Race and recover
First, let’s talk about the race. Yesterday, I ran the Oktoberfest Half Marathon in Spring Lake, Michigan. The whole experience was a lot of fun, as Becky, my extraordinary faux fiancée, came along to cheer.
More stories of our fun adventure will show up in our joint blog at http://beckyanddarrell.wordpress.com. Yes, that was shameless advertising. Deal with it.
I was more nervous than normal on race morning. I think part of the nervousness related to the race itself, but a lot had to do with my right foot. I hadn’t really done any speed work in the three or so weeks leading up to the race, and had some trouble with the little bit that I tried. With that in mind, 13.1 miles of racing seemed a daunting challenge. Fortunately, it went okay.
As for the race, I went out fairly easy, with miles 2 and 3 being my slowest miles, 9:02 and 9:00 respectively. Otherwise, I kept my miles between 8:25 and 8:45. My last mile wasn’t great, but I kept the last 3 miles in the low 8:40s. At the finish, I accelerated to what I thought would be my finishing speed, passing a couple of folks. One of them accelerated and passed me again, though, motivating me to find another gear and sprint across the finish line. As I sprinted, I was surprisingly aware of the things going on around me. I noticed Becky smiling happily, I heard the announcer call my name (a first at an out-of-town race!), and I noted the clock was in the 1:53:00s. That last item prompted me to think, “Wow. The clock must be wrong.” Amazingly, it wasn’t.
Time: 1 hour, 53 minutes, 13 seconds
Age group: Men 30-34
Rank in age group: 14th of 16
Rank in gender: 101st of 156
Overall rank: 138th of 286
The time represents a personal record; I improved upon my previous best by 6 minutes, 33 seconds. The course was great, and the finisher award wasn’t a medal. Instead, I received a pint glass emblazoned with the race logo. Yay!
My quads were still sore on Sunday; given that I almost never have sore quads, that was slightly surprising. At the same time, though, I feel like I left everything out on the streets of Spring Lake. I still managed a 4-mile jaunt with Christina. We logged slow miles.
4 miles, 49:50, 12:27.4/mile
great job! is there ANYTHING better than a pint glass from a race? and of course then you are obligated to use it. i’d race every week if they gave pint glasses rather than t-shirts.
Thanks! At first, I was a little bummed about the pint glass. I’m not a fan of beer, and had gotten used to there being a medal waiting for me at the end of a race that was at least 10 miles long. When they gave me the pint glass, though, I realised it’s actually pretty cool. Becky took a photo of me posing with said glass. I’m looking forward to seeing it. Today, I did have a celebratory glass of chocolate soy milk in the glass.
As a side note, the race t-shirt was rather cool, too. I’ll post a link to it when I get my photo of that uploaded.
The photos of the shirt and glass are now posted.
funny. i’ve been gluten and lactose free for about a year, so i’m also without beer and am swigging the soy milk. a question, if you get a chance. when i get chunks in it, is it still ok to drink? as long as it’s been no more than a week or so since opening? i have childhood flashbooks of chugging expired milk as a kid so it kinda freaks me out. but is it ok otherwise? not wise to the ways of the soy yet. how can you tell if it’s gone bad?
also, does chocolate soy milk do the same trick as choco cow milk as post-long run recovery drink? i’ve been thinking about trying.
sorry. blah blah drone drone. you’re tired. go to sleep. congrats again on going sub 2 hours! good job!
I’m sorry to say that I can’t help you with the question about the chunks, as I’ve never had that happen. It’s supposed to be good for about a week. I’ll be honest with you, though — I pretty much don’t drink anything that’s chunky.
It does provide the same benefits as chocolate milk. It’s got the soy protein and the carbohydrates. My dietitian recommended it as a post-run beverage.
Thanks again for the kind words about the run. I’m pretty happy about the time.
I love your avatar, by the way. That rules.