Reason #61: Not Your Typical Race Day Prep

After up waking this morning, I decided to write a blog post called "Reason #61: Race Day Prep" as I have a scheduled half marathon tomorrow morning. I intended to write about proper fueling, my race gear, and my goals for the race.

Well, my preparation for tomorrow's half sort of turned into a 17 mile run.

Upon waking this morning, I turned on the Weather Channel only to hear, "Heavy rains coming your way Sunday morning..." Great. Then I checked weather.com to read "Heavy Rain" from 6am-11am on Sunday. Now drizzling and misting doesn't necessarily bother me, but heavy rain? So I went to weather.com's "Fitness Comfort Outcast" and it rated Today as an 8 and Tomorrow as a 1. The rating is on a scale from 1-10. 10 being ideal exercise conditions, and 1 being terrible, "you got to be kidding?" exercise conditions.

I didn't want to wuss out from running the race because of a little rain (and no, rain will not make me melt). So I decided to think of all the reasons to not run the race:

- My running schedule calls for 16 miles, not 13.1.

- Today is an "8" on the Fitness Comfort Outcast! Perfect day for a run!

- Running today = the ability to go out with friends tonight!

- Half marathon only cost $27. As my Dad said, "if you get sick from the rain, your doctor's bill will be less than the cost of the race."

- The thought of waking at 5am, commuting to the start line, and running in puddles did not thrill me.

- If I feel great after my long run today, I will just run both days (this happened to be the deciding factor).

So I laced up my sneakers, put my Garmin 305 watch on, safety pinned some ClifShot Blocks to my shorts, put on some BodyGlide, and off I went.

My goals before my run was 1) to run comfortably, 2) to run 16 miles, and 3) to try to average a 9:30 pace. Here is how it went:

Mile 1: 9:17

Mile 2: 9:04

Mile 3: 8:55

Mile 4: 9:11

Mile 5: 9:08

Mile 6: 9:15

Mile 7: 9:20

Mile 8: 9:31

Mile 9: 9:29

Mile 10: 9:43

Mile 11: 9:11

Mile 12: 9:21

Mile 13: 9:51

Mile 14: 9:10

Mile 15: 9:42

Mile 16: 9:33

Mile 17: 9:24

TOTAL DISTANCE: 17.3 miles

TOTAL TIME: 2:39:08

AVERAGE PACE: 9:21

CALORIES BURNED: 1,974

Overall, it went very well. The run felt much easier than long runs in the past. I did switch a few things up:

- Breakfast consisted of english muffin, peanut butter, grapes, and a cup of coffee. Even though I wrote in a past post that I was giving coffee up before racing, it certainly helped today.

- I ran the first 10 miles without my Ipod. Ran last 7 miles with music.

- I had 3 Clif Shot Blocks and stopped at a water fountain 3 times.

- Body Glide helped - I had no burns or chafing.

- I have been wearing a visor. It helps keep the sun and sweat out of my eyes.

- I had 9+ hours of good sleep last night.

So will I go ahead and run the race tomorrow? Highly unlikely. I always sleep better in the rain...