All Women’s Race Report

The reason we race isn't so much to beat each other but to be with each other.

Source: shareasimage.com via Pattie on Pinterest

This was my Runners’ World Quote of the Day and I thought it was summed up my weekend so beautifully. 🙂

I did the All Women and One Lucky Guy Half Marathon in Newburyport, Mass. for the second year in a row yesterday. Last year there was some discord around the race. I was moody, and really disappointed with my performance (which, boo-hoo, it wasn’t a PR. Here’s how I’ve grown since last year: It doesn’t always have to be PR).

All Women and One Lucky Guy Half Marathon

This was my seventh half-marathon and my second ‘repeat’ race — one where I could compare my performance to the same course. And I did well! Last year I ran this race with a 2:14. This year I ran this race with a 2:01, after running a marathon 3 weeks ago. A 13-minute improvement! I’ll take it.

The weekend started with shopping and dinner the day before in Portsmouth with my dear running friends. These ladies and I go way back. 🙂

The Angry Kitties. Meow!

Diane, Brenda, Jen, Erika and I

I hadn’t run a race with these guys in awhile and the time spent laughing and talking was so much fun. P.S. Wanda we missed you!

My morning time to blog is short so you can get the rest in bullet points:

  • The night before the race, my Timex Ironman Heart Rate monitor decided that it wasn’t enough to stop showing the tens digit, but the bottom half of all digits were going to stop working, rendering the watch pretty much useless. It hadn’t been the same since the Tough Mountain Challenge. I tried to replace the battery that night, but when I was cleaning all the gunk out of the inside of the watch, none of the buttons would work when I put it back together.
  • So I ran my first race in a year and a half or so without a watch or heart rate monitor. I think, because of this, I felt like I raced a really good strong/smart race.

Le splits

  • I suppose I didn’t, in retrospect, because my average was 9:12 a mile and my pace varied from that average plenty, especially after mile 10, but I know that if I saw the splits on the watch and knew I was not on pace for a PR (1:55), I probably wouldn’t have pushed so hard on the end.
  • The day after, like the other marathons I ran this year, I feel the most sore in my biceps and shoulders. Strange.
  • This was a hilly course. It also is, I think, the most beautiful race I’ve every done, except for maybe the Peaks Island 5-miler.
  • I have raced more half-marathons than any other distance. True story. I like this distance. It’s long enough to make you be smart, and pace yourself, but it’s not an all-out test of willpower and stamina like a marathon is.
  • My race mantra: I am a bad-ass unicorn.
When I look in the mirror, I see a unicorn. A bad-ass unicorn.

Don’t ask. It doesn’t really make sense.

  • I didn’t count calories yesterday. It’s not that I think my total would be really scary, it’s more that I didn’t bother to log anything until after the race and at the end of the day, I didn’t remember (or want to remember) what it was. I didn’t bother trying to stay under the limit in the days before the half, too, because I did not have the willpower to direct towards that. But the races are done and the excuses are over …

 

 

 

Pattie Reaves

About Pattie Reaves

I'm a new mom and renegade fitness blogger at After the Couch. I live in Brewer with my husband, Tony, our daughter Felicity, and our two pugs, Georgia and Scoop.