Half Marathon Preview Training Run - Complete!

Saturday I went to the course preview run for the Pittsburgh Half Marathon hosted by SCRR and Pro Bike + Run (one of our friendly neighborhood local running stores). The details were a little fuzzy leading up to the day as far as what exact parts of the course we were covering (originally I signed up for 10, which is what I was planning on running nonetheless, but then it looked like they were doing a 12-mile version, which eventually ended up being 11.5) but I was set in my plans to knock out 10 (my current distance PR) as best I could and call it a day.

One of the good things about having run the EQT Ten Miler last fall is that the course is largely the same, except backwards, and between that and other races and training runs downtown, I'd already run most parts of the course at some point, though not necessarily all together. This run would give me most of the final piece, Carson St and the infamously painful Birmingham Bridge to Fifth St (no longer Blvd of the Allies with the updated course).

My knee has progressed relatively well, all things considered, and while I might feel it a little during a run (especially with stops and starts), it calms down almost immediately after and doesn't give me any pain the next day, which is really reassuring! Last week was the first time since I injured it that I was able to complete all my planned runs. I'm still trying to be considerate of it, though, and Saturday was one of the warmer days so far this year, so I had no plans for any kind of speedy finish or anything like that. I knew of at least one person who was running 12:30(ish) and only wanted to do ten miles like me, so as long as we could find each other, we wouldn't have to go it alone.

This was actually pretty early in the morning before the big crowd showed up!

Mike was running as well, but at a faster pace, and he was opting for the longer distance. We had plans to meet another friend (from the internet!), but when 8 AM rolled around and 700+ people were milling around Market Square, we still hadn't found him so I headed off to the "party in the back" - where I could see someone holding a 13:00 pace sign. My new friend Abbie found me pretty quickly - she and I had discussed running just ten at our pace on the facebook group and so we agreed to go ahead with that plan, which involved splitting just slightly from the rest of the group and skipping a loop around the Children's Museum to pare down the distance.

The energy as we took off was insane, and I really loved the vibe of having a lot of awesome people to chat with as we headed up Liberty. Some of the people around me were ones I'd run with the weekend before, and so I happily announced that my knee wasn't hurting. When the ladies in front of me started cheering the pink-vested Planned Parenthood escorts, I was amused and happy to add my voice and thanks to the chorus. We cheerfully called out obstacles like fire hydrants, and shouted "speed work" as we dashed across a crosswalk as the light was about to turn, and generally were having an excellent time. If the half itself is as much fun as the first couple of miles were, I will be so happy.

We did split off from the group as planned, so while the atmosphere was somewhat muted with just the two of us, it turned out that Abbie and I are pretty compatible running buddies! I think we probably confused a lot of people who were running faster than us since we had skipped about a mile of the course, which meant rejoining alongside people who were in pace groups in front of us, but for the most part it went okay. I was practicing my fuel plan and we hit the first water stop (I took some Gatorade, since it worked okay for me in the 10 Miler) at just about the pace we wanted to be hitting. The first couple miles had been a little fast when we were moving but slowed down by stops at each light and crosswalk, so it mostly evened out, and the good thing about being around the faster people is that we pretty much always had someone to follow.

Before I knew it we were past both North Shore stadiums and on to the West End Bridge. My legs were still fresh enough that I was able to pay attention to the awesome view instead, and I was tempted to pull out my camera to snap a picture, but since I was mostly trying to stay out of the way of the faster folks who wanted to go around me, I didn't. The fountain at the Point is on now and it really was a beautiful early morning in Pittsburgh. I'm making a mental note to appreciate the views on each bridge I cross during the race - hopefully I will be able to remember on race day!

Then came the long slog up Carson Street. We took a little diversion to run on the path through Station Square for safety reasons, but I've never run there and was surprised at how nice it was - another gorgeous city view, too! There were at least a few cars and people on the sidewalk cheering us on, but nothing like it will be on race day, according to Abbie. Which is good - there's a small but tough hill in this section that did wear me down a little bit as we crossed the midway point of our run - and as you see the Hot Metal and 10th St bridges, you can't help but think about the behemoth that's coming once you turn off Carson.

