My Better Half Half Marathon 2023

Well, that was unexpected.

It's been awhile since I've written a race recap like this, so bear with me.

The day before the race, as I drove home from packet pickup, I messaged Elizabeth on WhatsApp. I told her I had an inkling that a freak PR was possible – this would be my first half marathon run in cooler weather, and realistically I felt like I was pretty well prepared, even if my brain was in denial that I was running – but that I wasn't going to think too hard about it.

Given that I said it out loud, you wouldn't think I'd still be so surprised that it happened.

My Better Half 10k

I've always wanted to ring a PR bell, and this weekend, I did just that!

It should come as no surprise that I love to run a race on my birthday weekend. Last year, we were still so new to Seattle (and COVID was still so present) that it didn't really cross my mind...and that ended up being for the best, since it absolutely dumped snow that weekend.

February 2021. Yeah. Not racing in this.

But this year, I didn't want to pass up the opportunity. I found the My Better Half race early in the fall and was immediately interested in running the 10k, but wanted to wait to sign up until I was sure we wouldn't have another snowpocalypse. Then, when I finally went to register, it was sold out.

I added myself to the waiting list and found a backup race that would suffice but wouldn't be nearly as exciting, just in case. I kept a close eye on my email for two weeks, wondering how long I should wait before I officially gave up and signed up for the backup race.

Then, the Wednesday night before race weekend, I was doing my warmup ride on the Peloton when I saw the email come through. I'd been selected!

I signed up right then, as Alex Toussaint urged me to "ride to greatness!"

A couple weeks before this, the second toe on both my feet had been hurting on and off, so once I knew I'd definitely be running a race that weekend, I changed my schedule, deciding to skip my runs for the rest of the week so my toes would be rested for race day. That worked out okay, seeing as Matt and I were dog-sitting Brewsky and Kogi all week, so I had access to the Peloton.

Race Morning

Race weekend brought some deceptive weather: sunny skies and freezing temps. I expected it to be 45° or 50° on race day, but when I lined up at the start, it was 31°. The grass was frosty but at least we weren't getting snow.

I've never felt as blasé about a race as I did this time around. The route was at a park I'm familiar with, I hadn't been training specifically for a race so I didn't have a goal in mind, and I've been running at least 10k for my long runs every weekend since October, so the distance felt more than doable. Basically, everything felt like just another weekend long run.

I was also feeling strangely comfortable with running this race alone. It's been awhile since I've raced by myself, without even a spectator at the finish line, but something about being alone lowered my anxiety and expectations. I was truly just racing for myself.

Unbeatable views!

The 10k was set to start at 8:05am. During the 30-minute drive to the park, I ate half a large banana and sipped some coffee. I was trying something new with the banana because my usual pre-long-run breakfast of overnight oats hadn't been settling well the last few weekends. 

The drive was incredibly foggy — I'm talking barely 20 feet of visibility and invisible streetlights — so I drove slowly and was worried I'd be late. Still, I only missed one turn and arrived around 7:35. I found street parking a block away. I changed shirts (since it was colder than anticipated) and got my bib on, glad that I'd made the trip to pick it up the day before. Gloves, Shokz, headband, gum. I meant to bring Honeystinger chews, but forgot to stick them in a pocket.

Around 7:50 I got out of the car and jogged the half mile down to park bathrooms, using that as my warmup. Only one stall had toilet paper, but just as a line was forming, the custodian came by with a sack of rolls to distribute, like a Bathroom Santa Claus. I did my business and jogged to the start. I barely had to wait three minutes before the 10k runners were given the Go! I couldn't have timed it better!

The Race

My plan for this race was vague. "Take it easy" and "just run it" were my top priorities. Having run a similar course on Halloween, I knew the big hill in the first half mile was really a lot and I gave myself permission to walk it or walk at the top. Whatever I needed.

What ended up happening was that I ran up the hill, quads burning, and somehow managed to just keep on trucking at the top. The worst part was actually that the hill was divided, so passing people meant getting in the way of half marathoners already on their downhill sprint. Having to run slowly on the heels of a bunch of people while going uphill was tedious and burned worse than if I could've just powered up at my own pace with an open road ahead of me. Then again, maybe the forced slower pace kept me from totally burning out at the end.

Once I cleared the top, there were two additional, gentler hills, but there were some downhills, too, so all in all that first mile was taxing but it didn't sap me the way it did back in October. This was my first indicator that I've made some amazing progress since then, but I wasn't too focused on that at the time because I had no idea how I'd fare the remainder of the race.

