Jan 7, 2014

Camarillo Half Marathon: 1/5/14

My first race of 2014 is done! My motivation has been lacking lately so I signed up for this race in hopes of finding my mojo again. I almost thought that this race was not going to happen since I has some strange knee pain the night before. I stepped out of my car and felt a sharp pain in my knee and it was not pretty. I iced my leg in my hotel room, took some Advil and said my prayers. I was feeling pretty disappointed since I did not want to start the year out with an injury. Thankfully I woke up pain free on Sunday morning with hopes of running the race.

The race did not start until 7:15 am and we stayed in a hotel that was a couple of miles away from the start. I set my alarm for 5:30 am and headed to the start around 6:15 am. It was about 40 degrees at the start so we decided to wait it out in the car. The parking lot was really close to the start so we waited until 6:45 am to hit up the bathrooms. There were a total of four porta potties and the line was pretty long. They did have some "real" bathrooms as well since the race started at a park. 
The course is flat and fast but the problem is that it was extremely WINDY! I think someone posted on Facebook that the gusts were 24-35 mph! Not fun! Most of the race was windy and when the runners caught a break it did not last for long. I would love to run this course less the winds since I think it would be a great PR course. The marathon is a double loop of the half marathon course so I really have respect for those who ran the full marathon.

The first mile was a test of my knee to make sure that it was going to hold up. I already had my mind set on turning back if I felt any pain. From the smile on my face, you can see that I was grateful to be running without the knee pain.
Mile 1: 8:16
Mile 2: 8:06
Mile 3: 8:26 Windy!
Mile 4: 8:27 Windy!
Mile 5: 8:01
Mile 6: 8:04

My goal for this race was to average an 8:35 pace and I did accomplish that but not without a struggle. The part that sucks is that I was able to run at a decent pace when there were no headwinds so I think I could have done a lot better... less the winds that is. My knee felt fine but my IT band started to bother me around Mile 9 and then I went into survival mode. I am busy nursing my IT band back to health with lots of icing and foam rolling.

Mile 7: 8:13 Windy
Mile 8: 8:01
Mile 9: 8:30 Windy!
Mile 10: 8:39 Windier!

The last 1.5 miles were horrible and water cups were flying everywhere. No matter how hard I pushed, my pace was slowing down and I felt like I was running hills!

Mile 11: 8:06
Mile 12: 8:25 Windy!
Mile 13: 8:51 Windiest! I thought I was going to blow away!
.12: 7:38

I tried to pick it up in the end but I was pretty tired from battling the winds and I think they won! I finished in 1:49:07 which was good enough for 6th in my age group out of 52. A female won the race in a time of 2:52:43 and the results also showed that a 99 year old woman ran the half marathon in 2:15:05. I doubt that is true since the race director didn't mention it but but I did see the first place female out there and she was kicking some serious butt!
I know that every race will not be a perfect one so with that thought in mind, I am hoping that my next race will be a better one. It doesn't a have to be a PR but just a good run! Having said that, I will be running another half marathon this Saturday to celebrate a birthday with this wonderful lady who will be turning 22.5 for the second time!

10 comments:

  1. Wind is the WORST!! You still ran a fantastic time - wind or no wind! I'm happy you were able to run pain-free and have no doubt you will kill your race this weekend!

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    1. Thank You Christina! I know I sound like a whiner compared to what you are having to deal with in Toronto! Life could be worse, right?

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  2. Ugh I'm sorry it was so windy out there but yay for knocking off the first race of the year! And 6 out of 52 women is AWESOME! I really hope the 99 year old lady story isn't true because it is embarrassing that someone that old can smoke me! Good luck this weekend :)

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    1. You are too funny Kelsea! I don' think it is true or else the race director should have seriously given this lady some credit! So what is the plan for our next adventure! We need to plan it soon!

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  3. You did awesome!!! I'm glad you were knee pain free...winds can be awful!!!

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    1. Thank You Nancy! It wasn't what I had hoped for but I am glad that I survived!

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  4. Thank goodness you could run! That feeling of dread after you get a tinge of injury pain, is stressful! Even if you didn't have the best run, it was exceptional. Great job! I hope the knee is feeling better.

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    1. Thank you Christy! I was really stressing the night before! I think the problem is my IT band but it is feeling better already so I guess I just need to be careful.

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  5. So I think I know what you're talking about with the 620. When I stop at stoplights the watch does the same thing to me, but I ignore the screen it gives me and I just push the "start" button like usual, when I start running again. It seems to just pick up where it left off. Have you tried that?

    Have you tried the auto-pause feature yet? I haven't. So many fun things to figure out... :] Happy Friday!

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  6. 22.5...! I like that one better than 45
    Wind is hard....it's been windy this week and I struggled on short runs...can only imagine what this was...

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