New Year’s Double – Day One

Well, the day finally arrived for our first ever double race weekend! Ok, we might have done a 5k and a half marathon relay in the same weekend back in March, but that doesn’t compare to back to back half marathon.

As we mentioned before, Michael & Brent were both coming out with us for this day of the race.  We showed up to the race relatively unprepared.  Neither of us had done a good job of having a good breakfast, Teal didn’t have any food for during the race and we both had forgotten gloves.  We stood around talking to running buddies until the last minute when we decided maybe we should go ahead and get in our corral.

Teal keeping warm before the race got started

Teal: I had no idea how day one of this weekend would go and really had very little expectations of anything good happening.  Being relatively new to running I had no idea how fast or easily endurance for a half marathon is lost and how well my other types of cardio had kept up my endurance.  I really didn’t know if this would be a holy mess of walking or not.

Beth:  I had no idea what to expect for this weekend.  I’d run a grand total of 14.3 miles since the marathon.  Most of the runs were on the treadmill and I kept noticing a pain in my foot which played a major role in my lack of running.  I just wanted to complete day one without walking at all.

Teal:  Prior to the race we had met up with Brian & Heidi and had discussed running together.  For the first few miles of the race all four of us did and kept up a pace faster than I had expected.  The running was not coming as easy as before, but it was not bad.  My foot was definitely feeling the pounding and I compensated by running more to the outside.  Not really a good thing, but it worked for that time.  Brian and I were basically running side by side behind Beth and Heidi because on the course you couldn’t run more than two people wide.  We chatted with them, waved at all the runners we knew and seriously had a good time.  We started to lose ground between Beth and Heidi and decided to try and keep them in our sight, but that ended up failing.  The race was entertaining based on the simple fact that we knew so many people out there.  It passed time to look for runners we knew and cheer them on.  The out & back loop made it super easy to see people three and four times.

Thanks to Michael for this picture! Brian & Teal on their way back in from their first loop

Beth:  Just as we got started I realized I had left my headphones in my fleece that I’d passed off to Brent.  So of course as we run off I yell that too him. 🙂 Before we even made it a half mile I had to stop and go the bathroom so he found me as I was exiting and handed off my headphones to me.  But in that short period of time I figured if we were running with Heidi and Brian I would not really need my headphones at all.  After my pit stop I caught up to the three of them to carry on!  Thanks to Heidi’s veerry colorful outfits it wasn’t hard to find them again.  Once I had my headphones in my hand I knew I wouldn’t actually end up using them at all.  Since the course was a loop there were people to see out there and had my running buddies with me to chat with!

Teal:  We hung back and ended up getting right in front of these two guys from Rockwall who seriously pushed our pace.  We ended on average at a 10:30ish pace, but when we ran with these guys it was about 10 minutes or better.  They ran right on our heels, which has never happened to me before it and it kind of made me nervous.  I couldn’t decide if they wanted to pass us or not.  They just kept talking to us about running and all the races they had been at and what not.  At one point the guy was like “this is a good pace” and I started to feel more comfortable about the face that that pace was where they wanted to stay.  We slowed a little because I felt less pressure now and then they ended up passing us just to wind up back behind us again!  Clearly they were determined to hang and chat.  Oh, and if you haven’t noticed there was a lot of chatting in this race.  Way more than ever before.  I even only ran with one ear phone in and really never listened except to get mileage updates (I kept losing track of the mileage though).  This made time fly and I really didn’t feel much during all of the stories.  By the time we stopped talking with them we were already around mile 9 or 10.  In my head I was like – Really? We are here already, I’m not totally dead, haven’t walked and all the pain is manageable! Score!

On the back part of the out & back course! Photo courteousy of Lesley J. also known as @RacingItOff

Beth:  I can’t even remember now all of the things Heidi and I discussed out there.  We did randomly enough discuss pregnancy weight.  Where that topic came from – yah, I don’t know! Ha  We just enjoyed seeing people out there.  Cheering them on, receiving cheers from them.  Also me feeling stupid because I missed Mama C’s hand when she tried to high five me. Hahaha  I made up for that later!  But somewhere around the middle of the race I noticed my knees were aching and my feet were hurting and I knew I should have trusted my gut – buy new shoes before this half marathon!  I didn’t and knew all of that pain was a result of it.  It’s very rare that I get knee aches and foot pain.  And I told myself that I would not be running the next day’s race in my same shoes which happen to be the same ones I ran White Rock Marathon in – they have to be tainted!

Teal:  By around mile 10 I was starving.  I think my expectations of not making it were kicking me now.  I wanted to eat!  I started to grab whatever was available from the volunteers.  Which ended up being a handful of gummy bears and pretzels and a jolly rancher during the last 3 miles.  I am in LOVE with gummy bears for fuel now!  It settled my stomach and passed the time to make it through!

Beth:  Since I wasn’t running where I could hear mileage updates from my Runkeeper app and Heidi and I got separated somewhere in mile 10 I was having a hard time keeping straight what mile I was on exactly.  And since we had been chit chatting a lot I really only paid attention to the times Heidi updated me on what mile we were at.  Plus there were signs out on the course for the marathoners, half marathoners and 5kers and I kept getting them all mixed up! Ha

Teal: Once we hit the 12 mile mark I was so excited! I never thought I would make it that far with this foot and the lack of running.  We crossed the finish line with a 2:16 something time.  Seriously not bad considering everything! I would not have made it had I not had Brian out there to run with me!  Mentally I was already done with the race before I got there and any kick just came from someone running next to me.

Beth:  Those last 2 miles and change I was just ready to get to the finish.  I was excited because I figured I could still make it across the finish line in under 2:15.  This would be my slowest half marathon time ever, but that didn’t matter to me since I was taking on a new challenge this weekend!

Teal:  I crossed the finish line and that is when the pain rushed up.  My left knee hurt so bad that I was sure I would pass out.  I didn’t look up and just sat on the edge of the medical truck.  I was grabbing my knee; it was seriously a pain I had not felt in a long time.  One time at my house I bumped my knee on a desk and ended up passing out due to the pain, this was similar.  I laid down on the ground, Beth got me ice and then held my hand to try and divert the pain!  I did not know how long I would be able to stand it.  I am not sure how long I was down there but all I wanted to do was go home and make it go away.  We got up and walked slowly to the car, iced on the way home, at home, and then again at night to try and calm whatever was happening.  All to get up and do it again the next day.

Results

Teal: 2:16:19

Beth: 2:12:18

Our first half of the New Year's Double medal!