pinehurst turkey trot half marathon results

My mom and I did the turkey trot in Pinehurst last year on impulse. I had been slated to run my first half marathon on Thanksgiving in Atlanta, but when I got up here the night before the race and saw an ad in the paper, it seemed like as good an idea as any to get my first half marathon over with the next day. It was freezing; I think the high for that day was 41 degrees. I don’t think I even really owned any “running clothes” at that point besides shorts and I ran in shorts, a t-shirt, and thermal long sleeve. I finished the race in 2:16:xx, cold and dead tired.

The race is small and sponsored by the local hospital. It begins at the hospital, leads out for a pretty flat first several miles into some very rolling residential areas around Pinehurst Lake for miles 5-9.x, and then back to the hospital on that flatter stretch for miles 10-13.1. The hills in the middle are punishing because they’re pretty constant around mile 7 and on with a mixture of long, mild rises and short, steep hills. My personal favorite is the run up a hill, make a turn, and run up another hill combo, which abound here. Here’s the little elevation profile from my Garmin. I’m not really sure how these things work since that dip at mile 2 is the same location as the deep dip after mile 10.

My goal this year was to beat last year’s time or risk severe self esteem issues. I didn’t figure a PR was in the picture since I had tough time last year and I knew it wasn’t entirely my lack of experience, so I tried for the elusive goal of “having fun.” That’s kind of a wash since usually I have fun when I do something reasonably well, otherwise I stew and get mad at myself. So, doing it right ended up being my goal and I feel pretty good about my race.

I woke up super early (5:30am) and couldn’t get back to sleep despite the fact that I was running for funskies and didn’t have anything to worry about. Eventually, I got out of bed and ate some breakfast around 7am; two pieces of raisin toast. New goal is making myself eat more food even though it’s unappetizing, because I’m inevitably heading out the door knowing that I’m still hungry. We left around 8am for a 9am start time for me and a 9:30am start time for my mom’s 10k. Temperatures were in the 40s with forecasts for 50s later on in the morning, so I wore shorts, a short sleeve, and a long sleeve. I had done packet pickup on Friday night and waited in line forever. It definitely seemed like a bigger event this year than it was last year (though it’s the 29th one, so it’s not like it’s new), but still a pretty small field for the half at around 300 runners.

During the first few miles, I did my best to run a speed that felt comfortable and easy to me and not worry about all the shuffling around as people get into their groove at the beginning. Knowing the course ended up being the best part about this race because I knew what I was going to have to save more energy for later (whether I had any, eh) and during the beginning I just kept thinking that the harder sections wouldn’t begin until mile 5 or so and not be over zealous or pumped that I was feeling good early on. When I started hitting the harder sections, I kept thinking about how I was miserable at this point or that point last year, and feeling really good about my progress since then. Each hill I ran up felt like a mini victory if I remembered walking it last year. I stuck with water from the water stations at mile 5 on, and ate an espresso Hammer Gel at the halfway point even though I didn’t want to. Again, trying to do the right thing even though it’s so unappealing, yet delicious. I spent the next half mile trying to make sure I didn’t have brown gel smudges on my face since it was all over my hand and I didn’t want to be looking like I just tore through the candy store on my way to the finish.

I wasn’t sure if I was just exceptionally wimpy last year because I didn’t run a lot of hills and my longest run had been 10 miles previously, but around mile 7.5 I definitely conceded that it was the course and not just my wimpy self speaking. Mile 7.5 until mile 10 were the hardest miles for me, but luckily that isn’t too long of a stretch and I knew it would be flat once we got back to mile 10 and cross the railroad tracks. I ran most of this behind a couple pushing a baby stroller and I just did not feel motivated to pass them with the constant up and down hills. They would’ve probably just passed me a minute later, so it didn’t seem worth the effort to go around them (yes, that felt like effort at that point) on an uphill and I didn’t want to be one of those people who sprints passed on a downhill only to slog along in front of you as soon as it’s uphill again. I was running a bit slower during this section since I was just matching their pace and didn’t break away from them until mile 10 (though they passed me towards the end and finished a little bit ahead of me – my mom actually knew the lady). There were not many people around so it was kind of nice to not be just running along by myself. Miles 9 and 10 were my slowest splits (9:23, 9:31). Last year, I got passed by an old lady around mile 7 or 8, so I figure getting passed by a guy pushing a stroller is a slight improvement.

