Saturday, May 27, 2023

Lake Sammamish Half Marathon Recap 3.4.23



I ran my first half marathon in 7 years. I was supposed to run 3 or well 2  halfs and 1 18 mi race last racing season and I didn't get to do any of them. 

It was my worst half to date. It was also my first half since having 3 kids. And my first half since having 2 kids. So since 3 kids it's a PR. 

lack of food day before

lack of sleep

boxed in 

messed up garmin

Well it's 2.5 months later and the above is all I have written for the blog post. 

To elaborate, I was boxed in for about 9 miles of the 13.1. That was so annoying. It was really hard when I wanted to do run:walk intervals but you could barely get past anyone so if you stopped to walk then you couldn't pass people again. 

The weather was horrible. 

I feel like I mentioned lack of food the day before but 2.5 months later I don't even remember those details. 

I over dressed then spent a good 4 minutes trying to get my vest and hoodie off and figure out how to hold them. I was also dealign with my hydration vest so I had to take that off to take layers off.   The weather was unseasonably cold. It was a cold rain. 

I didn't start my garmin as a normal run or a half marathon. it was set as a long run. I thought I'd just advance the lap at the 1 mile mark and it'd fix itself. I forgot that would advance to the optional run and miss the hour or more of the regular run. So around 40 minutes in, I realized my garmin had stopped. I started it again but I was missing over 5 minutes of distance and time. That added to confusion during the entire race.  


The photos from the race said you could search by bib number but I think the weather messed that up because you couldn't read numbers on race bibs. I searched through all of the photos to find photos with me. 




I sent a ton of marco polos to Beth during the race but I never saved them so it's too much effort to see what i had to say. Probably complaining about how it was too cold then too hot with the layers then too cold when I took off the layers. Also the long walk to the bus after then sitting on the bus to ride back to the start being annoying. I had a bag for the bag drop but then didn't use anything from it. There was nowhere to change.   I did update instagram after the race so I save the instastories to a video. 

Mother's Day Half Marathon (5.14.23)

I was shocked how hot it was going to be for May but I at least went to sleep Saturday night expecting it to be hot. I pulled out everything I needed and had it all ready to go. I conveniently made a checklist in google keep the last time I ran a half so I had that to look at. I had to add sunscreen to the list since on the rainy day in March I didn't need sunscreen.

Most nights before races I wake up a dozen times nervous that I won't wake up with my alarm. I also set numerous alarms. Right before bed I thought I should check and set another alarm. I forgot to double check but I had one set.

Well at 5:58 Liam woke me up asking if it was morning. I said no and to go back to sleep. I totally forgot I had a race. I went back to sleep. 6:04 is when my alarm was set for but I don't ever remember it going off. Around 6:10 Miles woke me up saying his shoulder or arm hurt. That's when I remembered I had a race. I bolted out of bedd and think he just said OK go to your race and he went back to sleep. I never did learn what was going on that made his shoulder hurt.  Dave was awake but couldn't remember what time I had to wake up so he didn't wake me up.  I hurried and got out the door. There was plenty of parking so that was fine.  
6:55 Sunscreen 

6:59 Energize

I pinned my number, put on sunscreen, drank energize, and got in the bathroom line. I thought I had plenty of time so I waited in the real line versus using a portapotty. Well I got done there with 2 minutes or so before the start of the race. 

7:26 start line 
It was already really hot to me at the start of the race at 7:30 am. It was a crazy warm day. I think there were records going to be set but I never confirmed if they were. 


The race had 2 waves at the start but I'm not even sure when it was split. I was near 1:50 and 2:00 pacers and they were insanely close together waiting at the start. The start was wide and you had an entire lane at the beginning so I wasn't boxed in at all. It was really nice not being boxed in.   I made marco polos to Beth and Ali during my race and saved them for some of howI was feeling. The last few miles I was just so hot that I didn't update. 

After I finished I gave many race updates though. I can't believe my heart rate got up to 200. 






My marco polo videos before, during, and after the race were over 15 minutes so I cut them down for this summary post. 
  • Arrived even after waking up late
  • Energize
  • It's too hot already 
  • At the start
  • .4 in
  • 16 min in - mile 1 no uphill 9:03. 6:30 into this and 10:54 pace
  • 10:20 2nd mile split - so hot 
  • 3 mi on watch a minute before the 3 mile marker 30 min (29:00) 
  • yay not boxed in
  • steep hill, minute 8 of eating my nutrition
  • Trail! 
  • 11:33 on that split! 
  • Mile 8 - 10:10 
  • So hot  Miles 9 10:23
  • no more updates during the race.  The rest is post race commentary