Half Marathon Race Recap

Meia Maratona das Pontes (Half Marathon of the Bridges)

February 24, 2013

Carbo loading the night before the race-Gus is skeptical

Fans need pasta too

Things got off to a ridiculously early start for this half marathon. Even though the start was at 7:30, we were supposed to get there before 6:30 to pick up our race chips so my ride came at 6! Of course we were there in plenty of time and ended up standing around with the other Americans for over an hour just waiting for the race to start. I also spent a fair amount of time waiting in the bathroom line-there were portapotties too but I decided it was worth it to wait for a real bathroom!

My race day outfit 

We also checked out all the other runners, there were about 1500 people running so not a huge group. One big difference between running races in Brazil and America is that most of the runners here wear the race shirt in the race. In America that's considered poor form because you don't really earn the shirt until you finish the race. I don't know why people like to wear the race shirts here but they always do. The shirts for this race were black which makes absolutely no sense for a race run in the hot Brazilian sun. There were also a lot of people sporting knee high compression socks, preferably in neon bright colors-it seems to be the trend this year. So lots of Brazilians squeezed into tight socks and black t-shirts and ready to run!

At about 7:20 we wandered over to the start and milled around for a little bit, fully expecting it to be late like everything else here. I forgot to eat my pre-race GU and tried to get a signal for my Garmin GPS watch. Finally at 7:30 the crowd surged forward and we were off! (No countdown or gun or anything that I heard, just start running). We started on the first bridge, the Costa e Silva, and they had a couple lanes blocked off for the start which was good because people were going so slowly! I was weaving in and out for the first half mile which also happened to be up the biggest hill.
                                               
Once we got up the hill and were cruising down the road, I started looking for my fans. Soon enough I spotted Gus on Matt's shoulders and Eleanor banging her toy drum! It was fun to see them so early on! Matt told me later that Eleanor got so excited she banged right through the drum and broke it! My kids are usually the only kids out cheering along a race so they get lots of smiles from people and runners even recognize me as the Go Mom Go lady (from their sign).

My fans are ready to cheer!

Go runners go!

I saw that the first mile was a little slow, 8:30, so I tried to concentrate on picking up the pace and finding my groove. My shirt was bugging me because it kept rolling up (rookie mistake to wear a new shirt in a race) so I tucked it in and resigned myself to no face wiping. We looped around and hit the first water stop around mile 2 and it felt great to pour water over my head, I was already getting sweaty! At the races here they hand out covered cups that I just punch a hole in and drink. I love them because they don't splash all over me when I attempt to run and drink at the same time.

Besides the compression socks and black t-shirts, there were a bunch of people with running cameras in this race. I even passed one guy who was filming the run using a camera on the top of his head while his friend biked along next to him and filmed him. Another woman had a camera on a metal arm that let her film herself while she was running. Too much!
                                                       
The road down to the JK bridge was all downhill so I tried to relax and enjoy the run. My miles were under 8 minutes so I was feeling good. As I ran across the bridge, I really felt strong and I tried to relax and take in the scenery and just enjoy the moment. I passed a woman I had run with at another half marathon so that made me feel strong. As I got to the end of the bridge, I saw the Gatorade station and grabbed some of that and then some water to eat my GU gel. It was a little tricky trying to eat it while running up a hill but it gave me something else to think about besides the hill.

Coach BB was supposed to meet me on that hill but I didn't see her so I figured she was playing some kind of mind game to prove to me I could run up the hill myself. She wasn't-she had missed me at our meeting place-but it worked because I made it up and over and then saw Matt and the kids. They were cheering really loudly and had some other families with them so I got lots of high fives and smiles. It was a good boost!

