I was really unsure how it would go given I missed a lot of training runs, and felt terrible last weekend. I got in all the long runs of training, but the volume of the shorter runs wasn’t really there…my only goal was to finish, to take it slow, and to actually enjoy the race. I feel like I end up not enjoying my halfs as much as I should because I take off like a bat out of hell and then am dying the whole way. So let’s back up.

Pre-race day eats. I tried to keep it moderate but didn’t do the best job. Breakfast of the world’s largest blackberries and gluten-free focaccia (which is amazing btw).

Lunch was a salad with sweet potato pop chips and gluten free cookie dough soy ice cream.

I had some other snacks in there too-gluten free banana bread I believe?

We drove up to Napa in the afternoon and were in St. Helena in time for dinner. Somehow I found a place that had a dish that fit my complicated restrictions.

Grilled asparagus and peach salad.

Chicken with potatoes, mushrooms, and arugula.

Woodhouse Chocolate. I decided trace amounts of dairy were fine since I’m feeling way better.

After an evening of working on Stats homework and baseball watching, I was ready to go when I woke up at 5:45! The race started at 8, and we stayed at a hotel a few minutes walk from the start, but I had to time my food in a specific way. I woke up not feeling that great but it passed pretty quickly.

Breakfast was banana, egg white oatmeal with craisins and a dab of sun butter.

Stretching, as per usual. Notice that blue thing I’m holding? I got a flip belt! I wanted to carry crackers during the race, so I shoved those in with a couple of goos and stomach medicine,  just in case!

And then we were off!

I took it super slow at the start. Slower than I ever have before, and it was awesome. I was really able to enjoy the beautiful views of vineyards along the Silverado trail. Another bonus? No SF hills! Only a few minor ones that I was more than trained for. For the race, they closed off the entire road, but on the way home we drove the race route so here are a few shots of that.

This tree was the turnaround!

In terms of fueling, I took about 1/3 of my goo at mile 4.5 at an aid station. I accidentally grabbed gatorade instead of water, but I just went with it. It took a little while for that to settle in my stomach, so I did goo #2 a little differently. I started eating it super slowly at mile 8 (and got a much needed burst of energy!) and didn’t finish it until mile 12. I had to be super cautious that my stomach never got too empty because I knew I’d have stomach issues if that happened.

In terms of how I felt, the hardest miles were maybe 9-10? They were pretty flat, which was just a lot of the same motion. I actually felt better once we hit the hills! Overall though, this is by far the least painful race I’ve run. Around the last 4ish miles I started to think about finishing time and what I wanted, since I knew if I was feeling ok I could probably turn it up at the end. I ended up with some killer negative splits! My last mile was by far the fastest.

I think my official time was 2:15?

This is by far the least painful finish of a half I’ve had. So…that pacing thing? Yeah-something to work on!

After the race I had to refuel thoroughly and carefully. Such a big calorie deficit made me really nervous with my stomach. I had some crackers and a banana right away, and then a Luna bar. Back in the hotel, I had the freaking weirdest thing ever. Coconut oil cream cheese (weird) on a gluten free bagel with….a frozen hard boiled egg. Yuck. Got the job done though….but ew. The frozen egg was the weirdest thing.

Later, I had some polenta.

And I’ve basically been eating everything since then. So we’ll see how I feel tomorrow…

This cookie though…it’s basically free of everything-refined sugar, gluten, dairy, eggs. But SUPER delicious. My post-race hunger laughed at the “serves 2” on the label.

So. In summary. I survived my half and am in one piece. Yay!