One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon Race Report

Time - 2:13:27
Pace - 10:12 per mile
Average HR - 165
Total calories burned - 2430
Photos - http://tinyurl.com/6lvmyv

Well, I've been processing this race for a couple of days now and I think I'm ready to write up the report. On Friday afternoon, Tiz (a TNTer) and I drove over to Indianapolis. We headed to packet pick up and cruised around the expo. The expo seemed less cool than usual and we were both starving, so we headed off to grab a late lunch. The TNT Pasta Party was great, as usual, and emotional, as usual. After the dinner, I headed up to my room to hangout with my parents. We talked for a bit and then turned out the lights. My dad snored all night long and my mom joined in, as well. I don't think I slept at all.

We woke up at 5:45am and I got ready for the race. I wore my TNT purple jersey, my running skirt, and my TNT hat. I also ate a PopTart and grabbed some water. We headed down to the TNT meeting and then walked to the start. I grabbed my mom's gear bag and headed to the gear check. I hit the portapotty and then went to my start corral. I was in Corral D this year and was hoping to use that to do well. The gun went off and I crossed the start after a couple of minutes, which was nice.

The first few miles were faster than I thought (my splits are at the end) and I tried to back off from my speed a bit. Around mile 5, my foot started to bother me and I wasn't sure if it was my Yankz shoe laces or what was going on. By the time I got to the track, I was struggling a little. My body was hurting and I was losing focus. I took my Gu right before mile 9, stopped at the portapotty again, and then headed back towards downtown. I met up with one of the TNT coaches around mile 10 and he reminded me that I only had a 5k left. I tried to pick up the pace, and I think that I did, but my feet were really hurting, especially the balls of my feet.

The last mile felt good, except for my feet, and while I was totally bummed about my time being almost exactly the same as the race in St. Louis (2:13:25), I was actually pretty glad to be done. The finish line was incredibly crowded and didn't flow very well, so I was a little irritated. I mostly just wanted to sit down. I finally got to the TNT tent, grabbed some water, took off my shoes, and sat down in the grass.

I guess I'm feeling sort of resigned to the fact that I'm not having a great running season. I think most of that is due to my focus on the 1/2 IM training. I'm not tapering at all and I have had a tough couple of training weeks. I apparently had a much better race in St. Louis than I thought because that is a much tougher course than Indy's. I really didn't have a goal time for this race, but I was hoping to finish under 2:10. Perhaps someday I'll actually get back to running faster, but for now, I'll just have to deal with running slower. I am planning on focusing on my speed workouts over the next few months and am hoping that will pay off.

The positives of this race were that my nutrition seemed to work well. The PopTarts sat really well in my stomach and I think that I worked the water stops really well. I think I may have stopped at 6 out of the 17 stops. The Gu went down great and I didn't get that awful feeling that usually comes when the gel hits my stomach. I felt okay after the race stomach wise, which was nice. Another positive was that I did run a faster last mile, so I'll take that. The weather was also gorgeous and it felt wonderful to be running in the sunshine.

I think what I'm struggling with the most is knowing how to pace myself so that I'm leaving everything out on the course. I need to learn the best way to approach the race and to know exactly how to run my best for the entire race. I'm hoping that all of this will come together over the next couple of months, so that I'll have a great 1/2 IM.



Splits
Mile 1 - 9:40 (161)
Mile 2 - 9:32 (167)
Mile 3 - 9:55 (165)
Mile 4 - 9:54 (164)
Mile 5 - 10:13 (164)
Mile 6 - 10:14 (165)
Mile 7 - 10:33 (162)
Mile 8 - 10:07 (164)
Mile 9 - 11:56 (162) - pit stop
Mile 10 - 10:03 (167)
Mile 11 - 10:11 (167)
Mile 12 - 10:23 (167)
Mile 13 - 9:52 (170)
Mile 0.1 - 46:64 (176)