My Birthday Race: 3M Half (It's all downhill from here)

Two years ago I started a new tradition for myself: the birthday race.  My birthday is on January 19 and falls in what some psychologists call "the most depressing week of the year." All those holiday bills are coming due, it is the dead of winter, and people start to realize that those New Year's Resolutions are just plain hard.  Being so close to Christmas, my birthday sometimes felt like an after thought, many times because I let it be an anti-climatic type of affair. This would mark my third birthday race and the second time that the race fell on my actual birthday.  The 3M Half in Austin has been on my list for a while, so when it fell on my birthday I knew that this would be there year to go and run it. Part of the fun in the birthday race is the group of frunners who come out and share the day with me.  I knew that taking the race on the road (on the same day as the Houston Marathon) would mean a smaller group to celebrate with, and I was lucky that Mama C and her husband John joined us for the weekend and for the race. 

A sweet downhill course and a great shirt

It was so beautiful and sunny when Mr K and I arrived in Austin.  The race forecast was darned near perfect and the course boasted a sweet net downhill -- happy birthday to me, indeed!  There are few things in running that I love more than a point-to-point downhill course.  The 3M Half Marathon is known for its crazy random race packet and this year did not disappoint.  We got everything from Scotch tape, to Post It Notes, to a full size knee brace, and my new favorite race shirt.  We feasted on a delicious pasta dinner with Mama C and John and their boys before heading back to the hotel for an early bedtime. 

3M brings the swag!

As predicted, the race morning dawned beautifully perfect for running -- 46 degrees, a slight breeze, and sunshine.  We had some drama getting to the race (ask me about that sometime...) and Mr K and I were in the restroom line when the starting gun sounded.  However, we barely noticed thanks to chip timing and an organized start line.  As has become a habit recently, I started my watch and did not look at it again.  I knew that I would want all those numbers later, but focused on letting my legs do what they were going to do that day.  Mr K and I ran together for almost all of the race, it was nice as it has been a while since that has happened.  We spotted the 2:05 pace group on the horizon and soon passed them.  We were eventually able to pick off the 2:00 pace group as well.  I had no idea how my time was going, but these were very good signs in my mind!

Hanging in the potty line with Mama C (pic: Mama C)

Austin is a great place, so laid back and "weird" and the spectators did not disappoint.  They were not huge in number but they were very enthusiastic and I enjoyed seeing their outfits and signs. I regretted not wearing a sign telling them that it was my birthday, I could have gotten a lot of attention! I spotted what has become my all-time favorite race sign in these later miles: precious few are able to do what you are doing.  It was so meaningful that it earned its own blog post, read the full story here.  As promised, their was a steady uphill around mile 10.  I think that alone it would not have been so noticeable, but after 9 miles of gentle downhill it felt pretty tough.  Looking back at my mile splits they are all fairly even, except for this mile.  After we got through these slight hills, I heard a spectator promise "it's all downhill from here!" A fitting sentiment for my birthday, no?
 

We ran into our favorite OK runners!

Mile 12 took us through the University of Texas campus and I had joked that I would run these miles fast just to get away from the Longhorns! That really did come true as I decided that I still had a little bit left in my legs and I pushed the pace through these last 2 miles, just seeing what I could do with it.  That feeling was real as these were my fastest miles of the race -- I love it when that happens!  The finish line is at the top of another slight hill and I made it a game of passing people to get to the finish line.  I was very pleased when I checked the results and saw a time of 1:56:16 -- a very solid time for me.  I was even more pleased to see that I averaged 8:55 in the first 6 miles and 8:50 in the last 7.1 miles -- a beautiful negative split!

A fitting finish line for a proper Texas girl

The state capitol building and the sunshine provided the perfect backdrop for pictures.  Running 13.1 miles is something that I never take for granted.  The sign stated it so perfectly: Precious few are able to do what you are doing. To be able to run a strong 13.1 on my birthday, in a great city with Mr K and special friends...undeniably awesome and something that I will always remember.  The buses took us back to the start -- which had been magically packed away!  There was no sign that thousands of people had descended on the area for the race start just a few hours ago.  I really enjoyed this course and I can't wait to come back and run it again sometime, hopefully with a PR in mind.

We spent the afternoon drenched in sunshine and enjoying good food and even better company with The Shehans, who were gracious enough to share their home with us.  There were cupcakes too...not a bad way to get a year older!