We made our final water stop right before the bridge and I did take a bit of Gatorade as well as water this time. It was getting HOT and I could feel the salt crusting on my face for sure. After a very short breather we crossed the street with a small group of people (safety in numbers) and turned onto the bridge. And that's when I learned something about Birmingham. Most if not all of the bridges I've run before are hills, of course, but the high point of them is typically somewhere in the middle and so you really just have to get halfway and then cruise down the other side. Not so with Birmingham! Due to Pittsburgh's geography, the high point of Birmingham is about 80% of the way across when you're coming from the South Side.

Yikes! Now I understand why people complain about it. Normally I just kind of shrug off bridges but this one has the potential to be a real beast, especially when you've just run about 11 miles and want to be done. So I'm putting a mental pin in that and pondering strategies for race day. It will probably be my normal 'head down and power through it' but if everything I've been told is right, there will be a lot of crowd support in this area, and so I'm hoping that as someone who's basically an emotional sponge, I'll be able to use that to get through it even though I know my body might be pretty toasted at that point.

Here we skipped a little bit of the actual course in the interest of safety, so we didn't actually finish running all the way up the bridge and instead went down a ramp and turned under it and up a few blocks to Fifth. This is going to be tough, too! But at least I know where the hills are - our own little version of Heartbreak, I suppose - and can plan for them and hopefully can count on the crowds to help get me through it.

Cruising down Fifth leaves you with a downhill finish, and at this point I was pretty gassed. The sun was out and beating down pretty hard. We haven't had a lot of practice at running in the heat this year so far and eventually it won't be a big deal but right now it still definitely sucks. Thanks to having to walk some areas (stairs to/from the West End bridge, mostly) and a quick detour around the Tax Day march that was starting at City Hall, my watch was a little shy of 10 when we finally cruised back into Market Square, and so I did a big loop around it to finish off the distance (though the GPS map for this is kind of hilarious in its inaccuracy), at which point I spotted the friend from the internet that I was hoping to meet up with!

I waved and told him I'd be right back, then headed to the SCRR table to check back in so they'd know I didn't pass out on the course or anything (I joke, but turns out a couple people fell and/or got heat exhaustion, so...). Then I wandered back over and said hi, then dug out my phone to see where Mike was. He said he was nearby but I couldn't see him, so I chatted with internet friend a bit until Mike turned up again.

Sitting with internet friend and Mike (bonus feet of Tax Day protesters)!

It was about then that I started feeling a little bit dizzy and lightheaded and suspected a blood sugar crash was coming (something that's happened to me a few times during my more intense calorie counting phases). I asked him if he could grab me a cup of Gatorade and I popped the last Honey Stinger chew I had - I must have forgotten one while I was running as I'd planned on one each mile, but was glad I had it now - and found a spot to sit down. After that and a drink I was quickly feeling all right again, but it does leave me thinking about how I need to adjust my fueling strategy with not a lot of time to try things out at this point. The good news is that the actual course will have way more aid stations, so as long as I make sure my dinner the night before and breakfast morning of are solid, I should be okay to supplement my per-mile Honey Stinger with Gatorade, I think. I'll give that a try this weekend and see how it goes.

Yeah, I look even paler than normal here - yuck.

I still felt pretty weak and wanted to get something of some substance in my belly, and lucky for me there are a ton of great options nearby! Given that it was nearby, and that I will almost always take the opportunity to go there when it presents itself, Hello Bistro was pretty much a given (they have insanely comprehensive nutrition info which is LOVE, plus the food is awesome). Usually I am delighted to put together a seriously kickass salad but today my body was screaming BURGER AND FRIES. And so I gave it what it wanted!

Isn't that gorgeous? The Cider-Glazed Onion cheeseburger was FANTASTIC. And those fries are cooked perfectly - I was nice enough to share with Mike though I crammed more of them in my face than I would on a normal day.

On our way to Hello Bistro we spotted some people coming out of Prantl's with a box of tiny, delicious-looking pastries, so after filling our bellies we circled back and grabbed a few sweets of our own to split. Cookies and Cream, PB Chocolate, and Chocolate Toffee - all were delicious and really hit the spot! And not as big as they looked - these were about mini cupcake size.

