This was my first race coming off a disappointing, but also exhilarating, first half-marathon a few months prior. I had trained hard during the summer, still battling healing knee pain, but also impressed that my body, with inconsistent training and in lots of pain, still ran/walked/trudged through 13.1 miles on a sunny June morning.
Mackinac Island is just about 8 miles in circumference, making for a naturally perfect race course. The Boyfriend and I arrived Thursday, and rode bikes around the island once on Thursday and once Friday. The road had some natural hills in it that weren't huge at all, but since I run on completely flat ground, any hill is of some concern. I started to doubt my ability to run this in my time goal the night before, which made me nervous.
The Boyfriend and I woke up late on race day, since my phone died during the night which consequently also killed the alarm. We rushed through breakfast, checked out of our hotel, and walked to the start. Luckily we went to packet pickup the day before since we were already on the island and the sponsoring hotel was just a few down from ours. Once we got to the start, we stretched. A tendon that runs behind my knee was giving me some trouble, but I stretched it out and The Boyfriend and I ran a short warmup. As the crowd started to gather at the start, I noticed that everyone was in shape. These people all looked fast!! We stood near the front and JThe Boyfriend eventually made his way to the very front to run with the really fast people. One lady standing next to me said "well that's the last time we are going to see those people!" I laughed, but didn't tell her one of those guys was The Boyfriend.
My goals for the race: finish in 1:12:00 which is a 9:00 pace. Negative split so I'd start slow, then finish fast. Don't stop, and hydrate well beforehand. What actually happened:
Splits:
7:59
8:13
8:11
8:25
8:37
8:41
9:09
8:53
So clearly my plan to negative split completely failed. I stopped at mile 4 to use the restroom, since I had way too much water beforehand. I stopped my watch out of habit, so that's not reflected in the time. I've never stopped for a potty break in the middle of a race before but running on a full bladder started getting kind of painful!!
My official time is 1:09:40 (8:43 pace), way faster than the 1:12 I was worrying about. My watch said 1:08:34 (8:31 pace) for 8:05 miles, which is what I would have finished in had I not run off course to visit the little bathroom hut. Seriously, I couldn't be prouder!! Based on the results, the other racers were really fast! I finished 21st in my age group and 273 overall. Some of these people were speed demons.
This race went so much better than I could have imagined. It was hard, especially towards the end. I walked for about 10 seconds through a water station at mile 7.5 because the humidity almost killed me. I needed the water really badly. That's the 9:09 mile. Since The Boyfriend finished way before me, he was there at the finish. That was awesome. He wasn't expecting me to finish when I did and I loved the cheering and yelling he did while I ran past him into the finishers chute. He met up with me carrying water and orange slices for me. He said the best part of the race for him was seeing me notice the time as I approached the finish line, realize I was way ahead of my goal, and just charge through to the finish with a huge smile on my face.
Mackinac Island, aside from the race, was really magical. We spent 3 days on the island prior to racing, then left the island to visit the Upper Peninsula.
My official time is 1:09:40 (8:43 pace), way faster than the 1:12 I was worrying about. My watch said 1:08:34 (8:31 pace) for 8:05 miles, which is what I would have finished in had I not run off course to visit the little bathroom hut. Seriously, I couldn't be prouder!! Based on the results, the other racers were really fast! I finished 21st in my age group and 273 overall. Some of these people were speed demons.
This race went so much better than I could have imagined. It was hard, especially towards the end. I walked for about 10 seconds through a water station at mile 7.5 because the humidity almost killed me. I needed the water really badly. That's the 9:09 mile. Since The Boyfriend finished way before me, he was there at the finish. That was awesome. He wasn't expecting me to finish when I did and I loved the cheering and yelling he did while I ran past him into the finishers chute. He met up with me carrying water and orange slices for me. He said the best part of the race for him was seeing me notice the time as I approached the finish line, realize I was way ahead of my goal, and just charge through to the finish with a huge smile on my face.
Mackinac Island, aside from the race, was really magical. We spent 3 days on the island prior to racing, then left the island to visit the Upper Peninsula.
This race went so much better than I could have imagined. It was hard, especially towards the end. I walked for about 10 seconds through a water station at mile 7.5 because the humidity almost killed me. I needed the water really badly. That's the 9:09 mile. Since The Boyfriend finished way before me, he was there at the finish. That was awesome. He wasn't expecting me to finish when I did and I loved the cheering and yelling he did while I ran past him into the finishers chute. He met up with me carrying water and orange slices for me. He said the best part of the race for him was seeing me notice the time as I approached the finish line, realize I was way ahead of my goal, and just charge through to the finish with a huge smile on my face.
Mackinac Island, aside from the race, was really magical. We spent 3 days on the island prior to racing, then left the island to visit the Upper Peninsula.
Mackinac Island, aside from the race, was really magical. We spent 3 days on the island prior to racing, then left the island to visit the Upper Peninsula.
It wasn't terribly warm out, and the sun spent most of the morning behind clouds. The humidity, man, that was awful. At one point I felt like I was running through such dense air I could barely move through it. The best part about running on vacation, though, was that I was so relaxed during the whole thing. Just enjoying running, enjoying racing, enjoying life.
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