Get in Gear Half Recap

On Saturday, I ran the Get in Gear Half Marathon.  When I went to the packet pick-up, I was surprised to learn that it was the 38th annual race - that's got to be one of the longest standing races in the Twin Cities!

Before I delve into the recap, I'll cut to the chase - I managed to PR at this race by over 2 minutes!  My official time was 1:52:14.  I didn't go into this race expecting to 'race it' or PR it and I will definitely admit that it wasn't my smartest race, but you live and learn! Here's a recap!

The night before the race, Phil and I had a quiet night in.  We made roasted broccoli and this pasta recipe but skipped the mushrooms as someone (ahem, Phil) won't eat mushrooms. It was a simple, delicious recipe and one I'd definitely recommend. 

The race didn't start until 9 on Saturday so I got to wake up without an alarm on race morning, which is always nice.  I had my usual breakfast of oatmeal with banana and 2 cups of coffee and then headed out the door to take the lightrail to the race.  I'm so glad I could get there via public transportation!

I was kind of over dressed for this race but I don't like using bag drops and I didn't want to be cold waiting for the race to start!

The race course was along the Mississippi River so it was a pretty scenic route.  I would describe the course as rolling hills with 2 decent climbs/descents (which you can see below in the elevation profile).

Here are my splits:

Mile 1 - 8:30
Mile 2 - 8:11 (WAY too fast)
Mile 3 - 8:20
Mile 4 - 8:19
Mile 5 - 8:10 (WAY too fast again, but this mile was mostly downhill)
Mile 6 - 8:20
Mile 7 - 8:19
Mile 8 -  8:25

* This is the point where the pace I ran during the first part of the race started to catch up with me and my pace started to suffer.

Mile 9 - 8:37
Mile 10 - 8:40

* At this point, I knew that I would PR as long as I ran sub-10 minute miles, which I knew I could do.  I played a lot of mental games during the last 3 miles and told myself things like:  You just have to run 5k more!  Only 18 more minutes of discomfort!  Less than 9 minutes of discomfort!

Mile 11 - 8:32
Mile 12 - 8:50 (there was a big climb during this mile)
Mile 13 - 8:53
The rest - 8:40

I was SO happy to be done when I crossed the finish line.  I grabbed my medal and hobbled down to the area where they had the food, which was SO FAR from the finish line which I think is a poor decision for the race set-up...


I am very happy with my time, but I made a couple of big mistakes during this race.  First, I went out way too fast.  I shouldn't have been running 8:20 or faster miles in the beginning!  Second, I didn't eat anything during the race besides one cup of water and gatorade at each water stop.  They did have some gu's at around mile 10 but it was a brand I haven't had before and I didn't want to risk having GI issues in the final part of the course.  I know some people can do halves without any fuel besides water/gatorade, but I was reminded on Saturday that I am not one of those people.  I felt nauseated and had to force myself to eat afterwards, which is a telltale sign of not properly fueling.  Lesson learned - next time I will bring gu's.

I checked the race website for my final results when I got home for my results and was really happy with my stats!

But all in all, I'm very proud of my time and I am excited that I'll be going into marathon training with a great level of fitness!