Briefly, and belatedly checking in.
Female, 45, 5'4", 106
PRs 5:25/18:51/38:56/1:02:28/1:24:08/2:57:42
Goal races: Houston Half-Marathon, One City Marathon, Boston Marathon (maybe)
Goal times: 18:30 for 5K, 1:23:xx for half, sub-2:55 for full
Next races: One City Marathon (March 1).
44 miles, 12 "miles" of pool-running, and 500 yards of swimming
M: upper body weights, DIY yoga, and 6 "miles" pool-running.
T: 11 miles, including track workout of 1600, 3x800 in 6:12, and then 3:01, 2:59, 2:58. Recovery of 4:50 after the 1600, 2:41 and 2:31 between the 800s. Followed with leg injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming..
W: DIY yoga and 7 miles very easy (9:22) plus drills/strides.
Th: Light upper body weights/core, DIY yoga, and 6 "miles" pool-running.
F: 7 miles, including 1600 up-tempo (6:22).
Sa: 2 miles very easy (9:30) and DIY yoga..
Su: 3.5 mile warm-up, Houston Half-Marathon in 1:25:33, and ~.5 mile jog back to hotel.
Rested up and ran Houston Half. Had no idea what my fitness was going in, and now I know. I'd like to be a bit fitter, but it is what it is, and I'm still 6 weeks out from my goal race.
Splits were:
Mile 1: 7:03 (starting chaos)
Mile 2: 6:35
Mile 3: 6:28
Miles 4-5: 12:57 (6:28 pace)
Mile 6: 6:17
Miles 7-8: 12:46 (6:23 pace)
Mile 9: 6:39
Mile 10: 6:31
Mile 11: 6:39
Mile 12: 6:29
Mile 13: 6:28
last bit: 41 seconds (6:13 pace)
I was pretty happy with the execution - some miles are faster or slower, but that mostly reflects headwind versus tailwind versus sidewind (it was a pretty windy day). The hamstring held up also, so that was great. After a few easy days, I should be able to jump back into marathon training.
In answer to two obvious questions:
a) I did not intend to warm-up for 3.5 miles. I got confused and did a mile+ of extra running trying to find my correct corral.
b) While I like a conservative start, I did not want to start anywhere that slow. Due to the large number of OTQ hopefuls that ended up in the A corral, behind the ADP corral (where I was), the start was pretty rough. I had to pull off as far as I could and jog protectively at the very beginning of the race to avoid being trampled from behind. Not ideal, and it cost me some time, but at least I wasn't in PR shape. I ended up third in my age group, and running 20 seconds faster wouldn't have made a difference to that placing either.
Got to see RRR at the expo before (picking up a sweet Junk headband) and hang out with him afterwards (impressing him with the sheer mass and size of my travel backpack), and that was fun as well.
Huge congrats to Bird and Runnergirl on OTQing - that's awesome. Coach Jeff - I'm really sorry about your race. Running can be cruel.