there were only about 10 or so minutes to the start, I had to run back to the car to undress and then back to the parking lot where there was naturally a long line for the bathrooms. By the time I finished, it was pretty much time to start. People were already packed into the starting chute. I had barely squeezed in along side of everyone when the gun went off. I was way at the end having no time to push myself up towards the front, and so I was stuck for the time being. It was like herding cattle. We'd run a bit and then slow down. Speed up, slow down. Stop, go. Repeat. The pathway narrowed a lot in the section that led out to the road and similar to the first turn in an Ironman swim, everyone stopped. It was a great start. I finally got out to the road where we were able to spread out a bit, but still, it was pretty packed and there was a lot of weaving. My first mile was over 10 minutes. It took another two miles before I was able to run a straight line. So much for time goals. But that wasn't what this was about, remember.
In the end, I had a really good race. I didn't break 2, but had I started closer to the front, I like to think that I would have. My Garmin also recorded an extra .15 miles, so there's that to consider as well. But the best things were actual "did haves" rather than "could haves". I stuck completely to my race plan, which is a first. I stayed right in mid-Z3 until the last few miles. I felt really good the entire race. I never reached the When Is This Going To End? point. I never reached the I'm Starting to Get Really Tired point. I just felt like I could keep going like this for a while. Which probably means that I didn't go hard enough, but it was only a half marathon and there would still be another half to go come Wisconsin, so it was good to have that sense of control. And most importantly, I think I did get past that mental barrier and was finally able to put CDA behind me and start anew.
Results:
