While it's all still fresh in my memory, I wanted to provide a synopsis of my latest half marathon experience. The easiest way I have to remember the details is truly by providing my playlist for the day, and describing what silly thoughts were going on in my head during each song. And when I say, it's what was going on in my head, I mean it...this is your fair warning. This is real, competitive, immature Cynthia in her endorphin-induced running raw state. She is sometimes intolerable.
It was misty/rainy morning, but the temperature was low and I was pumped and feeling adequately prepared for the race. My goal going into the race, was in fact NOT to go all out like past half marathons, but to actually slow my pace down 30-45 seconds so as to reserve more energy at the end, but also to more closely imitate my full marathon pace (somewhere between 8:30-9:00 min miles).
Enjoy!
| 1 | Get ur Freak On | WHATEVER YOU SAY MISSY!!!! Ok just kidding, can't freak it out yet. Shoot this is a great jam. Must. Control. Hype. Keep with the 8:24 group! | Missy Elliot |
| 2 | Thrift Shop | ...was that Damian's voice at the beginning of this song? | Macklemore & Ryan Lewis |
| 3 | Livin' it Up | Jeff Atkins 4ever. | Ja Rule |
| 4 | Bad Romance | So many cool outfits in this music video. | Lady Gaga |
| 5 | Lotus Flower | I am sOoOoOO zen, I am just chillin with the pacer and will remain calm. | Radiohead |
| 6 | Story of My Life | Okayyyyy Juanny with the sleeper song that is actually very motivating! So motivating, in fact, that I think I will sneak ahead of this pacer just to get a bit out of this claustophobic pack... | One Direction |
| 7 | Sweet Nothing | Ok I've officially abandoned the 8:24 pacer group. I should be able to keep to 8:15 no problem! | Calvin Harris |
| 8 | Africa | As the opening drums of this song began, we enter a big prairieland. Definitely the only large open space during the race and also the closest to a desert I was gonna see! The rain continued to fall, and I am certain that these rains, like those down in Africa, were also blessed by Toto. | Toto |
| 9 | Problem | | Ariana Grande |
| 10 | Man On Fire | I'M A WOMAN ON FIRE. I just passed the first place woman as she was on her way back from the turnaround point and I yell GIRL POWER and she gives me a little grin. | Edward Sharpe & Mag 0s |
| 11 | Rabiosa | RA-TA-TA. | Shakira |
| 12 | Pimp Juice | lololol let's slow it down for a second. Also, at this point I've counted 17 women ahead of me as they all had to pass me at some point after the turnaround. Top 10 women get a cash prize. Can I get in on that?? | Nelly |
| 13 | Safety Dance | Joy. Joyjoyjoy. If there's one song that was going to make me abandon the race and have a one person dance party, it was this one. | Men Without Hats |
| 14 | Semi-Charmed Life | This was right at mile 6! From what I've seen, this is typically a point in a half marathon where people lose their steam because they've been going too fast, and the reality sets in that they still have over half the race to go. I counted not one, not two, but SIX men that I passed between mile 6 and mile 7. Yes, they were all men that I passed and in fact there was a long string of men slowing down at this point. My theory is that so many of them slowed down because they were driven by their enormous egos early on in the race and naively believed they'd be able to sustain it. The women (more intelligently) stuck with a generous pace and were able to sustain it, if not increase it :D Anyway, so I was passing some men at this point, and the fifth man, felt me creeping up on him, looked over his left shoulder to see me approaching, and proceeded toward the center of the trail, impeding my ability to pass him easily. EXCUSE ME? I still prevailed, just in time for Stephan Jenkins to belt out his final "goodBYYEEEEEEEE" in this 90s jam. :) | Third Eye Blind |
| 15 | Home | Cannot WAIT to be home in dry clothes and taking a nap. | Edward Sharpe & Mag 0s |
| 16 | Nookie | And eating a cookie. | Limp Bizkit |
| 17 | Hey Brother | Back to zen, thinking about my family <3 | Avicii |
| 18 | Prieta Linda | Oh dear, this song is quite the departure from my previous songs!! ...but STILL surprisingly motivating!! So many memories of cringing when my mom would request this song to be played over the radio for my birthday. Now as an adult I can appreciate the love and thought that went into that semi-embarassing song request. Had to chuckle a bit at this song. | Los Fabulosos 4 |
| 19 | Don't Stop Me Now | AH! Finally some women in sight! I gotta knock off seven of them if I want some cash prizes. Also it's almost mile 9 so it's time for my energy chews. Chews + Queen = passing up more runnners, right??? | Queen |
| 20 | Lonely Boy | One woman passed! | The Black Keys |
| 21 | Call Me Maybe | I instinctively had to turn my volume on max for this jam. Totally worth the potential hearing loss. | Carly Rae Jepsen |
| 22 | Work B**** | I'm trying to do what you say Britney!!! | Britney Spears |
| 23 | Al Anillo | | J. Lo |
| 24 | Marry the Night | Two miles left. Better rev up the jets and prepare for launch, baby girl. | Lady Gaga |
| 25 | Not Gonna Get Us | lolol fest. Another woman passed! She's "not gonna get us"/me! | t.A.T.u. |
| 26 | Dramas y Comedias | Last mile and final (long) straightaway, and just in time my fav old school Spain jam comes on. I see one woman ahead, running casually with a man next to her. JETS IGNITE!!!!! | Alaska |
| 27 | Tunak Tunak Tun | Let's sprint it out baby!!! Oh shoot, I forgot we have to grab a flag and wave it at the finish line. That's okay, the pictures showed like a small, 6 inch-flag...HOLY F. THAT POLE IS TWO FEET LONG. WHAT AM I TO DO WITH THIS? Well, I can't have the flag holding me back and making me less aerodynamic so let me just wrap the flag around the pole and keep it in line with my arm swing... Oh. Yes, I do look like I'm preparing to joust that woman in front of me. | Daler Mehndi |
I sprinted it out but did not beat the woman in front of me, nor did I come even close to getting a top 10 cash prize :( I think I did still manage to wave the flag at the finish line but it was definitely not a cute "let me wave this all girly like and pretend I'm not tired" pose. Rather it was more of a grimace + "I'm exhausted so please take the picture and let me sit down" pose. Will share the photos (maybe) once they're available.
I am pleased that for the most part I did stick to the 8:15 pace, as evidenced by my mile split times here! And I was able to end the race faster than I started, which is always a challenge. My overall pace according to my Nike app was 8:05/mile, significantly slower than my past 7:45/mile pace at half marathons, but it felt SO MUCH BETTER.
Overall the lesson in this race was that control is the name of the game. If I would have sprinted out like a bunch of those men noobies in the first six miles, I too would have been miserable and watching people pass me left and right. Pacing myself and planning on going slow to start has always been a big challenge for me. For the marathon, it is going to be so hard to resist wanting to start out fast with all the stimuli that will be around! Even now I'm the complainer of our 9:00 pace group (my complaints are in the form of "questions") because I want to go faster. I need to learn to take a step back and make sure I'm able to finish hard rather than drag my worthless body across the finish line (which is what I did in my first two half marathons).
Now to make sure these lessons are absorbed before the big day comes...
76 days til Marathon Day!
No comments:
Post a Comment