Race Recap: Schaumburg Turkey Trot Half Marathon

About a month ago I thought it would be a fantastic idea to sign up for a half marathon before my half marathon to see if my legs were ready for the stress of running a sub-two at my goal race (BMW Dallas Half Marathon).  Like any idea of this sort, it seemed like a good idea at the time.  And then the morning of the race came, and it looked like this:

Booooooooooo

Clouds a-plenty, lots of drizzly annoying rain, temps in the 30s, winds in the high teens, and my motivation to run this race was in the negative numbers....that is, until I remembered that this race was part of a race series I accidentally got myself into when I signed up for the race.  You see, anyone who signed up for 3 or more half marathons put on by this race company was automatically entered into the series.  I was unaware of this until they sent me an email about a week ago, telling me of the glories of the extra medal and t-short I would be getting if I completed this last half marathon of the year for them.

They had me at "extra medal."  I dragged myself out of bed and got my butt to the start line, dressed in one my usual awesome "what the hell woman did you get dressed in the dark" running outfits.

That hat is what happens when you accidentally
gear check the one you planned on wearing and
this is all you had in the car.

Thankfully this race a) gives you the option of mailing your bib to you so you don't have to mess with race day packet pickup, b) is small enough that if you get there kind of early you can park close to the start line and snooze in your car until 15 minutes before the start time, and c) is small enough that there are *really* short lines for the port-a-johns so you can take care of an...umm....needs right before the gun goes off.  And that's just what I did, because I decided that I wasn't really going to race this race so pfffft warming up...who has time for that?!?  It was cold and windy and rainy outside, after all.

Anyway, when I got to the start line, I got cozy with the 2:05 pacer after deciding that a 9:32 pace was enough for today, thanks.  And that pace would have been fantastic had I actually run that pace.  Let's run through what happened, shall we?

• The pacer didn't actually start running at the pace advertised on his cute little pacer sign.  We were tracking in the 8:45s and 8:30s at various times the first two miles according to my watch. He finally looked at his watch and then slowed down, but I always worry that this might trash some people for the rest of the race, especially if they haven't trained for those paces and they're busy chugging along keeping up with him.  As soon as I realized he was going too fast, I slowed down to a 9:20-ish on my watch because I'd be damned if he was going to destroy me in the first few miles.
• Eventually pacer guy slowed down to a more reasonable 9:20-ish pace and I began to run with the little pack around him again.  However, he kept slowly speeding up (we had a 9:10-ish minute mile in mile 7) and then, after looking at his watch, slowing down again.  Now, I get that pacing is tough, especially if you're used to running much faster during a race.  But I am of the mindset that pacers should run roughly a consistent pace the entire race so that you're not worn out by too much fast running.  So all the speeding up and slowing down really got to me, especially when we were going to come in well under 2:05 by mile 8 and the pacer had to slow down to around a 9:45 pace just to not come in too early.  
• I decided to go it alone at around mile 9.5.  Even though I know I run way too fast on my own, I was tired of all that speeding up/slowing down business, so I got fed up and didn't wait up for the pacer after a water station at around mile 9.5.  I was surprised by how easy the hills were for me in those last three miles or so, going as fast as I was; I was also surprised by how many people I passed in those last 3 miles. I finished in 2:01:40, which I consider a pretty decent time for this old running broad.
• And about that weather we were having...  I didn't even notice it was full-on raining until mile 11.  And, since this race was mostly through a forest preserve, the trees blocked the wind for many of those 13.1 miles.  Best of all, as soon as I hit the finish line they handed me a hot cinnamon roll, I snagged my gear from gear check, and stepped right onto a warm shuttle bus back to the finish line, where the bus dropped me off right in front of my car.  A nice way to end the race.

Turns out I kind of played this race like two separate races--one 10 mile race and one 3 mile race.

I told you I'm not good on my own...look at those last 3 miles!

No matter how I played it, still got my bling though.

Found out I don't get that extra medal for the race series until the end of the year....rats.


And now you're finding out it's time for learnings (because this post is over):

• I'm not hating on pacers.  I'm just annoyed at this pacer in particular.  So I did what I had to do when I ditched him completely.
• While I dig the big races, there's something to be said for the smaller local races.  And that something is "short port-a-john lines."
• I'll have you know my legs felt really good during the race yesterday.  And today they feel as if someone beat them with a stick yesterday.
• I'll also have you know that boy oh boy they're going to feel even worse in two weeks after I try and run an 8:50 pace for 13.1 miles.

Tomorrow's workout: Speed!  Some 1200s!  Good times!