The kids with the JK Bridge in the background

Coach BB  was waiting for me at the bottom of the next hill and jumped in to run up it with me. She told me I wasn't pushing myself hard enough if I could talk so much to her and to keep the pace up. I knew she was right and that I had the energy in me to start running faster but I didn't, I don't know why. After she left me I passed by our street and then hit the 5K left to go mark. I started eating one clif shot block (margarita flavor!) at each mile at this point. I don't know if it helped at all but it didn't make me gag or throw up so that's something. I was hoping the extra salt in them would be good for me with all the sweating I was doing.
                                                   
Right after that was another hill but I didn't stress it. It was much different from last year when I slowed to a crawl and barely made it over! Then there was a flat section  for about a mile and people were just passing me left and right, including one guy who was grunting on every exhale. He sounded like Monica Seles! I'm also sad to say I got passed by a bikini lady on this stretch AGAIN! Actually it was more like a sports bra but I let her go and that shows you what kind of mindset I was in. I knew that I wasn't running as fast as I could and I didn't push myself. I don't know why but I just didn't feel the fire under my feet.

Eleanor and Gus at the finish, grumpy faces on!

Eleanor shows off her clapper

So I cruised in the last couple miles but turned it up a little for the finish. And looked at my watch to see...drumroll..1:50!!! The exact same time as last year! Ugh. I was really pissed and felt very frustrated, like all my work and improvement over the past year were for nothing. I walked through the gauntlet to hand in my chip and get my medal and was about to cry. But I stopped myself because it was MY OWN FAULT. What do I have to cry for? It's not like I got injured or someone tripped me or I didn't drink enough water. I just didn't try hard enough. And so I got a time that wasn't any better than last year. End of story.

A smile and a wave for the fans! It's done!

                         
Now I've moved on-onward and upward! I'm taking it easy for the next couple of weeks, including at least 5 days of no running. It's a recharge of my batteries before really digging into marathon training!

Here are the official results: My chip time was 1:51 on the dot, I came in 19th out of all the women and I was 1st out of women ages 35-39! I'll take that as my victory for the day!

Nro	Nome	Modalidade	Categoria	Tempo	Pace	TEMPO LIQUIDO	RANKCAT	RANKTOT	RANKSEX
503	HEATHER MCNEMAR	21K	F3539	1:51:59.4	05:17	1:51:00.6	1	362	19

Half Marathon Update

I'll write a longer recap later but here's the quick and dirty on the half marathon today: It's done! But I finished in the exact same time as last year which seriously bums me out. My Garmin said my time was 1:51, we'll see what the official time was. I'm having trouble not thinking that a whole year of running didn't make a darn bit of difference. But it's my fault, I didn't run as hard as I could have so I have no one to blame but myself.  Now I'm off to put my compression socked feet up and drink my coffee.

Half Marathon Kit Pickup

On Sunday I'm running the Meia Maratona das Pontes (Half Marathon of the Bridges) here in Brasilia and I went today with my posse to pick up my kit (number, t-shirt, little towel). Sorry I don't remember the English term for that but here it's called a kit. Races here don't really have expos like in the States, even half marathons. It's mostly just waiting in line, picking up your bag and then heading out. They usually have them at hotels downtown that have no parking so it takes me longer to find a parking spot than it does to pick up the kit.

Luckily this time it was at a store with a huge parking lot! And a playground near by! So I convinced Eleanor and Gus to come with me by promising them a trip to the playground. It was super hot so they spent most of the time digging in the sand under the play structure because it was shady.

Then we dragged Gus kicking and screaming off the playground (he's having trouble with transitions right now) and went to the Mormaii surf shop to get my kit. There was no line and no problem finding my name so I got my kit and we were good to go! My number even has my name on it so all the spectators (not!) can cheer for me! I double checked that they had me down as a Feminino since last year they moved me to the Masculino column, I think that was because my time put me in the top 10 for women but they didn't give me a trophy. Boo!

A portrait of Gus and me by Eleanor-our official photographer!

Me with the kit! (and snowboards?!)

That surfboard was huge compared to Gus!

I found out that the race starts at 7:30 but I have to be there between 5:30 and 6:30 for chip pickup. They won't just give the chip in the kit-I think because they're afraid you won't show up for the race and they'll never get their chip back. There's another race organizing company here that gives out disposable chips which is a much better idea. I'm not looking forward to waiting around for an hour for the race to start. Especially because I know there will be people arriving at the last minute and the chip pickup will still be open. Grrrr....