The last few miles, I kept telling myself I’d walk through the next water stop. My favorite tricks involve lying to myself, such as giving myself a 10-15 foot area where it’s okay to walk, and then running through it and not letting myself walk until the next stop, repeat. This works as long as I’m not tired enough to actually stop in that area, which I wasn’t. I hadn’t walked any of the course, so that became motivating enough to finish without a walk break. It was also getting narrow to make it under two hours with those slower miles in the middle and I figured I’d be so mad at myself if I took a superfluous walk break that pushed me over two hours. We started passing 10k walkers around mile 11 (downhill! woop woop) and I looked for my mom, but didn’t see her there. Nothing much to note about the last couple of miles. They seemed less flat than they were when they were the first couple of miles, haha. I spotted my mom waiting for me just before the turn to the finish. I finished in 1:59:15, which was 54/144 women and 17 minutes faster than last year, and then my mom took photos of me bending over to take off my timing chip. ? My Garmin gave me 13.19 and a time of 1:59:26 (I stopped it while I was taking off my chip). There was no timing mat at the start, but I also only started about 20 feet back, so NBD.

Having fun, goal accomplished. I felt really good the entire race, even when it was hard and I was going slower than I wanted to be going. The mental parts of running are the hardest, so staying relatively in control of my pace and not having to walk at all on a hilly course felt like a huge accomplishment. Here’s a couple of the things I have learned in the past year. As you’ll see, I haven’t learned that much.

- Don’t worry about what other people are doing. It doesn’t matter who passes you or how minuscule or giant their butt may be as they pass you. They don’t have to carry your beat up carcass the rest of the race because you wanted to have a mini-race at mile 2, but you do. Conversely, don’t pass people if you have to speed up to do it. Unless it’s the end. Then run like hell. Or lurk behind them for a while, then run like hell.
- Look down when you run uphill. It makes it a lot easier and seems flatter.
- Eat! Drink! Even if you don’t want to do it then, you’re probably going to wish you did later and by then it’s too late. This goes for breakfast, too. I’m going to start getting up really early and eating before I feel nauseous. Then I’m going to brainstorm a hobby that doesn’t make me feel like I have freaking dysentery beforehand.
- Please, thank you, and a smile go a long way, as they do in most other endeavors. Don’t be a jerk. I saw some grown man yelling at a course volunteer, who looked all of about 12 years old, because there was a car on the road. Actually, there were a lot of cars on the road because it was a residential area (and the kid was doing his job, which was keeping cars from an adjoining road from entering the main road). Look out for number one, but be nice to everyone else too, please. Being polite makes us all winners. Being a total turd while running a half marathon doesn’t earn you any extra medals.

Here’s me being sweaty and almost done while someone else is walking around all cool with his medal, and then my mom and I afterward. It would be awesome if I looked mildly physically fit in any photo taken of me, but instead I look like I’m power walking or heaving most of the time. If you’re wondering why I don’t have a small yeti piggybacking me, it’s because I got a haircut a couple of days ago. My legs were super sore last night, but some Aleve fixed that and I am feeling good today. My mom finished her 10k about five minutes faster than last year, and beat some people to boot. Go mom!

big weekend

Not much to report from me. I’ve taken to wearing shoes all of the time, from the minute I get out of bed until I get back into bed, and it seems like it’s helping to get rid of my foot pain. The second my foot goes into a pair of Vans to check the mail, though, it’s back. I ran about 33-34 miles last week, averaging slightly shorter runs than usual.

On Saturday, I ran the Marigold 10K. 10K is a weird distance; not a long run, sure, but not short enough to feel very, you know, short. It definitely did not feel short on Saturday. In the interest of full disclosure, I stayed up until about 12:30am the night before and drank two glasses of wine (with ice – hydration!). When I woke up ten minutes before the alarm went off, I actually felt pretty good and made it over to Winterville to register with plenty of time to spare. It was cool, a little breezy, nice. And then as the clock clicked from 7:59am to 8:00am, it was humid, muggy, and hot as heck. That’s a small exaggeration, but I definitely got there early enough to go from reasonable morning weather to typical Georgia weather. I ended up with a time of 56:24, almost three and a half minutes slower than my last 10K which was run on a much hillier course. A couple of things could be to blame. Let’s start with the reasonable:

- Staying up late.
- Drinking alcohol.
- Not running as much as I was a month or two ago.

