Race Times and how to not PR

It helps knowing what your PR (personal record) of a race is before the race starts.  It didn't occur to me until after the Wichita Prairie Fire Half Marathon (11 October 2015), when a friend asked if I had PR'd that race, that I couldn't remember what my PR was.  I shook my head and said that my PR was a LONG time ago (it was) and that I probably wasn't even close (I was).  Doh!

I signed up for the Prairie Fire half because I had a training run scheduled around that time for about the same distance (for the Dopey Challenge in January) and there were a bunch of runners from the Enid Running Club (ERC) going up to Wichita for the race.  I hadn't ever done the Prairie Fire before but had heard that it was a good race and a fairly flat course.

I checked into the Hyatt Regency after having my car serviced at the Wichita Luxury Collection where I had bought my car last year.  I picked up my race packet downtown and a few packets of Roctane Gu all the while drinking as much water as I could.   Members of the ERC got together for dinner the night before the race at a place called the Albero Cafe where I had the pork with angel hair pasta - it was really good.

Pre-race dinner at Albero Cafe with the Enid Running Club

Pork with angel hair pasta

One of the coolest thing about the Prairie Fire is that the Hyatt Regency is literally right at the start/finish of the race.  I woke up, got dressed, fixed myself some oatmeal with raisins that I had brought with me and drank some Powerade.  We met down in the lobby at 7 am on race morning to take pictures and I still had time to use the bathroom and get to the start line.

Half Fanatics

ERC

The weather was perfect - just a teensy bit cool in the 50's but it promised to be a great morning for a run.  The race started at 7:30 am and since we were in the back, it took a few minutes to get to the start line.

A friend had asked me what I thought I would do for this race and I answered probably in the 2:45 - 2:50 range because it was just another training run.  I started the race at a pace that was a little faster than I wanted and decided that it felt good so I kept around the same pace for the first half of the race.  

I drank at every water stop - mostly gatorade and took a Roctane Gu at around 1:40.  For some reason, maybe a combination of still feeling great and a slight downhill part of the race, I sped up significantly at around mile 8.  I kept thinking that I really needed to slow down but the pace felt good and I hadn't run at this pace feeling this good for a long time.  Then, I got even more motivated when I started to catch up to the 2:30 pace group.  By mile 10, I caught up to the 2:30 pace group and stayed with them until the next water stop where I grabbed some powerade, chugged it down, and took off running again.  At this point, I lost sight of that pace group and was just on my own for a bit until I saw a fellow ERC member and tried to keep up with her but by mile 12, I was starting to feel the effects of my faster pace so I slowed down a bit the last mile.

I knew when I finished that I had beat the 2:30 time and thought I was around 2:28 but was pleasantly surprised to see that I had actually finished at a 2:27:39.  Was that a PR?  I thought it wasn't even close until I looked it up today.  My PR was from the OKC Half Marathon in 2009...2:27:11!  I was SO CLOSE to my PR and had no idea.  I think if I had known, I might have tried just a wee bit harder to beat it.

So here's how my race times look so far (**PR**):

Disney Race for the Taste 10K  2007                                    **1:04:01**
Great Land Run 5K 2008                                                        **28:17**
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 13K 2008                             **1:21:24**
Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon 2009                     **2:27:11**
Great Land Run 10K 2009                                                     1:06:13
Expedition Everest 2009                                                        1:26:48
Tulsa Full Moon 5K 2009                                                       41:02
Walt Disney World Princess Half Marathon 2010                2:32:13
Disneyland Half Marathon 2010                                           2:46:10
Walt Disney World Wine & Dine Half Marathon 2011        2:37:17

Finer Physiques Turkey Trot 5K 2012                                   31:37

New Years' Double Half Marathon 2014 (Eve)                     2:42:35

                                                          2015 (Day)                    2:45:07
Oklahoma City Memorial Full Marathon 2015                     **5:29:34**

Wichita Prairie Fire Half Marathon 2015                              2:27:39

Tulsa Route 66 Full Marathon 2015                                      6:28:47

Walt Disney World Dopey Challenge 2016                           5K 53:06
                                                                                                10K 1:36:47
                                                                                                HM 3:22:23
                                                                                                FM 6:53:11
Rock n Roll half marathon 10/15/2017                                  2:42:32 (estimated - results no longer online)                                   

Go Girl half marathon 2/24/18                                               2:54:00

Kansas City half marathon 10/20/18                                      2:48:33
Des Moines half marathon 10/21/18                                      2:55:32