There's some sisterly love

Here are my goals for the half (in order of importance)
A. Beat my time from last year (1:51)
B. Break 1:45
C. Take control of the hills and conquer them
D. Don't get passed at the end (happened last year in the last mile and I'm still upset I didn't fight back)

And of course: have fun, high five my fans, smile for pictures, relax my shoulders and run like a mother!!!

Me and my crew!

This Week's Not-so-long Run

Coach BB wanted: 8 miles
I delivered: 8 miles

My before the run photo

This week I only had to run 8 miles for my long run because I'm tapering for the half marathon next Sunday. So I slept in a little, let the sun come out and then ran along the Dom Bosco road to the start of the race, ran across the first bridge and came back. The half is called the Bridges Half Marathon and it starts right next to the Costa e Silva Bridge so we cross that right at the beginning of the race and then we cross the much more dramatic JK Bridge at about the half way point and then loop back around to finish right where we started.

The most exciting part of the run was that I saw the wild guinea pigs again! I used to see them all the time last year and hadn't seen them yet this year. They live right near the water and look just like escaped guinea pigs. 

                                                 

So this week I'll be taking it easy: yoga, 30 min tempo run, a five and a couple of threes. Then Sunday it's on! I'm going to try and beat my time from last year which was 1:51. And be recorded as a femino since last year they put me in the masculino column. Lofty goals but I think I can do it!

My after the run photo, taken by Eleanor

Calm Down

The title of this blog comes from Coach BB. Her version was a little saltier and she kept yelling it at me as we were running our first set of 800s on Wednesday. We're trying out Yasso 800s as part of my marathon training plan and this was the first session so I *only* had to do 4 of them.

Coach BB has a straightaway near her house that is 400 meters long so we ran it out and back. Fun times!  The most surprising thing was that there was a Brazilian woman out running 300 meter repeats by herself on the same stretch. I've never seen anyone running repeats here so I was very impressed. Unfortunately my limited Portuguese didn't allow me to tell her to rock on so I just gave her a very meaningful head bob.

Bart Yasso himself explains Yasso 800s

The idea behind these Yasso 800s is that you take the time you want to finish the marathon in, say 3 hours and 35 minutes and you change it to 3 minutes and 35 seconds. That's how fast you'll run each 800 meters. Each session you add one more and when you get up to ten of them, you're 100% guaranteed to run a marathon in that time. Hahaha! I wish. No such guarantees from Mr. Yasso.

So here goes, I'm putting it out there. I'm running each 800 in 3:35.

My goal time for the Maraton do Rio is 3:35:00. And I'm saying it: Boston Qualifier. Gulp.

I'd like to qualify for Boston again before I turn 40 and move up to the Master's category. For my age (39) on Boston Marathon race day 2014, I need to run faster than 3:40 but...with the new system of faster people getting into the race first, I really need to run faster than 3:38. So I'm putting it out there, I'm going to try do that in Rio.


In order to run a marathon that fast, I need to practice running faster. Duh! But I've never really worked on that during marathon training before, I've only been concerned with building the miles up. So my training plan for Rio has speedwork, hills and tempo runs (alternating every third week) and every week on Fridays I'll do a run at race pace (about 8:15 per mile). I'm also supposed to be doing Fast Finishes for most of my long runs, picking up the pace in the last few miles so that I cruise to the finish.

Demonstrating fast finish for Eleanor 

So far I've done two runs at race pace. The first was a four mile run that I started and finished from the top of my hill so the first mile was really fast and the last mile was really slow. I can see my mile splits after I finish on my Garmin watch and at no point was I even close to the pace, I was always either much faster or much slower. After talking with Coach BB I tried something a little different today for the five mile run-I used the hill for a warmup and cooldown and did the run at race pace only on the flatter road. I also didn't look at my watch at all during the run. That all seemed to help and my splits were less crazy and closer to the goal pace.

So I'm working on settling into a steady pace on my runs. I also need to work on my breathing which tends to be panicked. Coach BB is trying to get me to calm my breathing without slowing my pace and that is a new concept for me.

So I'm trying a new mantra: calm breath fast feet calm breath fast feet calm breath fast feet  

Eleanor and I after our run together this week

This Week's Long Run

Coach BB wanted: 12 miles with FF (fast finish for the last 2 miles)

I delivered: 12.13 miles in 1:46 with not so FF

THE PLAN!

