Presque Isle Half Marathon Race Recap

So it's been a while. I'm working 54 hours a week at the RTF and continuing marathon training. I was also mentally down for a bit, and didn't have it in me to write. But now I'm back and ready to keep this blog rolling!

This past weekend, my friend Steff and I took on the Presque Isle Half Marathon. I used this as a training run, and she wanted to check this Half off of her bucket list. She happily let me stay in her guest room the night before, and we headed out at 3:30am to make the 2 hour drive to Erie.

The weather conditions were perfect for a 6:45am start time. It was mid-60s at the start, and in the mid-70s for the finish. Parking was easy, and we even got to the bathrooms before the HUGE line. I have to say, I was pretty disappointed in the lack of bathrooms at the start line. They did however, have restrooms throughout the race - though I didn't need them.

This was a training run for me; my schedule was set for 16 miles. My plan was to do a 1 mile warm up, the race, and then a 2 mile cool down. It was actually fun just to mosey around the start line and take a snapshot of the beach (lol, and forget to pause my watch) as a way to get my legs moving after a 2 hour drive.

horizons over the bay

We headed to the start line, which was super confusing because they didn't have pacers. I understand that this race wasn't huge, but holy moly, I didn't know where to place myself. The lack of guidance for placement, along with a narrow start line, made for a really difficult start. It seemed to spread evenly about a half mile in. People were still varying in pace around me for the first couple miles - I passed some people, and some people passed me. I believe this was also due to the enormous bathroom line that people were still in when the gun went off and people were trying to catch up.

the business!!!

The path was the left lane of the road, which was actually a reasonable width once everyone thinned out.  The spectator crowd was small, but each one had lots of energy just pouring for everyone. Some people were on skates and bikes and would go ahead, wait to cheer people on, and repeat to the finish. There were also 11 water stations... which were all but one only giving out water (despite their website saying they had Gatorade stations).

I changed the settings on my watch so that I could see the instantaneous pace and the lap pace side-by-side. This was a huge game changer so that not only could I see where I am for the current mile ("live in the mile you're in") but also see if I'm dragging down and by how much. This helped me stay more consistent with my pacing. I noticed that I was hovering pace in the 7:30s-7:40s for the first 8 miles (except mile 1 - which I felt was greatly due to the whole traffic situation mentioned above).  My hips felt it, but I focused on my breathing and the music more than what I was feeling. I kept up with a group of women and men for a couple miles, and then...

how my watch looks on the first face

My body said: NOPE. My hips were aching; my quads went numb. Quads going numb?! Never felt that before... I thought about calling it quits and retreating to my LSD pace. But I asked myself "How bad do you want to do well at the marathon?" I eased up on pace, walked the remaining water stations, but strove to keep strong.

Mile 11 seemed to trip a lot of people up. It was the slightest hill, but it was long. I was slowing down, and so were the people beside me. I asked a Steff and her friend Matt (who averaged 7:00 miles) about their race, and they concurred that Mile 11 was a doozy. Mile 12, I pushed myself to finish strong - because there was only 1.1 miles left.

Everyone else did too. I held fairly strong in the group of people I was around. There's a turn in the path to the runway of the last half mile. A woman was coming behind me, as we were both picking up speed. I raced her, but as she was coming beside me, we grabbed each others hands, and promised to finish strong together. Not even .15 left, and my stomach went upside down, backwards, twisting and turning. I waved her forward and slowed to a more reasonable "fast" pace to the finish.

I hit a new personal best at 1:41:38.5. The conditions really set the playing field perfectly for a PR. I feel much more prepared, and yet simultaneously just as nervous for the marathon coming up on the same course. I was kinda disappointed that the website we would get finisher medals, and instead we got license plates? oh well.

We chilled out/napped on the beach before heading home. If you are ever driving to Erie from Pittsburgh for a day trip, and maybe even a run, you definitely have to get lunch/dinner at North Country Brewing in Slippery Rock, PA. Such good food, great portion sizes, and refreshing brews. Steff, Joe (Steff's husband), and I definitely treated ourselves to a very deserved lunch on our way home.

So that's it! 3am wake up, drive/nap, run, drive/nap, eat,  and drive home all before 2pm. Phew!

Post in the comments some great runs you find in the summer and runs that you make part of your training towards a bigger race!