Race Report- 2014 Frankenfooter 1/2 Marathon
So, lets start off with the fact that I completely forgot I had signed up for this race. Thankfully, I was at least trying to pick back up running, so I wasn’t completely out of running condition. With that being said, I still had a solid 25 days or so before the race when I realized I had to run a half marathon. Almost a month to train for a half? No problem!
The day started with a 4:30a wake up. The race was actually about a solid 50 min drive away and my good friend lived along the way, so I drove to her place and we carpooled there together. The weather was perfect. At the start of the race it was at least 55 degrees (that’s pretty damn cold for Florida), which is the perfect starting weather for an endurance race for me. Then again, it’s Florida, so you know it’s going to warm up.
My friend and I run at completely different pace’s. So I originally thought maybe I’ll run with her for 2 maybe 3 miles at her pace and then go from there. However, since I really wasn’t at the point where I would of liked to have been I decided to run 6 miles with her instead. It was a great 6 miles too! She ran pretty solid and I felt great. We both ran with music so there really wasn’t much talking, just enjoying the great weather and getting in another race!
After the 6th mile I really wanted to test myself and tried to run my typical race pace for a half marathon- a 9:30 min/mile. And I succeeded!
Metrics are my thing! I love numbers and this is why I will never run without my watch! The first 6 miles averaged out to a 11:58 pace while the last 7 was 9:12 min/mile. And my unofficial finish time was 2:18:54
Mile 12 is ideally where I want to be for the upcoming half marathon- 8:30 min/mile with a cadence of 144 and my stride being 1.15. However, I worked my ass off to get those numbers as my heart rate averaged at 187 and maxed out at 195! Especially it being mile 12 and I wasn’t really trained properly for this.
At the end of the day it was a great race. I got to spend some time with my friend, the weather was perfect, and I ran the race with a better time than I expected.