Thanks for sharing my birthday with me! (Pic: Mama C)

Too Cold To Hold: It's My Party...And I'll Run If I Want To!

My birthday falls on January 19 and that is smack in the middle of what psychologists term “the most depressing week of the year.” It is when winter is usually looking its most bleak, the Christmas bills are due, and folks are starting to realize that 1) they are failing miserably at their New Year’s Resolutions or 2) their New Year’s Resolutions are going well but they really aren’t that much fun. The day usually ends up being pretty anti-climatic and low key and I usually end up feeling kinda blue…like I should have made more of it. Well not this year! I noticed that one of my favorite races, Too Cold To Hold 15K, was on January 22—close enough to my actual birthday to declare it “My Birthday Race” and invite all of my Frunners. Before I knew it, lots of people had signed up to run, I had a new red “birthday” running skirt, and Mary had secured a whole box of red velvet birthday cupcakes! A party was born!!

The weather that day was humid and not especially cold, but still decent enough to hope for a good race time. I had recovered from my December marathon and had been adding speedwork back into my training so I was ready to see what I can do. My goal for the day was to keep a consistent pace—hoping for an average pace of 9:00 (finish time of 1:23:42)—with nice, negative splits. I was not planning for a personal record (PR), rather a well executed race that would give me some of my “mojo” back after running slower for marathon training.


Frunner Girls

It was easy to find my “party” of Marci, Corina, Michelle, and Stacy along with Fiona and Greg, Mark L, Cairo, Felix, Jeff, EW, Debbie, and Rick…to name a few. It was fun to see so many faces! We found Beth and Teal when we lined up at the start. The race announcer was making all of us laugh—trying to “fire up” the crowd with an over-the-top voice. Mark L made it even funnier by adding his own excited comments in his own fired up voice--hi-lar-ious! In all of the excitement I didn’t start my watch (as I thought I had) and didn’t notice until about a half mile in. I think that this might have worked to my advantage because I wasn’t able to compare my pace to the mile markers. Rather my splits came in about a half mile behind the markers.


Mary and Corina--this smacks of trouble

This race is an “out and back” meaning that we started seeing the race leaders on their return when we were about 3-4 miles in and then after that we could start to look for friendly frunner faces. There was even an added surprise right before the turn around as we spotted Heidi and Brian –they surprised us by coming out to cheer! The unexpected friendly faces really helped us as we began our return trip. I can't wait to repay the favor to them someday, that was so cool of them.

The pace felt great—pushed but never to the point of being highly uncomfortable (the “I might die” point)—and the splits on my watch (still mile splits even though off from the race course) were looking great—nice and negative! I started to feel tired during mile eight, but knew that we were close enough to the end that I could keep on pushing. One more Heidi and Brian spotting helped a lot and we rounded the bend for the home stretch. It was great to see friendly faces right before the finish line and Erik stopped just short of the finish line and yelled “Happy Birthday” as I crossed the line. It was my day and he let me win this one!

In the end I more than met my goal with finish time of 1:22:31 average pace of 8:52 over the 9.3 miles. That is only three minutes behind my PR and good enough for 11th out of 66 in my age group. I was even more thrilled to see the race breakdown on the results page:
1st 5K 27:50
2nd 5K 27:44
3rd 5K 26:55
Perfectly negative splits!! Yay!!!! This was exactly the confidence booster that I needed after feeling so tired and sluggish during the New Year’s Double. I was worried that I had somehow lost my speedy legs, but it looks like they are still there. I am going to keep setting realistic goals for myself for each of my upcoming races.


EW brought the perfect gift! Thanks!

I reluctantly sent Erik off as he had to head out for another loop of the lake for a total nineteen miles of Cowtown Marathon training. After the race Mary arrived with the big box of cupcakes and we had a great time celebrating. Hanging out at a race with cupcakes makes you a pretty popular person and we made plenty of new friends. I even met the famous Ribs—amazing runner and blogger for the Dallas Morning News. We talked for a bit, took some pictures, and Michelle and I made the running blog the next day! How cool is that!?


Frunner Party!

Everyone headed to Fuzzy’s Tacos for post race food and drink and once Erik finished his miles we headed there too. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had a huge table on the patio filled with frunners. I was flattered that everyone would come out to celebrate with me, it really was one of my best birthdays in years. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate and I am already making plans for next year!


Fuzzy's Feast!

(Thanks, as always, to Corina, EW, and Mary for the pictures! This blog would be pretty boring withour your contributions!)