Half marathon number two...CHECK!
As I mentioned in my last entry, I ran the half marathon in Almería at the end of January. I was already planning on doing the half in Malta, and my friend Kelli convinced me to do the one in Almería at least for practice. As it was my first half marathon, I didn't have much of a race strategy or any idea of how I would do or anything. Aaaand, I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty brutal. Although I finished in under 2 hours (1:58:44), I thought I was going to run better. I had definitely underestimated the effect the few hills would have on my performance. Of the few portions of the race that were uphill, they were either really really gradual inclines that were a few km long, or short, steep inclines. Combining those hills with my inexperience and lack of a real race strategy resulted in me having ZERO energy and running at snail pace for the last like 5 kilometers of the race.
With my first performance in mind and only 3 and a half weeks to train, I started getting ready for the Malta half. I was motivated to do much better. I started trying to do at least 1 run a week with Kelli because I knew she would push me harder than when I run by myself. She showed me a set of hills to run and after the first 2 times running her course, I could DEFINITELY tell a difference in my leg strength. This was going to be key in helping me prep for the race in Malta. Additionally, I did my longest, long run (10mi) with Kelli and it was SUCH a big help. We ran it on an especially windy day and I know there is no way I could've run it at 8:30/mile pace if Kelli hadn't been out in front of me making me run faster. The following Sunday I did my a long run by myself (9.25 miles) and I ran it at 8:36 pace, so I knew I had made some progress if I was able to do that on my own.
On Wednesday the 23rd, I headed to Madrid via train to meet LB and Audra. They had landed at 10am and had spent the whole day exploring Madrid by themselves. Needless to say I was quite preoccupied the whole day hoping that they hadn’t gotten too lost and had found enough stuff to do until I arrived at 10:40PM. I had made them a map of Madrid with potential places to visit and with the airport and train station marked so that they would know where to meet me when I got in, but in the rush to get out the door, neither had been able to print it off. In addition, since I didn’t have any way to contact them, I was merely hoping that they would be waiting for me at the train station when I got there.
Sure enough, much to my relief, when I got off the train, they were there waiting! I was so happy to see them as they were the first people I’d seen from home in almost 6 months! We left the station and headed to the Puerta del Sol, one of the main plazas in Madrid, to get some dinner. We got dinner at a little bar and they told me all about their trip and their day. They will describe it in more detail in a later entry as I have told them I want them to be guest writers in my blog!
After dinner, we got on the metro at the Puerta del Sol and headed for the airport. My friend Juanmi had spent like 20 minutes explaining to me the proper route to take to get to the airport, so I knew it like the back of my hand haha (you’d hope so after the 20 minute explanation that should’ve taken like 5)! When we got to the airport, we spent a good 45 minutes rearranging the things in our bags and shoving the rest of the stuff in a locker so that we wouldn’t have to pay to check bags on the flight to Malta. We were able to get everything shoved into 3 small carry-ons and one checked bag. Unfortunately for us, since we hadn’t previously stated that we would be checking a bag, we ended up having to pay an absurd €35 instead of the €15 you pay if you do it online. Thanks a lot RyanAir!
After a little airport nappage, we boarded the flight to Malta and all crashed since none of us had really slept much (I had pulled an all-nighter the night before so that I could sleep on the train). We got into Malta at 9:30AM and took a taxi to the hotel (of course, they overcharged us). Upon arrival, we found out that we couldn’t check in til 11, so we went and got some breakfast. After that, we came back and checked in. Having once worked at the front desk of a hotel, I found it weird that they charged me for the room up front—what if I had a problem and wanted to change hotels?
But anyway, the hotel was nice enough for the extremely low price we were paying. I was astounded to find that we could get a hotel room with 3 single beds, a fridge, and a fully-furnished kitchenette, for 5 nights for only €165 ($230). That broke down to only like $15/person/night! That would be absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to find in the states.
The room did have a few quirks about it. The TV was about 12 inches and had 2 available channels, both of which were in Maltese. The bathroom didn’t have a wall mounted showerhead nor a shower curtain…it was a bath with one of those nozzles that was attached to a tube so that it could be used as a shower, but the lack of curtain sort of hindered that. And finally, the kitchenette didn’t have any soap or sponges to wash the dishes.
Despite these minor obstacles, the beds were fine and we were all out like lights in a matter of minutes. I woke up at 4:30, went for a short run, and then came back and woke the others up around 6. We grabbed some dinner later and that was pretty much it for day 1.
I’m going to leave the telling of the next couple days to LB and Aud and get straight to the race on Sunday.
I woke up Sunday morning at 7:15AM and ate breakfast. I had to get out of the room by 8 because I had to catch a bus to get to the finish line in Sliema, where I would take another bus at 8:30 to the starting line in Mdina, the former Maltese capital city. I caught the first bus just fine, but when I got to the finish line, I realized that I had forgotten my €3.50 bus ticket that I had bought the night before to get to the starting line. Perfect. Having not enough time to go back to the hotel to get the ticket and only 53 cents, I decided just to tell the driver that I had forgotten my ticket. Thanks largely in part to the fact that I am a female, the driver let me onto the bus after a few short minutes of waiting, with no questions asked.
