Clarendon Day Double Race Recap

Clarendon Day Double
September 22, 2018
1:49:29

Temp: 60s and humid
What I wore: visor, tank top, a Skirt Sports Lotta Breeze skirt, and Altra Ones.

September has been a challenging month so far. I managed one decent run – 12 miles with the last 6 in the pouring rain back in early September. Then the combination of limping post run + ZOOMA Great Lakes meant a couple of weeks off from running. I biked and ellipticalled and lifted weights, but I didn’t run from September 9-21. And I still had pain when I woke up.

Going into this weekend’s races, I knew I had to do them or write off the Marine Corps Marathon completely. Transfer period was over, deferrals had closed. If I couldn’t manage this run, there was very little hope of making it to the start line of MCM, much less the finish line. I needed the back to back 5K, 1.5 mile uphill walk, 10K to get in a long run.

Saturday dawned warm and rainy. Unlike most days lately, the rain quickly cleared, leaving us with a crazy level of humidity. Beer Geek and I walked to the start line, where he headed to the front and I hung back.

When the horn went off, I tried to run an easy pace, despite the amazing downhill first mile. Did I mention that my Garmin only had 24% and I was saving it for the 10K? Any ways, the first mile went fast and then we leveled out on the highway. I ran into a friend and tried to stay with her, but I found that going slower meant my heel got a little angry, so I picked up the pace. I managed to run easy and finish in 32:28. Then I lollygagged my way up the hill and barely made the start for the 10K. Oops. At least I didn’t have time to stand around and get tight.

When the horn went off for the 10K, I was feeling pretty good. No pain in my ankle and not particularly tired. I turned on intervals on my Garmin, with a plan of using them after I got past 3 miles.  My mile splits pretty much tell the story of how it went down: 11:01, 10:44, 11:14, 12:19,13:01. And then my Garmin died and the wheels came off the bus. It took me 58 minutes to do 5 miles and 19 minutes to run that last 1.2. It was hot, I was tired, my calf started cramping, I had no timer to make me run after each 30 second walk…  I was a hot mess, literally and figuratively. As I neared the finish line, someone yelled “Finish strong”. I was like, umm, I’m just gonna finish. I saw the course director as I rounded the corner to the finish (she’s a friend of mine) and she gave me a high five. I put on a fake smile because Beer Geek was waiting with the camera and finished the race.

The high point of the race? They give you 3 beer tickets – 1 each for 3 different locations, all in the correct direction to get home. Yes, I did have 3 beers before noon.

The good:

• I’ve been doing this race since it started, so I’m always happy to run it. I always run into friends.
• I finished.
• I only limped for a while the next morning.
• I seem to be not healing, but not getting worse, so I’ll heal after MCM.
• Beer.

The bad:

• I was horribly undertrained. 9.3 miles of running (with 4 miles of walking before, between, after) never felt so hard.

The ugly:

• Mile 6. It was one of the worst miles I’ve ever had in a race. The only good thing about it was that it was the last mile.
• Last year, the day after Ragnar DC, I finished in 1:29:49, a full 20 minutes faster. Tells you where my MCM training is right now.

Would I run it again? 

Yep. I love this race. It’s different than anything else I run and is either a super fast race or a challenging double race. I always run it if I’m around.

I leave Thursday for ZOOMA Cape Cod! I’m looking forward to another crazy busy weekend.

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