And move on to the plausible:

- Course was flat. Yes, that is super, but usually when I run outside, I run on some hills. I’m not terribly slow running up hills unless they’re particularly long or daunting (say I from the comfort of my couch and air conditioned house), so I don’t think I lose a lot of speed there. But I do like to charge downhills and it never really bothers my legs, so maybe I am used to picking up some speed on the downhills to make up for an overall slower pace on flats and uphills. I’m using the terms “slow,” “speed,” and “charge” in a relative manner, by the way.
- Water. I drink a freaking ton of water on outdoor runs and should probably have carried some with me since I’m used to drinking regularly. Drinking out of the paper cup doesn’t do it for me and I usually just chuck most of it for fear of chugging and cramping. I think drinking water also gives me another distraction to think about. And distraction is important to me.

There’s probably a “not freaking likely” list of factors to blame, but a couple of days out of the race and I can’t remember them. I went home, worked, tried to nap, and then headed to Atlanta to play some derb in a bout benefiting the Shriners. It was fun and my team won. Technically, I should reverse that order and say that my team won, so it was fun. Not going to lie, I was going to be pretty bummed about losing after feeling like I bombed once already that morning. I was game MVP for my team, as chosen by the opposing team, and that’s always a really nice compliment.

Yesterday, we “kayaked” the Broad River all day. Kayaking is in quotes because it’s more like floating and drinking beer, but the water level was low (26″) so we had to expend a little more effort than usual to avoid getting stuck on rocks, sand, etc. I wore sunscreen and reapplied, but still ended up with a gnarly sunburn on my back, legs, and feet. Brian got it really badly, too, and he used two kinds of sunscreen. Neither too effective, apparently. We spent the rest of the evening laying on the couch trying to recover from that. I haven’t been brave enough yet to try to get into some running clothes without causing major physical harm to myself, but I should probably get on that. Next up, Peachtree Road Race this Saturday. I’m not a big fan of crowds, so this one will be a little nutty.

catching up

Oh, I have been remiss in my posting. You know when you put off doing something and then it starts feeling a little daunting to catch up? Yep. I could post, but then I’d have to catch up on what I’ve been running, which I’ve been less than faithful in recording. I went on vacation (sort of) to visit two of my brothers in Texas (Houston and Dallas) for a little over a week back in May (edit: I originally wrote June, which tells you how on top of things I am right now). I didn’t get much running in while in Houston because we were helping them move and also, it’s so unpleasantly humid there. I barely went outside and even in the evening, it was a little unbearable for me. They live in a massive, very planned neighborhood with tons of sidewalks, so when I actually did run, it was pretty nice.

The weather in Dallas was still hot, but much less humid, more breezes, and generally more agreeable to me. I ran a decent amount there. My brother’s house is in more of an in-town area there that reminded me a little of Virginia Highlands or similar neighborhoods in Atlanta. The older sidewalks were kind of treacherous and buckled in most places; can I count that as a trail run? One day, I ran about three miles over to White Rock Lake, home of the Dallas White Rock Lake Marathon. I didn’t run the whole thing (not even close) because I knew I still had to run home with no choice of bailing because I didn’t bring my phone. It was a Saturday and the park was packed, mostly with cyclists. Really “cyclists,” not just people on bikes. People on bikes in the funny outfits and with all the gear. It was a really nice park and made me jealous that we don’t have a big rec area like that here.

