12/4 Vegas Rock N' Roll Half - 2:18:49 (10:35 pace)
Blah! I went to Vegas under trained, under prepared and with low expectations of my performance. I was originally planning on running the full and then a month before the race decided that I didn't have the time for training so I switched to the half. At that point I switched off my mental game too and just figured "I can do a half no problem." When will I learn? I stopped training and decided to wing it blaming my travel for my inability to fit in runs. So Vegas did not go well. Besides the race having many issues (see race review) I was doing okay until mile 9. I lost Britt around mile 4 since she was running faster then the pace I
12/11 Portland Holiday Half - 2:06:38 PR (previous PR was 2:09:28)
I started this race slow since I was SOOO sore from the training session from hell with Lucifer (aka Stephanie and Club Sport who is actually adorable). I stopped at mile 1 to talk with my friend Leslie, who was volunteering on the course, and give her a hug. I listened to music until mile 5 where I stopped to take down a peppermint GU (new for 2012 and actually quite delicious). There are officially now 3 types of GU I can stomach....yeah me! The GU was frozen so when I say stop I mean I actually stood still for at least 30 seconds shoving GU and water down my throat. I started up again and decided to forget the music. I did the same frozen GU standing dance at mile 9. Right around mile 10 I realized that I was actually having a pretty good race and still feeling good. That's when I looked at my watch and realized a PR was possible, if I didn't slow down. I tried to stay steady and just keep going. When I crossed at 2:06 I was pumped! I think I accomplished this by having no pressure on this race, my only goal was to beat my Vegas time. I also think starting slow and running completely by myself helped. I don't know what it is but I seem to perform much worse when I run with others. Instead of worrying about what others thought I just ran my race and it worked out! Apparently two races in a week and extremely sore legs is my recipe for success.
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