Wallis Sands Half Marathon Recap

Before!

Yesterday was the Wallis Sands 1/2 Marathon;  it was my third year doing the race.  It's one of my favorites,  it goes directly by my house,  is really well organized, and is fairly flat (with the exception of a hill around mile 6.)   Going into the race, I wanted to do well-  I was hoping to get close to my 1:45 PR from November, but I thought that was going to be a stretch.  I got that PR when I was in the midst of training for a marathon;  when 13 miles is an "easy" run on your training schedule.  Overall, I was hoping to do better than I had at last month's Great Bay Half Marathon; with all of its hills, anything faster than that would be a nice bonus!

Wallis Sands starts at 8am, with six separate waves (starting every 5 minutes.)  Mariette was picking me up around 7am, and we were driving over to the race together.   I woke up at 6:25,  got dressed quickly, and ate an Udi's bagel with almond butter and 1/2 a cup of coffee.  The morning temperature was *kind of* chilly (around 55 degrees), but 55 degrees was more than warm enough for me!  

Around 7:15-ish, we parked at Wallis Sands and went to go look for Nicole, Angela N. and Lenny. We soon found them, and of course, got our obligatory group picture (except for Lenny, who nicely took our picture!)  We then went back to our cars to get our stuff ready for the run; I had one chocolate GU, and stuffed two more in my skirt pocket for later.  I went to go look for my inhaler, and realized I had left it at home. Oops!  Luckily, my asthma isn't that serious that I need to use it before every run, I just didn't know how it would affect my performance.

 At 8am, we lined up in Wave 1 to get ready to run;  we lined up towards the back of our corral.  The 1st mile was great, I felt comfortable.  There were already tons of Six03 spectators cheering everyone on, best cheerleaders ever!
Mile 1: 8:00
Mile 2: 7:46 (whoops)
Mile 3: 7:51
Mile 4: 7:52

Mariette and me around Mile 4

I was still feeling pretty good, but knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with Mariette forever! I told her to feel free to move ahead;  I always also walk through the water stops, and didn't want to slow her down!

Mile 5: 7:56
Mile 6: 8:00
Mile 7: 8:02
Mile 8: 7:49

I tool a GU at mile 6, which seemed to help.  I was starting to get tired, but kept thinking how much stronger I felt than last year's Wallis Sands 1/2.  Again, Six03 spectators were all over the course, and helped SO much.  Mariette was ahead in the distance, so it also helped to use her as a pacer bunny! People kept passing me, and I kept telling myself to run my own race.

Mile 9: 8:14 (yikes)
Mile 10: 7:48 (guess who had another GU?)
Mile 11: 8:34 (ick)
Mile 12: 8:22
Mile 13: 8:04


In the distance, I saw Mariette turn into the finish line- I saw that the finisher's clock for her said 1:43xx.  I knew I had a chance of not only being close to 1:45, but potentially getting a PR.  I picked up my pace and crossed in 1:44:16!!!!   I was so happy!! I placed 6th in my age group!

Done, baby!!!

After the race!

Lounging

After was great, we all got coffee from Summer Sessions down the road, and sat outside enjoying the sun- actually, we all got Nutella Lattes, which were amazing.  

Then, I went back to the real world and did laundry.  Blah.