Hey nerds. It's been a while. This is a long one so buckle in.

Race Information

• Name: DRC Half
• Date: November 6, 2022
• Location: Dallas, TX

Goals

Splits

Tragic Backstory

I started getting into running towards the end of college 2015-2016. That was also around the same time that I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, kind of annoying tbh. Near the start of grad school I joined AR and started taking it more seriously.

During that time frame my PRs were: 20:03 5k (kill me), let's not talk about how bad I am at 10ks, 1:38:42 half. A couple years later, I ended up with some shin splints that just would not go away. Ended up spending about a year and half not being to run and just playing injury bingo while in PT.

Training

I'm a time based runner because it's the correct thing to be and I will die on this hill.

In June I ran the DX2A half in Michigan and came in just under 1:45. After that race I had been planning on just upping my running to around 7 hours total a week and doing smaller races whenever the feeling struck me.

This is also the year that I turned 30. I was originally planning doing 30 miles on my birthday, however, my gf's friend was getting married in Dallas the same weekend that /u/aewillia's club in Dallas was having a half. So she suggested that I do the half and apparently that's all it took to convince me.

I treated the build up to the race mostly the same as I would have just base building because I know what works for me now to keep myself healthy. Coming out of the June race I was comfortable around 5.5 hours a week and I like to build in 4 week cycles that look like:

And then upping by 30 minutes the next 4 week block. It's a long build but it works for me both mentally and physically.

For this cycle I peaked at ~7.5 hr for one week (because remember I'm a time based runner and didn't just do that to get to 50 mpw). The cycle started with blocks of 6.5hr and had a little less than two blocks of 7hr weeks, because of travel and taper.

Now let's talk about workouts. I like running with a Stryd and stealing workouts from there. I also really like the fast finish long runs that Pfitz does. So I did a bastardized version of those things. Most weeks I would do a fast finish MLR (90 minutes of total running, 75 easy/15 hard)and an hour or so long workout. Workouts were picked in a general structure such that tempo was the focus early in the cycle and for the last couple weeks speed was the focus. But to determine what workout to do I would normally just browse the Stryd library and pick one that I like or one that seemed fun.

Since I was not going to run 30 miles on my birthday, just a few weeks before the race, I decided to do a solo 5k TT instead. I finished in 21:15. So that was my new benchmark for my fitness and half goals.

I had a lot of fun running over this cycle.

Pre-race

Since I'm a turbo nerd and use a Stryd, I really didn't have a big idea of what my splits would look like. I knew I was somewhat close to my pre-injury PR so I decided that should be my stretch goal with sub 1:40 a slightly more realistic goal.

Before the half I did in June, /u/aewillia got a pacing plan, using power, from /u/CatzerzMcGee. I'm shameless so I stole the plan and it was perfect. So it was a no brainer to just use that pacing plan again. I don't want to leak /u/CatzerzMcGee's genius since he's a coach but it's basically 4 5ks split to start easy with a power cap and then gradually increase over the race.

I used to get REALLY anxious pre-race but recently I just haven't so I was interested to see how I would feel for this race. Felt perfectly calm and just ready to go. I think there's something about just having power numbers to hit that really helps me get out of my own head. I slept the best I've ever slept the night before a race.

/u/aewillia has been kind enough to let my gf and I stay with her (and her amazing dog Murray). She drove us to the race start and we warmed up together with some of her club friends. It was mid-50s and windy but the wind would be at our backs during the finishing miles.

Race

Lined up right next to /u/aewillia, right between the 1:35 and 1:40 pacers, even though she's faster than me because the race isn't big at all. Crossed the line, started my watch, and tried to settle in and not go out hard.

Not even a half mile into the race someone runs across the road up next to /u/aewillia and says "Hotty Toddy!". I'm socially awkward so I let /u/aewillia and her new best friend chat it up while I focus on my power targets.

Came through the first mile around 7:30 and I was comfy. I was a bit scared but I had settled. I also thought that /u/aewillia was sandbagging with her newfound friend because she was still around me.

Crossed mile two right around 15 minutes. I new that was close to PR and had the line "go hard or suffer the rest of your life" mulling around in my brain. If I'm nothing else, I'm a mentally strong runner. I'm good at suffering. So I decided that I needed to stay with it and suffer.

The other starting miles were a bit of a blur. It was cold and it was windy with the head coming directly into our faces. Every time there was a gust my stryd would yell at me about my power being too high. Hit mile 6 and /u/aewillia was right in front of me and fighting for top 10 overall female. I took my gel to keep my blood sugar from crashing and keep trying to stay in a groove.

I got a bit of the gel on my left hand and was laughing to myself about my hand was all sticky, "I'm like an MLB pitcher!"

Between 6 and 7 /u/aewillia split up. She was having a rougher day than I was and I just kept pushing. Dying but pushing.

Just before mile 8 there is the only hill on the course. It starts with a bouncy bridge and as soon as I hit the bridge I felt super dizzy and nauseous. Really considered quitting but, as some of you know, I'm fine puking so I just kept pushing. After the bridge it gets a bit steeper so I went into my "mountain goat" gear and passed a decent amount of people going up.

Mile 9 I started to feel like shit and apparently so did everyone else. I was catching people left and right. It was suddenly really hot. Texas wasn't fucking around after the sun came up. I somehow found myself in a small group of 4-5 guys around this time but the group didn't last long and I dropped them all. I remember thinking to myself around this time that my wheels were coming off. Looking back at the splits, that was a lie because I split 7:27 for two miles here.

There really weren't any water stops before mile 9 or so. Maybe two? At the next water stop I grabbed a cup. I could feel how cold it was but knew that it needed to go over my head because I was so hot. So I took my sunglasses off, dumped it over my hat, and had an immediate gasping reaction to the cold.

Mile 11 is when the wheels did start to fall off. I knew that I couldn't stop now and just thought to myself "You've run two miles so many times in your life. It's nothing." So I found a new pace that I could keep and kept pushing as much as I could. Still was passing a bunch of people.

Found another water stop. Did the same water dump as before, still was shocked by the cold water.

Mile 12 I looked at my total time and knew that most likely I wouldn't beat my old PR but I had to try. So I pushed as fast as my legs would take me. I made it to about half a mile to go and knew that I kept that pace I would puke and that it likely wasn't fast enough anyway, so I backed out a little.

Coming up to the finish I was still squinting to see the clock and saw that it had just ticked over to 1:39. Saw my gf right before the arch and told her that I wanted to die. Gave it whatever my legs had left and came in at 1:39:15.

Post-race

Sat on the curb and cried a little. I didn't know why I was crying but I was and was really thankful to have sunglasses on. /u/aewillia came in a little after me and then she and my gf came up to me and started asking me questions but I didn't answer because I didn't want them to know I was crying.

Having thought about it now it's because this is the first time post-injury that I've been near my old PRs again and that's really fucking exciting. Thanks for reading.

ps: Here are some bonus readings from my continuous glucose monitor before and during the race. I had high blood sugar going in so I didn't eat pre-race and just took the gel in the middle to make sure I didn't go low.

Made with a new race report generator created by me.