Once I came back down that first major hill, I knew the rest of the course was flat. I settled into a comfortable rhythm and let it roll.

Mile 2.5 and feeling fine!

I'm about to age myself, but around mile 2.5, a group of cool-looking young adults were walking on the dirt trail adjacent to the course, against race traffic, shouting compliments and encouragement to runners. I don't think they were there to spectate but had gotten swept up in it during their own morning walk. As I started coming up to them, one of the women shouted to me: "Great outfit, I like the look you got going on!" and I swear I started flying. (Compliments from Gen Z just hit different.)

I couldn't ask for a prettier route.

The sky was cloudless and the sun was high, but it hadn't quite thawed the north side of the park yet, and around mile 2.7 I suddenly found myself slipping. The asphalt was slick with a thin layer of invisible, iced-over frost. I left the road for the dirt trail and stayed there until the ice disappeared.

You can see where I slowed down for ice (dark blue) at the north end of the park.

I finished the first lap without much ado, still feeling proud of myself for holding off taking a walk break. I tend to walk a lot in 10ks. The end of the first loop brought us through a parking lot and up onto a narrow sidewalk, where I lost some time stuck behind slower runners. Coming out of that turn, the course split — left to continue, right to the finishing chute. I veered left and crossed the halfway timing mat.

Of course, as soon as I did, I began to feel fatigued. My breathing was getting a little ragged and my legs were tired.

I told myself I could walk at mile 4, but I passed that same cheer squad ("Still looking good!") and managed to get myself to 4.6 before I finally took a break. By mile 4.65 I was running again, but my watch was showing dashes where my pace should be. It hadn't connected to GPS at the start, either, and when it finally kicked back in a few minutes later, it said my pace was in the 12s. I knew that had to be wrong and decided not to let it worry me. I just kept trucking along.

Just a l'il walk break selfie.

By the time I got to mile 5.5, I knew I'd manage to finish this race without another walk break and I was already feeling incredibly proud of myself. Compared to how the Run Scared 10k went, I couldn't believe how much stronger I was!

Digging in around mile 5.

Because the route was a double-loop, I could easily visualize the last few turns; when I came out of the interior loop of the park and into the parking lot, I knew exactly where to stick to the street and where to cut back onto the sidewalk to avoid any bottlenecks. This time I veered right at the split and straight toward the finish.

I found I didn't have a lot of energy left for my usual sprint at the end, which tells me I pushed myself just enough during the race. As I drew closer to the finish, I heard the emcee call my name. "Welcome to the finish, Alison!" There's nothing quite like that at a race!

Post Race

I grabbed my medal and water and shuffled off to the water's edge to get out of the crowd and take a look at my watch. I had seen the clock as I came in, but I wasn't sure how behind I had been on the gun.

57:14. That had to be a mistake. The last time I ran a 10k under 60 minutes was...I didn't even know when! Had I really managed a PR without actually training for one? Without setting any sort of time goal at all?

I went to the race website to confirm. 57:12.

I looked up my old PR. In 2012, the first 10k I ever ran, I ran a 58:41. That was so long ago that for years I've thought my PR was an hour because I forgot I'd ever broken 60! And now, ten years later, I broke that record by over a minute without even trying!

6th place got me by a second!

I was flabbergasted. I knew I'd run a great race but I hadn't realized just how well I'd done until that moment. There was a PR bell in the finisher's village and I worked up the nerve to ask someone to take my photo while I rang it. I'd never gotten to do that before!

Bucket list item, fulfilled!

I didn't hang around long, although the vendors and oatmeal bar were tempting. If the oatmeal had been gluten free, I would've! I'm annoyed at myself for not finding the photo booth before I left, but I wasn't thinking straight — too excited about my PR — and being alone post-race always makes me just want to get in the car and head out.

Back at the car, I took stock. My toes were feeling good. My legs felt pretty good. My asthma was starting to set in now that my adrenaline was cooling, and I took a puff off my albuterol. I sent my race results to Elizabeth, Sarah, and Matt. I was still in shock.

All told, this was a fantastic race and a great way to say goodbye to 35. I had a great time, it was so well organized, and I feel like it's the first kind of "big" race I've done since the move. I will definitely be back next year, barring another mid-February snowpocalypse. I may even do the half, finally reinstating my birthday half marathon tradition.

