Race Recap: How I Got My Half Marathon PR

I've had a lot of bad luck when it comes to race days, but this past weekend I finally had a race where everything went my way, including breaking my almost 5-year-old half marathon PR (personal record). I guess these pants really are lucky!

Here's a recap of race weekend:

Scott only worked a half day on Friday so we could head up to New Braunfels early for our mini family vacation. Our first stop was my packet pick-up, and I loved the shirt! I even slept in it, and then wore it on race morning because it was so comfy. I'm not sure if you can tell by the picture, but it says "running with purpose" on the front since the money raised from this race went towards orphanages and adoptions. After the packet pick-up we went to Chili's for dinner, picked up a Redbox, and then headed back to our cute timeshare to relax. 

 As far as exercise goes the week before the race, I stuck to my taper plan perfectly! 

Here's what I ate the day before the race (to the best of my memory):

Breakfast: Smoothie with 1 C. almond milk, 1/2 banana, 1 C. frozen antioxidant blend fruit, and about 2 tsp. of chia seeds. + 2 rice cakes with almond butter and honey.

Lunch: 2 red potatoes and 2 cornflake chicken tenders with BBQ sauce and honey mustard. + 1 rice cake, activia yogurt, and 6 tootsie rolls.

Snack: Fun Size M&M's, some sour chewy things, and a couple of B's fruit snacks. (Gotta love the Halloween candy laying around the house.)

Dinner@Chili's: Too many appetizer chips with salsa :) Margarita grilled chicken with rice and cinnamon apples. 

Late night snack: Clif Bar.

Race morning breakfast: 1 rice cake with peanut butter and honey.

As usual, I didn't have the best night's sleep the night before. It consisted of a couple bathroom breaks, an itchy mosquito bite, a loud breathing husband, being too cold, and having dreams that I slept in and missed my race. Ha ha. 

It was incredibly convenient for both me and my boys to stay in Scott's mom's timeshare that happens to be right across from the starting line. The boys got to sleep in, and I didn't have to deal with traffic or parking on race morning. I walked out my door too see a line of cars waiting to park, and started my ten minute warm-up jog. It was chilly before the start, but it was the perfect running weather. 

I really had no idea what to expect for my time in this race because I hadn't raced in awhile, and I heard the course was hilly. I'm not used to hilly courses because in Utah, where I'm from, most of the races are downhill since they usually start towards the top of a mountain. I hoped I would at least be able to get under 1:40 and there was even a tiny part of me that wanted to get a PR. However, I almost didn't want to admit that, because I didn't want to be disappointed like I was after the Boston Marathon for missing my PR. My main goal was to follow these racing tips from Run Less Run Faster, and run my best without killing myself so I could enjoy the rest of the day. 

I reminded myself about 100 times not to start out too fast, and my first mile was successfully my slowest. 

Here are my mile splits:

Mile 1: 8:00

Mile 2: 7:26

Mile 3: 7:18

Mile 4: 7:00

Mile 5: 7:00

On both mile 4 and 5 I sped up when I saw the mile marker because I wanted to try to get at least one mile in the 6's, but I ended up getting to the mile marker at exactly 7:00. I was pushing it, but at the same time trying to conserve energy for the hills at the end. 

Mile 6: 7:18

I started my music, and ate a vanilla Gu during mile 6.

Mile 7: 6:50

Mile 8: 6:50

For mile 7 and 8 I missed one of the mile markers, but those two miles combined were about 13:40, so that's a 6:50 average for both miles. 

Mile 9: 7:21

Mile 10: 7:35

Mile 11: 7:03

Mile 12: 6:55

I knew at this point by my mile splits that there was a really good chance I was going to get my PR. I hadn't dared to look at my total time until this point though. When I had less than a mile to go I finally switched screens on my watch to see what my overall time was. I was at 1:33, so I really pushed it at the very end to make it under 1:35 (my old PR from January 2007).

Mile 13: 7:15

.1: 40 seconds

My final time was 1:34:31. I ended up beating my old PR on a harder course, and I had the biggest smile on my face when I crossed the finish line. It felt so good to finally have a good race.

As soon as I crossed the finish line B said, "Yay! Good job! Mommy done. Jump on Octopus!" They had some bounce houses at the finish line for the kids and Scott told B he could jump on them as soon as I finished, so he was just as happy as I was when I finished. :)

I love how supportive Scott is of my running addiction. I thought it was cute that he wore the running shoe shirt I bought him to my race. 

Instead of finisher medals, they gave out cool bracelets which were made by children in Haiti with Haitian currency. I really love that bracelet and would much rather have that than a finisher medal. 

After a long, hot shower we went out to eat at Cracker Barrel and did a few hours of shopping at the outlets. 

We made it back just in time for a church Halloween party and some trunk-or-treating! 

My cute frog, and handsome prince. B was too busy getting a head start on Halloween candy eating to look at the camera.

I've been wanting to be a witch for Halloween for a long time now. It might have something to do with my love for Hocus Pocus.

 I hadn't been a witch since I was 4, but I knew I had to be a witch this year when I saw these shoes at Cracker Barrel. This is probably the first of many Halloweens that I'll be sporting these sweet shoes. 

Happy Halloween everyone! I'm off to eat some tamale pie and then it's trick-or-treating time!!