This past Saturday was the Boise High Speed Pursuit Half Marathon.
The race didn't start till 10am so I woke up at about 7am but laid in bed till about 7:30 after not being able to sleep very well the night before. Not sure why, maybe it was jitters for my first half marathon of this year, but both Tiffany and I didn't have any goal time in mind we just wanted to run together. Tiffany has also been sick for the past week and this was also the longest run I've done in a few weeks so wasn't sure how my shin would hold up so we didn't want to go all out. We just wanted to enjoy the run.
The outfit:
We decided on blue Nike tops, blue Team Sparkle skirts and race legs and I also wore my blue sparkle headband.
I really loved our outfits and we got a couple of complements, even though my purple Kinvaras didn't really match but it's ok :)
It was really cold outside so I ran over to Target before Tiffany got to my house to get some white socks to make into arm warmers (pictured above) but we didn't end up wearing them. It was just to cold out with the wind and we both decided to wear our jackets. (I saved the socks tho for throw away arm warmers for a future race)
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| Freezing at the start! |
The race starts out at the Idaho State Correctional Institute aka the prison. It's about 20 or so minutes away from my house but once we got there we scored a nice parking spot in the front near the porta potties and the starting line.
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| Being silly waiting for the race to start |
We walked over to the starting area once we heard the National Anthem being sung and then a few minutes after that we heard some police sirens. It was the high speed pursuit that kicked off the race. There was a girl speeding away from the police. I told Tiffany I wanted to be the girl in the car. When else can you speed away from a police officer without consequences?
After that it was time to start! All the distances, 5k, 10k (which Will ran, no pics of him tho :( and half marathon started together. The prison siren went off and we ran next to the CERT team (Correctional Emergency Response Team) standing on the side of the road in full gear.
After a little bit the 5k split off from us and we were running mostly on gravel/dirt road. Last year I didn't remember this bothering me but I was so hyper aware of my shin at the race I was carefully watching where I stepped. After a few miles I didn't feel any pain on my shin. I think I need to work on a better stride cause usually when I go faster is when my stride is better and my shin doesn't hurt.
At about mile 2 or so Tiffany and I turned on our music. She told me ahead of time she might not be much for conversation so she could try and control her breathing and not cough to much out there. She did really well for having acute bronchitis, which she didn't know at the race and only found this out yesterday when she went the docs :(
Miles 1-9 were pretty uneventful. The incline started after mile 6 and there was a hill just after mile 8 but nothing to unbearable. Or maybe it just felt like that cause the worst part of the race was yet to come.
We were stopping at pretty much every rest stop and checking in with each other seeing how my shin was her how her lungs were. Took some pictures and kept on running. We were both feeling pretty good till after mile 9
I forgot to start my garmin right as we started so my splits are probably different than Tiffany's but here's mile 1-9
mile 1- 9:21
mile 2- 9:07
mile 3- 10:11 (water stop)
mile 4- 9:39
mile 5- 9:24
mile 6- 10:49 (water stop and took a gel)
mile 7- 9:26
mile 8- 10:28 (water stop)
mile 9- 10:49
From here is when the race was NOT so fun. At about mile 9.5 we hit what felt like a wind tunnel. The wind just hit you right in the face and it was like trying to push a wall that would barely move. We felt like we were barely moving and wondered if speed walking would help so we tried that but it was about the same. Tiffany ran behind me for a little while then she took lead and I ran behind her but it really didn't help much.
We played leap frog with a few people. There was an older man who had some blue tights with white starts and red strips who would cheer us on when we passed him but then he would pass us and it went on like that for a little while with him and another girl in a gray shirt.
We walked more than I think we both ever have in a half marathon but it was just so hard to breath with that wind hitting your right in the face. Tiffany's hat blew off once and so did her skirt, ok maybe her skirt didn't but it sure looked like it did in this picture we took :)
Splits for miles 10-13 were:
Mile 10- 10:00
Mile 11- 11:50
Mile 12- 12:07
Mile 13- 11:09
I actually had to walk a few times the last mile which I don't think I've ever done in a half marathon before. That wind would just not let up and I just wanted to be done already. Tiffany spotted the gray shirt girl behind us so we took off running once again. Just as we reached the finish line Tiffany grabbed my hand and we crossed the finish line together.
I don't know if I've ever been so happy to be done with a race. I think Tiffany and I both agree we much rather prefer running in the rain instead of the wind.
Official results
Time- 2:15:13
Place overall 54/90
Age Group (20-29) - 4/5
Gender- 24/45
Compared to last year when I ran this race there weren't as many people that ran it overall or even in my age group. Last year I ran it in 1:56 and placed 7th out of 27 and 40/166 overall. But last year it was held in October instead of April when it was warmer and no crazy wind.
We stuck around after the race to get some bagels and a breakfast burrito and take some cute pictures of course :)
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| Those tents had some huge self serve breakfast burritos |
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| My friend Tim who took 1st place in the 5k |
We also got a cotton t-shirt (I use last years as a sleep shirt so this one will probably become that too) but I was disappointed we got the same medals as last year.
I want to know....
Would you rather run in the rain or against the wind?
After running the Portland marathon in the rain for the entire 26.2 miles and running this half marathon with headwind for the last 3.5 miles, I take the rain.