ABK

Gasparilla Distance Classic 2020 15k

Sometime after Ragnar, Jessie and I got to talking about running another race together. She already had the Gasparilla 15k on her docket, and it barely took any convincing to get me signed up. The plan was always to meet her in Tampa, stay at her parents' house in St. Pete, and run the race "together".

As race day loomed, I was feeling a bit anxious. My training didn't look how I wanted it to but I really didn't want to drop out. In the end, I was able to figure out a fast-and-dirty plan that left me feeling pretty mentally prepared and physically ready for race day.

Leading up to the race, I'd been hoping for one more cold front. Gasparilla is historically a hot and humid weekend, but as I kept my eye on the weather, it looked like I was about to learn a lesson a la "be careful what you wish for."

Despite packing Thursday and having everything in the car, I left work early Friday and made a pit-stop at home for more cold-weather clothes. As I've proven over the last few months, I'm really bad at layering. I tend to listen to my body's initial reaction to cold weather and ignore the sage advice to dress in anticipation of warming up on the run. My goal in choosing my outfit was to avoid feeling overheated mid-race.

Friday we met up and went to the expo, which is always completely organized and run like a well-oiled machine. Bibs and packets in hand, we browsed the stalls but didn't find anything noteworthy.

Why is the lighting at the expo always so bad?!

After stopping at the home base to put our bags down and put on some warmer clothes, we met Jessie's husband for dinner at Casita, where I had some tacos that were seriously delicious. I try to avoid spicy food before a race, so I stuck to one of their milder hot sauces, although I had to try all of them.

One of these tacos is a BLT made with pork belly and I nearly died from happiness when I took my first bite.

After dinner, I pretty much went straight to bed. It had been a long week and our day was going to start early. I was up a few times throughout the night, but mostly I slept pretty well.

My alarm went off at 5am on Saturday. I checked the weather: 41º. That was a few degrees colder than expected, but I reminded myself that I would warm up along the way and that the last time I ran in 50º, I was too warm when I layered a vest over my Watch Me Go.

I was glad I'd brought so many options for clothes, but did regret not packing a hat.

Like I had practiced with all my morning long runs, I opted to forgo coffee and breakfast, but I packed a Gu in case I got hungry. (I ran my 8-miler completely fasted but started to feel hungry around mile 6.)

Dressed and ready, we left the house around 5:45. Jessie works in Tampa, so we had the luxury of using her office building as our own personal staging area. We hung out in the car (which we were able to park for free in the building's garage) until we felt time was getting slim, then used the office bathrooms and had plenty of time to walk over to the start. The walk over was the worst part of the morning - it was like walking down a frigid wind tunnel. I was really starting to regret not wearing more layers.

We got to the start with five minutes to spare for Jessie's start time. She was in wave 1. We shared a parting hug and went our separate ways to get into our corrals.

Huddled in the corral, I didn't really feel anything. I didn't have a sense of excitement, anxiety, or any other jittery emotions that usually course through me before a race. I think I was too numb to feel anything!

With 6000 of my closest friends!

At 6:50, the race finally began. I tried to tell myself not to go out too fast (I was listening to a podcast rather than music to try to curb that desire), but my body just wanted to get warm. The first two miles flew by; I found a comfortable pace, keeping the10:00 pacer right in front of me, but soon passed them. My hands warmed up a bit and I tossed my Hot Hands.

Around mile 3 I saw someone in Skirt and complimented her taste. I paused to take a photo of the sunrise. Around mile 4 I started to feel hungry and broke out my Gu. It was the Birthday Cake flavor, which reminded me that this was my birthday race. I had kind of forgotten!

I continued to feel really good. I felt like my pace was just the tiniest bit challenging but I definitely wasn't racing. 

Let's play I-spy.

At a certain point, you turn off Bayshore and run down Gandy, turn around, and then come back down Bayshore for the last part of the race. Around that time (mile 5.5 or so), the cold wind that had apparently been at our backs was now head-on. (And I'm not just being a whiny baby about it - the wind was newsworthy for the winners, too!)

I took a walk break to switch from podcast to music and then just kept trucking.

I began to play some mental games with myself, promising myself I could walk at mile 7 if I wanted to, but mile 7 came and went. I paused once more to throw out my Gu, but essentially ran the remainder of the race without another walk break. I'm floored just thinking about that, because those last four miles were tough. The wind added significant resistance to every step and the cold was absolutely battering my lungs.

I never truly warmed up all the way on the course, which was optimal because I prefer to be a little cool rather than overheated, but at times it was really tough.

