Wrightsville Beach Half Marathon Race Report

Wrightsville Beach, day before race

 I have been running since I was in high school and joined the track team my freshman year.  I was on the track team all four years, I also ran cross country and indoor track, for a year or two.  I’ve always enjoyed running, but not so much competing.  I just liked running for the fun of it and the social aspect, but I always felt so much pressure for upcoming races. 

I ran sporadically throughout college, but focused more on the social activities while at St. Bonaventure.  I played club field hockey, but I wouldn’t say this gave me that much exercise either.  I didn’t really begin running again until I decided to train for my first marathon.  I signed up for the Chicago Marathon in 2007.  At this point, I really didn’t know anyone who ran.  I followed the Hal Higdon training program for beginners.  I ran 3-4 days a week.  Generally, 3-5 easy miles a few days a week and then my long run on the weekends.  My long runs were always by myself, and they weren’t always the most beneficial runs.  I allowed myself to stop and walk whenever I wanted, just though the point was to be on my feet, even if it was walking. 

You can imagine how this marathon went.  I had no clue how to train or what a marathon would feel like.  My only goal was to finish, but I definitely did not train the correct way.  Add to this that this was the Chicago Marathon of 2007.  It was SO hot and humid.  I was able to cross the finish line of this race, but I walked at least half of this.  Not even just because I needed to, I was made to walk the last 6 miles by cops on the course.  The streets were flooded by the open fire hydrants, meant to cool the runners down, as well as hoses being sprayed.  I was very happy just to finish this marathon though.

I had the great idea to sign up for another marathon in 2008, and yet another poor training attempt for my 2^nd marathon, Marine Corps.  This was the year I moved to NC and, probably trained even worse for this one.  Not to mention, taking almost a whole month off before this marathon due to an injury in my left leg.  Again, I crossed the finish line, but I hated marathons now.

I did start running more when I moved to NC and joined the Charlotte Runner’s meetup group.  This is where I met some of my first friends in Charlotte.  The Common Market run was my first group run.  Running with people was very new to me and it took some getting use to.  I didn’t even completely ditch my headphones until a couple years after this.  I loved how Charlotte was such a great running community.  The Charlotte Runners were my first running group, but from there I met the University City Road Runners and ran Saturday mornings with them, and later on, joined the Charlotte Running Club.  It is great how many running groups there are in Charlotte and how much support there is in this community.

Running really has helped me make friends throughout my life.  Starting in high school when I was new to town my freshman year and joined the track team, then fast forward to my move to Charlotte, NC and met almost all my friends through running.  Not to mention, this is also how I met my fiancé, at a Charlotte Running Club social.  We really did not like each other at our first encounter, but we got along better at the next function, for a mutual friend’s birthday party.

All of this is just to say that running really has shaped my life in so many ways.  I do tend to get injured more than others, and because of this, I really only allow myself to run 4-5 days a week and stay around 30 miles on average for my weekly running mileage.  This may sound like a lot to my non-runner friends, but to many of my runner friends, I know this is considered not even running! Haha.

Okay, the point of this post, the Wrightsville Beach half marathon. 

One goal of mine was to break the 1 hour 40 minute barrier for the half marathon.  I think this was my 10^th half marathon.  Many of the half marathons I have done were just done as a training run, a few of them I was injured going into them so they were just done for fun.  I was hoping I would finally get the chance to run one with a goal.  Even though, this made me pretty nervous. 

I asked Chris to help me get me to my goal.  This doesn’t always work so well, as I am not the best listener and don’t always take his advice.  I am terrible at stretching, icing, warming up, etc.  I do take 2 strength classes a week to help prevent injury.  I just do not train with the same intensity and thought that Chris does. 

He started giving me speed work training about a month and a half prior to the race day.  I also signed up for a couple races, a 10 miler and a 5k to get some additional speed work into my training plan.  My best time before this race was 1:44:xx in the half marathon.  I had gotten this time a few times prior.  Taking 5 minutes off my time meant going from just under 8 min/mile pace to the 7:35/mile pace.  Keep in mind, my previous 5k’s were about this pace.  I have only done a handful of 5k’s, ever, and not too many races, but still, I was not sure I could handle this pace for 13.1 miles. 

The week before the race I was getting pretty nervous, I was worried about the potential of wind, since it was at the beach, humidity, etc.  I ran a couple times that week and I did not feel good through either of them.  I am a total mental runner, so this did not help me.  I really had no clue if I could run the time I wanted.

