I got to the Frederick Fairgrounds almost two hours before the race started. Parking was a breeze, I had my cliff bar and Gatorade and... I had a lot of time on my hands before sunrise. I was starting to feel a little sleepy, so I had a 5-hour Energy. (Those of you on my relay team can stop groaning now.) I've taken 5-hour before a race on multiple occasions and know it dehydrates me - I planned on picking up a bottle of water near the start line, but never got around to it. I paid dearly for that oversight.
Within the first three miles of the race I knew I was in trouble - it was a lot more humid than I'd originally thought, I was sweating a lot, and I already had a very dry mouth. I somehow missed the first water stop but picked up a cup of Gatorade at the second water stop and felt better once I drank it. At this point I was pacing at around 8:15-8:30 miles - far faster than my usual 9:00-9:15 half marathon pace. I was listening to my legs and they felt fine - I'd run 10 milers at this pace and thought I could sustain it for the entire race. Wishful thinking at its finest.
I hit the six-mile marker around 53 minutes in. At this point I was double-fisting water and Gatorade at each water station and began to doubt my ability to keep my current pace.
When I arrived at the nine-mile marker around 1:23 I wasn't surprised - I could feel my pace slowing long before then. Despite my double-fisting, I felt extremely dehydrated and knew I should take a walking break soon. I promised myself I'd hold out until I hit the ten-mile marker, which I did at 1:33:58. At that point, the wheels fell off.
I walked 3/4 of a mile and as I walked I thought about what I would write. I thought of titling this post "The Frederick Half - Eating a Slice of Humble Pie" in reference to the mistakes I knew far better than to make and how I had to suck up my horrible time and wait until my fall races to do better. I made it to another water station, did my double-fisting thing, and set off on what I thought was a slow jog to the finish.
Then something odd happened.
I must have been running the last couple of miles faster than I thought because I PRed. While I didn't meet my sub-2:05:00 goal, I finished in 2:07:07 - my fastest half marathon time to date. So much for sucking up my horrible time.
The good: I PRed
The bad: I didn't hydrate properly before the race and was extremely dehydrated as a result
The ugly: I had to take a walking break. For the second time ever during a half. Clearly I'm disappointed, but if there's a silver lining it's that I finally listened to my body and took a break when I knew I should instead of pushing through and risking taking myself out of commission for the next few days.
On a more positive note, downtown Frederick was cute and the finish line festival was fun.
Downtown Frederick
The Finish Line Festival
A few additional notes:
- There are real restrooms at the Fairgrounds (where the start and finish lines are). This means flushing toilets, working sinks, soap, and paper towels. If these things don't excite you, congratulations, you have not spent as much time in race port-a-poties as I have. You should try to keep things that way.
- Other runners were surprisingly good about lining up by pace at the start line. This made the first few miles a lot less chaotic than those of most races.
- The race shirt isn't actually a shirt - it's a fleece lined sweatshirt. I love mine, and I'm the girl that never keeps race swag other than medals.
- Speaking of medals, if you run the Frederick Half and the Baltimore Half or Full, you get an additional medal for running the "Maryland Double." I got this medal last year and it had a massive crab on it. It was awesome.
- There's a hill at mile 13. Woof.
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