The 15k distance kind of plays with your mind, because you think you're done when you get to mile 9 but you're not quite there yet. In the last mile, though, Gasparilla never fails to disappoint. The crowds are constant; you don't want to walk with so many people around cheering for you.

The beads are untucked, which means the end is near!

The straight, flat route also gives you a clear sightline to the finish from about half a mile back. It really gives you something to work toward.

I crossed the finish line at a sprint and nearly crashed into the woman in front of me, who had slowed to a walk immediately. I was immediately freezing; the wind was up and my body was cooling down.

All smiles!

I found Jessie and we were both too cold to get pictures; we walked back to the car, cranked the heat, and headed home.

Indoor finisher pic!

It was only later, after I checked my stats, that I saw how strong I had actually run. I'm amazed that I ran such a respectable race on such meager training. I can't believe I pulled it off after having to MacGyver together a pathetic excuse for a training plan!

I finished in 1:34:05, which is a three minute course PR and a 44 second distance PR.

116/280 AG

Gasparilla is always a fun race, and it was a perfect one to ring in 34. It left me with some complicated feelings about races and training and long distance running...so I'll have to explore all that later.

For now, I'm happy to add another medal to my collection and celebrate my first official race of 2020!

ABK

Howl at the Moon 5k

On Thursday night before the race, I was trying to measure my readiness. I was thinking, Physically, I'm probably in better shape than I was in May, but mentally I feel more disconnected and less prepared. I wonder why that is!

Anyway, we got up to Port Charlotte around 7pm. We had plenty of time to get our bibs and warmup. Originally, Todd wasn't going to run, but we all know how race peer pressure works! He signed up there last minute.

Pre-race!

Before the race, I jogged around the complex a bit (the race began and ended at the Rays spring training stadium), did some downward dogs, cariocas, etc. I was a little concerned about a night race, especially because of the time spent sitting in the car on our way there, but I loosened up really well.

I ran into two Skirt Sports Ambassadors pre-race - Jenna, who had just done a half Ironman the previous weekend, recognized me in the bathroom and we found Wendy (who had also raced the Ironman) and took a picture! Small world!

Wendy, Jenna, and me representing Skirt Sports! I wore my new Jette skirt and loved it!

The race began at 8pm sharp. The first half mile or so took us through a potholed and slightly-flooded parking lot. I had a lot of trouble finding a steady pace there and was fiddling with my phone and trying to get my music on. About half a mile in, I finally felt my legs click into a happy pace and just kept at it. Usually about 2/3 of the way in I start to flag, but that didn't really happen this time.

My legs felt awesome the entire race, but I had a side stitch for most of it and was gasping for breath, too. The humidity wasn't that high (74%) but my effort was in full swing.

Because the race course was so dark, I didn't pay much attention to my watch. I had my voice feedback set at every .25 miles, so I knew I was steadily keeping an 8:21 pace for the first mile, and about an 8:35 pace for the rest. I really was just making sure I didn't trip! I had to keep a sharp eye on the people ahead of me so I knew where to go, too.

Running in the dark meant I had very little self-consciousness. I didn't care what I looked like; I just wanted to run. It made being fast a little easier. I spent the run focusing on just keeping my legs moving; the darkness really helped the race flow by without any dramatic highs or lows.

You can see I started out fairly fast, then after a mile I slowed into a more consistent and maintainable pace, then sped up at the end again.

I entered the stadium and saw 25:xx on the clock and knew I could make it to home plate before 26:57. I just let my legs do the work and pushed to the finish. (There's a finishing video here!)

Matt got some photos of me finishing.

The boys were wiped.

I was smiling through the end and so pleased with a major PR...but I didn't feel totally elated like I did in May until I printed out my results.

I saw later that I had edged out the 4th place AG finisher by just 19 seconds, and Matt had edged out her husband by a few minutes. It was the Kearneys vs. the Maurers!

Todd finished 6th in 27:48, which is really respectable, especially considering he hasn't run in ages, and Sean took 2nd. There were 20 men in the 30-34 AG, compared to 44 in women's. We all did really well!

The post-race celebration was really fun, but I couldn't partake in the pizza and beer offered there, so we stayed long enough to get our awards (pint glasses) and then stopped at Wendy's before our drive home.

3/44, 25/330, 71/508! Color me surprised and happy!

It was a totally perfect night! In May, my goal was 27:00 and 26:57 was so close to it that it felt like a fluke and therefore I felt amazed. This 43-second PR tells me that it's true ability, and I'm ready to make more progress and chip away at my times!

ABK