Vermont City Marathon (Half Relay) - Run

Yikes. There was no doubt I went into this under trained because I had a horrible winter. Between tax season hours, stress etc and my tendonitis flaring up my longest run in MONTHS was 8 miles. So my plan was to head out at my 10k pace plus 15 (at around 9:30) and hold on for dear life.

Besides being under trained, the uncontrollable part that freaked me out the most was the weather. And my worst prediction came true. It was 70 and sunny - which doesn't sound that hot but when there is little tree cover and the spring in New England has been relatively cool, this was a freakin HOT event.

I set out sticking to my pace pretty good through 6 miles. Then between mile 7 and 8 there was a hill to bring you out of an out and back on a closed highway (blazing sun too). At the top of the hill I thought "ok, that wasn't so bad, I can get some time back." But clearly, I couldn't. Things began to get harder and I felt the wheels coming off. By mile 12 I just wanted it to end. The only thing going through my mind was "just keep moving." At mile 12.5 I "ran into" a friend running the full so we chatted for a bit before I wished him well and off he went. Then FINALLY at 13.1 I hit the transition area and my teammate jumped out in front of me to take the reigns. All I could say was "it's hot, stay hydrated."

edited to add: Did I mention that my time was 2:12? Which is, in fact, my PR from last fall. I guess that means it felt worse than it was!

I think I did everything I could. Everything was out of my control and I did the best I could.

DH was shooting for 3:25 but came in at 3:38. We rehashed the whole thing over and over again on the 4 hour car ride home today and we agree it was the weather. He was well prepared for the factors he could control.

The course was WELL organized and supported but the finish area was a cluster!!! I had a hard time getting anywhere because of the amount of people AND I couldn't even figure out where I needed to be.

My warm down ended up being walking back and forth for at least a mile (should have put my garmin back on for that) which actually was probably the best thing for me because my muscles were screaming anytime I stopped walking.


Running is bad for you.

(that's my mantra)


My family enjoyed the event so I'm sure I'll get another crack at it someday.