Once we got to the start around 9, I was realizing that the weather was crappy, but to quote Audra’s famous phrase of the trip, “it could’ve been worse!” It was cold, cloudy, and there were puddles on the ground, but hey, at least it wasn’t raining like the forecast had said it would be. I found a little dry spot on the ground and just sat for like half an hour. I thought about my race strategy. I was hoping to break 1:55:00, which would mean running 5:27/km or 8:46/mile. After doing some training with Kelli, she had told me that it would probably be better for me to take it a little slower at the beginning so that I wouldn’t be completely dead at the end. Also, I knew that this course was wayyy different from the course in Almería. If you look at the elevation map of the race below, you can see that the course was almost completely downhill.
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| Elevation Map |
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Since there would be no uphills to kill my legs like in the Almería half, that would also affect how I was going to run the race. I'd have to be especially wary about not speeding on the downhills at the beginning. Also, something different that I was going to try was looking at my watch every kilometer to make sure I was more or less on pace. In the Almería half, I looked at my watch only like 3 times and they were all towards the end of the race. I knew that if I didn’t look at my watch, I’d likely catch myself just trotting along much slower than I was capable of running.
Around 9:35, I got up and started moving around a bit. Right before the race start, I put all my things in the plastic bag they had given me with my race number on it, threw it into the bus that would take it to the finish line, and headed to the start. Before I knew it, they had called “Ready, Set, GO!” and we were off! Here’s a summary, kilometer by kilometer of how the race went…
Lined up at the start: Am I the only person wondering why there's not an official starting line? When do I start my watch? That’s annoying.
Km 0-1: I was running on pace at 5:30/km despite the fact that it was super congested because we were running through a really narrow street.
Km 1-2: I was running a little faster than my 5:30 pace...should I slow down? I’m supposed to take it a little easier at the beginning because I don’t want to kill my legs too early.
Km 3-5: I was still running a little faster than my goal pace for the beginning of the race but feeling really good. Pull back some or no? I really have no idea what the better strategy is since I don’t have much experience and I don’t know the course. Also, these were some of the steepest downhills of the whole race, so it makes sense that I was moving pretty quick.
Km 6-7: Wonderful, there's a 150m stretch of ankle deep water on this little country road that we're running on. Do I run through the water, soak my feet, and then get blisters from all slipping and sliding my feet are gonna be doing with all the downhill running? Or do I do what everyone else is doing and walk on the top of the little wall on the side of the road? I choose to walk on the wall and unfortunately for me I lost EASILY a minute or minute and a half doing so. The line of people on the wall was moving SUPER slowly and even came to a complete stop a few times. After I got off the wall, I started hauling ass to get back on track with my pace. Luckily, since I had been going faster than desired at first, I was back at 38:30ish when I reached km 7 (which was exactly on par with where I should have been at 5:30/km pace).
Km 7-9: I had found a few girls who were running about my pace. I stayed with them for a bit but one of them started to drag ass, so I ditched them and looked for some new people off of whom I could pace myself.
Km 10-11: I had reached the halfway point, was feeling really good, and was more or less on pace with the goal I had set for myself. Now it was time to try to speed up a bit, or at the very least maintain the speed I had been going.
Km 12-16: In this stretch, I found a few different pacers. First, was the canteen guy that was running with water bottles attached to his belt. I kept him at a good 10 meters out in front for a couple kilometers before deciding to pass him. After canteen guy, I found an old guy with orange shorts and an orange star on the back of his shirt. He was maintaining a good pace and I followed him for a good 3 kilometers. There were some unexpected uphill stretches in this section and I ended up running a couple of 5:45 kilometers. However, all of my splits up till that point had been between 5:15 and 5:30, so I wasn’t too worried that they would affect my overall time that much. Also, I was starting to think about when I should pick up the pace. Is kilometer 16 too soon? Will my legs be able to handle 5 more if I start going faster? I feel good, but is there going to be much more uphill?
Km 17-18: Only 4 km to go...it’s definitely time to turn it up. Coming around a corner, I finally saw LB and Audra! They shouted out my name, I smiled and waved, and got back to concentrating on the race.
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Little did I know, they ended up having to run the rest of the race too hahaha! They wanted to see me cross the finish line and there were no taxis or busses in sight to take them to the finish line as planned, so they took off running. At the end of this km, I looked at my watch and saw that I had run it in 5 minutes flat. Perfect!
Km 18-19: I’ve gotta keep this pace if I wanna finish with my desired time. Only 15 minutes left of the race! Finished this km a little slower at about 5:15. I’ve gotta get back down to 5:00/km.
Km 19-20: At this point, I was just anticipating the end, and I don’t think I remembered to look at my watch. I still felt good and I was passing people! What a change from the Almería race where I could barely keep myself from stopping and walking.
Overall, I was pretty excited about how the race went. I had knocked 4 whole minutes off my previous time and had finished in just under my goal time. I averaged 5:27/km and 8:46/mile. I had stuck to my race strategy almost exactly and felt great the whole time. Even more encouraging was the fact that I would've finished another whole minute faster had I not had to walk along the top of a brick wall to avoid the flooded road. Since I wasn't completely dead at the end though, I thought that I probably could have run it even faster. Had I not pulled back a little bit on some of the downhills and had I picked up my speed a little bit at maybe km 15 instead of km 17, I think I could've finished another minute faster. Also, knowing the course a little better before running it would have been helpful too. However, despite all that, I was overall pretty happy with my time and with the race in general. I'm definitely feeling much more motivated after this race than after the Almería one. I'm definitely hooked and I really want to do another one to see if I can improve my time even more!
In other news, Audra and LB are still here visiting me. They'll be leaving early Thursday morning :( Be on the lookout for their guest blog entries!
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