Race Recap: Lincoln Presidential Half

I registered for the Lincoln Presidental Half Marathon just a couple weeks ago.  My rationale was two-fold...  First, I needed a baseline of how well (or how badly) I can run hills during a race.  After reviewing my marathon route for May 5, it looks like there is some decent elevation changes.  So I wanted to have an accurate guide for how much hills would kill my pace.  Secondly, the medal for the Lincoln Presidential Half was a giant penny.  Possibly the most coolest medal I've ever seen and I wanted it.  It was completely worth it...

I didn't treat this like a normal race... no taper, no easy week beforehand, just one rest day.  I'm training for 26.2 so my plan was to use this half marathon as a tough training run.  I spent the early 5am drive to Springfield calculating paces and finish times in my head.  I settled on a 2:05 goal (mid-9 pace).

Then the race excitement started to flare up inside me.  Before the race, I met up with a bunch of other local Peoria runners who drove the short 1.5 hour south into the Illinois State Capitol.  We jogged, stretched, laughed, talked non-stop (maybe that was just me) and of course... took lots of pictures!

I even caught up with the Half Fanatics!! 

I was admitted into the Half Fanatics club (#1092) last spring.

One of the things I love about medium-sized city races is that everything is so easy.  There was little to none crowd cluster at the starting area.  Although I must admit that more porta-potties were needed.  Pre-race started with an "address" from Abe Lincoln himself and then we were off.  With a small race of only 1500, runners spread out fast.  Congestion was never an issue from after the first block or two... I love races like this.  I can find my pace quickly.

The first half was fairly flat and I felt like I was cruising.  But I had been forewarned that there were some big ups/downs in the second half of the course.  My head was busy, trying to figure out what to do. My experience was telling me to slow it down so I don't explode on the hilly backhalf.  But my legs were on auto-pilot.  I was running at a faster pace than my goal and I knew it could spell trouble when I hit the hills.  At the pace I was running, thoughts of a second sub-2 were swirling in my head.

Mile 1 - 8:55
Mile 2 - 8:59
Mile 3 - 8:59
Mile 4 - 8:53

Around mile 4, I tried to distract myself by chatting with fellow runners and giving shout-outs to cheerleaders and volunteers.  For a race this small, I was impressed with the number of spectators cheering us on.

Mile 5 - 8:59

Mile 6 - 8:45

About mile 6, the first of the big hills hit.  My friend Anna came up from behind, "Girl, I've been trying to catch you for 6 miles!" We ran together for a mile and then it was like hanging onto someone's coat tails.  She slowly pulled away - and ended up setting a new PR for herself.

From then on, there seemed to be one big hill each mile... steep decline and then a steep climb.  The first few I seemed to handle with ease, and then slowly, one by one, they wore me down.  I tried to have fun with it, chanting "I love hills" as I crawled up the slopes.  It didn't help much, although it did get some chuckles from my fellow runners.  My pace slowed tremendously.  I remember thinking at mile 10, "So what? Your goal was a 2:05.  You're well inside that."

Mile 7 - 9:09
Mile 8 - 9:05
Mile 9 - 9:09
Mile 10 - 9:25

At mile 11, we turned a corner and got smacked with the wind for the first time.  Most of the course had wound through neighborhoods and pretty parks that were heavy with trees.  I hadn't even noticed there was a wind that day... until now.  I was fading fast.

Mile 11 - 9:28
Mile 12 - 9:45

Then I hit the mile 12 marker.  Some guy yelled out, "All downhill from here..."  Music to my ears (although should I really believe him?).  Typically I study the course map and elevation ahead of time so I know what to expect.  I didn't this time, so I really didn't know if there were more hills coming or not.  I took a brief look at my clock.  I had 10 minutes until the 2 hour mark... to run 1.1 miles.  Decision time.  Why not?!  Go for the sub-2!

Mile 13 - 8:55

...and change for the final 0.1

As I came down the final 1/2 mile stretch, the streets were lined with a great cheering crowd.  Some guy was in the middle of the road screaming away at runners. I was working hard and he could see it.  He actually ran a couple steps with me and gave me a great pump-up to finish strong.  As I approached the finish line, I actually thought I might hurl (and thank you photographer for catching that feeling on film!).

Half Marathon #8

Chip Time: 1:59:11

Age Group: #28 out of 126 

Females: #173 out of 764

Overall: #556 out of 1434

It was hard-fought, but I finished under 2 hours.  I couldn't be prouder of this one.  It wasn't a new PR but pretty darn close!  Most importantly, it was a great measure of where I'm at in my marathon training.

After the race, they had a decent spread of food... oranges, bananas, donuts, bowls of chili, biscuits & gravy, and my favorite Jamba Juice smoothies.  I got my picture taken with Abe Lincoln and his wife Mary...

I hung around for almost an hour celebrating and chatting with friends.  I even ran into a fellow Tough Chik Carmen (who completely rocked this half with a 1:50!)

What an awesome race day!

So glad I decided to do this one!