So that was the preview run! I'm glad I did it, as now I can gather my thoughts for getting ready for race day:

• Race belt - I have two, a small Spi-belt and a larger pouch that was a freebie at the marathon kickoff training run. Turns out that between the two of them, I can fit either my phone and key OR my Honey Stingers and key, but neither can accommodate both my phone and Honey Stingers simultaneously, and those are the two things I want to have on race day. I ran with both belts Saturday, which felt pretty silly even if it worked. So I went shopping and ordered one of these, which will be here today so I can try it out. If that's no good, I guess I'll go with a larger Spi-belt, but the one I bought looked so perfect for what I need that I had to try.
• Fueling - I'll need to make sure to take Gatorade at each water stop to supplement my Honey Stingers. I'm also considering eating more the night before and morning of, but want to be careful that I don't go crazy. I ate a fair amount of garbage calories Friday night, along with a small amount of pasta, so more real food and less junk would probably be beneficial.
• Other than that, my gear is solid and I didn't have any problems. My HRM strap acted up for a little bit. dropping out to the point I thought maybe it was falling off again (it wasn't), but eventually it started working properly again.
• Pacing Strategy - with the late-stage injury, I need to figure out how I want to pace myself, especially knowing that there are a rough couple miles at 11 and 12. My 'A' goal was 10:15 miles which seems highly unlikely at this point. My 'B' goal needs just under 11:30 miles, which is probably attainable with race day energy, but I don't want to blow it all in the first 10 and have nothing left for the last 5K. I'd like to pull something off like I did for the Hot Chocolate 15K where I just keep getting progressively faster, but not sure how feasible that is now. Right now I'm thinking about starting with the 11:30 group and toughing it out if I can, and speeding up if I feel good.
• Caffeine - I want to cut back on this in the next couple of weeks just a little so that what I do take in on race day is more impactful. I'm pretty immune to the effects right now but don't want to change things too much.
• Pre-race prep - Mike and I made plans to pick up our bibs on Friday evening (as I'm also running the 5K on Saturday for the Steel Challenge) and do the expo that night so that we don't spend a ton of time on our feet Saturday. Friday night will be my traditional pre-race pizza since I'll be running the next morning. Saturday night we have a hotel near the start line and I've picked out a couple options for dinner, trying to find things that will sit well in my belly for the next day. 
• Race day plans - We'll be up early for all the ridiculous pre-run rituals and possibly taking advantage of SCRR pre-race hospitality if that's a thing (waiting for the email that confirms what we get access to on race day). We will definitely be taking advantage of it after the race, where I hear promises of ice cream and massages will await us at the finish line in addition to the normal goodies. Evan will help get us out of the hotel that day and then meet us afterwards so we don't have to drive ourselves around on wiped out legs. Wigle Whiskey is doing free bloody marys and boozy milkshakes for race participants, so I want to take advantage of that!

I think that's about it! I'm close enough now that I've started panicking about every minor ache and pain. My left leg is definitely ready for a break and I'm just trying to coax it across the line without any major blowups at this point. I think I stretched too much and made my achilles grumpy for a couple days (fine now) and yesterday I woke up with a random pain on the other side of the same knee that's been iffy. That one was coming and going yesterday but didn't bother me at all while running, and honestly I think I probably slept on it funny. This morning - knock wood- it seems fine? Bodies are weird, man. My ice packs and I are really good friends, though, and they go to bed with me every night and probably will until after the race...

Other than that, I was amused to see an article from the marathon's blog talking about visualizing your race, when that's exactly what I've been doing since Saturday. Between that and watching all the Boston coverage, last night it crossed over into my sleep, where I dreamed about running a marathon(!) while carrying a giant beach umbrella(?!). Brains - also weird. 

So that's where I am - yesterday I was talking about how there were only 19 days left and one of my co-workers said, well, at least that means in 20 days it will be over. And you know what? That's actually a comforting thought. I'm so incredibly excited, but still scared about how I'm going to do, and in some ways it will be a relief to be done. On the other hand, I'm already planning to find a fall race, so the circle never really ends. Onward!