We drove to Wilmington on Saturday morning, drove straight to the expo to pick up my packet and then went down to the beach to relax for a bit.  It was pretty windy so we didn’t stay long.  Chris’s friends, Adam and his wife Andrea, were nice enough to offer to let us stay at their house for the weekend.  Adam was running the full marathon and Andrea, the half.  We got to their house and settled in, chatted about the race course and the plan in the morning.  We sat down for a nice dinner and had a glass of wine, before turning in for the night around 9:30pm!  The race had a start time of 6:40am, and we had to take a shuttle to the start, so this meant a wake up call before 5am!  I am not a morning person.

We made it to the shuttle in time to wait at the back of the line and get on the very last shuttle to the start.  I think I was still asleep on the shuttle.  We got to the start line about 5 minutes before the gun.  Chris was not very happy about this since he wanted me to warm up and do some dynamic warm ups (which I have never done,) but I didn’t have a problem getting there right before.   I didn’t have time to be nervous, it worked out well.

The first few miles were in the dark, I felt great.  The plan was to make the first couple miles feel very easy.  7:45-7:50 pace.  I was not sure this would feel easy, but when we were running, it felt very easy.  We started to pick it up at mile 3.  We were even passing people at this point.  So many people we ran by were already breathing heavy, and this made me feel more confident because I felt good and my breathing was good.  I felt like I could have held this pace forever.  The first two miles were low 7:40’s, and then we got into the low 7:30’s  from mile 3 on.  Not too much to report on throughout the middle of this race.  It was nice and flat, there were always plenty of people around us. 

I was not sure I wanted Chris to run with me because it has not always worked out well for us in the past.  I tend to get frustrated with him when he runs with me, since my race pace is his easy running pace.  I like to know that the people around me are hurting as much as I am.  Megan Hovis was signed up to run the marathon, but she ended up not being able to go, so she let Chris use her bib as long as he didn’t cross the finish line. 

I will say, I did get angry at Chris a few times, but kept it in my head, mainly because I didn’t want to waste the energy talking.  In the beginning, every time we went by a cheering zone, he would get all rowdy and yell back at them.  This annoyed me, since I didn’t even have the energy to whisper.  He was also carrying Megan’s bib in one hand, instead of wearing it, the bib was yellow, for about 8 miles I thought he was holding a peeled banana in his hand, and this also annoyed me, that he was just running with a banana in his hand, again, I did not have the energy to ask him why he was holding a banana, so until I looked at it about mile 9 and figured out it was the bib, I was frustrated with him running with a banana. 

Chris was really good throughout the race with not talking to me.  He would say a few words here and there, like, keep your shoulders loose, keep your jaw loose, you’re doing great, we’re right on pace.  I’m sure these sound like encouraging words and I shouldn’t get mad, but they annoyed me during the race and I yelled at him in my head.  It wasn’t until about mile 11-12 , when he said “you’re doing great,” and some other words, that I said “shut up…please”.  I was struggling at this point, it was getting warmer out, there was more wind and I just wanted to be done.  I had no energy to pick up the pace like I thought I would.  The mile markers were so far off.  We still had over a mile to go. 

I thought we were a good bit ahead of our plan since every time my watch beeped a mile, we were always about 7:30, and our goal was high 7:30’s.  When we turned into the plaza where the race finished, Chris jumped out before the last couple turns.  He actually thought that was the end of the race since his watch already had 13.1.  He yelled to me to pick it up because I was already at 1:38:xx.  This made me nervous b/c I just didn’t have that much left in me to pick up the pace.  I pretty much wanted to walk at this point.  I could see the finish line, but the time was not easy to see.  I never looked at the time on my watch throughout the whole race, and I didn’t want to look down at this point, b/c I thought I was going to be disappointed. 

I crossed the finish line and the clock said 1:40:04.  I actually told myself this was okay, because I felt I gave it all I had.  I looked down at my watch, which I stopped at the finish line, and it said 1:39:46 for 13.18 miles.  I was thrilled!  I wasn’t sure if the official results would have me under 1:40, but I was still happy.

My official chip time ended up being 1:39:48.  My watch had me running a 7:34 pace, the official time has me at a 7:38 pace.  Either way, I’ll take it!  I’m happy with my effort and with how the race went overall.  It was the first time I ‘raced’ a half marathon, and now I know what this feels like.  I know it will be harder to knock more time off this PR moving forward, but I am looking forward to the day when I will beat this time!

Enjoying a free beer after the race.  Happy!

Now I can focus on our wedding, this race has been such a focal point for the last month, that I haven’t though too much about how close we are to our departure date. 

We are now 16 days away from our flight to Jamaica and just 18 days until our wedding!!!