Maiden Voyage

The Hyannis Half marathon on Sunday marked the maiden voyage of my new running toy, a Garmin 305 GPS watch. I was nervous about how the race would go since I've done very little running over the last two weeks due to a mildly sprained ankle. This was my first half-marathon and I had set my goal at 2:00 hr, or 9:10 / mile. I had run a 13 mile training run in 2:10 so I thought this goal was a bit aggressive, but I think a reach goal is what I needed to motivate myself.

Overall, I enjoyed the Garmin and the pace feedback, although either it is a little kooky on the instantaneous feedback or I run an amazingly irregular pace (instant pace was as low as 8:04? this makes no sense based on my splits which you'll see). Oh, and the watch was possessed . . .despite the fact that I had all pace and time/distance alerts off since I couldn't figure out how to set the pace ranges the night before, the watch kept beeping at me over the first 5 miles to "Slow Down". Hmm . . .If Steph hadn't given me the watch still sealed in it's box, I would've thought she gave it to Jack to make sure I met his negative split expectations. My splits over the first 5 miles looked like this: 9:17, 9:01, 9:40 (stopped briefly in line in hopes of dealing with a pre-race overhydration issue before I decided it was going to take too much time and abandoned line), 9:01, 8:50.

At this point I started to wonder where the heck the next water stop was going to be . . .it had been quite a while (3 miles + ) since the last one and I had Gu'd without fluid which I don't enjoy. Despite my aforementioned overhydration at the start of the race, which I still had not addressed, I was thirsty now and starting to get a headache that is my body's signal to drink something! I asked a volunteer and she told me "a few more miles" . . .I didn't take that gracefully. She also said it wasn't on her map, so clearly I wasn't the first one annoyed. I'm glad she was wrong and it was only about another 1/2 - 3/4 of a mile. Still long lines at the portable toilet so I ticked off miles 6 through 8 as follows: 9:37, 8:58, and 9:10.

A side rant is warranted here. There had only been 2 portable toilets on course thus far. These things cost $150 to rent for a whole month and that includes a cleaning each week. If cost is an issue, which it shouldn't be, please charge us a couple bucks more, send one less pre-race email and put some more out there next year Paulie! Those of us who got in the corrals on time in lieu of straggling to take care of these things will greatly appreciate it!

By mile 9, I finally found a 1 person line and decided I wasn't going to make it if I didn't stop, as a result mile 10 creeped up to 12:07 (ugh!). From the Garmin feedback graph it looks like I waited here about 2:30 minutes, so I was still at about a 9:30 mile here with a correction. Ok, since I also walked to take my second Gu here. I settled back in for the next mile at 8:58. At this point my ankle started acting up and I needed to introduce a couple of short walk breaks to finish the final 3 whole miles in 9:22, 9:28, and 9:38.

Final result 2:05:30!! I was pretty happy with this considering my pit stop. I know I can't just subtract this pit stop time (2:30 for the actual completed stop and probably another 20 - 30 seconds for the long line abandoned stop), because these things will happen in the marathon and I did get some physiological rest because of it. However, it helps show me that my goal wasn't as aggressive as I thought. With continued training, breaking 2:00 hr in 2010 is achievable and will be a goal in my preparation for Chicago this fall.

Yes, I said Chicago. I've already signed up to run another marathon this year . . .Oh, and a sprint triathlon too. Since I'll be a married lady by then, I should say Jen Heikkinen signed up for Chicago and Timberman sprint. I'm hoping she kicks Jen Stone's butt in October with a marathon PR . . . that is if she doesn't drown in Lake Winnipesaukee in August.

Congrats to all my DFMC teammates who also rocked the race with PRs - Steph, Sean, Jeff, Brenda, Noah, Amanda, and Courtney (I'm sure I left out a few!)