I love eating pasta the night before a race. I don’t know if the carbs actually help or it’s mental, but I like the tradition of it. We went to Osteria 832 for dinner last night. We started out with some sort of marinara and ricotta dip. It’s not on the online menu but it was delicious. For my entree, I got whole wheat penne with pomodoro sauce. I like this restaurant and have been here a few times, but basically the only thing I ever get is the pomodoro. Or mussels. I am not so adventurous when it comes to Italian food. After dinner, we went home. I worked on a playlist for the race and watched Jason change into a Halloween costume for a party he was going to. I was bummed that the party was last night, instead of tonight when I would have been able to go. Can you tell who he is supposed to be? He said about half of the people at the party knew and the other half had no idea.
I went to sleep around midnight but woke up again at 3 and couldn’t really fall back asleep until 4:30. So when my alarm went off at 5:35, I was not happy. That happens to me a lot when I’m running a big race. I figured a nap was in the plans for this afternoon anyway so it wasn’t a big deal.
The race started at 7:45 and we got there to pick up our numbers at around 7. Pretty much as soon as the race began, it started to rain. I had worn a visor and was really glad that I did. Aside from the rain, the weather was perfect. It was about 60 degrees out. I don’t know if I could have done the race in the rain if it was like 20 degrees cooler.
The actual race was pretty uneventful. The three of us ran the first 2-3 miles together. Then Joan and I ran the next two and after that, I ran by myself. Around mile 6, I had a GU. I think that I like GU better than Sport Beans or anything that you have to chew. I’m not good at chewing and running. Seriously. I was also eating Sport Beans during the end of race and had one or two moments when I almost choked on them.
This race was an out and back. It was nice though, because the back was shorter than the out. So when you got to the turnaround, it felt like halfway, but it was farther. It was also fun to see people you know running in the opposite direction. I saw a girl that I work with going back while I was still going out. Then as I was going back, I saw my friends that I came with and also another girl that I know.
I felt that I was making a decent pace, despite walking through all of the water stations, stopping to tie my shoe twice and jumping in puddles. Miles 10-12 seemed kind of rough. At that point, the end seems so close, but so far away at the same time.
I really, really wanted to PR. So, did I? The answer is I don’t know. I’m thinking that I did not, but it was close which is okay with me too. I crossed the finish line at 2:19 something (I am not what you’d call a fast runner!) and I just looked up my half marathon PR (which is this race) which is 2:16:30. They haven’t posted the chip time yet, but I don’t think that I crossed the start line three minutes after the race started. It would be nice if I did, but I don’t think so.
Running in the rain wasn’t so bad. Especially since this was on a trail and the trees sort shielded everyone. But waiting at the finish line for my friends was pretty miserable. It started to rain harder at that point and I was freezing. They came in about 12-15 minutes after I did and we went to pick up our shirts. Since the race did not start where it ended, they had school buses take everyone back to their cars. Let me tell you, waiting for that school bus in soaking wet clothing in the pouring rain was MISERABLE. We were so cold. Needless to say, I took a very long, hot shower when I got home.
I was messing around on Facebook and saw that Emily had posted that she made pumpkin pancakes. I decided this was exactly what I wanted. I used a whole wheat pancake mix (the name escapes me and I don’t feel like going into the kitchen to look it up) and added 1/2 cup of pumpkin and decreased the milk to 3 tbsp. This made the batter too thick, so I increased the milk some. Topped with pumpkin butter, of course.
Now, I’m off to be lazy. I deserve it! I can’t wait to find out my chip time. The suspense! And thank you everyone for your comments on my last post. It means a lot to me.