Julie McNamara-Dahl
Whidbey Island Half Marathon Race Report
April 15, 2007
Pre-race
Saturday we drove up to Oak Harbor to my dad’s house. My dad and I went to the pre-race EXPO and listened to Dean Karnazes speak. I had read Dean’s book, so I already knew his story. It was fun for my dad to get to hear amazing things like having pizza delivered in the middle of the night during his 100 mile runs.
On Thursday last week I got sick. I have had two huge executive meetings I’ve been preparing for as well as coping with news about a colleague and friend who has been diagnosed with cancer and strategizing with my boss to think about positioning me for the next promotion. Overall it’s been a really high stress two weeks, so I shouldn’t be surprised that it tipped me over the edge. My executive meeting went until 9pm Thursday after which I came home, went to bed and stayed in bed most of Friday. Saturday I was feeling slightly better. I went to bed early and although I woke up repeatedly during the night, I felt the best on Sunday morning that I had in 3 days.
Steve dropped me off at the starting line and I immediately waited in a 10 minute porta potty line. I warmed up for 8-10 minutes and felt awful – light headed and dizzy. I regretted that I hadn’t ran since Wednesday, but knew it would have kept me from getting better. After a final porta potty stop I lined up. At about 8:35 am we were off. Although the weather was cool when I started, it turned out to be perfect running conditions – cool but sunny.
Pre-race nutrition
Overslept so ate my breakfast of a bagel with cream cheese and turkey slice at about 7:00 (race started at 8:30). Drank about 20 oz of Gatorade.
Race nutrition
Cliff shot blocks every 10 minutes starting at 30 minutes until 1hr 50 minutes. Drank at all water stations until mile 11. Carried two water bottles on my belt and drank 1 ½ of them
Final time
Garmin time: 2:16:47
Average HR
169 bpm
Pace
10:21
Max HR
191
Comments
For the first half mile or so the crowd was so dense that I couldn’t have run much faster if I had wanted to. Even on that downhill stretch, however, I found myself holding back when I saw my HR go up to 170. The early miles were all about control and I constantly slowed myself down. I felt very good with just some tightness in my calves irritating me. I made it through the flat stretch and then started the first hill at about mile 2.5. I did some brisk walking when my HR inched up to 172. I used the port a potty at mile 3.5 and probably lost a minute or 2 there. My family was waiting to cheer my on at the top of the hill at my dad’s house. I felt very fresh and relaxed at that point.
I felt fresh and full of energy for the next few miles. At about mile 6 I was shocked to have the runner beside me say “Julie?!”. It was my former colleague Libby with whom I had worked closely for quite a long time. We chatted for just a minute, and then I told her “I’ll let you get back to your zone”, which really meant “I want to get back to my zone”. We leap frogged each other for a couple miles until I moved out ahead at probably around mile 8.
At around mile 6 or 7 my bunion started to bother me. It had been bothering me ever since I bought new work shoes a couple weeks ago. I’m really mad at myself for introducing that new element so close to my race. I’ve learned a lesson from that. I was able to ignore it and the pain faded. At mile 10 I started to feel some tiredness, but not too much. But then I knew that I wasn’t going to make my goal of 10 minute miles. I was mad that I hadn’t pushed harder in the earlier miles, but I had been sticking very strongly to my HR-based process plan, and in fact now that I had see the numbers, see that I actually ran slightly higher than my plan.
Miles 1-6: Plan: Ave HR 163 Actual: 165
Miles 7-10: Plan: Ave HR 168 Actual: 169.5
Mile 11: Plan: 170 Actual: 174
Mile 12: Plan: 175 Actual: 174
Mile 13: Plan: 180 Actual: 181
Around mile 11, I thought I would try to push it up a notch beyond what I had planned because I felt like I still had extra energy left. But I found that I really couldn’t go much beyond 174. 175 is the point at which my legs start to fill with lactate. When I went up to 178 or 180 not only did I feel the lactate, but felt myself getting dizzy, so I eased back and tried to keep it at 174. There are so many hills at this point in the course, several times I did a brisk walk to get my HR back under control.
At about mile 12 there is a stupid little out and back to add about ½ mile to the course to get it to the official length. At mile 12 I changed my watch over from HR to pace and just told myself to go all out and make sure I kept it below a 10 minute mile. I pushed as hard as I could, although had to pull back a bit when dizziness overtook me 2 or 3 times. I was mad because I could see I was at an 8minute or so pace, so I knew I probably had too much left in me and perhaps could have gone faster earlier in the race.
I finished at 2:16:47 according to my watch (official time still TBD). I was wiped, but actually felt pretty good. I stretched and waited for my husband. That ended up being a fiasco. Turns out he and my dad arrived about 5 minutes after I finished and were positioned waiting for me. I didn’t see them and they didn’t see me, so after about an hour I started to panic thinking they’d been in a car crash on their way to meet me. Finally, I borrowed a woman’s cell phone and called Steve, only to find he’d been standing in a corner by the finish line the whole time waiting for me. Argh!
