Notes:
I PR’d! I think it’s rather good because I had barely run the month before this race; had exactly 5 training runs. LOL. Still, I’m treating this race as a training run for my bigger event in April — the Camp Pendleton Hard Corps Marathon. Before I forget, here’s what went right (in no particular order):
- Had proper nutrition: Every 30 minutes or so, I had 3 Jelly Belly SportBeans
- Stuck fairly close to the Intervals: Every 6 minutes, walked 1 minute
- Kept going on the gradual inclines/hills: I didn’t stop even if it hurt! LOL
- Ran with my sis! It’s amazing running with someone; you both push yourselves. I’ve raced with Bridget and her sis in the past and it helped so naturally, this helped, too. Come to think of it, I have done well running with other people I know. Sheryl — I’m deffo not leaving you at the SD marathon! I promise!
What went wrong (yes, there were stuff that I can improve upon):
- Train. LOL! Simple enough. Do the mileage. I’m letting myself off a bit easy for this one because as mentioned earlier, I’m counting this as a training run.
- Less accoutrements or plan better what to do with them; I lost a good 5 to 8 minutes with my running sleeves (removing them from my arms, keeping them in my running belt!) and refilling my water bottle whilst dropping a tablet of Nuun into it. Yep, that’s a maximum of 8 minutes I could’ve shaved off! I’m going to figure out a more optimal way to do so considering the Hard Corps Marathon (HCM) will have an aid/water station every 2 miles and not the usual one every mile
- Blazing sun and inclines; despite being rather cold, the sun got to me mid-race. That coupled with the “gradual” inclines makes for a rather laborious climb. I might want to incorporate some hill work and at least doing one run when it’s hot (HCM starts at 8:00AM; that’s a rather late start for a marathon with a 6-hour time-limit).
And now the numbers: Garmin results; Nike+ Results (see below)
N.B.
I should add that my average heart rate was 163 bpm. That’s not too bad considering it’s in the 70-80% zone with the benefits of improved aerobic capacity; optimal cardiovascular training… According to my watch’s manual, anyway! hehehehe.
