As I shared in my last post, I decided to take on some BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) for the second half of 2023. To help me go after these goals I also decided to hire myself a running coach. I was contemplating it when a strange sequence of social media moments connected me with a friend of a friend who is a coach. So with the help of my coach I trained through the summer and fall with a plan for my back to back races during October and my PR target race in November. 

Jp and I headed out for that October weekend to the coast of NC for Run Holden Beach, the 3rd of our 4 races in the Big Ass Medal series. I purposely took it very easy in that race. I was afraid I’d fall apart on day two with the fatigue from day one. I knew that my coach, CC, had given me a training plan to prep me for it. And I had followed the plan consistently. But I was still nervous. I finished the NC race in a pretty typical time for me of 2:36:52. Post race we went back to the hotel for showers and then got in the car to drive to Virginia Beach. We had paid to have our packets for the second race shipped to us in advance so that we didn’t have to stress about arriving before packet pickup closed. 

We arrived in Virginia Beach in plenty of time and were able to have some dinner near the hotel and get to bed early. Sunday morning we walked over to the start line in pretty chilly conditions. The race, the Crawlin’ Crab, was well organized with plenty of port-a-potties, music and energy at the start line. We got started running and the day just came together for me. I was feeling good and moving well. I knew I could push since I didn’t have another race the next day so after the first five miles or so I knew I was on a pace that could allow me to PR and figured I’d see what I could do. The goal was never to PR that weekend but sometimes you just have a good day. I crossed the line in 2:24:18, beating my 2010 PR by 10 seconds. That 10 second beat wasn’t necessarily much to shout about but breaking a PR that I’d set when I was 13 years younger felt pretty darn good. 

I continued my training and ran my November PR target race, the Richmond Half. Richmond is a great race. It’s well organized including their bag check, start corrals and street closures. They have amazing crowd support with various neighborhoods along the course vying to be known for having the best aid station.  I would definitely run this race again. 

I was nervous and did some warm up running (which I never do) to keep myself warm and to try to avoid needing to use the facilities during the race. My stomach had been giving me issues for months and exercise has always triggered my system to clear things out. I didn’t want that to mess with my race time. I felt like I had done all of the right things and was in a good spot when I got into the start corrals. Actually getting to the start line took longer than I expected as they were starting each corral at a certain time and we were quite a ways back. 

I won’t claim the day went perfectly. I was working hard. I think I’ve done a lot of my half marathons simply running the event. This time I was racing, albeit against myself. I knew what pace I needed and I just kept pushing. I did stop for a port-a-potty very early in the race. We passed the marathon start line and there were big banks of them. I already needed to pee and figured this was likely the only time I wouldn’t have to wait. I kept trucking and kept worrying about my pace. Jp and I leapfrogged a bit in the first couple of miles but then I lost him for good. 

I haven’t explicitly said this up to this point but I run using the Galloway method of run/walk/run intervals. I had done most of my training doing 60 sec run/ 30 sec walk but moved to 90/30 sometime in the month leading up to race day. I figured that if the intervals didn’t feel bad it would help me hold my pace and I think it did. I ran without walking for about the first mile. I often do that just to let the crowds and the chaos clear before I start my walk breaks. But once I reached that point I did my intervals consistently with the exception of a few times caused me to miss the beep that signals I should switch and wound up flipping my intervals. It generally became apparent to me pretty quickly that I was off since 90 sec and 30 sec are notably different. 

The crowd support along the course was fun with cheer zones and all sorts of drinks and snacks being handed out. There were pickles. There was pickle juice (which was not as good as I hoped). There was beer and shots (I did not partake). It was a party and much of the city seemed to be in on it. I did have to stop for a restroom in mile 7 and I did have to wait a bit, which I was not happy about. But I knew that feeling like I needed a restroom was going to mess with my head far more than losing a little time doing so. That mile was my slowest but only by about 10 seconds as I pushed hard to make up time thereafter. 

The finish of Richmond is a downhill and I kept waiting for it to come. It’s very late in the race, but you can’t miss it when you get there. I crossed the line fairly confident that I had made my goal but not wanting to declare a victory until I had the official results. So I accepted my medal and made my way out of the chute to try to find Jp. I did see him anywhere so I decided to go to pick up my drop bag and keep looking. Just after I retrieved my bag he called me and we were able to find each other in the crowd. We went to pick up our additional swag (a blanket and a hat) and then navigated the crowds of finishers who had stopped for pizza or beer. When we were most of the way through the park my phone dinged with my official results. I had done it! Yes, I technically broke my PR at the Crawlin’ Crab. But I broke it more officially at Richmond. 

So I set out to achieve two goals in the second half of 2023 and had successfully achieved both. So what’s in store for 2024? You’ll have to wait to find out.