Maine Half Race Report

Maine Marathon/Half Marathon day! It’s no secret that I love this race. I know last year I posted a history lesson on my participation in this race through the years. At the beginning of this year I had intentions of running the marathon, but my lack of training early season soon squashed that idea. I still wanted to run so I signed up for the half.

Again, coming into this race I was in no shape to actually race it, but I figured it would be a nice training run with a lot of company!

Being I wasn’t racing, I saw no harm in hiking on Saturday (see my previous post). So, Saturday morning I did a 3 hour hike. Saturday afternoon my back was getting tight and I was feeling it in my glutes and quads. Huh, that’s not ideal. I hit the ibuprofen, dug out my heating pad, and went to bed early. The heating pad did wonders for my back. Sunday morning I get up and am real tight in the quads but my back feels better. More ibuprofen.

Pre-race wasn’t really anything. I basically jogged from my car that was parked up by Sullivan Gym to the start. I then tried to stretch out my quads as best I could, but they were sore. Ugh. I try to position myself back a little at the start so I wouldn’t get caught up in the start of the race. National Anthem then we’re off. About two miles in I’m not feeling good. I’m tight and I’m sore and then the negative self talk starts. Can I quit? Yeah, I think I’ll just quit. I could just turn around and jog the two miles back to the start and be done with this. I keep having the conversation in my head and then I hit mile 3. My splits aren’t that bad. I thought I would just come out and run 8-8:15s, cover the distance, and log a nice long run. So far all my splits are sub 8.

Alright Robin, enough of the negative self talk. This is what you have been working to overcome the past two months!!!! Think positive, suck it up, and just run!!!! I tell myself right then there will be NO mile splits over 8 minutes. Not one. Here we go …

Mile 1 – 7.55
Mile 2 – 7.39
Mile 3 – 7.39
Mile 4 – 7.36
Mile 5 – 7.43
Mile 6 – 7.48
Mile 7 – 7.37
Mile 8 – 7.50
Mile 9 – 7.30
Mile 10 – 7.31
Mile 11 – 7.56 (that was cutting it a little too close!)
Mile 12 – 7.37
Mile 13 – 7.47
Last .1 - .45

Final time 1:40.59.

At the end of the day, I was very pleased with my efforts. Although I am paying for it! I hobbled around my house all afternoon and evening and my quads are still very sore this morning. BUT, the feeling of fighting through the negativity again makes it all worth it. Little by little I am fighting my way back to having that competitive mindset that I lost somewhere.