Lake Lowell Half Marathon Recap



Lisa, Kim and I carbo loading the night before the race

Saturday morning I woke up at 6:30am, ate a bagel with almond butter, got dressed and headed to Nampa, Idaho to pick up Kim and Lisa from their hotel. It's about a 20 minute drive and I got there right at 8am.

The start was a Lake Lowell Park and we got there about 8:20 so I drove straight up to the chip pickup area, Kim and Lisa jumped out, grabbed them and were back in the car out of the cold in a hurry. We parked the car and waited till about 8:45 (race starts at 9am). We got in the long line for the bathrooms but then the race directors wife told us there was a porta potty down the road so we took off for that one.

While waiting we had to take some pictures of course...

Yes I'm extremely short! I need to wear heels for ALL pictures from now on. I am 5 ft nothing in case you were wondering :)

The 5k, 10k and half marathoners all started together

Take from Lisa's blog

As we all gathered together I turned on my ipod shuffle and it said low battery! So sad! So I turned it back off and figured I'd turn it on when I really needed it.

Soon after they said go and we were off! Lisa started ahead of us and I ran with by Kim for a little bit. The first few miles is when my shin bothers me and it's always hard for me to find my stride during that time so I tired to focus on that but a mile into it the first big hill was upon us and with no music and my shin still wanting to be center of attention my pace slowed. We also had some headwind on the out 

Garmin elevation profile. Out and back course. The two big hills sucked.

I turned on my ipod at about mile 4 cause I needed something to keep my mind occupied. This helped and my stride started to get better which helped me pick up the pace too. At mile 6 it ended up dying but around that time the leaders were on their way back. I loved this part of the race! I was yelling out good job and giving high fives to my friends. It gave me a big boost of energy and they ended up some of the fastest miles of the race for me. I saw Lisa up ahead and was so excited for her and told her she was 3rd female! 

Just after the turn around I saw Kim, she gave me a high five and told me I was 16th female! This gave me another little burst of energy and with no music, my focus was to not let any other woman pass me and to pass as many as I could. I passed one girl pretty quickly.

My stomach had been feeling a little weird for most of the last half of the run, not sure why so I only took water at the aid stations (I had take a Gu gel at the turn around).

The last uphill sucked and seemed like it would never end. My stomach wasn't happy at this point so I stopped for just a second and saw two girls closing the gap between us so I started running again. I also ended up passing a couple I was playing leap frog with for a few miles at this point.

 Finally the downhill came so I picked up pace as did the girls that weren't to far behind me. At mile 12 I remember seeing my watch say 1:51 so I knew if I ran the last mile in under 9 minutes I could come in right at 2 hours. One of the girls told her friend the same thing I was thinking and they sped up and passed me so I said good job. 

One of the girls ended up slowing down and her friend went ahead. By this point my watch had already passed the 13.1 mile mark and another lady running near me said her watched says we already ran a half marathon, why are we still running. I told her mine did too! The girl who's friend had sped ahead was really struggling and I tried to encourage her. She told me this was her first half marathon. I told her she was doing such a great job and was going to come in at a great time. Her breathing was pretty bad and she really sounded like she was about to keel over! I told her just control your breathing you are doing awesome and it will all be worth it at the end! 

At this point I also saw Lisa off to the side and she was cheering me on which made me smile. She told me she was going to wait for Kim and they would meet me at the finish line. 

Thanks Lisa for taking this pic of me :)

As we entered the finishers shoot I could hear someone else breathing heavy trying to pass me so I sped up and finally crossed the finish line.

Coming into the finish

My garmin read 2:04:02 for 13.45 miles!!

Official Stats:

Chip time: 2:04:00

Gender: 13/70

Age group: 2/14

Overall: 37/117

Splits:

Mile 1 - 9:00

Mile 2 - 10:25 (long hill)

Mile 3 - 9:21

Mile 4 - 9:19

Mile 5 - 9:24

Mile 6 - 8:50

Mile 7 - 8:56

Mile 8 - 8:50

Mile 9 - 9:07

Mile 10 - 9:09

Mile 11 - 10:02 (long hill)

Mile 12 - 9:00

Mile 13 - 8:30

last .45 - 9:08

I chatted with some of my friends at the finish area. We planned a 22 mile group run for Memorial Day with one my friends who ran the race. We have pledged to run our miles in honor of the 6,444 Soldiers that have given their lives in the Global War on Terror (Will blog about that this week so please check back so you can pledge your miles too!)

Lisa and Kim had to get back to their hotel so they could catch a flight to Oregon later that afternoon (they were running another half the following day in Portland!)

So we got our awards early. I got my second place ribbon but it turns out because Lisa got 2nd place overall award it bumped me up to first place in our age group! I don't have a picture of it yet cause I have to go pick it up but here's me with the second place ribbon :)

Overall I was really happy with my performance on this race considering the hills. I also walked at the water stops for a few seconds. I know I have lots of room for improvement!

Half Marathon #10, #3 of the year. Next half marathon is May 19th!

I was also really happy I got to meet Kim and Lisa! It was great to be a part of their double half marathon weekend. Even though Nampa, Idaho isn't the most scenic place for a race, I tried to show them that Idaho is a fun place to be, even if they only spent less than 24 hours here :)

I ended the day with a yummy margarita at dinner

And happy late birthday to my Dash aka Peanut

Laying with his favorite toy, a stuffed rope monkey. His bday was Cinco de Mayo :)