The big news is that I have an official Coach BB original marathon training plan! Woohoo! It looks pretty good except for the really scary part at week 17 when I have to do two 10 mile runs and then a 22 miler. Yikes! Cue the Kelly Clarkson...what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!! Right now I'm in the half marathon training portion of the marathon training plan since my half is coming up in two short weeks. 

Self portrait before (I look like I'm going to play tennis for some reason)

So this morning I left a little later than usual because I wanted to try going at 7:00, the time the half marathon starts. It was nice because it was already light out and there were tons of people out running! That part was kind of strange for me because usually I don't see anyone. I think people were trying to get their runs in before the start of the Carnaval partying that will go on through Tuesday. It was also the first time it wasn't raining on a Saturday morning in a month! So there were lots of cyclists out too.

I ran along the main road near our house and across the JK Bridge, then turned around and came back. The half marathon crosses the JK Bridge and then comes back along our main road so the second half of my run was a practice for the race. I really like running on the JK Bridge because the views of the city and water are gorgeous and the bridge itself is fun to look at as I'm running.

When I got back to "my" hill that leads back to my house, I ran into a running team of about 20 people all running up my hill. So I guess the secret is out that running this hill makes you tough! 

After my run, obligatory palm tree shot-sorry Nemo folks!

When I got back to the house I jumped in the pool and that felt awesome. There's a picture of it but I'm in my underwear so I'll spare you that sight.

This week I start working with Coach BB on Wednesday-Yasso 800s are on the menu so it should be a fun time!

Happy Carnaval!!!

Thank You for Hills...

This morning's workout was hills. Usually I'll be doing them on Wednesdays but this week's schedule was a little different so I did them as the last workout before my rest day on Friday. Good way to end the week but my legs definitely felt tired.

The view from the top of the hill

I'm lucky to have a big hill right behind my house so after a short warm up, I started up them. My routine is to alternate just running straight up as fast as I can with doing different stuff like one hill is butt kicks, one hill is high knees, one is running backwards and one is grapevines. I can usually only make it about halfway up the hill doing those different ones and then I run the rest regular shuffle shuffle style. When Coach BB is around she likes to have me do lunges up the hill but I usually skip those when I'm by myself, I feel too silly doing them and they leave me way too sore.

There's usually one of these owls watching me just like this

I listen to music and try to motivate myself up the hill by yelling C'mon! Let's Go! but I don't always feel like I'm really going as fast as I can. This morning I tried saying a mantra I read about in this article by Kristin Armstrong in Runner's World: Thank you for hills and strength for climbing. She was right, it fits in well with my steps and I found myself saying it over and over as I went up the hill. thank you for hills and strength for climbing thank you for hills and strength for climbing thank you for hills and strength for climbing.

Thank you for hills?? That's a new one for me, my mantras usually are along the lines of RUN FASTER and GO HARD OR GO HOME or DON'T DIE (my favorite at mile 24 of the marathon). But I liked the rhythm of it and I liked the idea of being grateful to be running. So often I complain, especially about running hills, and I forget how lucky I am to be able to run, to have beautiful weather and safe streets and non-injured legs and..the list goes on and on and on. I was even feeling grateful for having my hill-being able to run on it makes me stronger and hopefully faster.

I haven't always been thankful for hills, we have a love-hate relationship. For a long time when I was in my 20s, hills were no big deal for me, I would charge up them, usually leaving my running partner in the dust. Then something changed-maybe having kids? maybe taking breaks from running? maybe living on top of a hill? and I found last year that I hated hills and that I ran up them really slowly. Now that we live on top of a hill, I have to run one every day, always at the end of the run when I just. want. to. be. done. So I would stomp up the hill at about 0 miles/hour and hate it every step. Then I started running hills on a weekly basis and while I don't love them and I'm not tearing up them like I used to, I don't hate them as much. And I'm taking steps towards being grateful for them.

Thank you for hills and strength for climbing
Thank you for hills and strength for climbing
Thank you for hills and strength for climbing

Here I come up  the hill in the Bridges Half Marathon last year-it's coming up again in 2 weeks!