Other than that, not much happening besides battling a little foot trouble. I started on a new pair of shoes this week, which has been helping, but generally can’t seem to go without shoes or wear unsupportive shoes for more than five to ten minutes without feeling some pain in my left foot. I ran 7 miles on the treadmill two times this week with no big problems, after taking last week off from running (just used the elliptical and ran two miles once with some issues). Complaints, complaints. A week off from running means a LOT of mental effort to keep my feet moving this week. Maybe one more treadmill run and then I will take my wimpy feet back to the streets. Races on the horizon are the Marigold 10K in Winterville, GA on June 27th and then the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta on July 4th. I am trying to be slightly pushy with myself so I can run well at these, though I’m less worried about the Peachtree because it’s huge and I imagine will be a big exercise in dodging walkers. I didn’t have a 10K time to submit for seeding at the time (my time from Hartwell was 53:05, which would put me in 1B, in the first wave of starts at 7:30am). I’m a little confused how they assign time groups because the website says to include any times to aid in placing you in a group, but the packet also says people are randomly distributed with the exception of people who declared themselves walkers or casual runners, who are in the last group that I believe starts at 9am. I’m in time group two, the second wave which starts at 7:36am. So I’m not sure if my half marathon time was considered or I’m just lucky; I know of people with slow times who ended up in better time groups than would be warranted, so I’m guessing luck helped at least a bit. Either way, I’m happy that I don’t have to wait in the heat and run later in the heat. And if I decide to sign up next year, I already have a fast enough time under my belt for the first start, unless times change.

In non-running news, I’m taking the last class for my dietetics program (anatomy) and trying to figure out what I will be doing in about a month when I graduate. I was accepted into the two grad programs I applied to (University of Georgia and Georgia State University), but am honestly not super jazzed about spending another two years in school. I’ve applied for a couple of jobs, but it’s tough without an RD.

Lake Hartwell Dam Run 10k

Things were not looking too good for me on this one. I made it to Hartwell in less than an hour, with plenty of time to park, get my tshirt, and drink some water. Unfortunately, I made it to Hartwell, but not to the location of the race; it listed Big Oaks Recreation Area as the location and I couldn’t find a street address. The map on the website led to the Army Corps of Engineers address that was actually a separate campground about 5-10 minutes from where the race began. Brian saved the day for me and two other girls who were also lost looking for the race and figured out where it was. I got there with a narrow 15 minute window to park and go to the pre-registration table (where I got a huge size “medium” shirt because they hadn’t saved sizes for people who pre-registered – nice) and hit a portapot. I didn’t have time to figure out where the real bathrooms were. That added up to feeling really rushed/negative.

I felt like I started the race running in molasses and decided I should just do my best and be happy however I finished. Isn’t that what you are supposed to feel like anyway? The route for the run is really nice; it starts flat/gradual downhill for about the first mile, then what feels like a long, gradual uphill, and eventually flattens out for a short bit before you hit the 3 mile marker and the turnaround. After the turnaround, you go back on the same [closed] road for just a tenth or a quarter mile (I really have no idea – not too long) before you veer to the right and onto the path that takes you across the dam itself. Those out and back sections are nice to see who is running ahead of you and who is coming up behind you. Running across the dam was super windy and kind of a dual blessing/curse because it made the weird stuffy humidity bearable, but still a little hard to run into. The views on either side were really pretty and made that section go by quickly until you came off the dam and back into the little park area for the finish line.

I finished in 53:02 (give or take a couple seconds for official time?), which was good for third place in my age group. I had brief dreams of a sub-50 during the race, but I think that was somewhere between miles 5 and 6 where my math skills usually start getting a little fuzzy and I think I can finish faster than I really can (I like to forget about the extra .2 miles or whatever). Oh, well. My goal was to place, which based on the previous year’s top three in my age group meant less than 55 minutes. This was my first 10k, so a PR by default. I stuck around for a bit and watched the little kids finishing their mile fun run, which was really cute. Some of them were flying on little tiny legs! Despite feeling like a Negative Nancy for a decent bit of it, this was a really nice race and I would definitely run it again!

Anyway, I got nice coffee cup for my troubles and was happy to cruise the country roads home before noon. The snake I hit on the way home was probably no so pumped. Sorry, snake; I killed another of your brethren on the same road in 2007. I also saw a dog jump out of a pick up truck and run off. Bummer. Our dogs have some bad ‘tudes once in a while, but jumping out of a moving truck and then running off is taking it to a whole other level.

ETA: official time 53:02 – 3/17 in my age group, 18/101 female, 73/203 overall.