High fives for my fans!! 

I'm hoping this year it will be even easier to power up this hill!

First Post!

Not me. Just what my daughter thinks I look like running.

Ok, here we go! I feel like I'm at the start of a race, nervous and scared and having to pee and all!

The kids are (both!) at school, I've cleaned out all the secret trash that my daughter had squirreled away in her room during vacation, I got my run in early this morning and I really have no more excuses to not write this-my first post of my new blog!

In this blog I'm going to write about my training for the marathon in Rio de Janeiro on July 7, 2013! Its offiical name is Maratona do Rio and from the website and googling it looks like it attracts about 5,000 men and 5 women to run in the pouring rain alongside what are usually beautiful beaches to the deafening screams of about 10 spectators who may or may not be still out partying from the night before. Most of that information I gleaned from watching this video that an Australian guy took during last year's race. It's pretty depressing stuff and not very inspiring to be honest. At one point I think he gets passed by a Christmas tree. So that's going to be one of my personal goals: to beat the Christmas tree!

It's really not a good sign that this is considered to be one of the best marathons in Brazil, a giant country filled with hundreds of thousands of people who love to run and it looks like a tiny race with nobody watching. I'm hoping that last year was a fluke because of the rain and that usually there are lots of crowds (aka people on the beach who turn around and cheer). 

Here's what I know about the race so far:

It's a point to point (like Boston) so I'll have to take a bus from the city to a town outside and then we run in, mostly along the coastline. We come into Rio and run along the beaches so go by Ipanema and Copacabana beaches and pass the big Christ the Redeemer statue:

I'll be back!! (without the kid and not so close)

Here's the course map:

It's supposed to be flat! My friend Matt in the video shows himself huffing and puffing up only one hill so that's good. 

I think the biggest negative is that it's going to be totally devoid of fans but if I go into it knowing that then I'll be ready for it. My own personal fan base claims that they will be on the beach the entire time and that if I call them they may come out to cheer for me but no guarantees. Great. So basically I'll be gutting this one out myself. 

Here's what I have for a training plan: 

Nothing. Crickets. Still working on it. 

I'm thinking of going with Hal Higdon Advanced I because I've used his plans before and I think with a little tweaking it could work for me. The biggest change I would make is that he wants 6 days of running and that's not going to happen for me. I've gone a whole year without getting injured running only 5 days a week so I think I'll stick with that. I've drafted BBinBrazil to be my coach so I'm going to let her work her magic and come up with an awesome plan for me. She's also going to be kicking my butt every Thursday morning doing hills or tempo runs or 800s or some other type of torture so I'm sure I'll be complaining blogging about that every week. 

Here's where I'm at for fitness (physical and mental):

Physically I feel like I'm in the best shape I've been in for many many years. Now I run about 20-30 miles a week and do one day of hill work and I try to sneak some yoga in one day. I'm training to run a half marathon on February 24 so I did  a 15 mile long run a couple weeks ago and will do a 12 miler this weekend. I'm looking forward to starting to build up my miles, figure out my fueling and get my body ready for July! 

Mentally I always feel like I need work. I used to think of myself as pretty mentally tough and then I tried to run the Burlington VT marathon in May 2011 and I totally bonked and didn't finish. The whole sad story complete with pictures can be found here. The experience made me question my training, my motivation and my toughness. It took me awhile to get my head back in it but I feel like I have and I've had lots of good races since then. But....when I finish I never feel like I've given 100%. I might dry heave a little and be out of breath but give me a few minutes and I'm fine. One of my goals for this race (and the training for it) is to try to push myself beyond my limits and to experience that ease and power that William James talks about in the quote I posted. Scott Jurek talks a lot about pushing yourself to your limits in his new book Eat and Run and I found myself inspired as I was reading it to do the same. Now it's a matter of actually doing it. This half marathon in February will be a good trial run-I definitely want to try and beat my time from last year (1:51) and I'm hoping to get under 1:45. 

So I'm excited that you (mom? dad? husband?) are going to join me on this road to Rio! I'll let Ester Dean sing us out from the movie Rio...